24 MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



there. Why he went up a steep hill-side when he might have 

 travelled on level ground cannot be stated ; he did, and when 

 he descended the other side there was nothing left for him 

 but to lie down. 



Jack Morgan saw Miss Lavvy jump off and run up the 

 hill beside her blown horse. She went up as those do who 

 are sound at heart and used to a hilly country. She dis- 

 appeared over the top, and Jack struggled up in her wake 

 Barely had he reached the summit when a clear " Whoo ! 

 Whoop ! " which would have done credit to George Carter 

 in his prime, reached him. He looked down upon a pretty 

 sight a hundred yards below. The girl with her cap in one 

 hand and horn in the other stood with the dead fox between 

 her feet and the hounds in front of her, her blown horse with 

 heaving flanks fifty yards away. '* Whoo ! Whoop ! " she 

 cried, and then the clear notes of the horn travelled far on 

 the moorland air. 



Two or three hounds bayed, and the terrier, with bristles 

 up, stood close to the carcase of his enemy. Jack Morgan 

 ran down just as Miss Badsworth, with a knife in her hand, 

 was looking hesitatingly at the fine dog-fox, now as stiff as 

 though carved in wood. 



" It's a nasty, messy job, and the first whip does it as 

 often as not. I've seen it done scores of times, though I've 

 never done it ; let me take the duty off your hands," he 

 said pleasantly behind her. 



" I've seen father do it many times, but that's a different 

 thing," she laughed. " I confess I don't hanker after it." 



'' Well, keep the terrier off my legs, for he looks as if he 

 would resent my interference. We must have the mask for 

 the kennel door, the brush for you (what a lovely white tag), 

 and I must take Tom Barlow a pad." 



Jack set about the work artistically ; fortunately his knife 

 was sharp, and though the operation took longer than should 

 strictly have been the case, there was no one to laugh when 

 he made a slight mistake with the vertebrae at the base of 

 the skull. 



