3IO MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 



Lavvy plunged into the middle ride, the field making use 

 of a line of gates on one side. At the further end of 

 Southerby is a large, bulbous-shaped excrescence connected 

 to the main covert by a narrow strip of plantation strongly 

 fenced on both sides. Hounds ran straight through the 

 wood, and Lavvy emerged close to the narrow part just in 

 time to see a fox slip away a couple of hundred yards ahead. 



With her whistle in her mouth she galloped to the spot, 

 and six couples of hounds came away on the line ; she 

 halloaed and blew her horn, but the gale played pitch-and- 

 toss with the sounds, so that no one on the far side heard 

 the signals. As a matter of fact, the main body of the pack 

 were running hard up wind in the direction of a canal, and 

 the field, wide on one side, were galloping for the nearest 

 bridge. Forty minutes later at Hoxton Wood, in the dusk, 

 Ned Barlow had to confess himself beaten, and then the 

 question arose, " Where was Miss Lavinia ? " The only 

 approach to elucidation was given by Ned. " There are six 

 couples short and the terrier isn't here ; they must have 

 divided at Southerby." 



Southerby was miles away. 



" She'll probably be at home before we are," Mr. Bads- 

 worth said. " We had better try there first." 



In the meantime Miss Lavvy, having repeatedly blown 

 her horn and looked behind her in vain, gave her mind to 

 keeping with those six couples of hounds which were running 

 well though down the wind. The rain plashed in vicious 

 squalls and the wind howled in the hedgerow timber, but it 

 was the canal which met her here as it had done the other 

 division that Lavvy thought of. " If hounds crossed, where 

 was the nearest bridge ? " For more than a mile the course 

 was parallel to the water, then, just as Lavvy was face to 

 face with an unjumpable obstacle, which necessitated a de- 

 tour, hounds crossed the canal and took up the line on the 

 other side. 



By dint of hard galloping the little huntsman reached a 

 bridge, and then keeping down the wind once more caught 



