MISS BADSWORTH, M.F.H. 313 



Owing to the dusk and slippery ground, the girl had a 

 difficulty in sorting the tattered fox from the muddy, steam- 

 ing mass of his victors. Her " Whoo ! whoop ! " usually so 

 clear, sounded but feeble and utterly human in the face of 

 a gale which mixed it up with the baying of hounds. She 

 got him at last and cleared a space with her whip. 



" Phew ! " she exclaimed, as the unsavoury odour of fox, 

 wet hounds and mud, concentrated by the shelter of a neigh- 

 bouring hedge, assailed her as she stood endeavouring to find 

 a knife in her pocket with a wet hand. 



" Get away back, do ! " as our old friend Rollicker made 

 an onslaught on the carcase which nearly brought on war 

 between him and Jack the terrier. 



For one moment Lavvy was influenced by the temptation 

 to throw the whole business to the expectant pack and so 

 do away with the job which she hated ; but no, it was her 

 last day and her last fox ; she must take a memento to prove 

 her statements. 



There was no Jack Morgan, no Ned Barlow, so she set to 

 work. The brush was a success ; it came off at the first 

 attempt and was thrust into her pocket. " Ugh ! " The 

 mask was another affair. There was torn skin, wobbly stuff, 

 all sorts of obstructions and a windpipe as tough as a bicycle 

 tyre, but it was off at last, grinning and gruesome ; the pads 

 might go hang. 



" Hey, worry, worry ! " she cried, "as she tossed the remains 

 aloft ; then she blew her horn, after which she went near to 

 being sick, for there must have been blood or something on 

 the mouthpiece. After two attempts Lavvy succeeded in 

 ascertaining that one hound was missing. You may be 

 perfectly sure she carefully wiped the mouthpiece of her horn 

 before she blew it again. 



" Purity, old girl ! " she exclaimed, as something black 

 and white came out of the shadows, something that should 

 have been black and white but which now had very little 

 white about it. " What a misnomer," she went on, wiping 

 her hands on the wet hound, '* however, I'm worse than 



