THE RED COW 



nowhere in sight, having turned a corner about a 

 mile away. The chase was now on in earnest. 



When we reached the corner we saw the frisky 

 trio nosing along the road and moving slowly to the 

 east. Approaching cautiously as near as we dared 

 the boy started on a wide circuit through a wheat 

 field so as to get ahead of them. To any casual ob- 

 server it would appear that he was cutting across 

 the field towards the village to the north, but Dolly 

 is no mean tactician herself, and she was not to be 

 fooled. Before he had time to swing towards the 

 road she snorted defiance and galloped away, with 

 the colts at her heels. The boy came back to the 

 road, climbed into the buggy, and we started a stern 

 chase. Presently the three turned in at an open 

 gate, and hope revived. If I could only get past 

 that gate we could head them off. But the farmer 

 whose property they had invaded thought he would 

 help by "sicking" the dog on them. I drove wildly, 

 but it was no use. They beat me to the gate and 

 raced along the road ahead of me. 



At this point I released about seven thousand cal- 

 ories of language, but it didn't help any. It merely 

 raised my personal temperature to about one hun- 

 dred and four. With tails up they galloped along 



160 



