A WILD GOOSE CHASE 275 



the bailiff, calling, "It be very nigh sunrise, maister, 

 and time to be a-going after they owd geeze." 



By the dazzling light of a halfpenny rush-dip he 

 struggled into his clothes, took a couple of cartridges 

 from the magazine, his gun from the corner, and then 

 stumbled down to the stack-yard to find the ancient dun 

 busily engaged in tunnelling through a stack of fine clover 

 hay. 



" Good heavens, man, the brute has eaten half a load 

 of hay ! She'll burst," exclaimed Jack, as the bailiff 

 cast the sickly rays of his lantern into the cavern made by 

 the mare. 



" x\h ! yew don't know she, maister ; whoy, that owd 

 mare would eat the whole stack and never be none the 

 wusser for it — no, never even cover a rib-bone, dang 

 her ! " 



The next thing was to catch the old lady : no easy 

 matter, for in spite of her age, every time the bailiff or 

 Conway approached her, she plunged and kicked like an 

 unbroken colt. At length, however, she was driven into 

 a corner of the stack-yard, and, keeping one eye on her 

 heels and the other on her ugly fiddle head, Jack gradually 

 edged up and collared her near-side ear, which greatly 

 resembled that of a lop-eared rabbit. Togood now came 

 up with the halter, to which he had attached a line on 

 either side, that Miss Kitty might be steered across the 

 marshes. 



By this time the first bright streaks of the morning 

 began to appear on the eastern sky-line, and the sea-walls 



