the fox does not mean going, that the pack are well on him, and that to holloa would 

 only expose his own situation without conducing to the end in view. Scarcely has 

 reynard regained the cover, ere the hounds stream out, and race up its side. As the 

 leaders flash over the line where the fox again took shelter, Will's voice is for the first 

 time heard, and with a crack of the whip, he tm-us them to the old hounds who have 

 never left the line. That done, he resumes his post, silent aud watchful as Lcfore. 

 Eeynard having tried fresh air at one part of the cover, now thinks he may venture to do 

 so at another, and breaks right in front of the assembled field. Very different is their 

 reception from Will's. 'No sooner does he show himself, than a dozen different thi-oats 

 proclaim the fact, in notes varying from bass to treble, and as he races to a small patch of 

 thorns, several yoimg ones ride at him with the intention of cutting him off from the 

 cover. Out rush the pack at the shouting, wild as hawks, with then.- heads up, flashing 

 all over the place, and, in the temporary absence of the master, three or foiu- are capping 

 them on to different points at the same time, each one having seen the fox at a separate 

 spot. Meanwhile their bustle and him'y is his salvation, he slips back quietly down a 

 ditch \mseen behind them, and again enters the covert, threads its mazes, 

 and then, Avhile all the hm-ly-burly is going on at the other end, breaks under 

 Will's very nose, and sets his head straight over tho open. Like a grey- 

 hound he crosses the pastm-e, tops the fence, and then off comes Will's cap, and, 

 with a screech, he lets his master know that he's away. Crashing through aud over the 

 gorsc, comes the himtsman, and *' Where is it, Will ? " having been satisfactorily answered, 

 a peculiar note on the horn, only used on such occassions, brings the pack Uke arrows to 

 the spot. They have never recovered the line on the foiled groimd, and are ready to 

 instantaneously answer the signal. " Yo doit, there ! " says the master, capping them on 

 the line, and moving gently in the direction himself. They swing round, di'op their 

 sterns, and, with a slight whimper, are away. Then, sitting down in his saddle, he takes 

 the place he means to keep, and crashes thi-ough the first bullfinch nearly level with 

 the body of the pack, and full fifty yards on theii- left. "Hoick holloa ! hoick holloa ! 

 gone away ! " shouts Will, to let the field know of then- departure, and then, turning his 

 horse short roimd, puts him over a stile and di-oj), aud so by a line of lanes aud gates 

 down wind, to the only big woodland within a dozen miles, and which it is ten to one he 

 reaches before the fox. What about the field ? Well, we have seen the fox and hounds 

 well away, so we don't much care about them. Of com-se they will cram, push, and 

 jostle as usual, swear that the master is always slii^ping away without them because he 

 is so confoimdedly jealous, and should they reach him at the first clieck, override his 

 hoimds as much as possible afterwards. Let us hope, however, that they may get close 

 enough to see the fun, without doing mischief, and as the last bit of pink fades fi-om our 

 view in the far distance, leave them to piu'sue the chase, with what success they may. 

 But hold ; there is fun yet to be seen, as a stout fussy man comes up at a tearing gallop. 

 " Hollo, you there, with the axe, where are the hounds ?" " Lord bless ze, sm-, they be 

 gone away these three minutes, right over the hill yon." " Confound it, just like my 

 luck, if I had been here, the fox would have hung about for an horn-. Where do 

 you think he's gone to? " " Why, 1 dunno, but I see little Will slip away down the lanes, 

 for Crabtree Wood, and he's mostly right like." And away goes om- fat friend, down 

 the lanes for Crabtree Wood, which he reaches just as the pack have run into theu' fox, 

 within a quarter of a mile of it, after a brilliant forty-five minutes. 



