204 The Amateur Poacher 



Little John in a tone of suppressed indignation, for 

 he disliked the noise of a gun, as all other noises. 



I did look, and found that one net had been partly 

 pushed aside : yet to so small an extent that I should 

 hardly have believed it possible for the rabbit to have 

 ■crept through. He must have slipped out without 

 the slightest sound and quietly got on the top of the 

 mound without being seen. But there, alas ! he found 

 .a wide net stretched right across the bank so that to 

 slip down the mound on the top was impossible. 

 That would certainly have been his course had not 

 ithe net been there. 



It was now doubtless that the spaniel caught wind 

 •of him, and the scent was so strong that it overcame 

 his obedience. The moment the dog got on the bank, 

 the rabbit slipped down into the rushes in the ditch 

 — I did not see him because my back was turned in 

 the act to scramble out. Then, directly the spaniel 

 :gave tongue the rabbit darted for the open, hoping to 

 reach the buries in the hedge on the opposite side of 

 Tthe meadow. 



This incident explained why the ferret seemed so 

 loth to go back into the hole. He had crept out 

 some few moments behind the rabbit and in his aim- 

 iless uncertain manner was trying to follow the scent 

 along the bank. He did not like being compelled to 



