ANOTHER DAY AT CHEE-HA. 185 



" This is the safe play hang up the deer sound 

 your horn till the hounds come in from their several 

 chases and then for Nimrod's lead ! to Chapman's 

 bays, I think ! there are some sheltered nooks in 

 which they will stop and bask, when they find 

 themselves unpursued." 



" I'll go in with the boys," says Loveleap, with 

 an unconcerned air, but a sly twinkle of the eye, 

 which did not escape his comrades. 



"As you like Geordy and I will mind the stands." 



Some time was lost before the hounds could be 

 drawn from their several chases, yet as emulation 

 did not " prick them on," they came the sooner for 

 being scattered. Loveleap heads the drivers and 

 it was just what we had anticipated, when, before a 

 single dog had given tongue, we heard him fire, 

 then came a burst, then a second barrel ; but to our 

 great surprise no horn announced the expected suc- 

 cess. The report of that gun went unquestioned, in 

 our sporting circle ; it was in a manner axiomatic, 

 in wood-craft mysteries, and passed current with all 

 who heard it for thus much " a deer is killed." 

 Loveleap did an extraordiary thing that day he 

 missed ! but the drivers could not understand, and 

 the hounds would not believe it: so they rushed 

 madly away in pursuit, as if it was not possible for 

 the quarry long to escape. 



