ANOTHER DAY AT CHEE-HA. 189 



Then was it my turn to sound a " vaunty " peal ! 

 Geordy pealed in answer, and soon appeared, drag- 

 ging a deer of his own (having missed one of those 

 that I had killed). Three deer were started they 

 were all at our feet and that without the aid of a 

 dog ! It was the work of five minutes ! "We piled 

 them in a heap, covered them with branches and 

 myrtle, and tasked our horns to the uttermost to 

 recall the field. One by one the hounds came in 

 smelt at the myrtle bushes seemed satisfied, though 

 puzzled- wagged their tails and coiling themselves 

 each in his proper bed, lay down to sleep. Yet had 

 any stranger approached that myrtle-covered heap, 

 every back would have bristled, and a fierce cry of 

 defiance would have broken forth from every tongue, 

 then so mute. 



At last came Loveleap, fagged, and somewhat 

 fretted by his ill-success. 



" I have been blowing till I've split my wind, and 

 not a dog has come to my horn. How came you 

 thrown out ? and why have you kept such an inces- 

 sant braying of horns?" Why, how is this? the 

 dogs are here ?" 



"Yes! they have shown their sense in coming 

 to us ; there's been butchery hereabouts !" 



" One of P 's cattle killed by the runaways, 



I suppose." 



122 



