THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 151 



already half-way do^Yn the slope, whilst of the ' tail ' of the 

 field there is absolutely nothing in sight. The Reverend 

 Geoffry had persevered as long as any of the rest, but at last 

 his good weight-carrier had hit his leg hard, and gone lame. 

 His defeat acted as a kind of signal to the others to resign the 

 chase, and they all began slowly retracing their steps, not one 

 member of the little party being less than fifteen miles from 

 his stable door. 



And thus it was that besides the Huntsman and Whips, 

 Eonald Dennison found that he alone composed ' the field.' 

 The pace was still fairly brisk, but nothing like what it had 

 been earlier in the gallop. They were now in the vale again, 

 and the obstacles began to get much too frequent for the taste 

 of tired horses. Eare ' sticker ' as he was, the gallant Marmion 

 began chancing his fences in a way, calculated from his rider's 

 point of view, to make ' each individual hair stand up on end, 

 like quills upon the fretful,' etc., etc. 



At length a low stile proved one too many for the good 

 horse ; he tried to run through it, with the inevitable result. 

 Ronald, luckily, fell clear of him, and the horse rose to his 

 feet unhurt, but wild-eyed and staring. Dennison patted 

 his neck reassuringly — Ronald and his queer assortment 

 of horses always got curiously fond of one another — and said 

 to himself — 



"'Outed,' this time, and no mistake! Well, we've had a 

 rare good run, and it would be cruelty to ask the poor beggar 

 to go any farther — they must kill directly. By Jove, I'll just 

 hitch his reins to this bit of timber and try a trot over the 

 next field on my own flat feet — hullo ! Tom's down ! " and he 

 started oft" running, as hard as his stiffened limbs would 



