i8o THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 



we are going to wait while you pull up your girths?" 

 " Oh, do get out of the way, and let me come," etc., etc., etc. ; 

 and poor Travers, caught by the head-waters of this rushing 

 stream, was forced, greatly against his will, to make one of 

 the leaders in the charge of cavalry. 



Will came hurrying along through the crowd, everyone 

 making way for him, as he crammed and hustled his horse 

 across the road, and at the opposite bank. With a scramble, 

 he got up and over it into the spinney beyond, and Travers, 

 caught in an agony of fear and indecision, was next on the 

 rota. " Should he try it ; or would he be likely to slip over 



his horse's tail if he did? Would it be best " but an 



indignant outburst of language from behind, cut short his 

 musings with considerable abruptness. 



"Go on, sir!" "Now then, either go yourself, or allow 

 someone else to ! " " We can't wait all night here, you know," 

 " Shove him at it !" with an impatient " Gor-bless-my-soul, 

 when-I-was-a-young-man," sort of growl from old Com- 

 mander Clump E.N., sent Travers, most unwillingly, at the 

 bank — the truth being that he was more frightened to stay 

 behind than to go at the obstacle. The old Eoman-nosed brown, 

 half jumped, half climbed up the bank, and although Binkie 

 slipped over the saddle, and very nearly as far as the root of 

 his horse's tail, he still, by strenuous exertions, avoided the 

 crowning catastrophe of sliding right off, and sitting down in 

 the lane. Once over the obstacle, he waxed valiant, and 

 galloped along through the spinney, close after the Huntsman's 

 horse. On they went, dodging a branch here and a stub there, 

 swerving aside to miss a boggy patch to the right, turning 

 quickly to avoid a slab of stone on the left. Hounds were 



