26 HOUND AND HORN 



ourselves, I don't think that she is exactly his 

 mare." 



That morning's exercise had been productive of 

 several small incidents. Billy had returned to the 

 slumbering house, under the pretext of getting his 

 pipe, after we started, and had taken off his hat to a 

 lightly draped figure at an upper window, which he 

 did with so much action as to make the mare shy off, 

 and he dropped his pipe on the gravel. He got down 

 to pick it up, and found that the lesson of the holly 

 bush had been, temporarily at least, forgotten, for 

 directly he put his foot into the stirrup, and before he 

 could swing up, the ^^ Clinker " began her old trick of 

 running backwards and spinning round. No man 

 looks his best in the difficult and humiliating position 

 of hopping on a straightened leg after a gyrating 

 horse, the other foot being wedged firmly home in 

 the stirrup three feet or more from the ground. Bill 

 was aware of this, but kept his head admirably, 

 though a chuckle of laughter came from behind the 

 curtain of the open window. He was mindful of his 

 experience of the slide over the tail, and let the reins 

 lie perfectly loose, and waiting his chance till the 

 moment of a slight lull in the top-like movement, he 

 took a big handful of mane and swung into the saddle. 

 The mare darted off like a released bird, and before 

 he caught his stirrup she had done a good half-mile 

 at racing speed. 



Not long after leaving kennels we came across the 

 stale drag of a night-wandering fox, for some of the 

 old hounds, after feeling about with noses on the 

 ground, darted out, and stooping to it, would soon 

 have carried it on. But the vigilant Jack was round 



