128 HOUND AND HORN 



heads to the wind and quickened the pace, I cursed 

 myself for having agreed to give this extra day in 

 this wild waste district on the very outskirts of our 

 country. It had been thought desirable to kill or 

 scare away one or two foxes here before the hill lamb- 

 ing commenced, and though hounds were to hunt the 

 next day on the same side of the country, the fix- 

 tures having been duly advertised, this unadvertised 

 by-day had been planned as an auxiliary to it. An 

 amazing number of the keenest of keen sportsmen 

 had assembled at the place of meeting, an exposed 

 farmhouse on a wind-swept hillside, where they were 

 trying to obtain such shelter as was afforded by the 

 walls of a dry-stone sheep-fold. The horses had their 

 tails tucked in and their ears laid back ; but their 

 masters' faces, already glowing from exposure, beamed 

 with pleasure at the sight of hounds, and we had a 

 cheery greeting. 



The two joint masters of a trencher-fed hill pack 

 rode up from the opposite direction, and I hailed 

 them with satisfaction, for I deemed that their pilotage 

 might be useful before the day was ended. I was 

 relieved to notice they had not brought any of their 

 hounds ; but several sharp-looking, hard-coated ter- 

 riers ran with them. 



For nearly three hours we tried all sorts of likely 

 lying places, exhausting all the hitherto known kennels 

 above ground. 



'* Ye shood ha' been here at seven o'clock in the 

 mornin' an' ye might ha' got a drag," Sandy Oliver 

 kept reiterating. " We'll have to risk disturbing 

 a vixen, and run the terriers through the big earth at 

 Todholes now." 



