140 HOUND AND HORN 



" Sandy, man, pull that down." 



Then Sandy's opportunity came. 



*' Pull this doon/' said he, without removing his 

 pipe ; ^' I'll dae naething o' the kind ; we've juist 

 bin sent oot here ti pit it up." 



But I once drew blank for Tom Telfer, and of this 

 Joanna was frequently pleased to remind me. 



It was in this wise. Tom was staying in the house 

 preparatory to making a very early start by train 

 to hunt next day. I got up in the darkness, and 

 had not proceeded far with my dressing, and was in 

 very scant attire, when I thought I would see if my 

 whip was stirring. So, groping along the passage, at 

 the farther end of which were two doors, I opened the 

 right-hand one, struck a match, and walked across to 

 the dressing-table to light the candles, saying, '^ Time 

 to get up, Tom." Then suddenly a feminine voice 

 from the pillows said quite calmly and with appalling 

 distinctness, ^^ HuUoa, Master, whatever do you want 

 in my room ? " Looking round, I beheld a frizzled-up 

 head, which I only half recognised, and in my agita- 

 tion shouted, ^' Where the devil is Tom Telfer ? " 

 To which the young lady chillingly replied, " Well, 

 you didn't expect to find him here, did you ? " I 

 could only gasp and stare helplessly in the direction 

 of the small crib in the corner of the room, and my 

 dilemma was the worse when the match burned my 

 fingers, and being hastily dropped, left me in black 

 darkness. 



There was one part of the country which was 

 getting short of foxes, and which we had drawn blank 

 on two successive days' hunting, and here it was that 

 we had two odd and unexpected hunts on one day. 



