146 HOUND AND HORN 



latter. This was the answer to the question mentally 

 put, and was acted upon. Six or eight of us turned 

 round the right shoulder, while nearly all the rest of 

 the field in sight swung to the left. 



It was a period of great suspense that we went 

 through, losing sight of the pack altogether for five 

 or ten minutes at least, and it seemed twice as long 

 and I was beginning to sicken when I saw, barely 

 half a mile in front of us, some sheep on a hillside 

 run together, and shortly afterwards hounds moving 

 up wind right-handed and rather across us, not so 

 packed as before, yet not strung out, and all hunting 

 closely. 



We were now completely in the hill countr}^ with 

 not a cover or earth for miles round, and as the 

 cool air rushed into my lungs I could not resist the 

 temptation to cheer on the hounds, an effort which 

 was emulated by half-a-dozen of the leading riders. 



The next obstacle, on a rather steep slope, was a 

 wall which we jumped. Tom Telfer, first at it, had 

 pushed off the cope with his foot without getting 

 down. Then came another which was lower and on 

 sound ground, and which we had without waste of 

 time. 



Here hounds checked for some minutes but cast 

 themselves well forward, and hit it off just as we 

 got up to them, and raced away, turning backwards 

 and running very fast through a nick between two 

 hills and out of sight again. Only those who have 

 hunted in a hill country can realise how suddenly 

 and completely hounds will disappear. Here were 

 we not three hundred yards behind them when they 

 went over the crest, and when we reached it, though 



