6o 



HUNTING 



recover the scent. Minute succeeds minute. Impatience and 

 disappointment are written on the features of the few that are 

 with us. x\rthur will not give it up. He takes the hounds to 

 the river, and casts them on both banks down the stream. 

 Then he brings them back, and casts them up the stream 

 His cheery shout of encouragement denotes that he has seen 

 something. ^Vhat is it ? His quick vision has detected that 

 the large boulder in mid-stream has been splashed, and is still 



feiil^ 



,^x::>H 



^fe 



wet. He knows the stag 

 has been there. He 

 presses on the hounds ; 

 they open on the right 

 bank, and run hard up 

 the ravine. ' He is getting 

 beaten now,' says a local 

 doctor, who has been well to 

 the front throughout the run. 

 satisfaction, we see the stag 

 running up the stream with hounds 

 close to his heels. They've got him 

 now ! No, they won't have him just 

 yet. He's ' broken soil ' again, and is making for the open. 

 His bead is down, and tongue out. He cannot hold out long 

 at this pace. The hounds know he is sinking, and race after 

 him with a dash that we have not seen them show before. He 

 turns in our teeth, runs down the slope again, crosses the 



His head is down, and 

 his tongue out.' 



