WHAT WAS IT? 63 



lose our chance ; it won't do to leave it 'till the 

 -morning," Dick thought that those who set 

 the snares would not come to look at them 

 until daybreak, and said so, but my father re- 

 plied : — " I tell you, Dick, that they will come, 

 and hunt the large clover field joining the 

 wood where the snares are set, to-night, when 

 they turn out of the public house ; so we must 

 be ready for them. 



Off we went, accordingly, and father placed 

 all three of us. I was stationed some hundred 

 yards down the wood, between the snares and 

 Chesham Common, to act as a stop, and catch 

 anyone who ran away from old Dick, since he 

 could run as well as a tame fat duck. 



Just after the church clock struck eleven, we 

 heard the voice of a dog in the clover field ; he 

 chased some hares into the wood, about a 

 hundred yards below me, and they flew past 

 the dog in "full cry" after them. Directly, 

 however, the animal got scent of me, he stopped 

 short, and ceased to give tongue, as if he had 

 been shot dead, and all was quiet. 



A few minutes afterwards father and old 



