SULTAN. 45 



a strongly fenced country, for the most part grass. They 

 ran an eight-mile point, and killed their fox in the open. 

 There had been only one trifling check, and they had been 

 running nigh on fifty minutes. Mr. Waller did not, as usual, 

 cut out the work, but by judicious riding and nursing his horse 

 as much as possible, he contrived to be among the select 

 ten or twelve who heard the first " Who — whoop ! " ring out 

 from Ben Day's lusty throat. 



All the good resolutions that he had made with regard 

 to cantering about and jumping over a few little fences were 

 cast to the winds as soon as he saw hounds streaming away 

 down the grassy slope to the rich pastures stretched out at 

 his feet. Go he must ; he must keep with them and his 

 chesnut-haired divinity as long as he can ; then he would 

 pull up, wind his horse, and jog steadily home. To see 

 hounds running like that, and pointing for such a country, 

 without attempting to follow them was out of the question. 

 Sultan popped over the first fence like a bird; his ears were 

 pricked, and he strode away like a racehorse, evidently 

 thoroughly enjoying himself Each succeeding fence gave 

 horse and rider more confidence, but there were some 

 narrow escapes nevertheless. A blind ditch on the take- 

 off side brought Sultan on to his knees and nose in the 

 next field, and a less skilful rider would have done worse 

 than merely land on his horse's neck. Then, again, an 

 extra wide ditch, with a guard-rail on the landing side of 

 a fence, nearly spelt disaster, and Waller thanked his lucky 

 stars that the rail was rotten. But Sultan flew the brook, 

 which came in their way after they had been running 

 about fifteen minutes, in grand style; he pricked his ears, 

 and sailed away at it in the most confident manner. 



Long before Reynard had surrendered his brush, and 

 Ben Day had sounded " la morte " over the tattered bits 

 of fur, Tom Waller discovered that he had got a good 



