SOME HUNTING STORIES 197 



making a circular cast. . . . Finally he broke 

 out stormily. 



" He is light in his head," he said loudly. 

 " Light in his head. If I didn't knock the wall 

 into the field he was in, another would have done 

 it, an' so why would he be blamin' me for the row 

 I made. Light in his head he is." 



The maligned head, crowned with a hunting 

 cap, and with two flaming eyes fixed on the 

 grumbler, rose slowly above the wall. Our Master 

 had ridden along on the far side and was within 

 three yards of us. 



Without a word he jumped over the double wall, 

 stones falling thunderously as his horse charged ; 

 with a quiet glance he passed on, but for the rest 

 of the day all that group came in for it wherever 

 they were. 



" If I sthayed behind the last man in the hunt 

 he'd cast backwards so as to say I overrode 

 them," remarked the chief offender philosophic- 

 ally before he went home. 



A keen young soldier and hard ridden made a 

 delightful excuse to one of our M.F.H.'s. Hounds 

 got away with the keen one close to them. The 

 Master knew him as a bad offender, one who 

 would be in the middle of hounds at the first 

 check, so he galloped hard to pick up. Just as he 

 got within hail, hounds threw up their heads on 

 the far side of a low stone wall. 



