ii6 HARK FORRARD! 



we do find we can't run him a yard.' In the 

 present instance, fortunately, the former was 

 the case, and though they had drawn three- 

 fourths of the covert before a sound was heard, 

 the crash of music which suddenly burst from the 

 pack proclaimed that they had not only found, 

 but that he had evidently been unkennelled in 

 view. He was within five yards of the covert 

 fence, on the outside of which was a deep ditch : 

 into this he jumped and made the best of his 

 way up it to the end of the covert, where he 

 broke and set his head straight for Foxley Gorse, 

 some two miles off". Hounds (as they always 

 do when they get their heads up) ran half 

 across the field from covert, and ere they could 

 be picked up and brought to the line the fox 

 had got at least half a mile start. Reginald, 

 who was hunting them himself, was riding 

 Independent, who was now his favourite horse. 

 No sooner did hounds cross his line than they set 

 to work to run like blazes, as though they were 

 tied to him. A bit of a fence, a grass field, and 

 then came the road. The gate was the most 



