i68 PINK AND SCARLET 



not be too soft-hearted, and therefore had better 

 not analyze these things too closely. 



The battle being over, we have now to think 

 what remains to be done. Regarding this in the 

 Image, no one can tell us better than Whyte- 

 Melville does on pages 200 to 202 of Riding 

 Recollections. Put into half-a-dozen words, these 

 pages say, "Think of your horse before yourself." 

 This should be, and in most cases is, the creed of 

 the British Officer regarding the care of his men. 



While the hounds are breaking up their fox, with 

 the accompaniment of " rattles " on the horn, and 

 some yokel leads about our horse, whose girths we 

 have slacked, well away from the surging pack, let 

 us make up our minds what to do. We have been 

 carried well through a good run, are some distance 

 from home, and, to say the least of it, the " steel " 

 is out of our horse, and we should not be a sports- 

 man, in the true sense of the word, if we stayed out 

 and rode him in another run, with those who have 

 second horses, any more than we should be if we 

 had "over-marked" {i.e. over-ridden) him during 

 the run in which he has just carried us well. 

 Therefore, home it must be. 



This decided, let's pull out the map, locate our- 

 selves, and look out the best way to go ; not 

 forgetting that those with local knowledge will 

 probably be able to tell us of some short cut which 

 is not evident by the map. While the map is out 

 we should also try and follow on it the run we have 

 just ridden : if we cannot do this easily, there is 



