X Billy : a Memoir of an Old Friend 249 



not on the premises, nor had he gone to afternoon tea 

 at the one cottage where he had friends and descend- 

 ants. Some one suggested that he might have heen 

 caught in a snare set for hares or rabbits, and I 

 hurried off to search the place where I had last 

 seen him. 



Not a trace was to be seen of him in the open 

 field, and I called and whistled to the empty air. If 

 he had fallen into the stream in pursuit of voles I 

 must easily have found him, for it was so low 

 as to reveal every object in its bed. Not till I 

 penetrated into the ditch through a gap in the tall 

 hedge did I come upon any possible clue to his fate. 

 There, half buried in the drying mud, was the ghastly 

 carcase of a fox ; it was stark and stiff, and must 

 have been there some time ; the head was stretched 

 out, and the sharp teeth were protruding. And close 

 to this horrid object was the mouth of a large drain- 

 pipe, at least a foot in diameter. I could see at 

 once by the look of the ground that this drain ran a 

 long way up into the field ; what more likely than 

 that it should be a favourite retreat of foxes ? The 

 one in the ditch might have been caught in the 

 pipe by a sudden flood of February rain, and swept 

 out to decay where I found him lying. 



Now Billy, as became a wire-haired fox-terrier who 

 feared no living thing, was always much given to 

 investigating the haunts of foxes, which are abundant 



