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they were met with the rough query: “Why 
did you leave your stand, confound you! Why 
don’t you stoop down when you see a fox com¬ 
ing—not stalk in like a couple of ostriches!” 
“Has the fox got by?” anxiously and in 
amazement inquired Truesdale. 
“Certainly he has,” replied the colonel. “I ran 
down to the bluffs and turned him up above, 
but after striking back he must have seen you, 
for here is where he turned again and went 
round the sandhills between you and himself 
while you were stalking up the ascent.” 
The rest of the party now gathered in and 
loud were the expressions of disgust which the 
culprits were forced to hear. They knew it was 
well deserved and could only grin and bear it, 
keeping a discreet silence. Truesdale only ven¬ 
tured a slight remark by way of palliation that 
he could not wait and listen to such following 
as that any longer. For twenty years he had 
not heard the like. He had motioned for Harry 
to come after him and no blame should attach 
to him. 
“Yes, there should,” said Corranus. “He had 
no need to leave his stand. If he did, he should 
have occupied yours which was the best position 
allotted anyone.” 
It was plain that Truesdale’s well meant en¬ 
deavor to screen Harry from his share of the 
blame was worse than ineffectual, and nothing 
further was said, as all hurried in after the 
dogs, two of the hunters taking to the beach 
and the rest keeping along the line of the bluffs 
some fifty to eighty feet above it. 
The dogs were now out of hearing and the 
party had but little hopes they would bring the 
fox around again, and accordingly pressed in, 
determined in the sand to find out if possible 
where it was they had gone. This was looked 
to by two on the beach who kept the rest ad¬ 
vised that they were in the track occasionally. 
After some three miles’ walk in this way a shout 
from the party below betokened that they had 
come to the spot whence the fox had made his 
exit to the bluffs again. Here, of course, the 
trail ended and they were not able to trace it 
further. They, however, kept on in a course 
which, if followed out to the main road some 
two miles, would bring them to a point nearly 
opposite that of their departure from the beach. 
It was hoped that when they reached this road 
they would be enabled to discover some traces 
of the crossing of the dogs or the fox if, as 
they apprehended, the fox had struck across 
country to the beaches of Massachusetts Bay. 
Before getting to the road, but while they were 
in sight of the telegraph poles and all in a 
bunch together, and proceeding carelessly along, 
they were brought to a sudden stop by the 
action of the colonel who, with his gun pointed 
in the direction of some dwarf pines bordering 
the road and affording glimpses of it to be seen, 
ejaculated: “Hist, hist!” 
All eyes were turned at the point designated, 
and there in plain sight hard by one of the 
pines was a fox stepping gingerly along and 
mousing, as the colonel termed it, with his tail 
drooped between his legs and his nose to the 
ground as if hunting for something. 
“Looking for meadow moles?” said Mowbray. 
“Yes,” said the colonel; “shall we all fire? 
He is some sixty yards off, but we don’t want 
to lose him. He evidently has not yet seen us. 
Suppose, Mowbray, you slip around in those 
pines to head him off from working through 
that way, and Truesdale, you go to the right 
and get in his rear and place the road between 
yourself and him and the rest will stay here to 
take him if he adventures this way. I misdoubt 
that it is the same fox that has given us this 
long chase and the boys the slip by taking over 
to the bay side and then made back again when 
the danger was over.” 
So saying he motioned for Mowbray to go, 
while the rest crouched down in the brush so 
as not to be seen. Truesdale was told to wait 
for sbme little time to afford Mowbray oppor¬ 
tunity to make the detour which was necessary 
to enable him to reach a position among the 
pines and toward which it seemed from Rey¬ 
nard’s movements he intended to take his course. 
Mowbray started, crouching down till his head 
nearly struck his knees at every step and cau¬ 
tiously made off on the back track directly away 
from the fox until he reached the verge of the 
pines and disappeared. 
The fox still remained apparently unconscious 
of all these preparations making with such care 
for his capture and kept nosing about among 
the grass in singular fashion, and as one gun¬ 
ner thought, somewhat foolishly. “With all his 
wisdom,” said Truesdale, “the fox is but a fool.” 
The colonel who had been watching every 
movement anxiously, having considered that 
ample time had been granted for Mowbray to 
reach his position, told Truesdale to go on. No 
sooner had Truesdale taken a dozen steps than 
the fox was seen to jump as much as two feet 
clear from the ground, and alighting in a hollow, 
was no longer seen. But still it was thought 
he had made a spring at something he was pur¬ 
suing and that it was merely the inequality of 
the ground which prevented the hunters from 
seeing him. Truesdale kept on until he arrived 
at a position to command a view of the spot into 
which the fox jumped, when he called out that 
the fox had gone and was nowhere to be seen. 
Upon hearing Truesdale’s announcement that 
the fox was nowhere to be seen, all advanced 
wondering how this could be. Reaching the spot 
it was found that the fox at the time he had 
jumped, must have been disturbed at some noise, 
probably that of Mowbray running, and after 
jumping had taken to his heels down the side 
of the road, where his tracks were plainly ap¬ 
parent in the sand, thus completely outwitting 
his enemies and baffling all hopes of his capture. 
The fox had run right around the point of 
pines in which Mowbray was concealed and 
struck across the fields into the next woods, but 
a few gunshots off. There was, therefore, 
nothing for it but to go home. Nothing was 
heard of the dogs and the colonel ventured to 
say that they would be found at home. He pro¬ 
posed they should look along .the road for some 
distance up and down before leaving, to see if 
there were any signs of the fox having crossed 
it, as he believed. A few minutes’ search re¬ 
vealed the certainty of his* calculations, for 
Truesdale sung out, being some hundred feet 
up the road ahead of the rest, “I have found 
the track; dogs and fox both crossed.” 
Hurrying thither they had the satisfaction of 
seeing the tracks and knowing that they were 
beyond doubt the imprint of their hounds and 
that they had been traveling lively, for the fox 
tracks cleared a space of several feet at every 
jump. 
The colonel quietly examined the tracks, and 
then going down to the sandy ridge by the road 
side where the fox they had just seen had run 
he looked again, and calling to Mowbray—whc 
had come out of the woods and was now rapidly 
approaching—he asked him what he thought of! 
these tracks compared with those which crossed 
the road and which the dogs had been follow¬ 
ing. All gathered around and Mowbray, hav¬ 
ing attentively looked at the imprint both on 
the ridge and in the road, said that in his opin¬ 
ion they were made by one and the same fox, 
“That’s my judgment,” said Fielding, “and 
good judgment, too,” echoed the colonel. “Now, 
to-morrow, we must have this fox sure, and to 1 
guard against his trickery not only must one 
man stand guard here in this point of pines, but 
one must go on the beach on the bay shore and 
find out where the fox went down to-day. Whc 
will volunteer?” 
“I,” said Truesdale. 
“Yes,” said Corranus, determined still to have 
a stroke at him for his faux pas of the morn¬ 
ing, “and although it is a longer walk than you 
took when you left your stand, you will show 
better judgment and do better service than you 
did then and be full as likely to kill the fox.” 
It was evident that (Corranus meant to have 
his revenge, now that there was an opportunity 
for some of the chaff that had been so ruth- 1 
lessly piled on to him for his own mistakes. 
Truesdale set off and the remainder of the 
party went to headquarters. On arriving there 
the dogs were found to have come in a hour 
previous and had been chained up and fed and 
watered by Mr. Horton. The walk from the 
point of pines, where the fox was last seen, tc 
the house, being nearly two miles, no one fell 
disposed to walk back again, although it was 
determined that as soon as Truesdale returned 
they would take the dogs and put them on the 
track, and while the colonel helped them along 
with it, the others should ride down to the beach 
where they had been posted in the morning, and 
again taking their stands in and around the 
Giant’s Chamber, await developments and see ii 
the fox could not be driven down to them. They 
felt assured that if the dogs could take the 
scent the fox would come back, and in that evenl 
he would be likely to afford someone a clip at 
him. Fox Hunter, 
[to be continued.] 
To Improve Hunting Conditions. 
The sportsmen and hunters of the southern 1 
part of Sussex and the western part of Morris 
counties, New Jersey, are combining forces to 
improve the game conditions in that section ol 
the State by compelling the close observance ol 
the laws. An association is to be formed in- 
each county to protect the game. 
According to a Times correspondent, the rav¬ 
ages of the pot-hunters and the injury to the 
preserves wrought by the extensive forest clear¬ 
ing recently done there have had a bad effecl 
on the game, and the result is that this locality 
which used to have an abundance of sport, has 
become a poor hunting ground. 
The aim of the association will be to re¬ 
store the old conditions as far as possible 
Extra wardens will be put on patrol througl 
the territory affected and prosecutions of the 
game law violations will be vigorously pushed. 
