And then, as
the crowd of horsemen and carriages came on, the word "poison" was
passed among them from mouth to mouth!
"What does all this mean?" said the Senator.
"I don't at all know. I'm afraid there's something wrong," replied
Morton.
"I heard that man say `poison'. They have taken the dogs back
again." Then the Senator and Morton got out of the carriage and
made their way into the crowd. The riders who had grooms on second
horses were soon on foot, and a circle was made, inside which there
was some object of intense interest. In the meantime the hounds had
been secured in one of Mr. Twentyman's barns.
What was that object of interest shall be told in the next chapter.
CHAPTER X
Goarly's Revenge
The Senator and Morton followed close on the steps of Lord Rufford
and Captain Glomax and were thus able to make their way into the
centre of the crowd. There, on a clean sward of grass, laid out as
carefully as though he were a royal child prepared for burial,
was--a dead fox. "It's pi'son, my lord; it's pi'son to a moral,"
said Bean, who as keeper of the wood was bound to vindicate himself,
and his master, and the wood. "Feel of him, how stiff he is." A
good many did feel, but Lord Rufford stood still and looked at the
poor victim in silence. "It's easy knowing how he come by it," said
Bean.
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