Lord Rufford, who for the
last five or six minutes had sat perfectly still on his horse,
started down the hill as though he had been thrown from a catapult.
There was a little hand-gate through which it was expedient to
pass, and in a minute a score of men were jostling for the way,
among whom were the two Botseys, our friend Runciman, and Larry
Twentyman, with Kate Masters on the pony close behind him. Young
Hampton jumped a very nasty fence by the side of the wicket, and
Lord Rufford followed him. A score of elderly men, with some young
men among them too, turned back into a lane behind them, having
watched long enough to see that they were to take the lane to the
left, and not the lane to the right. After all there was time
enough, for when the men had got through the hand-gate the hounds
were hardly free of the covert, and Tony, riding up the side of the
hill opposite, was still blowing his horn. But they were off at
last, and the bulk of the field got away on good terms with the
hounds. "Now they are hunting," said Mr. Morton to the Senator.
"They all seemed to be very angry with each other at that narrow
gate"
"They were in a hurry, I suppose."
"Two of them jumped over the hedge. Why didn't they all jump? How
long will it be now before they catch him?"
"Very probably they may not catch him at all.
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