Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/171

 rapidly nearer. A hundred feet further on, the log team rounded a bend in the road which hid it from sight and Redcoat breathed easier. He only wanted just a little more. Another hundred feet and he espied a clump of bushes beside the road. As the sled passed it, the fox sprang lightly into the bushes. Then, keeping the bushes between him and the driver of the team, he ran for the mountain with all his remaining strength.

When the pack came to the road, the full throated cry resolved into excited yelps and finally the hounds were silent. At first the dogs overran and not finding the track in the field beyond, came back to the road and went a hundred yards in the wrong direction. Then they came back to the starting point and went in the right direction till they found the scent, but by this time Redcoat had covered half the distance between him and his retreat and he reached the mountain a quarter of a mile ahead of the pack. He picked his way carefully up the mountainside where it was very steep by his fa-