Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/189

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and a clanging of the bell and a shouting of excited men and boys on the foot bridge as one by one with yelps of fear the hounds leaped into the river. Most of them leaped before the engine struck them and those that didn't were brushed off without being hurt as the train was running very slowly. As Redcoat reached the further end of the bridge he looked back for a moment and saw that the thunderer had swept the last of his enemies, the fox hounds, into the river and was now coming after him. So, belly to earth, he galloped away over the meadows on his own side of the river to his safe refuge on the mountainside.

A member of the Meadowdale Fox Club who was watching him through a glass said as he looked back over his shoulder at the discomforted pack he grinned like a Cheshire cat, but I am afraid the hunter distorted the fox's countenance to suit his own whim and to make the achievement of Redcoat seem even more diabolical. But, one thing was certain; never again would this particular pack of hounds be persuaded,