Again the forest changed, and the track, passing on higher ground,
entered among firs. These, too, had killed each other by growing so
thickly; the lower branches of many were dead, and there was nothing but
a little green at the tops, while in many places there was an open space
where they had decayed away altogether. Brambles covered the ground in
these open places, brambles and furze now bright with golden blossom.
The jays screeched loudly, startled as the riders passed under them, and
fluttered away; rabbits, which they saw again here, dived into their
burrows. Between the first the track was very narrow, and they could not
conveniently ride side by side; Oliver took the lead, and Felix
followed.




CHAPTER VII

THE FOREST TRACK CONTINUED


Once as they trotted by a pheasant rose screaming from the furze and
flew before them down the track. Just afterwards Felix, who had been
previously looking very carefully into the firs upon his right hand,
suddenly stopped, and Oliver, finding this, pulled up as quickly as he
could, thinking that Felix wished to tighten his girth.

"What is it?" he asked, turning round in his saddle.

"Hush!" said Felix, dismounting; his horse, trained to hunting, stood