On a sudden Sir Nicholas's figure stiffened and then relaxed. A doe had
stepped out noiselessly from the cover, head up and feet close together,
sniffing up wind--and they were shooting no does this month. Then again
she moved along against the thick undergrowth, stepping delicately and
silently, and vanished without a sound a hundred yards along to the
left.

The cries and taps were sounding nearer now, and at any moment the game
might appear. Sir Nicholas shifted his position again a little, and
simultaneously the scolding voice of a blackbird rang out in front, and
he stopped again. At the same moment a hare, mad with fright, burst out
of the cover, making straight for the shelter. Sir Nicholas' hands rose,
steady now the crisis had come; and Ralph leaning forward touched him on
the shoulder and pointed.

A great stag was standing in the green gloom within the wood eighty
yards away, with a couple of does at his flank. Then as a shout sounded
out near at hand, he bolted towards the shelter in a line that would
bring him close to it. Ralph crouched down, for he had left his bow with
his man an hour earlier, and one of the hounds gave a stifled yelp as
Nicholas straightened himself and threw out his left foot. Either the
sound or the movement startled the great brown beast in front, and as
the arrow twanged from the string he checked and wheeled round, and went
off like the wind, untouched. A furious hiss of the breath broke from
Nicholas, and he made a swift sign as he turned to his horse; and in a
moment the two lithe hounds had leapt from the shelter and were flying
in long noiseless leaps after the disappearing quarry; the does,
confused by the change of direction, had whisked back into cover. A
moment later Nicholas too was after the hounds, his shoulders working
and his head thrust forward, and a stirrup clashed and jingled against