The General laughed.

"I thought you'd come," he said, and the Major laughed too, and cocked his
ear. "Old Rock's ahead," he said, for he knew, as did everyone there, the old
hound's tongue.

"He's been ahead for an hour," said the General with quiet satisfaction, "and
I think he'll stay there."

Just then a dark object swept past them, and the Major with a low cry hied on
his favorite hound.

"Not now, I reckon," he said, and the General laughed again.

Dan and Harry pressed their horses close to Chad, and all talked in low
voices.

"Ain't it fun?" whispered Dan. Chad answered with a shiver of pure joy.

"He's making for the creek," said the Major, sharply, and he touched spurs to
his horse. How they raced through the woods, cracking brush and whisking
around trees, and how they thundered over the turf and clattered across the
road and on! For a few moments the Major kept close to Chad, watching him
anxiously, but the boy stuck to the big bay like a jockey, and he left Dan and
Harry on their ponies far behind. All night they rode under the starlit sky,
and ten miles away they caught poor Reynard. Chad was in at the kill, with the
Major and the General, and the General gave Chad the brush with his own hand.

"Where did you learn to ride, boy?"