Next second I was up and away, and before you could count twelve Jack
and Jill were after me. I saw them standing on their hind legs straining
at the cord. Then the collars fell from them and they leapt forward like
the light. My thought was to get back to the wood, which was about
a minute's run behind me, but I did not dare to turn and head for it
because of the long line of people through which I must pass if I tried
to do so. So I ran straight for the moorland, hoping to turn there and
reach the wood on its other side, although this meant a long journey.

For a while all went well with me, and having a good start I began to
hope that I should outrun these beasts, as I had the shepherd's dog and
the retriever. But I did not know Jack and Jill. Just as I reached the
borders of the moor I heard the patter of their feet behind me, and
looking back saw them coming up, about as far away as I was from Tom
when he shot me.

They were running quite close together and behind them galloped the
judge and other men. There was a fence here and I bolted through a hole
in it. The greyhounds jumped over and for a moment lost sight of me, for
I had turned and run down near the side of the fence. But Tom, who had
come through a gap, saw me and waved his arm shouting, and next instant
Jack and Jill saw me too.

Then as the going was rough by the fence I took to the open moor, always
trying, however, to work round to the left in the hope that I might win
the shelter of the wood.

On we went like the wind, and now Jack and Jill were quite close behind
me, though before they got there I had managed to circle so that at last
my head pointed to the wood, which was more than half a mile away. Their