speed was greater than mine, and I knew that I must soon be caught.

At last they were not more than two yards behind, and for the first time
I twisted so that they overshot me, which gave me another start. Three
times they came up and three times I wrenched or twisted. The wood was
not so far away now, but I was almost spent.

What was I to do! What was I to do! I saw a clump of furze to the
left, a big clump and thick, and remembered that there was a hare's run
through it. I reached it just as Jill was on the top of me, and once
more they lost sight of me for a while as they ran round the clump
staring and jumping. When they saw me again on the further side I was
thirty yards ahead of them and the wood was perhaps two hundred and
fifty yards away. But now I could only run more slowly, for my heart
seemed to be bursting, though luckily Jack and Jill were getting tired
also. Still they soon came up, and now I must twist every few yards, or
be caught in their jaws.

I can't tell you what I felt, Mahatma, and until you have been hunted by
greyhounds you will never know. It was horrible. Yet I managed to twist
and jump so that always Jack and Jill just missed me. The farmers on the
horses laughed to see my desperate leaps and wrenches.

But Tom did worse than laugh. Noting that I was getting quite near the
wood, he rode between me and it, trying to turn me into the open, for he
wished to see me killed.

"Don't do that! It isn't sportsmanlike," shouted the Red-faced Man.
"Give the poor beast a chance."