sea-shore where I lay sick, for I was sure they would never follow me
there.

You can imagine, then, Mahatma, how surprised I was when I drew near
that wood to hear a hideous noise of dogs all barking together behind
me, and on looking back, to see those spotted brutes, with their tongues
hanging out, coming along quite close to each other and not more than a
quarter of a mile away.

Moreover they were coming after me. I was sure of that, for the first of
them kept setting its nose to the ground just where I had run, and then
lifting up its head to bay. Yes, they were coming on my scent. They
could smell me as Giles's curly dog smells the wounded partridges. My
heart sank at the thought, but presently I remembered that the wood was
quite close, and that there I should certainly give them the slip.

So I went on quite cheerfully, not even running as fast as I could. But
fortune was against me, as everything has always been, for I never found
a friend. I ran along the side of a hedgerow which went quite up to
the wood, not knowing that at the end of it three men were engaged in
cutting down an oak tree. You see, Mahatma, they had caught sight of the
hunt and stopped from their work, so that I did not hear the sound of
their axes upon the tree. Nor, as my head was so near the ground, did I
see them until I was right on to them, at which moment also they saw me.

"Here she is!" yelled one of them. "Keep her out of covert or they'll
lose her," and he threw out his arms and began to jump about, as did the
other two.

I pulled up short within three or four yards of them. Behind were the