ditches; he took note of the direction of the wind, and ordered his
groom to take his horse a wide sweep of the field opposite on the chance
of a discovery.

The boys, fired by his example, strained every nerve to prove themselves
good Harriers, and covered a mile or more in their circuits.

At length the old gentleman brought his whip a crack down on his
leggings and exclaimed:--

"I have it! Ha! ha! knowing young dogs! Look here, my boy! look here!"

And, taking Dick by the arm, he led him to the point where the scent
touched the road.

"Do you see what they've done?--artful young scamps! They've doubled on
their own scent. Usen't to be allowed in my days."

And, delighted with his discovery, he led them back along the scent for
a hundred yards or so up the field, where it suddenly forked off behind
some gorse-bushes, and made straight for the railway at Norton.

"Ha! ha! the best bit of sniffing I've had these many years. And, now I
come to think of it, with the wind the way it is blowing, they may have
dropped their scent fair, and the breeze has taken it on to the old
track. Cunning young dogs!"

"Thanks, awfully," said Dick, gratefully; "we should never have found
it."

The other two echoed their gratitude, and the delighted old gentleman
valued their thanks quite as much as his Commission of the Peace.

"Now you've got it," said he, "come along and have a bit of lunch at my
house; I'm not five minutes away."

"Thanks, very much," said Dick, "but I'm afraid--"

"Nonsense! come on. You're out of the hunt; ten minutes won't make any
difference."

Of course they yielded, and enjoyed a sumptuous lunch of cold meat and
bread and cheese, which made new men of them. It took all their good
manners to curb their attentions to the joint; and their chatty host
spun out the repast with such stories of his own school days, that the
ten minutes grew to fully half an hour before they could get away.

Before they did so Dick, who for a quarter of an hour previously had
been exhibiting signs of agitation and inward debate, contrived to
astonish both the "Firm," and his host.

"We saw you at Tom White's trial the other day, sir," said he, abruptly,
at the close of one of the Squire's stories.

"Bless my soul! were you there? Why, of course--all three of you; I saw
you. They didn't let the youngsters do that sort of thing in my day."

"We were rather interested about White, you know," said Dick, nervous