anywhere. Hurd put up his hand to his ear, and
leaning forward listened intently. Suddenly--a vibration, a dull
thumping sound in the soil of the bank immediately beside him. He
started, dropped his hand, and, stooping, laid his ear to the ground.

"Gi' us the bag," he said to his companion, drawing himself upright.
"You can hear 'em turnin' and creepin' as plain as anything. Now then,
you take these and go t' other side."

He handed over a bundle of rabbit nets. Patton, crawling on hands and
knees, climbed over the low overgrown bank on which the hedge stood into
the precincts of the wood itself. The state of the hedge, leaving the
cover practically open and defenceless along its whole boundary, showed
plainly enough that it belonged to the Mellor estate. But the field
beyond was Lord Maxwell's.

Hurd applied himself to netting the holes on his own side, pushing the
brambles and undergrowth aside with the sure hand of one who had already
reconnoitred the ground. Then he crept over to Patton to see that all
was right on the other side, came back, and went for the ferrets, of
whom he had four in a closely tied bag.

A quarter of an hour of intense excitement followed. In all, five
rabbits bolted--three on Hurd's side, two on Patton's. It was all the
two men could do to secure their prey, manage the ferrets, and keep a
watch on the holes. Hurd's great hands--now fixing the pegs that held
the nets, now dealing death to the entangled rabbit, whose neck he broke
in an instant by a turn of the thumb, now winding up the line that held
the ferret--seemed to be everywhere.

At last a ferret "laid up," the string attached to him having either
slipped or broken, greatly to the disgust of the men, who did not want
to be driven either to dig, which made a noise and took time, or to lose
their animal. The rabbits made no more sign, and it was tolerably
evident that they had got as much as they were likely to get out of
that particular "bury."

Hurd thrust his arm deep into the hole where he had put the ferret.
"Ther's summat in the way," he declared at last. "Mos' likely a dead un.
Gi' me the spade."

He dug away the mouth of the hole, making as little noise as possible,
and tried again.

"'Ere ee be," he cried, clutching at something, drew it out, exclaimed
in disgust, flung it away, and pounced upon a rabbit which on the
removal of the obstacle followed like a flash, pursued by the lost
ferret. Hurd caught the rabbit by