e. 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
dogs and the people galloping upon horses and in front were the three
men. What was I to do? Now I had stopped exactly in a gateway, for a
lane ran alongside the wood. After a moment's pause I bolted through the
gateway, thinking that I would get into the wood beyond. But one of the
men, who of course wanted to see me killed, was too quick for me and
there headed me again.

Then I lost my senses. Instead of running on past him and leaping into
the wood, I swung right round and rushed back, still clinging to the
hedgerow. Indeed as I went down one side of it the hounds and the
hunters came up on the other, so that there were only a few sticks
between us, though fortunately the wind was blowing from them to me.
Fearing lest they should see me I jumped into the ditch and ran for
quite two hundred yards through the mud and water that was gathered
there. Then I had to come out of it again as it ended but here was a
fall in the ground, so still I was not seen.

Meanwhile the hunt had reached the three men and I heard them all
talking together. The end of it was that the men explained which way I
had gone, and once more the hounds were laid on to me. In a minute they
got to where I had entered the ditch, and there grew confused because my
footmarks did not smell in the water. For quite a long time they looked
about till at length, taking a wide cast, the hounds found my smell
again at the end of the ditch.

During this check I was making the best of my way back towards my own
home; indeed had it not been for it I should have been caught and torn
to pieces much sooner than I was. Thus it happened that I had covered
quite three miles before once more I heard those hounds baying behind
me. This was just as I got on to the moorland, at that edge of it which
is about another three miles from the great house called the Hall, which
stands on the top of a cliff that slopes down to the beach and the sea.

I had thought of making for the other wood,