m say.

"An animal!" she screamed. "An animal under the sofa!"

"All right," he said, "that's only the hare. Here, hounds, out with her,
hounds!"

The dogs rushed about, some of them with great lumps of food still
in their mouths. But they were confused, and all went into the wrong
places. Everything began to fall with dreadful crashes, the fat woman
shrieked piercingly, and her shriek was--

"China! Oh! my china-a. John, you wretch! Help! Help! Help!"

To which the Red-faced Man roared in answer--

"Don't be an infernal fool, Eliza-a. I say, don't be such an infernal
fool."

Also there were lots of other noises that I cannot remember, except one
which a dog made.

This silly dog had thrust its head up the hole over a fire such as the
stops make outside the coverts when men are going to shoot, either to
hide something or to look for me there. When it came down again because
the Red-faced Man kicked it, the dog put its paws into the fire and
pulled it all out over the floor. Also it howled very beautifully. Just
then another hound, that one which generally led the pack, began to
sniff about near me and finally poked its nose under the stuff which hid
me.

It jumped back and bayed, whereon I jumped out the other side. Tom made
a rush at me and knocked the fat woman off the thing she was standing
on, so that she fell among the dogs, which covered her up and began to
sniff her all over. Flying from Tom I found myself in front of something
filmy, beyond which I saw grass. It looked suspicious, but as nothing in
the world could be so bad as Tom, no, not even his dogs, I jumped at it.

There was a crash and a sharp point cut my nose, but I was out upon the
grass. Then there were twenty other crashes, and all the hounds were out
too, for Tom had cheered them on. I ran to the edge of the lawn and saw
a steep slope leading to the sands and the sea. Now I knew what the
sea was, for after Tom had shot me in the back I lived by it for a long
while, and once swam across a little creek to get to my form, from which
it cut me off.

While I ran down that slope fast as my aching legs would carry me, I
made up my mind that I would swim out into the sea and drown there,
since it is better to drown than to be torn to pieces. "But why are you
laughing, friend Mahatma."

"I am not laughing," I said. "In this state, without a body, I have
nothing to laugh with. Still you are right, for you see that I should be
laughing if I cou