Almost before I got this all straight in my mind the deer was nearly opposite me on the other side of the field, going the same way that we were.  In a second I clapped spurs into my tricycle and was off.  In front of me was a long stretch of down grade, and over this I went as fast as I could work my pedals; no brakes or holding back for me.  My blood was up, for I was actually in a deer hunt, and to my amazement and wild delight I found I was keeping up with the deer.  I was going faster than the men on horseback.

“Hi!  Hi!” I shouted, and down I went with one eye on the deer and the other on the road, every atom of my body tingling with fiery excitement.  When I began to go up the little slope ahead I heard Jone puffing behind me.

“You will break your neck,” he shouted, “if you go down hill that way,” and getting close up to me he fastened his cord to my tricycle.  But I paid no attention to him or his advice.

“The stag!  The stag!” I cried.  “As long as he keeps near the road we can follow him!  Hi!” And having got up to the top of the next hill I made ready to go down as fast as I had gone before, for we had fallen back a little, and the stag was now getting ahead of us; but it made me gnash my teeth to find that I could not go fast, for Jone held back with all his force (and both feet on the ground, I expect), and I could not get on at all.

“Let go of me,” I cried, “we shall lose the stag.  Stop holding back.”  But it wasn’t any use; Jone’s heels must have been nearly rubbed off, but he held back like a good fellow, and I seemed to be moving along no faster than a worm.  I could not stand this; my blood boiled and bubbled; the deer was getting away from me; and if it had been Porlock Hill in front of me I would have dashed on, not caring whether the road was steep or level.

A thought flashed across my mind, and I clapped my hand into my pocket and jerked out a pair of scissors.  In an instant I was free.  The world and the stag was before me, and I was flying along with a tornado-like swiftness that soon brought me abreast of the deer.  This perfectly splendid, bounding creature was not far away from me on the other side of the hedge, and as the field was higher than the road I could see him perfectly.  His legs worked so regular and springy, except when he came to a cross hedge, which he went over with a single clip, and came down like India rubber on the other side, that one might have thought he was measuring the grass, and keeping an account of his jumps in his head.

[Illustration:  “In an instant I was free.”]

For one instant I looked around for the hounds, and I saw there was not more than half a dozen following him, and I could only see the two hunters I had seen before, and these was still a good way back.  As for Jone, I couldn’t hear him at all, and he must have been left far behind.  There was still the woods on the other side, and the deer seemed to run to keep away from that and to cross the road, and he came nearer and nearer until I fancied he kept an eye on me as if he was wondering if I was of any consequence, and if I could hinder him from crossing the road and getting away into the valley below where there was a regular wilderness of woods and underbrush.