Then a whimper was heard from a hound,—­at first very low, and then growing into a fuller sound.  “There he is,” said young Hampton.  “For heaven’s sake get those fellows away from that side, Glomax.”  This was uttered with so much vehemence that the Senator looked up in surprise.  Then the Captain galloped round the side of the covert, and, making use of some strong language, stopped the ardour of certain gentlemen who were in a hurry to get away on what they considered good terms.  Lord Rufford, Hampton, Larry Twentyman and others sat stock-still on their horses, watching the gorse.  Ned Botsey urged himself a little forward down the hill, and was creeping on when Captain Glomax asked him whether he would be so—­ —­obliging kind as to remain where he was for half a minute.  Fred took the observations in good part and stopped his horse.  “Does he do all that cursing and swearing for the 2,000 pounds?” asked the Senator.

The fox traversed the gorse back from side to side and from corner to corner again and again.  There were two sides certainly at which he might break, but though he came out more than once he could not be got to go away.

“They’ll kill him now before he breaks,” said the elder Botsey.

“Brute!” exclaimed his brother.

“They’re hot on him now,” said Hampton.  At this time the whole side of the hill was ringing with the music of the hounds.

“He was out then, but Dick turned him,” said Larry.  Dick was one of the whips.

“Will you be so kind, Mr. Morton,” asked the Senator, “as to tell me whether they’re hunting yet?  They’ve been at it for three hours and a half, and I should like to know when they begin to amuse themselves.”

Just as he had spoken there came from Dick a cry that he was away.  Tony, who had been down at the side of the gorse, at once jumped into it, knowing the passage through.  Lord Rufford, who for the last five or six minutes had sat perfectly still on his horse, started down the hill as though he had been thrown from a catapult.  There was a little hand-gate through which it was expedient to pass, and in a minute a score of men were jostling for the way, among whom were the two Botseys, our friend Runciman, and Larry Twentyman, with Kate Masters on the pony close behind him.  Young Hampton jumped a very nasty fence by the side of the wicket, and Lord Rufford followed him.  A score of elderly men, with some young men among them too, turned back into a lane behind them, having watched long enough to see that they were to take the lane to the left, and not the lane to the right.  After all there was time enough, for when the men had got through the hand-gate the hounds were hardly free of the covert, and Tony, riding up the side of the hill opposite, was still blowing his horn.  But they were off at last, and the bulk of the field got away on good terms with the hounds.  “Now they are hunting,” said Mr. Morton to the Senator.