The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 28, 1903, Page 6

THE SUNDAY CALL er die it was goo great daj were e form of optical g all about sness,’ the doc- e did that wish to vou will have but when they of once =end for a promise of medicine, d dressed i & the room feeling very and ur ng. It " is not very £ to be watching for symptoms p on glancing at your bootjack till a bootjack or it has begun to develop antennae t Jast he could stand it no ger ¥ should he stay indoors when e Ascombe Hunt was meeting within & half mile of him? If he was going to have these delusions which the doctor talked of he would not have them the sooner ror the worse because he was on horseb: in the open. And so it came t 1 ten minutes he was In his ng and ten more he was it out of his stable yard with his roan mare Matilda between his knees. He was s lttle in the saddle just at rther he went the better the time he reached the 4 was almost clear, and there troubling him except those ds of the doctor’s about the any time before he was nothing haunting wo nightfall “It was just the morning for a scent— no wind to blow it #Way, no water to and just damp eno was a field of fort d goed rider to Black Har s along ! ought that k thelr positic cover the erever they were likely to get a good start. Wat Danbury the country atoe oF b so he made for feeling he gal- His mar Wat 1 well-trained were 2 few se tongue toge disappear pstant later hunt servants the same line they went in a the thr flashed n e wood bee-line lloping with fa brushed up by their horses’ manes they stooped under the branches. It's going, as know, but you « with a and out they til the wocd began to thin and they found them g bottom where the river ar going th: upon gras: ounds we running very strong 2% yards ahead, keeping paralle! e stream. Danbury, with the it s. had a clear lead, and they it. Two of the field got on with them—Parson on a entee d bay, and Fo- at b servan never eddes, Squire > rode a featherweight and T his hunters out of cast thorough breds from the Newmarket sales; but the hers never had a look-in from start to or there was no check and no d it was clear cross-country from start to finish. If you had line right across the map with 3 couldn’t go straighter than a heading for the South Downs and the sea, and the hounds ran as surely as if they were to view, and from the beginning no one ever saw x ere were six of them ‘in P: Geddes, Squire Foley, the huntsman. two whi d "at Danbury, who had forgotien a bout his head and the doctor by this time. One of the whips dropped back as some of the h s tailed off, and that brought them Then Foley’s thoroughbred elf and he had to take a the front back sca t the other four were still going strong., and they did four or five miles down-the river flat at a rasping pace the time they came to the bridge whole field was out of sight and these f bad the hunt to them- selves. *“The fox had crossed the bridge—for foxes do not care to swim a chilly river any han humans do—and from that reaked away southward. Tt untry, rolling heaths, down #lope and up another. This sort of switchback work Is killing work for a big, long-striding hunter such as one wants in Midlands. Anyhow, it was too much for Pareon Geddes' teventeen-hand bay, and, though he tried the Irish trick —for was a rare keen sportsman—of running up the hills by his horse’s head, was all to no use, and he had to glve it he The country got worse and worse, and the hills were steeper and more thickly covered in heather and bracken. The horses were over their hocks all the time, and the place was pitted with rabbit holes. As they raced down one slope, the hounds were always flowing up the oppo site one, and never a glimpse did they get of the fox. although they knew very well that he must be only a very short way ahead for the scent to lie %o sjgons. And then Wat Danbury heard a cish and a thud at bis elbow, and looking around he saw a pair of white cords and top-boots kicking out of a tussock of brambles. The whip's horse had stumbled, and the whip was out of the running. Danbury and the huntsman eased down and then, &eeing the man staggering to his feet all right, they turned and settled Into their waddles once more. “There was a pasture eountry beyond the heather slopes, and for several miles the two riders were either losing ground as they fumied with their crop handles Timely Poems of Appreciation. By Eleonore E. Hoeft. (To Our Veterans.) IEERTY, resound thy praises all, Of those who fought for country’s se; Who tore aw ? slavery y the blackened pall and mortal laws. WWho fought for country and our God; Who fought for freedom, stanch and true; They who sleep beneath the sod, W'bo bore the red, the white, the blue. Liberty! to-day thy praises sound From north to south, from east (o west. Time bulldeth greater memory’s mound— Their work was done—then rest, sweet rest. Earth giveth to their memory e'er, Her purest garlands crown the graves ©f those who would their bosoms bare In freedom's cause—with tears each heaven laves. Americans! sound their praises true; Sound, resound, their memory dear; They fought for country and for you; They followed right—they knew not fear. (To Father McKinnon.) (Hero of Philippines.) ERO! Martyr! Hero in the cause of liberty! Martyr in the cause of charity! Silence now resounds thy praises; Muititudes kneel to-day at altar of thy love. Such love God makes our guiding star; Suchllrrve the sun mortal souls the satel. ites; Such the river of untailing source, The bivouac of countless armies, Eternal entity in heart of multitudes to come. Still gaze we into the dark, forbidding tomb Of death, which he so bravely entered, Looking back alone for one to take his place Ere he leave earthly post and duty. His spirit wants not elegies, Thanatopsis nor eulogies, for death Is not the closing scene to him who serves the Master. Then, conqueror! life’s battle thou hast won. ‘We wreathe garlands to thy honors, Laurels in thy country’s cause, And memory’s fondest flowers In thy cause of charity. at the bars of gates or galning it egaln as they galloped over the fields. Then they were down in a hard lane, where they had to slacken their pace, and through a farm where a man came shout- ing excitedly after them; but they had no time to stop and listen to him, for the hounds were on some plowland, only two fields ahead. It was sloping upward, that plowland, and the horses were over their fetlocks in the red, soft soil. When they reached the top they were blowing badly, but a grand valley sloped before them, leading up to the open country of the South Downs. Between there lay a belt of pine woods, into which the hounds were streaming, running now in a long, straggling line and shedding one here and one there as they ran. But half the pack were stlll going well, though the pace and distance had both been tremendous—two clear hours now without a check. “There was a drive through the pine- wood—one of those green, slightly rutted drives where a horse can get the last yard out of itself, for the ground is hard enough to give him clean golng and yet springy enough to help him. Wat Dan- bury got alongside of the huntsman and they galloped together with their stirrup frons touching and the hounds within a hundred yards of them. “‘We have it all to ourselves,’ said he. “It's the fastest run I ever had in my life.’ “‘And the fastest I ever 'ad, an' that means more,’ said the old huntsman. “But what licks me is that we've never 'ad a look at the beast. ’E must leave an amazing scent be'ind 'im when these SPRANC UPON ‘ounds can foliow ‘m like this, and yet none of us ‘ave seen 'lm when we've 'ad & clear ‘alf-mile view In front of us.’ They had followed the hounds on to one of the side tracks which led out of the main drive, and that divided into a smaller track still, where the branches switched across thelr faces as they went, and there was barely room for one horse at a time. Wat Danbury took the lead and he heard the huntsman's horse clumping along heavily behind him, while his own mare was going with less spring than when she had started. And then he looked up and there was a heavy wooden stile at the end of the narrow track, With a lane of stiff young saplings lead- Ing down to It, which was far too thick to break through. The hounds were run- ning clear upon the grassland on the other side, and you were bound either to et over that stile or lose sight of them, for the pace was too hot to let you &0 round. “‘Well, Wat Danbury was not the lad to flinch, and at it he went full eplit, like @ man who means what he is doing. She rose gallantly to it, rapped It Lard with her front hoof, shook him on to her with- ers, recovered herself. and was over. Wat had hardly got back into his saddle when there was a clatter behind him like the fall of a woodstack, and there was the top bar In splinters, the horse on its belly and the huntsman on hands and knees half a dozen yards in front of him. Wat pulled up for an instant, for the fall was 2 smasher; but he saw old Joe spring to - HIS his feet and get to his norse’s bridie. The horse staggered up, but the moment it put one foot in front of the other Wat saw that it was hopelessly lame—a slipped shoulder and a six weeks’ job. Joe was shouting to him not to lose the hounds, so off he went agaln, the one solitary sur- vivor of the whole hunt. “The pack, or what was left of them, had got a bit ahead during this time; but he had a clear view of them on the down- land. There were two miles over the green shoulder of a hill, a rattle down a stony, deep-rutted country lane, a jump over a five-foot brook, a cut through a hazel copse, a couple of gates to open and then the green, unbroken Downs be- yond. ‘Well, said Wat Danbury to himselt, ‘I'll see this fox run Into or I shall see it drowned, for it's all clear going now be tween this and the chalk cliffs which line the sea.’ “Danbury was galloping hard over the short, springy turf, when he came over the lip of a little hollow, and there was a dark clump of wood lying in front of and beneath him. There was only a dozen hounds still running, and they were just disappearing among the trees. The sun- light was shining straight upon the long, olive-green slopes which curved down to- ward this wood, and Danbury, who had the eyes of a hawk, swept them over this great expanse, but there was nothing moving upon it. Either the gf must have gone to ground in the ‘or the hounds’ nosés must be at his very brush. NARE, GALLOFED ZER. /IADLY OVER THE DOWNS,= A few minutes afterward Danbury was galloping Into the firwood. “The wood was very closely planted, and so dim that he could hardly see to right or to left out of the narrow path down which he was riding. A kind of chill suddenly struck Wat Danbury, and 1t flashed through his mind that there had been some very singular points about this run—its length and its stralghtness, and the fact that from the first find no one had ever causht a glimpse of the creature. Some silly talk which had been going round the country about the kind of foxes—a sort of demon fox, so fast that it could outrun any pack and so fierce that they could do nothing with it if they overtook it—suddenly came back into his mind. The nervousness which had been on him in the morning and which he had hoped that he had shaken off swept over him again in an overpow- ering wave. FHe would have given ten pounds now to have had Joe Clarke's homely face beside him. And then, just at that moment, there broke out from the thickest purt of the wood the most fra tic hullaballoo that ever he had hear in his life. The hounds had run into thelr fox. “Wat Danbury trled to force his mare through the trees to the place where all this hideous screaming and howling came from, but the wood was so thick that it was impossible to ride it. He sprang off, therefore, left the mare standing and broke his way through as best he could. with his hunting lash ready over his shoulder. But as he ran rorward he felt his flesh go cold and creepy ail over. He had heard hounds run into foxes many times before, but he had never heard such sounds as these. They were not the cries of triumph, but of fear. Every now and then came a shrill cry of mortal zgony. Holding his breatn, he ran on until he broke through the Interlacing branches and found himself in a little clearing. “The hounds were standing in a half- circle round a bramble patch with their backs bristling and theiy jaws gaping. In front of the brambles lay one of them ‘with his throat torn out. Wat came run- ning out into the clearing, and at the sight of him the hounds took heart again and one of them sprang with a growl into the bushes. At the same Instant a crea- ture the size of a donkey jumped to its feet, a huge gray head, with monstrous glistening fangs and tapering fox jaws, shot out from among the branches, and the hound was thrown several feet into the air and fell howling among the cover. Then there was a clashing snap like a rat trap closing and the howls sharpened into a scream and then were still. “Danbury had been on the lookout for symptoms all day and now he had found them. He looked once more at the thicket, saw a pair of savage red eyes fixed upon him and fairly took to his heels.. It might only be a passing delusion or it might be the perfanent mania of which the doctor had spoken: but, any- how, the thing to do was to get back to bed and to quiet and to hope for the best. He sprang upon his mare, galloped her madly over the downs, and only stopped when he found himself at a country sta- tion. There he left his mare at the inn and made back for home as quickly as steam would take him. It was evening before he got there, shivertng with appre- @ lusion also.” hension and seeing those red eyes and } savage teeth at every turn. He went | straight to bed and sent for Dr. Middle- } ton. “T've got ‘em said he. ‘Tt came about exa sa'd—strange creatures. optic and every- thing. All I ask you now is to save my reason.” Al "The doctor 1 ed to_his story, andl was shocked as & clear case said he. “This must be to you for safely through “Well, only eral. The have been oue as the bush’ “ ‘I saw it all as clea “sOpe of the charact form of delivlum is tha even clearer thar ing whether the “Wat Dan 1 boots, sti!l lying upon with the splashings of t t looks very “ ‘Hum! No upon ¥ ment s clear. Y mixtpre which 1 w shall put two leeches up to-night.” “8o, Wat Danbury sp tossing about and reflecting sitive®thing t how very fool what is so easily put out difficult to mend. So he lay, tossing and still repentant, when his door flew opem in the morning and in rushed the doctor with a newspaper crumpled up in his band. ““‘My dear boy,’ he cried, ‘T owe you & thousand apologies. You're the mos used lad and I the greatest & the country. Listen to this.” And he sat down upon the side of the bed and begax to read. “The paragraph was headed ‘Disaster to the Ascombe Hounds,’ and it went on to say that four of the hounds, shocking- 1y torn and mangled, had been found in Winton Fir Wood, upon the South Downs, although the cause of their extraordinary injuries was still unknown. ‘So you see.’ sald the doctor, ‘that I was wrong when I put the dead hounds among the delu- sions.” But the cause,’ cried Wat. from an item which has been in Just as the paper went to press. last night Mr. Brown of Smither's farm, 1o the east of Hastings, perceived wha he imagined to be an enormous dog wor \ rying one of his sheep. He shot the crea ture, which proves to be a gray Siberian wolf. It is supposed to have escaped from some traveling menagerie. “That's the story, gentlemen, and Wat Danbury stuck to his gocd resclutions, for he never touches anything stronger than lime juice—at least, he hadn’t befors he left this part of the country, five years ago next Lady Day.”