In Mr. Knox's CountrySomerville, E. Oe. (Edith Oenone)
General
In Mr. Knox's Country
Somerville, E. Oe. (Edith Oenone)
British -- Ireland -- Fiction; Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Judges -- Fiction
I gave the car her head, knowing that whatever I did Flurry would have
my blood. In less than two minutes we were all but into Stephen
Casey's goats, who, being yoked together in body but not in spirit,
required the full width of the road for their argument. We passed
Stephen Casey and the gombeen man cornering the disputed calves in the
sympathetic accord that such an operation demands. As we neared
M'Sweeny, who brought up the rear, the body of the hunt, still headed
by the donkey, swept into a field on the left of the road. The fox, as
might have been expected, had passed from the ken of the cur dogs, and
these, intoxicated by the incitements of their owners, now flung
themselves, with the adaptability of their kind, into the pursuit of
the donkey.
I stopped and looked back. The leading hounds were galloping behind
the car; I recognised at their heads Rattler and Roman, the puppies I
had walked, and for a moment was touched by this mark of affection.
The gratification was brief. They passed me without a glance, and with
anticipatory cries of joy flung themselves into the field and joined in
the chase of the donkey.
"They'll kill him!" exclaimed Mrs. Knox, restraining with difficulty
the woolly dog; "what good is Flurry that he can't keep with his
hounds!"
Galloping hoofs on the road behind us clattered a reply, accompanied by
what I can only describe as imprecations on the horn, and Flurry
hurtled by and swung his horse into the field over a low bank with all
the dramatic fury of the hero rushing to the rescue of the leading
lady. It recalled the incidents that in the palmy days of the
Hippodrome gloriously ended in a plunge into deep water, amid a salvo
of firearms.
In Flurry's wake came the rest of the pack, and with them Dr. Jerome
Hickey. "A great morning's cubbing!" he called out, snatching off his
old velvet cap. "Thirty minutes with an old fox, and now a nice burst
with a jackass!"
For the next three or four minutes shrieks, like nothing so much as
forked lightning, lacerated the air, as the guilty hounds began to
receive that which was their due. It seemed possible that my turn
would come next; I looked about to see what the chances were of turning
the car and withdrawing as soon as might be, and decided to move on
down the road in search of facilities. We had proceeded perhaps a
hundred yards without improving the situation, when my eye was caught
by something moving swiftly through the furze-bushes that clothed a
little hill on the right of the road. It was brownish red, it slid
into the deep furze that crested the hill, and was gone.
Here was a heaven-sent peace-offering!
"Tally-ho!" I bellowed, rising in my place and waving my cap high in
air. "Tally-ho, over!"
The forked lightning ceased.
"What way is he?" came an answering bellow from Flurry.
"This way, over the hill!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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