Very soon came the hounds—by ones and twos and threes and sixes and sevens—and they also were going slowly and seemed very tired. Two or three who lagged far behind came out long after the others.
“There,” said Bobbie, “that's all—now what shall we do?”
“Go along into the tulgy wood over there and have lunch,” said Phyllis; “we can see them for miles from up here.”
“Not yet,” said Peter. “That's not the last. There's the one in the red jersey to come yet. Let's see the last of them come out.”
But though they waited and waited and waited, the boy in the red jersey did not appear.
“Oh, let's have lunch,” said Phyllis; “I've got a pain in my front with being so hungry. You must have missed seeing the red-jerseyed one when he came out with the others—”
But Bobbie and Peter agreed that he had not come out with the others.
“Let's get down to the tunnel mouth,” said Peter; “then perhaps we shall see him coming along from the inside. I expect he felt spun-chuck, and rested in one of the manholes. You stay up here and watch, Bob, and when I signal from below, you come down. We might miss seeing him on the way down, with all these trees.”
So the others climbed down and Bobbie waited till they signalled to her from the line below. And then she, too, scrambled down the roundabout slippery path among roots and moss till she stepped out between two dogwood trees and joined the others on the line. And still there was no sign of the hound with the red jersey.
“Oh, do, DO let's have something to eat,” wailed Phyllis. “I shall die if you don't, and then you'll be sorry.”