Now, Reynard, be on the alert. Bring all your cunning into play, and make use of every artifice known to you, for you have no tyros to deal with to-day.
Mr. Bacon's farm was eight miles from the village, by the road, but by following a short cut across the hills three miles of this distance could be saved.
Of course, Oscar took the nearer way, for his experience had taught him that in foxhunting, when one is sometimes obliged to run a mile or two through a thick wood in order to reach a runway before the game passes, every step counts.
Bugle, much to his disgust, was kept at heel all the way, for his master's heart was set upon securing a black fox, and he had no time to waste with hares, grouse, or common red foxes.
Just as the sun was rising, the young hunter came to a standstill upon the brink of a high bluff, and saw below him the "hollow" in which Mr. Bacon's farm was situated. He had no difficulty in finding the sugar-loaf hill, for he knew right where to look for it.
When he reached it, the hound was ordered to "hunt 'em up!" and he was only too glad to do it. He disappeared in the bushes, while Oscar climbed slowly up the hill for a short distance, and walked leisurely around it in a direction opposite to that taken by the dog.
Finally, as he did not hear from Bugle, he stopped in a little open space, where he could command a view of an acre or two of the hillside, and sat down to rest and await developments.
Ten minutes passed, and then a long-drawn bay, which was so faint and far off that it was scarcely audible, and which was repeated by the echoes, until it seemed to sound from the hills on the other side of the hollow, came to his ears; whereupon Oscar arose to his feet, placed his back against a tree, and, cocking both barrels of his gun, held the weapon across his breast in such a position that it could be brought to his shoulder in an instant.
He did not get behind the tree and look around it, for he knew that if he did he would surely be discovered by the fox, should he chance to come that way. He stood out in plain sight, and that was the proper thing to do.