All unknown to him the drag-hunt had split in two, deaf Mrs. Happy being the innocent first cause. She had gone to Robin Hood’s Inn with Anne, and had curled up contentedly in the sunny porch in company with old Laddie, when presently an odour reached her nose that caused her to spring up, sniff the air, and start headlong down the lane to the road, where, on crossing the stone fence, she struck the trail of a skunk, startled from his daytime lodging by the hounds who had recently passed close by. Nose to ground, she gave tongue and followed the skunk, who had zigzagged about the fences for a time before making off to another hiding-place he had by the river. Further down, the hounds in doubling crossed this new trail, and some of the young ones, hearing Happy’s cry, were drawn off upon it, part of the riders following, only to come upon impassable rocks by the river cut.
The barking came nearer, and Happy, Waddles, and Jack dashed past Tommy and up the lane; at the same time he saw a riderless horse in the outer field, and something seemed to move near the barbed wire fence that ran between.
“It’s one of those poor hounds, and that wicked wire has caught him,” cried Tommy, running toward the spot with his eyes flashing and his little fists doubled up, for, like Anne, he could not bear to have animals suffer pain.
But when he got near he saw that it was not a hound that was caught by the wire, but Mr. Hugh! For an instant Tommy was frightened, but as soon as he saw that his friend was not hurt, but merely held fast by the clothes in a dozen places, the fun of the situation struck him, and he capered about shouting, and making comments, and asking questions, all in one breath.
“Ah, Mr. Hugh, you do look so funny! If only Anne were here with her camera to take a picture! If you’ll wait long enough, I’ll go fetch her, for you’re hooked up just like when Pinkie Scott reached after lilies and fell in the pond, and they pulled her out from behind with the hay-fork. Did the horse tumble you in like that?”
The truth was that Mr. Hugh had dismounted to let down some bars for the people who had gone astray, and his horse, feeling fresh, galloped off. In trying to head him off by a short cut, Mr. Hugh had met the barbed wire fence, seen a gap between the strands, dashed at it, only to be caught by a couple of slack wires when halfway through, in such a position that if he let go the only hold he had upon a half rotten post, he must fall upon a rusty coil that guarded the tumble-down stone fence below. Barbed wire at best is cruel stuff, and when it is old and rusty every scratch it gives means danger.
“Stop bawling so, for pity’s sake, and see if you can help me out of this mess before the others come; try to pry the wire with a stick,” said Mr. Hugh, in so hoarse a whisper that Tommy instantly obeyed, or rather tried to, but the sticks at hand were either too small or rotten, and at every twist the poor man made the hooked wire seemed to take new hold.
At this moment the snapping of twigs and the padding sound of hoofs on grass made Mr. Hugh give a painful writhe to look over his shoulder; his discomfiture was complete, for there was Miss Letty.
She slipped quickly to the ground, and tethering Brown Kate to a branch, came forward, looking, as Tommy told Anne that night in the privacy of his little bed, “the colour you feel when you’ve waited too long for your breakfast.”