en all of a sudden they
became aware that every hound in the pack was hunting. Mr. Harkaway at
once sprung from his usual cold, apathetic manner into full action. But
they who knew him well could see that it was not the excitement of joy.
He was in an instant full of life, but it was not the life of successful
enterprise. He was perturbed and unhappy, and his huntsman, Dillon,--a
silent, cunning, not very popular man, who would obey his master in
everything,--began to move about rapidly, and to be at his wit's end. The
younger men prepared themselves for a run,--one of those sudden, short,
decisive spurts which come at the spur of the moment, and on which a
man, if he is not quite awake to the demands of the moment, is very apt
to be left behind. But the old stagers had their eyes on Mr. Harkaway,
and knew that there was something amiss.

Then there appeared another field of hunters, first one man leading
them, then others following, and after them the first ruck and then the
crowd. It was apparent to all who knew anything that two packs had
joined. These were the Hitchiners, as the rival sportsmen would call
them, and this was the Hitchin Hunt, with Mr. Fairlawn, their master.
Mr. Fairlawn was also an old man, popular, no doubt, in his own country,
but by no means beloved by Mr. Harkaway. Mr. Harkaway used to declare
how Fairlawn had behaved very badly about certain common coverts about
thirty years ago, when the matter had to be referred to a committee of
masters. No one in these modern days knew aught of the quarrel, or
cared. The men of the two hunts were very good friends, unless they met
under the joint eyes of the two masters, and then they were supposed to
be bound to hate each other. Now the two packs were mixed together, and
there was only one fox between them.

The fox did not trouble them long. He could hardly have saved himself
from one pack, but very soon escaped from the fangs of the two. Each
hound knew that his neighbor hound was a stranger, and, in scrutinizing
the singularity of the occurrence, lost all the power of hunting. In ten
minutes there were nearly forty couples of hounds running hither and
thither, with two huntsmen and four whips swearing at them with strange
voices, and two old gentlemen giving orders each in opposition to the
other. Then each pack was got together, almost on the same ground, and
it was necessary that something should be done. Mr. Harkaway waited to
see whether Mr. Fairla