the rear-guard, and always ran behind the hinds when roused
with a herd of them by the hounds. Still, selfish he was, and though
he had profited by all of Aunt Yeld's early lessons, he forgot until
too late the last words that she had spoken to him, even though as a
calf he had once saved her life.

CHAPTER XI

One beautiful morning at the very end of September our Stag was lying
in the short plantations above the cliffs in a warm sunny bed of which
he had long been very fond, when his ear was disturbed, as had so
often happened before, by the cry of hounds. He did not mind it so
much now, for he knew that it meant at any rate that they were hunting
some other deer than himself. And it was plain to him that they had
found the stag that they wanted, for not two or three couple but
seventeen or eighteen were speaking to the scent. Therefore he lay
quite still, never doubting that before long they would leave the
covert. And so it seemed that it would be, for presently the cry
ceased, and he had good reason to hope that they had gone away. The
only thing that disquieted him was that the horses seemed always to be
moving all over the plantation, instead of galloping over the moor. He
was still lying fast when he heard two horses come trotting up to
within thirty yards of his lair; and peering carefully through the
branches he saw them and recognised them. One of them was the fair man
whom he had seen so often before, still riding the same grey horse,
which was grown so light as to be almost white. But the man was
greatly changed. His face was thin and hollow, and would have been
pale if it had not been burnt brown; the tiny hair on the upper lip
had grown to a great red moustache; and the blue eyes were sunk deep
in his head. And he rode with his reins in his right hand, for his
left was hung in a sling, so that he could hardly hold his whip. But
for all that he was as quick and lively as ever, and his eyes never
ceased roving over the plantation. And by him rode the beautiful girl
whom he had seen with him before, her face aglow with happiness; and
she seemed so proud of him that she never took her eyes off his face
for an instant, except now and then to glance pityingly at his wounded
hand. They pulled up not far from the Stag and waited.

And presently a hind came up, cantering anxiously through the
plantation, for she had laid her calf down and did not wish to go far
from him. She blundered on so close to th