been hunted, and during a
big slice of his life he had been wont to regard himself as the
unquestioned monarch of that country-side; so far as its wild life
went. He did not realize, even after Finn's first pursuit of him,
that he had made a powerful enemy, and one in whom the
determination to run him down had already taken firm root.

And now, for days, Finn's great interest in life was the pursuit of
the big fox. For the rest, he only killed rabbits and the like when
they came in his way; and, even so, he supplied ample food for the
cunning fox. At first, Finn spent his time largely in looking for
his new quarry, and then giving forthright chase. But gradually he
learned that the fox was his master in this work, if only by reason
of its comparative smallness, which enabled it to twist and double
through places which were impenetrable to the great hound who
followed. So Finn fell back upon his recently acquired cunning. He
killed a rabbit, and left three-quarters of its carcase in an
exposed, open place, while he himself crawled into a clump of brush
and lay waiting, with eager, watchful eyes peering through the
leaves. Presently, Reynard approached from some undergrowth a
hundred yards away on the other side of the kill. But he did not
approach very nearly. His sharp, sensitive nose wrinkled and
pointed skyward for a moment, and then, as the breeze gave him
Finn's scent, he turned promptly round and trotted back to covert.

Finn gave an immense amount of reflection to this, and two days
later, his cunning evolved a very much cleverer scheme. He killed
another rabbit, and placed it in a convenient run-way of the big
fox's. Then he trotted off on the lee side of the kill, and quietly
made towards his entrance to the orchard at home. But, instead of
entering the orchard, he circled again, and, keeping religiously to
leeward of his track, flew at great speed for the far end of the
run-way in which he had left his kill. When Reynard discovered the
rabbit, he merely glanced at it, and then quietly took up Finn's
trail, to make sure of the Wolfhound's whereabouts. This trail he
followed to a point that was as near as he cared to venture to the
orchard fence. Then, satisfied that Finn had gone home, he trotted
back to where the kill lay, being naturally to windward all the
while of Finn's second trail.

[Illustration: Finn's teeth sank deep.]

Arrived in the run-way, Reynard picked up the dead rabbit and slung
it car