At this pace I knew the hunt would not last long, and
from my elevated stand I waited impatiently for the first sounds
of the bay. Round they turned again, up the steep hillside, and
the music slackened a little, as the bounds had enough to do in
bursting through the tangled bamboo up the hill.
Presently, I heard the rush of the boar in the jungle, coming
straight up the hill toward the spot where I was standing; and,
fearing that he might top the ridge and make down the other side
toward Dimboola, I gave him a halloo to head him back. Hark,
for-r-rard to him! yo-o-ick! to him!
Such a yell, right in his road, astonished him, and, as I
expected, he headed sharp back. Up came the pack, going like
race-horses, and wheeling off where the game had turned, a few
seconds running along the side of the mountain, and then such a
burst of music! such a bay! The boar had turned sharp round, and
had met the hounds on a level platform on the top of a ridge.
"Lucifer" never leaves my side until we are close up to the bay;
and plunging and tearing through the bamboo grass and tangled
nillho for a few hundred yards, I at length approached the spot,
and I heard Lord Bacon grunting and roaring loud above the din of
the hounds.
