CHAPTER IV
Early one morning, it must have been almost the last week inSeptember, the peace of the oak-coppice was disturbed by a terribleclamour. It began with a single deep "Ough, ough, ough!" then anothervoice chimed in with rather a shriller note, and then another and thenanother, and then a whole score more joined them in one thunderingchorus. And the Hind started to her feet in alarm, and led the Calfout of the wooded valley to the open moor above. There they stoodlistening; while the whole valley was filled with the tumult, as if ahundred demons had been let loose into it. Now and again it ceased fora moment, and all was still; then it began again with "Ough, ough,ough!"; and it was hard to say exactly where the sound came from, forone side of the valley said it would hold it no longer, and tossed itover to the other, and the other said it wouldn't hold it either andtossed it back, so that the noise kept hovering between the two inthe most bewildering way. But after a short time the clamour drewnearer to the Hind and Calf, and presently out came one of theFox-cubs, with his tongue lolling and his back crooked, lookingdesperately weary and woe-begone. He went on for a little distance, asif to go away over the moor, but soon stopped and flung back withdesperation into the covert. And the Hind trotted gently away, anxiousbut not alarmed. "They are not after us, my son, I think," she said.Then the noise drew closer and closer, and out bounded a whole pack ofhounds, with bristles erect and gleaming eyes, throwing their tonguesfuriously on the line of the Cub. They flashed over the scent forfifty yards, still yelling with all their might, and then they fellsilent and spread out in all directions. Presently they recovered theline of the Cub, and turned back into the covert yelling louder thanever; but meanwhile two wild puppies had crossed the scent of the Hindand Calf and started after them as fast as they could run.
Then the Hind turned and fled and the Calf with her, as he had neverfled before; but his poor little legs began speedily to tire, and hecould not have held out for much longer, when suddenly he foundhimself poked down quick as thought by his mother's nose into a tuftof fern. "Lie still, my son, till I come back," she whispered; and soshe left him. And there he lay panting, while the voices of thepuppies came closer and closer to his hiding-place; but he nevermoved, for his mother had bid him lie still. Then they rushed past himwith a wild cry, for his mother had waited to lead them after herself;and their voices died away, and all was silent. Presently he heard adull sound, coming drum, drum, drum, louder and louder and louder; andthen the earth began to shake, and a huge dark body seemed to becoming almost on to the top of him, but suddenly swerved aside just intime, and left him unharmed. Then the drumming died away, and after atime he heard a dismal yelping such as he had once heard before; buthe did not know that it was a man and horse that had nearly gallopedon to the top of him, and would have galloped quite on the top of himif the horse had not shied, nor that the man had given the puppies athrashing for running a deer when they had been told to run a fox.
He was beginning to hope that his mother would soon come back, when heheard two voices quite unlike any that he had ever heard before, andsaw riding towards him two people. One was a man with fair hair andblue eyes, and a face burned brown by the sun, and the other a girl, ayear or thereabout younger than the man. She, too, had bright blueeyes, and very fair hair, and a very pretty face--at least the manseemed to think so, for he was always looking at it--though of coursethe Calf, having never seen such creatures before, could not judge ifthey were pretty or ugly. They came on till they were only at a littledistance from him, and the man pulled up and, pointing to him, saidvery low, "Look." And the girl whispered, "What a little duck! I wishI could take him home with me." But the man said, "No, no, no. Hismother will come and take him home presently, and the sooner we leavehim alone the better she will be pleased." So they rode away, and hecould hear them talking as they rode, for they seemed to have a greatdeal to say to each other. But what they talked about, and how theycame to stay alone on the hill when the hounds were running down inthe valley, is more than I can tell you.
Before very long his mother came back to him, and you may guess howglad he was to see her, and how she rejoiced to see him. After lookinground to see that all was quiet, she led him away over the heather,and then down a very steep hill-side among stunted gorse and loosestones, hot and burning from the sun. "See, my son," she said, "thisis the first time that you have been chased by hounds, but I fear thatit may not be the last. Now, remember, no hound can run fast over thisshort gorse, for his feet are soft; while we do not mind it, for ourfeet are hard. And these loose stones are almost better for us thanthe gorse, for our scent hardly lies on them and they hurt a hound'sfeet almost as much as the gorse." So they went to the bottom of thehill, and there was a peat-stream singing its song; but all that theCalf could hear of it was this:--
_I carry no scent, come here, come here;_ _I am the friend of the wild Red-Deer._
The Hind led him up a shallow for a little way, and then she jumpedout on to the opposite bank and followed it upwards for a little way,and then she jumped into the water again and went down for a fullhundred yards till they came to a comfortable shady spot, where theyboth left the water and lay down together. "Now, my son," she said,"here is another little lesson for you to learn. The song of the wateris true; it carries no scent, and no hound can follow us in it unlesshe can see us. But a hound will always try the bank to find out wherewe have left the water; if we enter it up the stream he will tryupward, and if we enter it down the stream he will try downward. Soalways, if you have time, try to make them work upward when you meanto go down, and downward when you mean to go up, as I have shown youto-day." And like a wise little fellow he took care to remember whatshe taught him.
They lay there together till the sun began to fall low, and then theyrose and went down to the water to cross it. And there what shouldthey see but a large shoal of little Fish with bright red spots, andbands, like the marks of a finger, striping their sides from gills totail; for the stream was so clear that they could distinguish everymark upon them. The little Fish seemed to be very anxious aboutsomething, for they kept darting about, now spreading out and now allcoming together again; and the Calf could hear them whispering, "Shallwe ask her? Shall we, shall we?" And at last one little Fish rose,with a little splash, and said in a watery little voice:
"Oh! please can you tell us how far it is to the sea?"
"Why, my little fellow," said the Hind, "surely it isn't time for youto go to sea yet?"
"Oh, no," said the little Salmon, "for we haven't got our silverjackets yet. But we are so looking forward to it. Will our silverjackets come soon, do you think?"
"Not just yet, I expect," said the Hind kindly; "you must havepatience, you know, for a little time, only for a little time."
"Oh," said the little Salmon, in a sadly disappointed tone; and thewhole shoal began to move away, but almost directly came back andbegan popping up to the surface of the water by dozens, saying, "Thankyou," "thank you," "thank you." For little Salmon are not only verywell-bred but very well-mannered besides, which all well-bredcreatures ought to be, but unfortunately very often are not.
So they left the little Salmon, and went their way to the cliffs thatoverhang the sea, where they made their home in a great plantation ofScotch firs, so closely cropped by wind and salt that they cannot growup into trees but run along the ground almost like ivy. And let mewarn you, by the way, when you ride fast through these stuntedplantations, as I hope you may many times, to grip your saddle tightwith your legs and keep your toes turned in, or you may find yourselfon the ground on the broad of your back; which will not hurt you inthe least, but may lose you your start in a good run. Well, here theylay, and very much the Calf liked his new home; but they had not beenthere for three days when one morning they heard faint sounds of agreat trampling of hoofs. It lasted for a long time, but they layquite still, though the Hind was very uneasy. Then suddenly they heardthe voice of hounds rise from the coverts on the cliff below them, anda man screaming at the top o
f his voice. The sounds came nearer, andthen there was a great clatter of branches, and the great Stag, whomthey had known on the moor, came bounding leisurely through thethicket. His head was thrown back and his mouth wide open; and veryproud and very terrible he looked as he cantered straight up to them.He jerked his head impatiently at them, and said very sternly, "Offwith you! quick!" And the Hind jumped up in terror and the Calf withher; and as they ran off they could see the old Stag lie down in theirplace with his great horns laid back on his shoulders, and his chinpressed tight to the ground.
But they had no time to lose, for the hounds were coming closer; sothey bustled for a little way through the thicket, and then the Hindled the Calf into a path, because of course his little legs could notkeep pace with hers in the tangle of the plantation. Thus they ran onfor a little way, till they heard the sound of a horse coming towardsthem, when they turned into the thicket again and lay down. Andpresently a man in a red coat came trotting by with his eyes fixed onthe ground, and meeting the hounds stopped them at once. Then hepulled out a horn, blew one single note, and trotted away with thehounds, just three couple of them, at his heels.
But the Hind and Calf lay still; and presently they heard two morehorses coming gently along the path, and two human voices chatteringvery fast. And who should ride by but the pretty girl whom he had seenlooking at him a few days before! A man was riding with her, but notthe man that he had seen with her before, for this one was dark, andbesides he was rather older; but as they passed they saw her smile athim, and open her pretty eyes at him, in a way that seemed to pleasehim very well.
So they rode on till their chattering could be heard no more; and thenanother man came riding by on a grey horse, quite alone, whom the Calfrecognised as the fair man that had been with the girl when first hesaw her; and very doleful and miserable he seemed to be. For hestopped on the path opposite to them, looking down at the ground witha troubled face, and kept flicking savagely at the heather with hiswhip, till at last he flicked his poor horse on the nose by mistake,and was obliged to pat him and tell him how sorry he was. How long hemight have stopped there no one knows; but all of a sudden the Hindand Calf heard a wild sound of men hallooing, and the horn sounding inquick, continuous notes. Then the man's face brightened up directly,and he caught hold of the grey horse by the head and galloped off asfast as he could go.
Directly after this, the Deer heard a mighty rush of hoofs allhastening to the same spot, the sound growing gradually fainter andfainter until all was still. But they lay fast till a white Sea-gullflew high over their heads chirping out, "They're gone, they're gone,"in a doleful voice; not, you know, because he was sorry that all themen and horses were gone, but because Sea-gulls, for some reason, cannever say anything cheerfully. And then the Hind arose and led theCalf cautiously out of the plantation to the open moor; and as theywent they saw a long string of horses, reaching for two or threemiles, toiling painfully one after the other; while far ahead thehounds, like white specks, kept creeping on and on and on, with alarger speck close to them which could be nothing else than a greyhorse. So the Hind led the Calf on to a quiet combe, and there theylay down in peace.
And when the sun began to sink they saw, far away, the hounds and avery few horses with them, returning slowly and wearily home. Butpresently they were startled by voices much closer to them, and theysaw the fair man on the grey horse and the pretty girl, riding side byside. The Hind was a little alarmed at first, but there was nooccasion for it; for the pair were riding very close together, soclose that his hand was on her horse's neck, and they seemed to be fartoo much occupied with each other to think of anything else. So theypassed on; and after they were gone there came a loose horse, saddledand bridled, but covered all over with mire, and with a stirrupmissing from the saddle. And presently he lay down and rolled overand over till the girths parted with a crack and left the saddle onthe ground; then he got up, hung up one hind-leg in the reins, andkicked himself free; then he lay down again, and rubbed his cheeksagainst the heather until he had forced the bridle over his head; thenhe gave himself a great shake to make quite sure that he had got ridof everything, and at last he went down to the water and drank, andwandered off grazing as happy as could be.
Last of all came a man tramping wearily over the heather, with astirrup in his hand; but the Calf hardly recognised him as the darkman whom he had seen in the morning, for his hat was crushed in, andhis clothes caked with mire from head to foot. And he toiled on,looking round him on all sides, till he caught his foot in a tussockof grass, and fell on his nose; and what he said when he got up Idon't know, though I might guess, for he looked very cross.
So he too passed out of sight, and the sun went down, and the miststole over the face of the moor, and the Hind and Calf were left alonewith the music of the flowing water to sing them to sleep. But theynever saw that old Stag again.
The Story of a Red Deer Page 5
