The dogs rushed about, some of them with great lumps of food still in their mouths. But they were confused, and all went into the wrong places. Everything began to fall with dreadful crashes, the fat woman shrieked piercingly, and her shriek was--
"China! Oh! my china-a. John, you wretch! Help! Help! Help!"
To which the Red-faced Man roared in answer--
"Don"t be an infernal fool, Eliza-a. I say, don"t be such an infernal fool."
Also there were lots of other noises that I cannot remember, except one which a dog made.
This silly dog had thrust its head up the hole over a fire such as the stops make outside the coverts when men are going to shoot, either to hide something or to look for me there. When it came down again because the Red-faced Man kicked it, the dog put its paws into the fire and pulled it all out over the floor. Also it howled very beautifully. Just then another hound, that one which generally led the pack, began to sniff about near me and finally poked its nose under the stuff which hid me.
It jumped back and bayed, whereon I jumped out the other side. Tom made a rush at me and knocked the fat woman off the thing she was standing on, so that she fell among the dogs, which covered her up and began to sniff her all over. Flying from Tom I found myself in front of something filmy, beyond which I saw gra.s.s. It looked suspicious, but as nothing in the world could be so bad as Tom, no, not even his dogs, I jumped at it.
There was a crash and a sharp point cut my nose, but I was out upon the gra.s.s. Then there were twenty other crashes, and all the hounds were out too, for Tom had cheered them on. I ran to the edge of the lawn and saw a steep slope leading to the sands and the sea. Now I knew what the sea was, for after Tom had shot me in the back I lived by it for a long while, and once swam across a little creek to get to my form, from which it cut me off.
While I ran down that slope fast as my aching legs would carry me, I made up my mind that I would swim out into the sea and drown there, since it is better to drown than to be torn to pieces. "But why are you laughing, friend Mahatma."
"I am not laughing," I said. "In this state, without a body, I have nothing to laugh with. Still you are right, for you see that I should be laughing if I could. Your story of the stout lady and the dogs and the china is very amusing."
"Perhaps, friend, but it did not amuse me. Nothing is amusing when one is going to be eaten alive."
"Of course it isn"t," I answered. "Please forgive me and go on."
"Well, I tumbled down that cliff, followed by some of the dogs and Tom and the girl Ella and the huntsman Jerry on foot, and dragged myself across the sands till I came to the lip of the sea."
Just here there was a boat and by it stood Giles the keeper. He had come there to get out of the way of the hunting, which he hated as much as he did the coursing. The sight of him settled me--into the sea I went. The dogs wanted to follow me, but Jerry called and whipped them off.
"I won"t have them caught in the current and drowned," he said. "Let the flea-bitten old devil go, she"s brought trouble enough already."
"Help me shove off the boat, Giles," shouted Tom. "She shan"t beat us; we must have her for the hounds. Come on, Ella."
"Best leave her alone, Master Tom," said Giles. "I think she"s an unlucky one, that I do."
Still the end of it was that he helped to float the little boat and got into it with Tom and Ella.
Just after they had pushed off I saw a man running down the steps on the cliff waving his arms while he called out something. But of him they took no heed. I do not think they noticed him. As for me, I swam on.
I could not go very fast because I was so dreadfully tired; also I did not like swimming, and the cold waves broke over my head, making the cut in my nose smart and filling my eyes with something that stung them.
I could not see far either, nor did I know where I was going. I knew nothing except I was about to die, and that soon everything would be at an end; men, dogs--everything, yes, even Tom. I wanted things to come to an end. I had suffered so dreadfully, life was so horrible, I was so very tired. I felt that it was better to die and have done.
So I swam on a long way and began to forget things; indeed I thought that I was playing in the big turnip field with my mother and sister.
But just as I was sinking exhausted a hand shot down into the water and caught me by the ears, although from below the fingers looked as though they were bending away from me. I saw it coming and tried to sink more quickly, but could not.
"I"ve got her," said the voice of Tom gleefully. "My! isn"t she a beauty? Over nine pounds if she is an ounce. Only just in time, though,"
he went on, "for, look! she"s drowning; her head wobbles as though she were sea-sick. Buck up, p.u.s.s.ie, buck up! You mustn"t cheat the hounds at last, you know. It wouldn"t be sportsmanlike, and they hate dead hares."
Then he held me by my hind legs to drain the water out of me, and afterwards began to blow down my nose, I did not know why.
"Don"t do that, Tom," said Ella sharply. "It"s nasty."
"Must keep the life in her somehow," answered Tom, and went on blowing.
"Master Tom," interrupted Giles, who was rowing the boat. "I ain"t particular, but I wish you"d leave that there hare alone. Somehow I thinks there"s bad news in its eye. Who knows? P"raps the little devil feels. Any way, it"s a rum one, its swimming out to sea. I never see"d a hunted hare do that afore."
"Bosh!" said Tom, and continued his blowing.
We reached the sh.o.r.e and Tom jumped out of the boat, holding me by the ears. The hounds were all on the beach, most of them lying down, for they were very tired, but the men were standing in a knot at a distance talking earnestly, Tom ran to the hounds, crying out--
"Here she is, my beauties, here she is!" whereon they got up and began to bay. Then he held me above them.
"Master Tom," I heard Jerry"s voice say, "for G.o.d"s sake let that hare go and listen, Master Tom," and the girl Ella, who of a sudden had begun to sob, tried to pull him back.
But he was mad to see me bitten to death and eaten, and until he had done so would attend to no one. He only shouted, "One--two--three! Now, hounds! _Worry, worry, worry!_"
Then he threw me into the air above the red throats and gnashing teeth which leapt up towards me.
The Hare paused, but added, "Did you tell me, friend Mahatma, that you had never been torn to pieces by hounds, "broken up," I believe they call it?"
"Yes, I did," I answered, "and what is more I shall be obliged if you will not dwell upon the subject."
THE COMING OF THE RED-FACED MAN
"As you like," said the Hare. "Certainly it was very dreadful. It seemed to last a long time. But I don"t mind it so much now, for I feel that it can never happen to me again. At least I hope it can"t, for I don"t know what I have done to deserve such a fate, any more than I know why it should have happened to me once."
"Something you did in a previous existence, perhaps," I answered. "You see then you may have hunted other creatures so cruelly that at last your turn came to suffer what you had made them suffer. I often think that because of what we have done before we men are also really being hunted by something we cannot see."
"Ah!" exclaimed the Hare, "I never thought of that. I hope it is true, for it makes things seem juster and less wicked. But I say, friend Mahatma, what am I doing here now, where you tell me poor creatures with four feet never, or hardly ever come?"
"I don"t know, Hare. I am not wise, to whom it is only granted to visit the Road occasionally to search for some one."
"I understand, Mahatma, but still you must know a great deal or you would not be allowed in such a place before your time, or at any rate you must be able to guess a great deal. So tell me, why do you think that I am here?"
"I can"t say, Hare, I can"t indeed. Perhaps after the Gates are open and your Guardian has given you to drink of the Cup, you will go to sleep and wake up again as something else."
"To drink of the cup, Mahatma? I don"t drink; at least I didn"t, though I can"t tell what may happen here. But what do you mean about waking up as something else? Please be more plain. As what else?"
"Oh! who can know? Possibly as you are on the human Road you might even become a man some day, though I should not advise you to build on such a hope as that."
"What do you say, Mahatma? A man! One of those two-legged beasts that hunt hares; a thing like Giles and Tom--yes, Tom? Oh! not that--not that! I"d almost rather go through everything again than become a cruel, torturing man."
As it spoke thus the Hare grew so disturbed that it nearly vanished; literally it seemed to melt away till I could only perceive its outline.
With a kind of shock I comprehended all the horror that it must feel at such a prospect as I had suggested to it, and really this grasping of the truth hurt my human pride. It had never come home to me before that the circ.u.mstances of their lives--and deaths--must cause some creatures to see us in strange lights.
"Oh! I have no doubt I was mistaken," I said hurriedly, "and that your wishes on the point will be respected. I told you that I know nothing."