Parkhurst Boys | Page 8

leap. Then for a hundred yards it is a race for very life. What a shouting there is! and what a rushing of boys and waving of caps pass before our eyes! On comes Forwood, the gallant hound, at our heels; we can hear him behind us distinctly!
"Now you have them!" shouts one.
"One spurt more, hares!" cries another, "and you are safe!"
On we bound, and on comes the pursuer, not ten yards behind--not ten, but more than five. And that five he never makes up till Birch and I are safe inside the school-gates, winners by a neck--and a neck only--of that famous hunt.
The pack came straggling in for the next hour, amid the cheers and chaffing of the boys. Three of them, who had kept neck and neck all the way, were only two minutes behind Forwood; but they had shirked the swim, and taken the higher and drier course--as, indeed, most of the other hounds did--by way of the bridge. Ten minutes after them one other fellow turned up, and a quarter of an hour later three more; and so on until the whole pack had run, or walked, or limped, or ridden home--all except one, little Jim Barlow, the tiniest and youngest and pluckiest little hound that ever crossed country. We were all anxious to know what had become of this small chap of thirteen, who, some one said, ought never to have been allowed to start on such a big run, with his little legs. "Wait a bit," said Forwood; "Jim will turn up before long, safe and sound, you'll see."
It was nearly dusk, and a good two hours after the finish. We were sitting in the big hall, talking and laughing over the events of the afternoon, when there came a sound of feet on the gravel walk, accompanied by a vehement puffing, outside the window.
"There he is!" exclaimed Forwood, "and, I declare, running still!"
And so it was. In a minute the door swung open, and in trotted little Jim, dripping wet, coated with mud, and panting like a steam-engine, but otherwise as self-composed as usual.
"How long have you fellows been in?" he demanded of us, as he sat down and began to lug off his wet boots.
"Two hours," replied Birch.
The little hero looked a trifle mortified to find he was so far behind, and we were quite sorry for him.
"Never mind," he said, "I ran on the scent every inch of the way, and only pulled up once, at Wincot, for five minutes."
"You did!" exclaimed one or two voices, as we all stared admiringly at this determined young hound.
"Yes; and a nice dance you gave a chap my size over the railway and across those ditches! But I didn't miss a single one of them, all the same."
"But what did you do at the canal?" asked Forwood.
"Why, swam it, of course--obliged to do it, wasn't I, if the hares went that way? I say, is there any grub going?"
Plucky little Jim Barlow! After all, he was the hero of that "big hunt," though he did come in two hours late.
This was the last big "hare and hounds" I ever ran in. I have many a time since ridden with a real hunt over the same country, but never have I experienced the same thrill of excitement or known the same exultation at success as when I ran home with Birch, two seconds ahead of the hounds, in the famous Parkhurst Paper-chase of 18 hundred and something.
CHAPTER THREE.
THE PARKHURST BOAT-RACE.
"Adams is wanted down at the boat-house!" Such was the sound which greeted my ears one Saturday afternoon as I lolled about in the playground at Parkhurst, doing nothing. I jumped up as if I had been shot, and asked the small boy who brought the message who wanted me.
"Blades does; you've got to cox the boat this afternoon instead of Wilson. Look sharp!" he said, "as they're waiting to start."
Off I went, without another word, filled with mingled feelings of wonder, pride, and trepidation. I knew Wilson, the former coxswain of the school boat, had been taken ill and left Parkhurst, but this was the first I had ever heard of my being selected to take his place. True, I had steered the boat occasionally when no one else could be got, and on such occasions had managed to keep a moderately good course up the Two Mile Reach, but I had never dreamed of such a pitch of good fortune as being called to occupy that seat as a fixture.
But now it wanted only a week of the great race with the Old Boys, and here was I summoned to take charge of the rudder at the eleventh hour, which of course meant I would have to steer the boat on the occasion of