hardy's incitements were no longer whispers.
"dandy! dandy!" he cried, with wild elation of voice and still no emotion in his face. "niggeh-fellah thah. dandy! ah, dandy! look him out!"
the music swelled from dandy's throat. away went the pair. the younger couple, in yoke, trembled and moaned to be after them. the two clerks had swung down three or four rails from the fence, and with hardy were hurrying their horses through, when the youngest dog, nose to the ground and tugging his yokemate along, let go a cry of discovery and began to dig furiously under a bottom rail. his master threw him off and drew from under it "mrs. southmayd's" tiny beflowered bonnet.
"good god!" exclaimed one of the boys as he held it up, "they've made way with her!"
"now, none of that nonsense!" i cried; "she's given it to one of them and they've feared 'twould get them into trouble!" but the three had spurred off and i could only toss it away and follow.
the baying had ceased and an occasional half-smothered yap told that the scent was broken. a huge grape-vine end, hanging from a lofty bough, had enabled the run-away to take a long sidewise swing clear of the ground; but as i came up the brutes had recovered the trail and sped on, once more breaking the still air, far and wide, into deep waves of splendid sound. close after them, as best they might in yoke, scuttled the younger pair, dragging each other this way and that, their broad ears trailing to their feet, and hardy riding close behind them, reciting their pedigrees and their distinguishing whims.
presently we issued from the woods, at the edge of wide fields surrounding a plantation-house and slave-quarters, and i hoped to find the trail broken again; but without a pause the chase turned along a line of fence as if to half encircle the plantation. the master of the hounds, in nervy yet placid words, explained that a runaway knew better than to cross open ground by night and set the house-dogs a-barking. it was only on seeing no workers in the fields that i remembered it was sunday, and feared intensely that the pious fugitives might have shortened their flight.
from the plantation's farther bound we ran down a long, gentle slope of beautiful open woods. at the bottom of it a clear stream rippled between steep banks shrouded with strong vines. here the scent had failed and it was wonderful to see the docile faith and intelligence with which the dogs resigned the whole work to their master, and followed beside him while he sought a crossing-place for his horse. this took many minutes, but by and by they scrambled over, he bidding us wait where we were until the dogs should open again; and as he started down-stream along the farther bank the older hounds, at a single word, ran circling out before him in the tangle, electrified by the steel-cold eagerness of his implorings.
but now, to my joy, he found their hungry snufflings as futile as his own scrutinizings and divinations, and after following the stream until my companions fretted openly at the delay, he dropped a note from his horn, rode back with the four dogs, recrossed, and passed down on our side with them at his heels, frowning at last and scanning the tangled growth of the opposite bank.
and now again he came back: "you see, this stream runs so nigh the way they wanted to go that there's no tellin' how fur they waded down it or whether they was two, three, or four of 'em rej'ined together. they're shore to 'a' been all together when they left it, but where that was hell only knows. come on."
we plunged across after him and followed down the farther bank, and at the point where he had turned back he put the hounds on again. "how do you know there were more than one here?" i asked.
"because, if noth'n' else, this trail at first was a fool's trail and now it's as smart as cats a-fight'n'--look 'em out, dandy! every time the rascals struck a swimmin'-hole they swum it, the men sort o' tote'n' the women, i reckon--ah, my charmer! yes, my sweet lady! take 'em! take 'em!"
as the stream emerged into an old field--"sun's pow'ful hot for you-all!" hardy added. "ain't see' such a day this time o' year fo' a coon's age. hosses feel'n' it. hard to say which is hottest, sun or brush."
we had skirted the branch a full mile, beating its margin thoroughly, and were in deep woods again, when all at once charmer let out a glad peal. her mate echoed it and with the stream at their back they were off and away in full cry. the trail was broad and strong and with rare breaks continued so for an hour. often the dogs made us trot; in open grounds we galloped. once, in a thickety wet tract where the still air was suffocating and a sluggish runlet meandered widely, hardy was forced, after long hinderance, to drop the trail and recover it on a rising ground beyond.
there once more we were making good speed when we burst into an open grove where about a small, unpainted frame church a saddle-horse was tied under every swinging limb. before the church a gang of boys had sprung up from their whittling to be our gleeful spectators. hardy waved them off with the assurance that we wanted neither their help nor company, and though the trail took us at slackened speed around two sides of the building we passed and were gone while the worshippers were in the first stanza of a hymn started to keep them on their benches.
noon, afternoon; we made no pause. "it's ketch 'em before night," said hardy as we bent low under beech boughs, "or not till noon to-morrow."
about mid-afternoon one of the court-house boys, who had been talking softly with the other, turned back with a bare good-by. his friend explained:
"got to be at his desk early in the morning. but i'm with you till you run 'em down."
happy for me that he was mistaken. two hours more were hardly gone when, "my prince is sick!" he cried, drew in, and under a smoke of his own curses began wildly to unsaddle. hardy rode on.
"you'll have to get another mount," i said.
"another hell! i wouldn't leave this horse sick in strange hands for a thousand dollars!" suddenly he struck an imploring key: "look here! i'll give you fifty dollars cash to stay with me till i get him out o' this!"
"five hundred," i called, trotting after hardy, "wouldn't hire me."
till i was out of earshot i could hear him damning and cursing me in snorts and shouts as a sneak who would wear my coat of tar and feathers yet, and i was still wondering whether i ought to or not, when i overhauled the nigger-chaser cheering on his dogs. their prey had again tricked them, and again the cry was, "take him, dandy!" and "hi, charmer, hi!"
between shouts: "is yo' nag gwine to hold out?"
"he's got to or perish," i laughed.
in time we found ourselves under a vast roof of towering pines. the high green grass beneath them had been burned over within a year. the declining sun gilded both the grass and the lower sides of the soaring boughs. even hardy glanced back exaltedly to bid me mark the beauty of the scene. but i dared not. the dogs were going more swiftly than ever, and there was a ticklish chance of one's horse breaking a leg in one of the many holes left by burnt-out pine roots. the main risk, moreover, was not to hardy's trained hunter but to my worn-out livery "nag."
"we've started 'em, all four, on the run," he called, "but if we don't tree 'em befo' they make the river we'll lose 'em after all."
the land began a steady descent. soon once more we were in underbrush and presently came square against a staked-and-ridered worm fence around a "deadening" dense with tall corn. charmer and dandy had climbed directly over it, scampered through the corn, and were waking every echo in a swamp beyond. the younger pair, still yoked, stood under the fence, yelping for hardy's aid. he sprang down and unyoked them and over they scrambled and were gone, ringing like fire-bells. outside the fence, both right and left, the ground was miry, yet for us it was best to struggle round through the bushy slough; which we had barely done when with sudden curses hardy spurred forward. the younger dogs were off on a separate chase of their own. for at the river-bank the four negroes had divided by couples and gone opposite ways.
"call them back!" i urged. "blow your horn!" but i was ignored.
