I learned
afterwards that the sentry had alarmed the house at a little
before five o'clock. The carter, being only half-awake when he
came after me, suspected nothing till the other farm-hands came
for the horses, at about six o'clock, when, the key being gone,
he had to break the lock, vowing that the rattens had took his
key from him in the night. My disappearance puzzled everybody,
because I had hidden my tracks so carefully that no one noticed
at first how the chimney bars had been loosened. No one in that
house knew of the secret room, so that the general impression was
that I had either squeezed myself through the window, or blown
myself out through the keyhole by art-magic. The hounds had been
laid along the road to Chard, with the result that they had hit
my trail after a few minutes of casting about.
Now that they were after me, I did not know what to do. I dared
not go on towards Taunton; for who knew how soon the squire would
find his error, by viewing the fox? He was too old a huntsman not
to cast back to where he had left the road, as soon as he learned
that his hounds had changed foxes. I concluded that I had better
stay where I was, throughout that day, carefully hidden in the
yew-tree. In the evening I might venture further if the coast
seemed clear. It was easy to make such a resolution; but not so
easy to keep to it; for fifteen hours is a long time for a boy to
wait. I stayed quiet for some hours, but I heard no more of my
hunters.
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