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Contents (65)
  1. THE CHRONICLES OF CLOVIS
  2. * * *
  3. SAKI
  4. *
  5. Contents
  6. *
  7. Introduction
  8. *
  9. Esmé
  10. *
  11. The Match-Maker
  12. *
  13. Tobermory
  14. *
  15. Mrs. Packletide's Tiger
  16. *
  17. The Stampeding of Lady Bastable
  18. *
  19. The Background
  20. *
  21. Hermann the Irascible—A Story of the Great Weep
  22. *
  23. The Unrest-Cure
  24. *
  25. The Jesting of Arlington Stringham
  26. *
  27. Sredni Vashtar
  28. *
  29. Adrian
  30. *
  31. The Chaplet
  32. *
  33. The Quest
  34. *
  35. Wratislav
  36. *
  37. The Easter Egg
  38. *
  39. Filboid Studge, the Story of a Mouse that Helped
  40. *
  41. The Music on the Hill
  42. *
  43. The Story of St. Vespaluus
  44. *
  45. The Way to the Dairy
  46. *
  47. The Peace Offering
  48. *
  49. The Peace of Mowsle Barton
  50. *
  51. The Talking-Out of Tarrington
  52. *
  53. The Hounds of Fate
  54. *
  55. The Recessional
  56. *
  57. A Matter of Sentiment
  58. *
  59. The Secret Sin of Septimus Brope
  60. *
  61. "Ministers of Grace"
  62. *
  63. The Remoulding of Groby Lington
  64. *
  65. * * *

"'There they go,' cried Constance, and then added in a gasp, 'In Heaven's name, what are they hunting?'

"It was certainly no mortal fox. It stood more than twice as high, had a short, ugly head, and an enormous thick neck.

"'It's a hyaena,' I cried; 'it must have escaped from Lord Pabham's Park.'

"At that moment the hunted beast turned and faced its pursuers, and the hounds (there were only about six couple of them) stood round in a half-circle and looked foolish. Evidently they had broken away from the rest of the pack on the trail of this alien scent, and were not quite sure how to treat their quarry now they had got him.

"The hyaena hailed our approach with unmistakable relief and demonstrations of friendliness. It had probably been accustomed to uniform kindness from humans, while its first experience of a pack of hounds had left a bad impression. The hounds looked more than ever embarrassed as their quarry paraded its sudden intimacy with us, and the faint toot of a horn in the distance was seized on as a welcome signal for unobtrusive departure. Constance and I and the hyaena were left alone in the gathering twilight.

"'What are we to do?' asked Constance.

"'What a person you are for questions,' I said.

"'Well, we can't stay here all night with a hyaena,' she retorted.

"'I don't know what your ideas of comfort are,' I said; 'but I shouldn't think of staying here all night even without a hyaena. My home may be an unhappy one, but at least it has hot and cold water laid on, and domestic service, and other conveniences which we shouldn't find here. We had better make for that ridge of trees to the right; I imagine the Crowley road is just beyond.'

"We trotted off slowly along a faintly marked cart-track, with the beast following cheerfully at our heels.

"'What on earth are we to do with the hyaena?' came the inevitable question.

"'What does one generally do with hyaenas?' I asked crossly.

"'I've never had anything to do with one before,' said Constance.

"'Well, neither have I. If we even knew its sex we might give it a name. Perhaps we might call it Esmé. That would do in either case.'

"There was still sufficient daylight for us to distinguish wayside objects, and our listless spirits gave an upward perk as we came upon a small half-naked gipsy brat picking blackberries from a low-growing bush. The sudden apparition of two horsewomen and a hyaena set it off crying, and in any case we should scarcely have gleaned any useful geographical information from that source; but there was a probability that we might strike a gipsy encampment somewhere along our route. We rode on hopefully but uneventfully for another mile or so.

"'I wonder what that child was doing there,' said Constance presently.

"'Picking blackberries. Obviously.'

"'I don't like the way it cried,' pursued Constance; 'somehow its wail keeps ringing in my ears.'