The Flyers of the Hunt Author:John Mills Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V. As Mainstay's head was turned towards home, and when a sufficient distance had been accomplished to convince him that he was separated from his com... more »panions in the field, he began to manifest decided effects of impatience and irritability. Tossing his head aloft with flashing eyes and distended nostrils, he kept his rider, young Martin Round, in momentary expectation of being compelled to make an essay of his best powers to retain his seat in the pigskin. Upon his sweat-stained coat the large fibrous-looking veins stood out like a piece of intricate net-work, and from his champed bit flakes of white foam flew and scudded in the breeze. " He doesn't like to leave "em," remarked Robert Top with a chuckle. " He can't abide to leave "em," continued he. Young Martin Round jerked his hat on one side, so much as to say, " For his part, he didn't wonder at it." " Softly, lad," said the head of the family of the Tops, as Mainstay bored his head between his knees, and evinced increasing symptoms of irritation; " softly, lad, so-o-of-tly," repeated he, in as oily a tone as his voice was capable of producing. " He'd have taken the shine out of 'em to-day, sir, from the find to the finish," observed young Martin Round, " if we'd kept him going." " You couldn't have shaken off that scarlet coat that came from a distance, though," returned Robert Top. . Again a significant movement of young Martin Round's hat led to the conclusion that he maintained a different opinion. " He's a flyer," resumed Robert Top, " let him be who he may, and, although I suspect he neither cares nor knows much abouthounds or hunting, is always in the first flight when it's not too much like scrambling through dirt." "He certainly took his fences in pretty form, sir," said young Martin...« less