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"Cope, cope!" Spots growled. "A little less tongue-throwing,
if you please, or I'll have to bite you. Huic-huic to me now, it's
time to mix the evening food."
Robin didn't care to be bitten, so he clamped his mouth shut
and followed Spots to the long pink kennel house and the discouraging
array of feeding bowls. But his mind was made up. Before
tomorrow, he and Merry were going to be far away from
View-Halloo.
That night, as soon as he heard Spots begin snoring in the next
room, he crept out of his bed of hay, cautiously pried up a window,
and crawled out into the dark. He felt his way along a graveled
path he knew led to Yoick s mansion, then followed his nose
toward the stables beyond. He was just edging cautiously around
the corner of a well-house when he bumped straight into some-
thing that nickered with fright and bounced away.
"Merry!" whispered Robin, who had recognized the nicker.
"Robin! Is that you?" came a tremulous voice from the dark-
ness, and the next instant Robin was being muzzled joyfully by a
tear-wet nose. "Oh, I've been trying to find you! I hate it here!
Please, let's go away!"
"Shhhh! Somebody'll hear. I was looking for you, too. Don't
worry, we re going-and right this minute!"
"Oh, quick, before those nosy Real Horses find out I'm not in
my stall. Climb on my back, Robin, I can see in the dark better
than you can.
Robin was up in a moment, and Merry starred slowly across
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the royal lawns, gradually gaining speed.
"I don't need the calliope music now," she whispered over her
shoulder to Robin. "Although I'd like it, of course. And I can
nearly always canter in a straight line, and I can jump quite
well."
"Can you jump that five-barred fence?" Robin asked her
anxiously.
"I don't know, but I've been practicing hard. There's a place
near our training-ring where it isn't quite so tall. That's where
I'm going to try.
"All right," Robin said, looking nervously behind him. The
moon had come out from behind a cloud bank, and he could see
much better now-but so, he reflected, could any pursuers. "Is it
much farther?" he whispered.
"No, there it is ahead-see?"
At that moment Robin saw movement near the white bars
glimmering ahead, and the flash of a white-tipped tail. "A fox!"
he groaned. "Practicing his fence-wriggling, I'll bet!"
"At this time of night?" Merry gasped.
"They always do. It's so the hounds won't see them, and learn
their secrets. Oh, maybe he won't notice us!"
But the fox had noticed them already. It let out a yelp of surprise
and streaked for The Kennels, howling for Spots at the top of
its lungs. Spots's answering deep bark sounded almost immediately,
baying the message to the Whipper-In, and in another instant every
hound in View-Halloo was giving tongue. Lights flared in the
mansion, in the courtyard; against the glow Robin could see the
first Huntsmen running toward the stables and shouting for
their horses to be saddled.
"Run, Merry!" he cried. "Don't look back, just run!"
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"Oh, Robin, are they after us?" she whinnied in fright, and
began to run in terrified circles.
"No, no, go straight, Merry! You can't do this now! Control
yourself!" Robin shouted, dragging frantically at the reins.
Behind he could hear the sound of hoofs in the courtyard, mixed with the
jingle of bridles and the yells of Huntsmen. "Merry they'll be
after us any second. . ." Then Robin thought of the harmonica in
his pocket, and made a dive for it. An instant later he was blowing
teedle-eedle-ees and oompahs as loud as he could blow. Merry's
head came up, her ears pricked, and suddenly she was no longer
going around and around, but bounding straight across the sawdust
of the training-ring and the strip of soft grass beyond.
"Now!" yelled Robin, and blew a long, loud chord. Merry
gave one last tremendous bound, sailed over the five-bar fence
without so much as nicking the paint with a rear hoof, and landing
running on the other side.
"We're safe, we're safe!', Robin cried, flinging both arms
around her pole because he couldn't reach her neck without falling
off. "You can slow down now, Merry-we've left them all behind!"
"Let's leave them farther behind!" Merry gasped. "Hang on,
Robin, I'm going to keep on running."
Keep on she did, across meadows and over hedges and ditches,
until the moon was high in the sky and the landscape around them
had changed from the pleasant fields of the Fox-Hunters' County
to rugged hills and forests and abrupt, narrow valleys. Here the
little mare was forced to slow down and pick her way more care-
fully, though she still cast nervous glances over her shoulder and
would not consent to stop for the night until they found themselves
in a deep and winding gorge through which a swift little
river ran. Ahead, Robin could hear the muffled roar of a
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waterfall.
"We're perfectly safe now, Merry!" Robin told her. "And I'm
tired. Let's stop, and go on in the morning."
"Can we go on?" Merry said dubiously as he slid down from
her back. "Isn't that a waterfall we hear?"
"We'll worry about that tomorrow," Robin said with a yawn.
He knelt for a long, refreshing drink of the icy water of the river,
then curled up in a shallow cave in the rocks nearby, and was instantly
asleep.
Chapter 8
ROBIN awoke early next morning, much
refreshed to find Merry peering in the entrance of his little cave.
She nickered softly, and when he said "Good morning!" she gave a
little bounce of joy.
"Oh goody, you're awake. I've been awfully bored, waiting
for you."
"Haven't you even been to sleep?" Robin asked, stepping out
into the sunshine.
"No, I don't know how. I guess I'm not made for sleeping."
"Or for getting tired, either," Robin added, patting her ad-
miringly. "That was a wonderful run you made last night!"
"Well, I don't know," Merry sighed. "I think I ran too far.
There doesn't seem to be any way out of this gorge, unless we
go right back toward Fox-Hunting country, and please, let's not
do that, Robin!"
"Have you been exploring?" Robin asked, beginning to do
some exploring himself, in search of breakfast. He quickly dis-
covered some wild raspberries, and moved from bush to bush pick-
ing them into his handkerchief, with Merry tagging at his heejs.
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"No," she answered, "I was afraid I might get lost from you.
But a bird told me that noise is a waterfall up ahead, and we can't
climb a waterfall, can we?"
"Maybe there's a way around," Robin told her. He had a hand-
kerchief full of berries by now, and sat down on the bank of the
little river to eat them. "You know, Merry," he added, "I've been
thinking about what that redbird told us about this country we re
in.
"It's called Oz," Merry said helpfully.
"Yes, and we're in the southern section of it, and there's a capi-
tal called the Emerald City, and a fairy princess is the ruler. A fairy
princess wouldn't be mean to us, or capture us, or anything, would
she? I think we ought to try to find this Emerald City and ask her
if she'll help us. She might know the way to Oregon."
"She might," Merry said uncertainly.
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