The Fox Hunt (6 page)

“But all those gates!” Lisa said, imagining how long it would take Stevie to open and close each one of them.

“She’s riding Topside,” Phil reminded Lisa. “Topside is a championship show horse. He can jump most of those fences. We don’t have a minute to waste.”

“Tallyho, then,” Lisa declared, and the hunt began.

S
TEVIE CLUCKED HER
tongue, urging Topside to hurry through the woods. She wanted to lay this part of her trail as quickly as possible, dropping her confetti “scent” often to confuse the huntsman and the hounds.

Stevie didn’t often have a chance to ride all by herself. Although she loved being with friends, it was kind of nice to be alone with Topside. It made her imagination churn, thinking what it might have been like for pioneers to ride through these woods alone hundreds of years ago, not knowing which tree might hide a predator or an enemy. That made her feel a lot like a fox. It was a real inspiration.

“Now what are we going to do?” she asked Topside. His ears flicked around at the sound of her voice, but
he didn’t seem to have an answer. Stevie was going to have to do this all by herself. She drew Topside to a halt, sprinkled some confetti on the ground, and thought.

She was near a hillside, not far from Willow Creek, and headed for farmland where they were not supposed to ride. The hillside seemed the most logical move. There were a lot of hiding places there, and years of riding horseback in the woods and playing hide-and-seek there with her riding friends had taught Stevie where every one of them was. Those years had also taught Carole, and then Lisa, where the hiding places were, too. There were some caves, some brush-covered areas, some gullies, all of which afforded ample opportunity for hiding. Carole and Lisa knew every single one of them. Stevie realized then that if the hounds and huntsman got into this section of the woods, they would spend a very long time looking in every single hiding place. That would be absolutely wonderful for a wily fox, especially if that wily fox were
not
in any of those hiding places.

“What a great idea!” Stevie told Topside, her face lighting up with joy. “Let’s get going!”

With that, Stevie headed toward the hillside, where she knew all the hiding places were. She dropped some confetti, followed the trail up the hillside, and dropped some more. Then she began her clever ruse. She turned Topside around and followed her trail backward,
exactly. She passed the place where she had dropped the confetti, and then she dropped some more. The hounds and the huntsman would see the confetti, but they would have no idea that she was actually heading
down
the hill, rather than up it, when she dropped that particular handful of “scent.”

The next trick was to get to the creek before she had to drop any more confetti. She intended to go into the creek and stay there, following it all the way back to the field, once the other riders were out of the field. While she was in the creek, she was safe as safe could be. Oh, she’d drop all the confetti she had to, but it would float downstream in the water, well away from where any of the other riders would see it. In fact, she could drop the whole bag, and it wouldn’t tell anybody anything about where she was.

Stevie beamed proudly. She was a very clever fox, indeed.

They reached Willow Creek safely before Stevie had to drop any more confetti. Topside lowered himself into the shallow water, and Stevie let him have a refreshing drink. Then, hearing the approaching riders, Stevie clucked her tongue, signaled with her legs and seat, and got Topside moving through the water. Topside liked walking in the creek. Even though it was cool weather and the water was surely chilly, Topside moved forward quietly and willingly. Stevie loved the sound of the horse’s hooves slooshing through the
water and his shoes clicking surely against the rocks in the creek bed. It was a wonderful sound, and every single step took her farther and farther from those who were hunting her.

“I
FOUND SOMETHING
!” Anna McWhirter announced. “It think it’s confetti.”

“It isn’t,” Lisa said, examining it closely. “It looks like a bubble-gum wrapper to me.”

“Does Stevie chew bubble gum?” Anna asked.

“Sometimes, but she would never drop a wrapper in the woods. Look for confetti.”

Thirty-nine to one seemed to Lisa to be a pretty good set of odds, unless of course the “one” was Stevie Lake. Lisa wasn’t at all sure she was happy to be the Junior Master of this hunt. A fox was one thing—Stevie was another. Stevie would do everything she could to win this game, and Lisa was beginning to think that that might involve making her and all the other riders look a little silly. Lisa didn’t like looking silly.

“Phil, can’t you get those hounds to find the confetti?” she said.

“I’m doing my best,” he said. “But you know Stevie. She’s going to do something totally unpredictable.”

Lisa sighed. “I know,” she said. “That’s what I’m afraid of, too.”

“I bet she’s heading for cover,” Phil told Lisa. “Are there any hiding places around here?”

“That’s
it
!” Lisa said. Then she signaled for Carole to join them. Carole left the group of “hounds” she had been trying to get to search for “scent” and rode over to Lisa and Phil.

“We’ve got to put our heads together,” Lisa said. “We think the fox has gone to cover, and you know there are a zillion hiding places on the hillside. How do we start?”

“Of course!” Carole said, agreeing with Lisa and Phil. “I remember all the times we played hide-and-seek, but if she’s hiding, we’ve got an awful lot of seeking to do.”

“This calls for organization,” Phil said. He looked at Lisa. He knew her reputation for logical thinking.

Lisa paused for a moment. Phil and Carole could practically see the thinking process.

“We’re going to have to divide the hillside area into sectors and assign hounds to each sector until we find some ‘scent.’ When we’ve narrowed down the area, then Carole and I can tell you where the best hiding places are.”

Carole looked around quizzically. “Where’s Veronica?” she asked.

“Beats me,” Lisa said. “The last I saw of her, she’d decided that Garnet wouldn’t like going into the
woods. She said something about waiting out in the fields until we all came to our senses.”

Phil seemed confused.

“Veronica doesn’t like riding in the woods,” Carole explained. “She might get scratched by a branch or something. It’s just like Veronica to try to make it Garnet’s fault.”

“With that girl, everything is somebody else’s fault, isn’t it?” Phil said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lisa said. “The fact is that a hunt without Veronica is actually better than one with her. If she were here with us, she’d have some kind of imaginary problem that would make it harder for all of us. Frankly, I was expecting Garnet to have a loose shoe before we got to the woods. If she’s happy waiting in the field for us to return victoriously with Stevie, that’s okay with me.”

“Me, too,” Carole agreed. “So let’s forget about Veronica and concentrate on Stevie.”

Then there was a very odd sound. It was a sort of mangled holler, a little bit like a dog yowling, only there weren’t any dogs around. It had to be one of the “hounds.”

“Methinks the hounds have found the line!” Phil said excitedly.

Lisa’s eyes brightened, too. “Okay, then, we can narrow it down to one sector right now. See? Hunting
really is easy as long as you try to think logically,” she said proudly.

“I hope you’re right,” Phil said. “But remember, this is Stevie we’re dealing with.”

“Sure, but don’t forget that Stevie’s dealing with three of her best friends—and it takes three to know one!”

S
TEVIE AND
T
OPSIDE
paused, standing in the cool running water of Willow Creek. Stevie knew the creek was about to enter the open field and she’d have no more cover in a few steps. She had to be absolutely certain that the field was empty before she left the woods for the open. She could hear the babbling of the water. She could hear some late season creatures rustling in the short grass. She could see the wind blow the remaining yellow stalks, and she could smell the cool freshness of the early-morning dew. There were a lot of things going on in the open field, but there wasn’t a sign of the hunters. She was home free.

Cautiously and slowly, she moved forward, Topside’s hooves in a muted clip-clop on wet rocks. She stopped again and looked around once more. She saw nothing. Pine Hollow’s stable was across three fields—a distance of perhaps three-quarters of a mile. All she had to do was get across those three fields without being spotted. That meant she was going to have to go fast.
She reached into the confetti bag and fished out a handful of paper flakes. She dropped them onto the ground and began her dash. If she could get inside the paddock and through the stable door, she could win. It was an inspiring thought.

Topside had been raised to perform. He felt the urgency in Stevie’s signals to him and he spurted into action, moving quickly from a trot to a canter and then into a genuine gallop. It was a glorious gait. Stevie loved the feeling of the wind lifting her long hair and brushing it back. She scooted across the first field, approached the fence, leaned forward, rose in her saddle, and signaled Topside to jump. He fairly flew. As soon as Topside recovered from the jump, she aimed him toward the second fence. That was when she realized that she couldn’t go that way. It led straight across some land belonging to a man named Andrews that the riders did not have permission to use. The detour was going to be a time-consuming nuisance, but though Stevie was only too happy to break most rules, this was one she always followed scrupulously. She’d have to find another route. She turned Topside sharply to the right and skirted the Andrews land, turning left at the end of the fence. Finally, she turned right and was once again aimed for the stable. All she had to do was—

“Help!”

Stevie thought she heard something.

“Help!!”

She definitely heard something. She shortened Topside’s reins and sat down in the saddle. The horse drew to a walk. Stevie stood up in the stirrups so she could look to see where the cry came from.

“Where are you?”

“Here!”

Stevie turned. There, sitting in the grass with tears streaking down her cheeks, was one of Pine Hollow’s young riders, May Grover.

Stevie and Topside hurried over to May. As soon as she reached the little girl, she dismounted. “What happened?” she asked.

“My pony threw me,” May said, rubbing the place that hurt the most—her seat. “One of the big girls was supposed to look after me, but she just rode on. She didn’t even notice.”

Stevie didn’t have to ask which “big girl” that was. May’s description clearly applied to only one “big girl.” That was Veronica diAngelo.

Stevie crouched down and examined May carefully. She could tell that the little girl had hurt herself, but it was even clearer that the part of her that hurt the most was her feelings. May stifled her snuffles and her tears while Stevie looked her over. When Stevie was convinced nothing was broken and standing up would be good for May, she helped the little girl to her feet.

“Where’s your pony?” Stevie asked.

“Luna ran away!” she wailed. The tears started spouting out again. “I’ll never catch him—and I really, really love him!”

Stevie gave May a great big hug. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll find him for you. He won’t go very far—not as long as he knows there’s going to be some good breakfast for him soon. Let’s see if Topside can help us find Luna, okay?”

“Would you do that for me?” May asked.

“Of course,” Stevie said.

“But you’re the fox!”

Stevie had been so concerned about May that she’d almost forgotten that fact. When she’d left Pine Hollow that morning, it had seemed to her that the most important thing in the world was outfoxing the other riders. Now, she realized, taking care of May was actually higher up on the priority list. Besides, who was to say she couldn’t do both at the same time?

“I’ve got an idea,” Stevie said. “You know foxes sometimes travel in pairs, don’t you?”

“Max says two foxes are called a brace of foxes.”

“You’ve been studying,” Stevie accused her.

May smiled. “I wanted to know everything,” she explained. “I like to know everything.”

“Then you’ll make a great partner for me,” Stevie said. With that, she climbed back into Topside’s saddle and then reached down, offering May her left arm for a boost. Stevie took her left foot out of the stirrup, and
by using her arm and the stirrup, May was able to climb on board. She sat comfortably in front of Stevie in Topside’s saddle.

It took Stevie only a few minutes to figure out that May’s pony was hiding behind a small stand of trees where some sweet grass remained uncut. Stevie picked up the pony’s reins. One look at him, and she knew why he’d been named Luna. He was a bay with a perfect half-moon on his face. She clucked her tongue, and the pony came along obediently.

Just before they reached the paddock, something made Stevie look back over her shoulder. What she saw was none other than Veronica diAngelo, waving wildly and screaming triumphantly at Stevie and May.