Now , Tom was a cunning little fellow -- as cunning as an old Exmoor stag . Why not ? Though he was but ten years old , he had lived longer than most stags , and had more wits to start with into the bargain . He knew as well as a stag , that if he backed he might throw the hounds out . So the first thing he did when he was over the wall was to make the neatest double sharp to his right , and run along under the wall for nearly half a mile . Whereby Sir John , and the keeper , and the steward , and the gardener , and the ploughman , and the dairymaid , and all the hue - and-cry together , went on ahead half a mile in the very opposite direction , and inside the wall , leaving him a mile off on the outside ; while Tom heard their shouts die away in the woods and chuckled to himself merrily . At last he came to a dip in the land , and went to the bottom of it , and then he turned bravely away from the wall and up the moor ; for he knew that he had put a hill between him and his enemies , and could go on without their seeing him . But the Irishwoman , alone of them all , had seen which way Tom went . She had kept ahead of every one the whole time ; and yet she neither walked nor ran . She went along quite smoothly and gracefully , while her feet twinkled past each other so fast that you could not see which was foremost ; till every one asked the other who the strange woman was ; and all agreed , for want of anything better to say , that she must be in league with Tom . But when she came to the plantation , they lost sight of her ; and they could do no less . For she went quietly over the wall after Tom , and followed him wherever he went . Sir John and the rest saw no more of her ; and out of sight was out of mind . And now Tom was right away into the heather , over just such a moor as those in which you have been bred , except that there were rocks and stones lying about everywhere , and that , instead of the moor growing flat as he went upwards , it grew more and more broken and hilly , but not so rough but that little Tom could jog along well enough , and find time , too , to stare about at the strange place , which was like a new world to him . He saw great spiders there , with crowns and crosses marked on their backs , who sat in the middle of their webs , and when they saw Tom coming , shook them so fast that they became invisible . Then he saw lizards , brown and gray and green , and thought they were snakes , and would sting him ; but they were as much frightened as he , and shot away into the heath . And then , under a rock , he saw a pretty sight -- a great brown , sharp-nosed creature , with a white tag to her brush , and round her four or five smutty little cubs , the funniest fellows Tom ever saw . She lay on her back , rolling about , and stretching out her legs and head and tail in the bright sunshine ; and the cubs jumped over her , and ran round her , and nibbled her paws , and lugged her about by the tail ; and she seemed to enjoy it mightily . But one selfish little fellow stole away from the rest to a dead crow close by , and dragged it off to hide it , though it was nearly as big as he was . Whereat all his little brothers set off after him in full cry , and saw Tom ; and then all ran back , and up jumped Mrs. Vixen , and caught one up in her mouth , and the rest toddled after her , and into a dark crack in the rocks ; and there was an end of the show .
And next he had a fright ; XXXXX , as he scrambled up a sandy brow -- whirr-poof-poof-cock-cock-kick -- something went off in his face , with a most horrid noise .
At between for in into on over that till to