Sometimes he made me run behind him and drop my scent on the top of his, and sometimes keep a good distance off, and let the wind scatter it as much as it could.

When we came to a gap, instead of starting straight across the next field he would turn suddenly at right angles, and keep close up under the hedge half-way round before striking off into the open.

Among trees and bushes he zigzagged and doubled to an alarming extent, so that it seemed as if we were losing ground every moment.

So we should have been if the chase had been by sight instead of by _scent_; but that would have been against all rules.
If the hounds were to see the hares twenty yards in front of them, and the scent lay half a mile round, they would be bound, according to our rules, to go the half-mile, however tempting the short cut might seem.
It was after a very wide circuit, ending up on the top of a moderate rise, that we first caught sight of our pursuers.

As they were a full six minutes behind us, we agreed to sit down under cover for a minute and watch them.
At that moment they had evidently lost the scent, and were ferreting about among some low trees and bushes in search of it.