Catch As Cat Can

                Harry, hardened by outdoor life, didn't much mind. BoomBoom was a surprising trouper. Thomas bravely soldiered on in his expensive Holland and Holland outfit. Diego wore what Harry told him. He had bought a pair of Red Wing work boots after leaving the former ambassador to Great Britain and topped his outfit off with a pair fold jeans and a canvas shirt. Thomas thought Diego's boots were 30 country and not English enough. He regretted it now, though, as e tried to keep up in his green wellies, a wonderful high rubber boot for country chores but not for running behind hounds. Thomas was hard put to keep up, his flashlight bobbing as he labored. Boom stayed back with him, a sacrifice for her since she liked being up front.

                Jack's hounds treed two coons in rapid succession. He called them off, walked about a quarter of a mile, and set them to work again. Joyce, his wife, walked along, too.

                Fair enjoyed good hound work and was pleased to see shiny coats on the hounds. He wanted to stay behind Harry and Diego but forced himself to run ahead of them.

                Jim Sanburne brought up the rear along with Don Clatterbuck, both men moving at a leisurely pace, happy to listen to the music.

                Harry held the flashlight as she and Diego ran behind Fair.

                "They're on another one. Picked him up by the creek," Harry said, but the words were no sooner out of her mouth than a rumble overhead surprised her.

                Low clouds moving fast presaged another storm. She'd felt the temperature drop but paid little attention to it. The cloudy skies held the scent down; the falling temperature, now in the high forties, made for a glorious night of hunting about to be cut short.

                A flash over the creek side stopped everyone in their tracks.

                "Folks, I got to pick up. We don't want to be out here." Jack put his grandfather's huge cow horn to his lips, blowing in his hounds.

                Joyce peered up at the sky."Sure hope it's not like last night."

                As the people turned to head back to their trucks the thunder moved closer and a light splattering of rain began.

                Impulsively, Diego reached for Harry's hand, drawing her to him, and kissed her. She kissed him back, then they broke off, racing toward the trucks, laughing.

                A glitter caught Harry's eye."Hold up."

                The rain fell steadier now but she moved to the left, off the path. Diego followed her. She knelt down, picking up the Mercedes star and a snapped chain."The hubcap thief."

                "Odd." Diego studied the object.

                "He wore it around his neck." A bone-rattling clap of thunder convinced her to hasten back to the truck. Running, she pocketed he hood ornament. By the time she and Diego reached their safe haven they were drenched and shivering.

                They'd parked at the end of a gravel road northeast of Crozet, he boundary between Booty Mawyer's farm and that of Marcus Durant. Durant, out of town this weekend, was an avid coon, fox, and rabbit hunter. He'd hunt just about anything. He'd built a twenty-foot-by-sixteen-foot shack. With a tin roof, a wood-burning stove, and two sets of bunk beds by the walls, he could roll in and sleep if his hounds kept running late into the night. A generous man, he shared his shack with his buddies, so long as everybody leaned up.

                Fair, using well-cured wood stacked outside under a protective overhang, started up a fire. Soon the little group was thawing out, passing the jug, and telling tales in the time-honored tradition of tight hunters.

                Thomas and BoomBoom sat next to one another on the edge of bunk bed, as did Jack and Joyce. The others sat on upturned milk rates and wooden chairs in front of the stove.

                Jim leaned back, putting his cold, wet feet in front of the stove, everyone peeled off their shoes, boots, socks, hoping they'd dry be-are they had to put them back on.

                "Ever tell you about the first time I coon hunted with Mim?" Jim cast his eyes around the room."Guess not. Well, I'd come back from Korea in one piece and I hadn't been home three days when spied Mim coming out of Crozet National Bank arguing with Aunt Tally. I stopped my truck, hopped out, took off my hat to the lathes, and asked Mim out then and there. Heard her family broke off the romance with another fellow because he wasn't high-class enough. Hell, he was more suitable than I but faint heart ne'er won the lady and to hell with suitability. Aunt Tally looked me over like I was a horse to buy. Well, Mim said yes. So Tally says, 'Where you liking her?'

                " 'Coon hunting,' says I. 'See that's what you hunt, young man." " He laughed, imitating Tally's voice."A fine night. Crisp, you could smell the leaves turning. Marcus's father, Lucius, had a good pack of hounds, turned 'em loose, and what a hunt.

                "Mim was a speedy little slip of a girl. She kept right up and the next thing we heard was screaming and cussing. Lord o" mighty. The hounds ran right up on Arnold Berryman, covering Ellie Mclntire.

                "She was screaming. He held up his coat over her. Scared the hell out of the hounds. I thought that would be my last date with Mim.