Presently there came the padding sound of naked feet upon the hard-baked earth, and a dark figure emerged from an inner kitchen.

For so small a place they certainly put a wonderfully strong team into the field; on their own native "bog" they are fairly invincible, though we fancy on the hard-baked clay at Lord's their bowlers would lose a little of their cunning.

What ecstasy it was to be well set and scoring fast on the hard-baked ground (the harder the better), cutting to the boundary when the ball pitched short on the off, and driving her hard along the ground when they pitched one up!

You haven't got enough hard-baked facts to upset a capable defence.

Casey studied it while he walked ahead, leaving no footprints on the hard-baked clay.