't let him get through; don t let him get through."

"Look out for him, there he goes."

Horns were blown, bells rung, tin pans clamorously beaten. Either the
jack escaped, or confused by the noise, darted back again, fleeing
away as if his life depended on the issue of the instant. Once even, a
bewildered rabbit jumped fair into Mrs. Derrick's lap as she sat in the
carry-all, and was out again like a flash.

"Poor frightened thing," she exclaimed; and for a long time afterward,
she retained upon her knees the sensation of the four little paws
quivering with excitement, and the feel of the trembling furry body,
with its wildly beating heart, pressed against her own.

By noon the number of rabbits discernible by Annixter's field glasses
on ahead was far into the thousands. What seemed to be ground resolved
itself, when seen through the glasses, into a maze of small, moving
bodies, leaping, ducking, doubling, running back and forth--a wilderness
of agitated ears, white tails and twinkling legs. The outside wings of
the curved line of vehicles began to draw in a little; Osterman's ranch
was left behind, the drive continued on over Quien Sabe.

As the day advanced, the rabbits, singularly enough, became less wild.
When flushed, they no longer ran so far nor so fast, limping off instead
a few feet at a time, and crouching down, their ears close upon their
backs. Thus it was, that by degrees the teams began to close up on the
main herd. At every instant the numbers increased. It was no longer
thousands, it was tens of thousands. The earth was alive with rabbits.

Denser and denser grew the throng. In all directions nothing was to be
seen but the loose mass of the moving jacks. The horns of the crescent
of teams began to contract. Far off the corral came into sight. The
disintegrated mass of rabbits commenced, as it were, to solidify, to
coagulate. At first, each jack was some three feet distant from his
nearest neighbor, but this space diminished to two feet, then to one,
then to but a few inches. The rabbits began leaping over one another.

Then the strange scene defined itself. It was no longer a herd covering
the earth. It was a sea, whipped into confusion, tossing incessantly,
leaping, falling, agitated by unseen forces. At times the unexpected
tameness of the rabbits all at once vanished. Throughout certain
portions of the herd eddies of terror abruptly burst forth. A panic
spread; then there would ensue a blind, w