nostrils, eyes, and ears raised slightly above
the surface of the water, she stayed there, unseen and hardly daring to
breathe, and, with strained senses watched closely every movement of
hounds and hunters.

Fortunately for Lutra, the arch of the boulders below was shaped so
peculiarly that the scent of her breath and body was sucked into a
cavity and carried down-stream, and, passing beneath the stone, mingled,
at the raging cataract near the rock, with air in the bubbles formed by
the tumult of the waters. These bubbles, instead of bursting, were drawn
into the vortex of a little whirlpool; and the keen-nosed hounds, though
suspicious, could form no definite opinion as to the presence of a
second otter among the rocks. The terrier knew the secret, but he had
been put out of action and sent off, post haste, to the nearest
veterinary surgeon. Lutra saw her tormentors--some of them of the pure
otter-hound breed, some half otter-hound, half fox-hound, and others,
again, fox-hounds trained for otter-hunting--rushing backwards and
forwards in the water and on the bank. Another terrier, led by a boy,
strained at his leash near the river's brink. Women, dressed, like the
men, in smart scarlet and blue, and as ready to wade into the stream as
the huntsman himself, stood leaning on their otter-poles not far away.
At the fords above and below the "pool," the dog-otter's egress was
barred by outposts of the enemy standing and splashing, in complete
lines, from bank to bank. Once, in despair, the otter actually tried to
break through the human chain; but a hunter "tailed" him for a moment,
and then dropped him into the deeper water beyond the ford.

The sound of horn, the shouts of men, the deep-toned notes of great
hounds, the shrill yapping of eager terriers, and the splashing and the
plunging on every side, almost bewildered Lutra. Fearing to move from
her shelter, she floated in the deep basin of the hidden pool beside the
cataract, till at last the commotion gradually subsided, and hounds and
hunters passed out of sight down-stream.

Lutra awaited her mate's return, but in vain. Not till night did she
venture from her hiding place. When, however, the stars appeared, she
swam wearily from pool to pool, calling, calling, calling. She explored
each little bay, each crevice in the rock. She walked up the dry bed of
a tributary brook, and searched among the gnarled roots and the dry,
brown grass fringing the gravelly watercours