nd
pluck could be traced in her every movement, and, in her eyes, universal
defiance.

Down the dark watercourse she went, twisting her lithe chestnut body
S-wise in and out of the coarse grass-clumps. A frog leaped before her. In
a flash she had flung herself upon it, her white teeth clicked together in
its brain, and she sauntered slowly out of sight, bearing her latest
victim in her mouth. It was hideous. To eat vegetables was natural enough,
but to eat living, quivering flesh! A sickening faintness crept over him,
and it was full an hour before he could leave his shelter.

Very cautiously he retraced his steps to the familiar entrance, and
stopped to listen. A flood of moonlight burst through the clouds, and his
trembling shadow danced ink-black before him. He was a clear mark for
every kind of foe, yet he still paused irresolute. It was too horribly
silent below. A clumsy whirring beetle alighted at his feet and stumbled
heavily down the hole. Another followed. He turned and fled, blindly,
recklessly, anywhere to escape that exhaling reek of murder.

[Illustration: HE STILL PAUSED IRRESOLUTE.]

Away from the watercourse the grasses grew shorter and more slender. It
was easy, but risky going. Small pyramids of soil dotted the ground in
different directions, some massed together almost in circles, others at
wider intervals. At the edge of one of them he stopped and commenced idly
burrowing with his fore feet. For a few inches the light, crumbling earth
yielded easily to his efforts. Then the floor seemed to subside beneath
him, and he found a shelter ready made. Two narrow rough-hewn tunnels led
from beneath the centre of the heap. He rested for a few minutes, then
started to explore one of them.

It could hardly be described as a burrow, for, at intervals, it was half
choked with earth-falls, and he had to work his way through them. In
direction it was fairly straight. After a few yards progress he found its
termination. It opened on a larger tunnel running at right angles to
itself.

The sides of this latter were smooth and polished, smoother even than
those of the approach to the old home. It was wide enough for two voles to
run abreast in. The straggling grass-roots which hung overhead proved it
of trifling depth. Indeed, the roof was very thin, in places hardly solid.
Through these the moonlight seemed to filter down, forming dull bluish
patches on the floor.

From the main road passages branched out at