THE MURDEROUS CAT 213 



''Well?" 



''I'm going to cut that up into bits about six 

 inches long, file the ends to a sharp point and lash 

 them round the tree with the pointed ends down. 

 Those big fish-hooks you don't use any more 

 would be just the thing. It 's easier, the book says, 

 to nail a flat piece of zinc or tin to the tree, but 

 I haven't any." 



"What good does that do?" asked Bull. 



"Cats' claws won't stick in the metal and so 

 they can't climb up," Shan answered. "That'll 

 fool them every time. Since I haven't any sheet 

 metal, though, I'll use the wire and the fish- 

 hooks." 



Shan lost no time in putting his plan into opera- 

 tion, and two or three days later, visiting the nest 

 of the Flycatchers again, in the hope of securing 

 some more photographs of the young birds, he was 

 startled to find some white hairs stuck to the 

 wires. There was blood on some of the hairs. 



Evidently some animal had tried to climb the 

 tree and failed. The hair was not like that of rac- 

 coon or possum. In addition to being white, it 

 was like cat's hair, and, what was more, like the 

 hair of an Angora cat. 



In all that neighborhood, there was but one 



