6 A DANGEROUS INTRUDER 



overhead ; she watched with no Httle concern 

 the buzzard whose shadow passed over her as 

 he searched the hillside before alighting on the 

 broken chancel of the ruin. His terrifying cat- 

 like mew caused the leverets to stir beneath her, 

 but she herself remained as motionless as the 

 furze ; Indeed, till the sun had set, she never 

 moved for fear of prying eyes. 



Four days passed without disquieting incident, 

 but on the fifth the vixen paid a visit to the 

 hill and threw the hare into a fever of anxiety. 

 The daring marauder came at high noon, during 

 the farmer's dinner-hour, when the land is for- 

 saken and the peace of the waste spreads to the 

 fields, enticing the nocturnal prowler to venture 

 forth In broad daylight In search of food. Thus 

 lured, the vixen, yielding to the importunities of 

 her hungry cubs, stole from her earth and, keep- 

 ing to the overgrown ditches, gained the boundary 

 wall without exposing herself to view. But the 

 instant her mask showed above the coping- 

 stone the hare espied her, and from that 

 moment followed every movement. She thought 

 that the fox knew of her presence and was in 

 search of her, as well as she might, for the hill 

 harboured no prey save herself and her young, 

 at least none worth the coming for. So while 

 the vixen searched the lower slopes the hare 



