64 THE PACK AT A LOSS 



to her young, or why should they have suddenly 

 thrown off their lethargy and displayed the 

 almost fiendish activity they did? In an instant 

 the bank was alive with their undulating forms. 

 They darted in and out amongst the sedge ; 

 they swam the ditch and twisted about amongst 

 the stems of the withies ; again and again 

 they gathered at the spot where the Squire 

 had first stood to fish ; for from there the 

 leveret, by a long leap, had gained the pool 

 and swum to the opposite bank. It was the 

 sheet of water that had decided him to make 

 for the form amidst the rushes, and there he 

 was sitting, motionless and helpless. 



Luckily he could see nothing of the black, 

 restless creatures, not even their arched backs 

 or raised heads ; but the smell of their rank 

 bodies polluted the air, so he knew they were 

 there defiling with their presence the sweet tran- 

 quillity of the scene. The absence of all trace 

 of scent near the water, however, baffled the 

 polecats. They could not trace the hare beyond 

 the take-off place, and the clouded water where 

 he had stirred the mud in the shallows contained 

 no message for them. 



The growing light was beginning to cause 

 uneasiness to the band ; nevertheless one of 

 them proceeded to draw the farther bank; it 



