A DANGEROUS NEIGHBOUR 101 



before sallying forth to execute the raid she 

 had planned. She was the wiliest of marauders, 

 pilfering here to-night, elsewhere to-morrow, 

 and, save that she avoided Boscawen-Un — the 

 lurcher's home — ranging in all directions. She 

 took toll of seafowl on the dizzy ledge, she 

 robbed the farmers' henroosts and beehives, 

 she stripped the squire's strawberry beds and 

 plundered the crabber's bait, hang it where he 

 might. Few places were inaccessible to her ; 

 she was as much at home on the crags of the 

 Kites' Cairn as on the loftiest pine of Sancreed 

 Beacon. 



It was a wonder that those quick eyes of 

 hers had not descried the hare, but probably 

 that was owing to the shouts which distracted 

 her attention just as her gaze was being directed 

 towards the spot where he sat motionless. As 

 for the hare his eyes never left the strange 

 creature. Her character he had read at sight. 

 He read it in the feather on the muzzle, the 

 blood-stain on the whiskers, and above all in 

 the apprehension she showed on hearing the 

 shout. To his view that was an infallible sign 

 of a felon. He was glad when she ascended 

 the tree and the length of the long stem 

 separated them, for he believed that the marten 

 had seen him and might have pounced on him 



H 



