174 A LEAP FOR LIFE 



cut, but held on round the promontory till, near 

 the extreme point, he struck and followed a 

 track laid by foxes — a treacherous track, that 

 after winding in and out between overhanging 

 rocks and the lip of the cliff, suddenly ended 

 on the brink of a precipice. He saw the pre- 

 dicament he was in shortly after rounding the 

 point, and despair gripped his heart. 



But when he had almost given himself up 

 for lost, a shelf of rock that projected over the 

 track offered asylum if only he could reach it. 

 Once, twice he gathered his limbs, only to 

 recoil from launching himself at the leap, for he 

 felt that it was more than he could compass. 

 Then he listened to the swelling cry ; that 

 warned him he had not a moment to lose. 



Animals, like men, when face to face with 

 death, perform feats seemingly beyond their 

 powers. Thus it was with the hare, into whose 

 mad spring was concentrated all the force that 

 love of life could rouse. But his greatest efforts 

 merely enabled him to get such a grip of the 

 rock as prevented him from falling back. 

 Frantic was his struggle to complete a lodg- 

 ment by dragging his hind legs to the shelf. He 

 succeeded just in time to squat as the first 

 of the stoats came galloping round the point 

 and pulled up at the spot where the trail 



