178 THE STOATS WITHDRAW 



of the pack. As if in distress, they kept darting 

 up and down the track till a deluge of rain drove 

 them off. 



The hare was left master of the field. His 

 flank rose and fell more quickly than its wont, 

 the pupils of his eyes were distended as never 

 before, but already he was planning his escape, 

 and had chosen the retreat he would make for. 



Hours of blinding rain followed, lightning 

 occasionally lit up the blackness shrouding cliff 

 and sea ; it was no weather for any living thing 

 to be abroad in, and indeed nothing appeared till 

 near dawn, when a bedraggled white creature 

 made her way with difficulty up the face of 

 the cliff and staggered to the track. It was 

 the leader of the stoats, who after struggling 

 with the backwash which had nearly buffeted 

 the life out of her, had managed to land, and 

 after a long rest, come back for her followers. 



Awhile she stood beneath the ledge and 

 looked up. Too feeble to do more, she meant 

 to return at dusk to pit her wit against the 

 hare's, in some way to get at him, drive her 

 fangs into his great vein and drink deep of 

 his blood : she was even thinking of the feast 

 in prospect as she crawled away on the trail of 

 the pack. 



She was, however, reckoning without her 



