THE CHASE 121 



i'ully. Beware, you giddy ones, who will not know 

 how to avoid the web by passing over and under it! 

 All ! it has happened; so much the worse for the vic- 

 tim. When one plays foolishly with one's compan- 

 ions, one must at least look where one is going. A 

 dn i ^on-fly is caught in the meshes of the web: With 

 one wing free it struggles to escape. It shakes the 

 \\vb, but the cables hold in spite of the shaking. 

 Threads in communication with the resting-room 

 warn the epeira, by their agitation, of the important 

 things taking place in the net. The spider hastily 

 descends, but it does not get there in time. With 

 a desperate stroke of its wing the dragon-fly frees 

 itself and escapes, tearing a large hole in the web. 



"Oh! how well it got out!" cried Jules. "A lit- 

 tle more and the poor thing would have been eaten 

 alive. Did you see, Emile, how quickly the spider 

 ran down from its hiding place when it felt the web 

 move! The hunt begins badly; the game escapes 

 and the net is torn." 



"Yes, but the spider is going to mend it," his 

 uncle reassured him. 



And, in fact, as soon as it had recovered from its 

 misadventure, the epeira renewed the broken 

 threads with delicate dexterity. The darning fin- 

 Mi< d, the damage could hardly be detected. The 

 -pider now takes its place in the center of the net- 

 work: the right moment for the chase has come, 

 apparently, and it is advisable for it to pounce upon 

 the game as quickly as possible, to avoid other mis- 

 adventures. It spreads its eight feet in a circle, to 

 receive the slightest movement that may come at 



