26 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



ears, and both crouched flat. In the next 

 instant a white rabbit shot past them, almost 

 brushing their noses. His great, simple eyes 

 starting from his head with terror, he went 

 by at such a pace that there was no time to 

 strike him down, though the female, who was 

 the furthest from him, made a futile swipe 

 at him with one paw. It was clear that some- 

 thing deadly must be following the rabbit, to 

 cause him such blind panic. Whatever it 

 might be, the lynxes had no fear of it. They 

 wanted it. And they waited for it. 



And the next moment it came. 



It came running soundlessly, nose up on 

 the hot scent, a slim, low, long-bodied, sinuous 

 white beast, with a sharp-pointed head and 

 eyes like two drops of liquid fire. As it shot 

 past him, Grey Lynx made a stroke at it and 

 missed. But in the next fraction of a second 

 the female had pounced. She caught the 

 weasel, with both paws, in mid-leap. Indomi- 

 table, it writhed up and fixed its long, fine 

 teeth in her nose. Then her fangs closed 

 about its slender loins, and the fierce life was 

 crunched out of it. With the blood stream- 

 ing from her nose which eased, however, 

 for a moment the galling ache of the porcupine 

 barbs she fell to her meat, growling harshly 

 over it. Grey Lynx, perhaps persuading 



