126 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



storms roared down upon the island, with 

 furious rain and low black clouds torn to 

 shreds, then life became more difficult for 

 her. Game all took to cover, where it was 

 hard to find vanishing mysteriously. It 

 was hard to get around in the drenched and 

 lashing grass, and, moveover, she loathed 

 wet. Most of the time she went hungry, 

 sitting sullen and desolate under the lee of 

 the house, glaring out defiantly at the rush 

 and battling tumult of the waves. 



The storm lasted nearly ten days before it 

 blew itself clean out. On the eighth day 

 the abandoned wreck of a small Nova Scotia 

 schooner drove ashore, battered out of all 

 likeness to a ship. But, hulk as it was, it 

 had passengers of a sort. A horde of be- 

 draggled rats got through the surf and scurried 

 into the hiding of the grass-roots. They 

 promptly made themselves at home, burrow- 

 ing under the grass and beneath old half- 

 buried timbers, and carrying panic into 

 the ranks of the mice and shrews. When 

 the storm was over, the cat had a decided 

 surprise in her first long hunting expedition. 

 Something had rustled the grass heavily, and 

 she trailed it, expecting a particularly large 

 fat marsh-mouse. When she pounced and 

 alighted upon an immense old ship's rat, 



