128 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



sharp night frosts. The cat discovered then 

 that it was most exciting to hunt by night 

 and do her sleeping in the day-time. It was 

 a natural reversion to the instincts of her 

 ancestors, but it came to her as a discovery. 

 She found that now, under the strange 

 whiteness of the moon, all her game was 

 astir, except the birds. And the birds had 

 all fled to the mainland during the storm, 

 gathering for the southward flight. The 

 blanched grasses, she found, were now every- 

 where a-rustle, and everywhere vague, spec- 

 tral, little shapes went darting, with thin 

 squeaks, across the ghostly white sands. 

 Also, she made the acquaintance of a new 

 bird, which she regarded at first uneasily 

 and then with vengeful wrath. This was the 

 brown marsh-owl, which came over from the 

 mainland to do some autumn mouse-hunting. 

 There were two pairs of these big, downy- 

 winged, round-eyed, voracious hunters, and 

 they did not know there was a cat on the 

 island. 



The cat, spying one of them as it swooped 

 soundlessly hither and thither over the silvered 

 grass-tops, crouched with flattened ears. 

 With its wide spread of wing it looked bigger 

 than herself, and the great round face, with 

 hooked beak and wild staring eyes, appeared 



