132 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



more shelter than the side of the house, she 

 would never have wakefied again. In her 

 restlessness she wandered to the further side 

 of the island, where, in a somewhat sheltered 

 and sunny recess of the shore, facing the 

 mainland, she found a patch of bare sand, 

 free of ice-cakes and just uncovered by the 

 tide. Opening upon this recess were the tiny 

 entrances to several of the mouse-tunnels. 



Close beside one of these holes, in the snow, 

 the cat crouched, quiveringly intent. For 

 ten minutes or more she waited, never so 

 much as twitching a whisker. At last a 

 mouse thrust out its little pointed head. 

 Not daring to give it time to change its mind 

 or take alarm, she pounced. The mouse, 

 glimpsing the doom ere it fell, doubled back 

 upon itself in the narrow runway. Hardly 

 realizing what she did, in her desperation 

 the cat plunged head and shoulders into the 

 snow, reaching blindly after the vanished 

 prize. By great good luck she clutched it 

 and held it. 



It was her first meal in four bitter days. 



Now she had learned a lesson. Naturally 

 clever, and her wits sharpened by her fierce 

 necessities, she had grasped the idea that it 

 was possible to follow her prey a little way 

 into the snow. She had not realized that 



