142 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



Suddenly some movement among the 

 bushes along the near shore, perhaps two 

 hundred yards away, caught their watchful 

 eyes. In an instant, by some mysterious pro- 

 cess, they had sunk their bodies completely 

 below the surface, leaving only their snaky 

 heads and necks exposed to view. This 

 peculiar submerged position they held, it 

 seemed, without difficulty. But whatever it 

 was that alarmed them, it was not repeated ; 

 and after perhaps five minutes of cautious 

 watchfulness, they slowly emerged and floated 

 on the surface. Presently the female swam 

 back again behind the islet, laboriously 

 scrambled out upon the shore, waddled to 

 her nest, and settled herself once more to 

 the task of brooding her two big grey-green, 

 brown-blotched eggs. It was the first week 

 in June, and the eggs were near hatching. 



The pair of loons were restless and an- 

 noyed. Their lake, set in a lonely valley, 

 which was drained by a branch of the Upper 

 Quah-Davic, had seemed to them the perfec- 

 tion of solitude and remoteness. For three 

 years now they had been coming to it every 

 spring with the first of the northern flight. 

 But this spring their solitude had been in- 

 vaded. A pioneer, a squatter, with a buxom 

 wife and several noisy children, had come 



