164 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



the mysteriously shadowed air. They sailed 

 on long downward slants, with legs spread 

 wide apart and connected on each side by 

 furry membrane, so that they looked like 

 some kind of grotesque, oblong, toy umbrellas 

 broken loose in a breeze. The boy stared 

 after them with an exclamation of wonder 

 and delight, trying to keep his eye on them 

 all at once ; but in a moment they had 

 disappeared, gaining the shelter of other 

 trees, and effacing themselves from view as 

 if by enchantment. 



All but one. As the flying squirrels came 

 aeroplaning from their rudely assaulted cita- 

 del, the woodman had dropped his axe, 

 snatched up a bit of stick about a foot long, 

 and hurled it after one of the gliding figures. 

 Your woodman is an unerring shot with the 

 hurled axe, the pike-pole, or the billet of 

 wood ; but up there, in the deceitful trans- 

 parency of shadow and glimmer, the little 

 aeronaut was sailing with an elusive speed. 

 The whirling missile almost missed its mark. 

 It just caught the outspread furry tail, which 

 was serving as a rudder and balancer to that 

 adventurous flight. The tail, tough and 

 flexible, gave way and took no injury. But 

 the tiny aeroplanist, his balance rudely 

 destroyed, plunged headlong to the ground. 



