174 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



The game came to a full stop for that 

 night, at the least. As luck would have it, 

 the squirrel who had been through the 

 adventures of the morning the encounter 

 with Jabe Smith's missile and the interview 

 with that would-be mesmeriser, the black 

 snake had been sailing just below his un- 

 happy playmate at the moment of the great 

 wood-owl's swoop. He had seen the whole 

 tragedy, and it made him distrustful of 

 aeroplaning for the moment. He decided 

 to emulate his cousin the red-squirrel, and 

 trust to running and climbing, to the solid 

 trunks and branches, rather than to the 

 treacheries of the air. After hiding in a 

 crotch till his palpitations had somewhat 

 calmed down, he descended the tree in a 

 cautious search for food. He had had his 

 fill of nuts and cones ; he wanted jucier fare. 

 He went on all the way down to earth, his 

 appetite set on the ripening partridge- 

 berries. 



Now, as it chanced, the boy had taken to 

 heart that suggestion of the lumberman's in 

 regard to the cage-trap. His appetite for 

 knowledge of all the wild creatures of the 

 woods was insatiable. He was eager to know 

 the flying-squirrels more intimately than he 

 could know them from the plates and text of 



