178 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



boy, an exact, methodical soul, had lashed 

 the cage securely to the trunk, otherwise the 

 mad assaults of the weasel would have torn 

 it loose and dashed it to the ground. He 

 was all over it and around it every moment, 

 flinging himself viciously this way and that 

 in the effort to catch his quarry against the 

 wires. And the quaking squirrel at the same 

 time dashed himself frantically from side to 

 side, keeping ever as much space as possible 

 between himself and those relentless blood- 

 seeking jaws. He had not the wit or the 

 coolness to crouch in the centre of the cage, 

 where he might securely have chattered deri- 

 sion at his foe. He had not yet, perhaps, 

 even arrived at the truth that his prison was 

 his citadel, his tower of safety. But at length, 

 as luck would have it, in one of his desper- 

 ate bounds, he shot himself clean through the 

 round opening into the second chamber, and, 

 before he knew it, he was racing at a breath- 

 less pace in the vain effort to climb the 

 wall of the spinning cylinder. 



For a moment or two the weasel was non- 

 plussed. He stopped short and stared at 

 these amazing tactics of his victim, his thin 

 lips wrinkled back from his pointed jaw and 

 muzzle in a sort of soundless snarl. Then, 

 apparently coming to the conclusion that such 



