THE TUNNEL RUNNERS 207 



able maze. But the brown mouse raced 

 straight on, back from the waterside, deep 

 into the heart of the marsh, anxious only to 

 put himself as far as possible from the scene 

 of his horrid adventure. 



Running thus suddenly, he bumped hard 

 into a little wayfarer who was journeying in 

 the opposite direction. The tunnel was so 

 narrow that only by the use of a certain 

 circumspection and consideration could two 

 travellers pass each other comfortably. Now 

 the stranger was a mole-shrew, much smaller 

 than the brown mouse, but of a temper as 

 unpleasant as that of a mad buffalo. That 

 the mouse should come butting into him in 

 that rude fashion was an indignity not to be 

 tolerated. Gnashing his long chisel-like teeth, 

 he grappled blindly, and rent the brown 

 mouse's ear to ribbons. But this was a 

 mistake on his part, a distinct error of judg- 

 ment. The brown mouse was no slim timor- 

 ous barn-mouse or field-mouse, no slow 

 and clumsy mole. He was a fighter and 

 with strength to back his pugnacity. He 

 caught the angry shrew by the neck, bit him 

 mercilessly, shook him limp, trod him under 

 foot, and raced on. Not until he reached his 

 snug nest in the burrow at the foot of the 

 dyke did he quite regain his equanimity. 



