THE TUNNEL RUNNERS 223 



far down-stream, and was hurrying back 

 home, he was alarmed by loud sounds on the 

 surface of the ice, a little below his back 

 door. Some one with an axe was chopping 

 a hole in the ice. The brown mouse swam 

 away down-stream again as fast as he could, 

 and the jarring noise of the axe-strokes, 

 carried by the ice and by the water, seemed 

 to follow him with terrifying concussions. 

 Hiding himself in a remote air-chamber, .he 

 waited for the noises to cease. Then, with 

 mingled trepidation and caution, he swam 

 up-stream again. 



As he neared home, he saw a round beam 

 of light pouring downward to the stream's 

 bed through a hole in the ice. In the midst 

 of this light there hung, moving softly to 

 the slow current, a big lump of fat pork. 

 The brown mouse did not know it was pork, 

 but he knew at once it was something very 

 good to eat. Very cautiously he swam up to 

 investigate it. There seemed to be no rea- 

 son why he should not nibble it. In fact, 

 he was just going to nibble it, when, just a 

 few feet further up-stream, those terrifying 

 sounds began again. The brown mouse took 

 them as a warning, and fled back down- 

 stream in a panic. 



In a few minutes the noise stopped, and 



