The Kangaroo Rat 



found signs of another secret passage. It was 

 like exploring a mediaeval castle. This passage 

 went down at a slant when I got fairly into it, 

 and before long it opened out into a large store- 

 house that was filled with over a pint of seeds 

 of the prairie sunflower. This room was sunken 

 deepest of all in the ground, and was also in 

 the shadiest part of the mound, so that the seed 

 would be in no danger of heating or sprouting. 

 At one end of this chamber was another blind 

 lead that possibly was used in filling the ware- 

 house and afterward sealed up for safety. There 

 were many of these blind alleys. They ap- 

 peared to be either entrances plugged up or else 

 deliberate plans to mislead an intruder who did 

 not have the key to the secret door. 



Yet one more chamber was found, and that 

 was a second storehouse, a reserve supply of 

 carefully selected helianthus seeds, about half a 

 gill of them, and yet not a bad one or a shriv- 

 elled one was to be found in the lot. 



But I did not find any of the Perodipus family, 

 and think it possible that when they heard my 

 rude approach they all escaped by some other 

 secret passage that I failed to discover. 



249 



