A TIME OF PERTURBATION 17 



the stream and swept by full in their view. 

 Some minutes later two yapping, bog-stained 

 terriers crossed, and then the morass resumed 

 its wonted calm. All this the otters had 

 watched, hissing through their bared teeth, eyes 

 starting from their sockets, and hair bristling 

 erect on their thick necks : even when all 

 was quiet again a great dread still possessed 

 them. Their feral nature had been stirred to 

 the depths, and they listened and listened, 

 though no sound reached them save a faint toot 

 of the horn. Setting-out time came and went, 

 but the otters did not stir, till at length, taking 

 heart from the owls, who filled the wood with 

 their wild hooting, they stole down to the river. 



The otter fished, but not a moment was given 

 to gambolling, and long ere the woodman's 

 bantam heralded the day the scared creatures 

 sought harbourage in the branches of a fallen 

 pine whose top lay half immersed in the river. 

 Hidden amidst the flotsam caught by the boughs, 

 with the deep pool just below them, they felt 

 safe, and at length slept as soundly as they had 

 done in the morass. 



They repaired to the same hover the next day 

 and the day following. In their waking hours 

 they would watch the eddying water and rising 



3 



