22 THE LIFE STORY OF AN OTTER 



Giant's Quoits, first the otter and then the cubs 

 caught the voice of the stream. The low 

 murmur was almost lost in the sigh of the night 

 wind, but grew louder and louder, till soon 

 chattering run and plashing cascade appeared in 

 the dip below. 



On reaching the pool, the otter entered the 

 water with the cubs at her side, dived, and drove 

 the trout to the shelter of the banks. Thereupon 

 the cubs, who saw where the fish had fled, fell to 

 drawing the hovers, thrusting their flat heads 

 into hole and crevice as far as they could reach. 

 But the trout had found secure recesses, and 

 though a few felt the lips of the otters, they 

 could not be seized, and all but one escaped. 

 In the pool at the bend, however, where the 

 bank, hollowed though it is, affords poor shelter, 

 three were taken. Then the captors, two on the 

 gravel, the other on a mid-stream boulder, lay 

 at full length and ate their prey, munching 

 ravenously. The otter seemed to have set aside 

 her fears since reaching the moor, for never once 

 did she trouble to listen or even to scan the 

 sable waste around her. All her thoughts were 

 for the cubs, whom she led from pool to pool, 

 aiding them until they began to fish for them- 

 selves ; then she stood aside and watched them. 



