46 THE LIFE STORY OF AN OTTER 



fort was as nothing in comparison with the terror 

 which the rumbling of a van over their heads 

 occasioned them. In the course of the morning, 

 towards noon, things were still worse. A sheep- 

 dog with a nose for otters winded them, and 

 came and sniffed at the grating within a couple 

 of yards of where they lay. In his excitement 

 he kept pawing the iron bars and whimpering 

 until the cry of ' Shep, boy !' recalled him to the 

 flock, the patter of whose feet had set the otters 

 on the alert before the dog darkened the twilight 

 of their hiding-place. These were the great 

 alarms of the day — indeed, the only alarms, for 

 the otters took little notice of the bell which rang 

 each time a customer entered the grocer's shop, 

 and scarcely more of the voices of the children 

 abroad when the rain ceased. 



The street was deserted and the windows 

 aglow when the otters made their way down the 

 drain and, after listening at the mouth, stole out 

 into the moonlight. They ran some danger of 

 being seen as they approached the smack, and 

 again after passing it, but fortune favoured them ; 

 they escaped observation, and got clear away. 



They kept to the margin of the creek till near 

 the limekiln. Then the otter struck inland, with 

 stealthy motion threading the tufts that covered 



