UNEASY QUARTERS 55 



detected whilst making for it, so the mother 

 scanned the sleeping port from the end of the 

 promontory before committing herself to the 

 open ; but as nobody stirred, the three made 

 across the estuary straight towards it. When 

 they were about mid-passage, where the tide ran 

 strongest, a big fish leaped clear of the water 

 and fell with a resounding splash. It was a 

 salmon. The cubs turned their questioning 

 eyes on their mother, but she gave no heed. 

 She was filled with anxiety lest the hole in the 

 quay should prove to be beyond their reach. 

 High above the water though it was, she herself 

 entered it easily, for she could throw herself out 

 of the water almost like a seal ; but, as she had 

 feared, the cubs fell back again and again. The 

 whistling of the distressed creatures must have 

 been audible to anyone on the quay. An old 

 man was, indeed, there, putting out the green 

 light which had frightened the cubs as they 

 crossed, but he was as deaf as his ladder, and 

 before he approached the edge to see how 

 high the tide had risen, they had made their 

 greatest effort and gained the shelter of the 

 masonry. 



That day they hardly slept a wink. They 

 were within earshot of the busiest spot in the 



