A NIGHT OF UNREST 113 



return to the sand-hills beyond the cottage, where, 

 like an embodied spirit of unrest, he wandered 

 from dune to dune, repeating at times the shrill 

 whistle he had already sounded from the Seal 

 Rock and the bends of the stream that winds 

 along the valley, and standing with raised head 

 pointed now this way, now that, to listen. Once 

 he thought he heard an answering call, but 

 presently discovered his error, and from that 

 moment gave over calling. 



Thus he spent the hours of the long night 

 before returning to his lair, where he busied 

 himself in cleansing his lips and whiskers of the 

 slime that adhered to them and smoothing the 

 patches of his coat, disarranged by the conger's 

 jaws. He was long over his toilet, but longer 

 still in falling asleep : the recollection of his 

 defeat kept him awake and caused the hair to 

 rise on his neck as it had risen on the neck of 

 his father at the thought of the pike of Lone 

 Tarn, so that the sun had climbed to half its 

 height before he drowsed and forgot his troubles. 

 Consequently it was late when he bestirred him- 

 self and took to the mere, where another dog- 

 otter was already fishing. For a long time each 

 was ignorant of the other's presence, but at last 

 chance brought them together, and as the 



15 



