HAUNTS OF THE OTTER 53 



her kittens. It might be long before one came upon 

 such a sight as that again. 



Suddenly a shot is heard coming from some place 

 of concealment near at hand. One cub falls over on 

 his back, dead, with his feet drawn up as if still at 

 play, shot through the heart. Mother otter knows 

 that sound, she has heard it before, but to the little 

 ones it is new ; and the other one thinks the brother 

 is only at his gambols, and plays about round him ; 

 the mother grips him by the nape of the neck, but it 

 is in vain, for out from the cover runs a man. Only 

 when he rushes at her and raises his gun to strike her 

 with the butt-end does she let go her hold and dash 

 into the river. The poor little cubs had never seen a 

 human being before, and the remaining one does not 

 attempt to bite when his captor picks him up ; he 

 only cries most piteously for his mother. The whole 

 proceeding is distasteful to me, but I must not say 

 so, as I am only here on sufferance, the other by 

 right. 



' I'll have her ! see if I don't, before many minutes 

 are over.' Taking a piece of string from his pocket 

 he ties it round the cub's neck, and tethers the poor 

 little animal to a peg in the ground. ' You come this 

 way into the bushes.' 



Left to himself, the cub gives free vent to his 



