254 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



exact position lie always was in wlien tied up — liis 

 head and neck out of his house, and watching my 

 movements as usual. On seeing me he never stirred, 

 the .pheasants were all round him, and he lay as 

 usual, watching the ojoeration of feeding them. 

 When that was over, on crossing from the lawn 

 to the front door, catching my eye, Nep got up 

 in a peculiarly gentle manner, and, turning round, 

 went back into the inmost recess of his kennel, 

 and coming out again, with his bright yellow eyes 

 flashing with fidelity and pleasure, I saw that he 

 held in his mouth the half of a freshly-killed 

 rabbit. The head and shoulders of the rabbit were 

 gone, the back and haunches of it only remained. 

 This half of the rabbit he presented to me, with an 

 expression of delight it is impossible to describe. 

 Of course his gift was accepted with well-expressed 

 pleasure ; and then we set to work to hold, as it 

 were, an inquest, to find out how he (the rabbit) 

 died. The fur showed no blood; there had been 

 no heavy grasp across the loins, such as the mouth 

 of a large dog would have made ; and at once I 

 suspected that the rabbit had been killed by a cat. 

 However Nep might have become possessed of it, 

 it was evidently killed and divided in a cat-like 



