CHAPTER III. 



BADGERS AND OTTERS. 



HAZELHURST was a long line of woodland, on 

 one side skirted by the sea and on the other 

 by a crumbling limestone escarpment. It was 

 woodland, too, with the deep impress of time 

 upon it a forest primeval. The branches and 

 boles of the oaks were tortured out of all 

 original conception. Save for colour they might 

 have been congealed water or duramen muscles. 

 Down in the hollows there was deep moss, 

 elastic and silent, over all. For centuries the 

 pines had shed their needles undisturbed. These 

 and the pine trunks sent up a sweet savour from 

 the earth an odour that acted as a tonic to the 

 whole being. There were sun-flashes in the 

 glades, where the jays chattered and the cushats 

 cooed, and where ever and anon a rabbit 

 rustled through. Often over these the kestrel 

 hung and vibrated its shadow on the spot be- 

 neath ; or the sparrow-hawk with its clean-cut 

 figure stared with the down on his beak on a dead 



D 



