THE BOOK OF THE OTTER 



will hear much about otters and their doings, a 



great deal of which information, however, he will 



take with the proverbial pinch of salt. Half the 



people you meet, even those who live near rivers, 



have never seen an otter, although there are, of 



course, certain individuals whose information is to 



be depended on. These are few and far between, 



however, and the wise Master will trust to his own 



powers of observation, rather than to reports of 



hypothetical otters, which in the end turn out to 



have been black cats, or some other animals seen 



near the water at dusk. 



Harking back to our hunting, however, hounds 



have marked their otter in his holt in a root or some 



other retreat, and the next job is to evict him. 



Hounds are called off and taken back out of sight 



in a nearby field, and the terriers come on the 



scene. Vic or Vengeance is sent in, and very 



soon there are sounds underground betokening 



" something doing." The barking ceases for a 



moment, and then a dark brown object glides out 



through the tangled roots, there is a slight splash, 



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