38 KING OF THE GARDEN. 
I don’t know how he avoided toppling 
backwards when the worm came away with 
a jerk, or how he managed to swallow it; 
but he did. 
Then all at once he nicked his head round, 
and seemed literally to hop up to a branch 
four feet above, so quickly did he execute 
the flight. And there he stayed, all tight- 
feathered and upright—a sure sign of alarm 
among birds. 
For a space there was silence. 'Then—oh, 
horrors !—two things happened at one and the 
same time. First, Mrs Rusty came dodging 
down in and out among the branches, and, 
alighting, seized a dead leaf which had 
mysteriously begun to walk about, and got 
the worm beneath. Second, two round, large, 
luminous balls of green-yellow light appeared 
in the shadow behind the rat, floating in space, 
it seemed—drifting aimlessly. 
The rat came through the grass-tuft straight 
at Mrs Rusty. And behind the rat, and un- 
known to it, came the owner of the floating, 
luminous eyes—a cat. 
It was a strange collision. Mrs Rusty, 
tumbling backwards; Rusty himself, his beak 
driven with fine precision at the corner of the 
rat’s right eye; the cat, her nose knocking 
Rusty spinning as she grabbed at the rat; 
