90 *TWIXT WALL AND BUSH. 
ground, and climbed back again only when 
the danger was past. 
Her next move was to walk backwards and 
forwards over her tight-rope half-a-dozen times, 
paying out line all the while, and making the 
strand six thick. 
Then from the twig to another higher up 
she repeated the process, and from that twig 
back to the wall, and from thence down to 
her original standing-place. Thus she had 
formed a rough square of many-times-thick, 
very strong lines. 
She then very quickly spun straight lines 
from various points of the square to the centre, 
as it were a wheel, and, just where the hub 
would be, she connected these ‘spokes’ together 
with little separate lines. None of these lines 
so far spun was sticky. 
At this juncture a brilliant, metallic-hued 
sand-wasp shot up from nowhere, and, seizing 
her, tried to jerk her off her line to the 
ground, to sting and carry her away to its 
own horrible larder. But the surprise attack 
failed; the spider hung on and bit, and the 
wasp skipped buzzing away to try elsewhere. 
Five minutes our spider took to get over 
that fright, and then, starting at her web a 
little way outside the ‘hub,’ she began to spin 
a spiral line, round and round from spoke to 
