THE MIGHTY DREAD. 225 
fighters than of anything else, and _ persisted 
in running away, and they, suspicious of un- 
known rivals, were perforce obliged to break 
off the battle each time and follow her. 
When they had cornered her, they went at it 
hammer and tongs again. Judging by appear- 
ances, she seemed to fear that the conqueror 
might be so enraged, or see so red, that he 
would set to and slay her. Yet appearances, 
in the wild, are unsafe to judge by, for there 
were times when she ignored, or seemed to 
ignore, the duellists altogether. Also, it was 
a long fight, because they had to bite upwards, 
more or less like sharks; because, too, they 
always wonderfully managed to meet the foe’s 
chisel teeth with their own; and because they 
were so amazingly nimble—never there, but 
somewhere else. Sometimes they lost each 
other and the ‘ flapper’ too, and then the little 
pulsating motor noses worked overtime, I can 
tell you. 
Finally, our little friend, after getting his 
side branded red with a cross like unto that of: 
a hot-cross bun, got in a lucky side-slash at his 
rival’s throat. It was a nasty, sliding cut with 
the razor-sharp incisors, and it drew blood in 
a spurt, like sticking a miniature pig. 
I do not know precisely where it landed, or 
if it cut the necessary jugular vein or not; 
