244 THE BIG BLOW. 
He knew the reputation of the breed, and had 
no wish to tace it. 
Then, quick as thought, before any could 
move, he flung himself up into the gale, and 
surrendered himself to it. In an instant half- 
a-dozen of the crows were up too, after him, 
but not for long, or far. To do what he had 
done was to commit suicide. They knew it, 
and had no intention of following suit, so 
dropped again quickly. There seems no 
reason to presume that he did not know 
it also. 
In a breath the howling inferno of the wind 
caught him, and before he could even so much 
as turn, he was out over the seething, chop- 
ping estuary. And there we may leave him. 
He never came back. I don’t know what 
happened to him in the end, but there is more 
than a suspicion that the gulls—who rarely 
miss much—were not ignorant. 
THE END. 
Edinburgh : 
Printed by W. & R. Chambers, Limited. 
