56 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 
the other, which accounted for the last set of marks 
perpendicular to those in front. A line of tracks 
which came from a pile of stones, and paralleled 
the rabbit’s trail, told the whole story. The paw- 
marks were small and dainty, but beyond each 
pad-print were the marks of fierce claws. No wonder 
the rabbit ran wild when it first scented its enemy, 
and then saw its long slim body bounding along be- 
hind, white as snow except for the black tip of its tail. 
It was the weasel, whose long body moves like the 
uncoiling of a steel spring. A weasel running looks 
like a gigantic inch-worm that bounds instead of 
crawls. Speed, however, is not what the little white 
killer depends on for its prey. It can follow a trail 
by scent better than any hound, climb trees nearly 
as well as a squirrel; and if the animal it is chasing 
goes into a burrow, it has gone to certain death. 
The rabbit’s only chance would have been a straight- 
away run at full speed for miles and hours. In this 
way it could probably have tired out the weasel, 
which is a killer, not a runner, by profession. A 
rabbit, however, like the fox, never runs straight. 
Round and round in great circles it runs about its 
feeding-ground, of which it knows all the paths and 
runways and burrows. Against a dog or fox these 
are safer tactics than exploring new territory. 
Against a weasel they are usually fatal. 
It was easy to see on the snow what had happened. 
At first, when the rabbit saw the weasel looping 
along its trail like a hunting snake, it had started off 
with a sprint that in a minute carried it out of sight. 
