RED SLAYER AND THE TERROR 247 
sense telling him danger was near. Even as Red 
Slayer sprang, the rabbit leapt, also. But he 
was too late. The weasel’s teeth were fastened 
in his neck. Red Slayer had just missed his aim 
at a vital artery, however, because of the rabbit’s 
spring, and the two went down on the snow, leap- 
ing and thrashing about, the rabbit kicking at his 
own neck frantically with his powerful hind feet, 
and Red Slayer engaged in the twofold occupa- 
tion of hanging on and avoiding the blows of 
those feet. The snow grew red. The weasel 
needed all his snake-like litheness to maintain him- 
self, and work his hold over to the vital artery. 
But he succeeded, and the rabbit ceased from 
struggling with a last convulsive kick. Then 
Red Slayer feasted. 
But, meantime, the other three rabbits, terri- 
fied by Red Slayer’s coming, a creature hardly a 
quarter their size, had leapt frantically out of the 
tangle of bushes, knowing that they were safer in 
the open than in a region where the weasel could 
slip through with a speed as great as their own. 
Had it been a dog or a fox pursuing them, they 
would have dashed into the bushes instead. A 
