254 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
was a menace in the air above which he could 
never ignore, never forget. He could never cross 
the open fields in safety, he could never let him- 
self get far from cover. 
When next he ventured out he went down 
to the road by the wall, and up the road un- 
der cover of the fence and roadside brambles, 
and finally reached a hen yard just in time to 
see the Terror suddenly drop from over the 
screen of a tree, pick up a big rooster which 
must have weighed much more than he did, and 
bear it instantly aloft, while the startling flash 
and roar of the farmer’s gun, from a corner of 
the barn, did not come till he was well in the air 
again, and affected his flight not at all. The 
sight so soon again of his new enemy, the ’roused 
barnyard, the stinging smell of powder, the pres- 
ence of men, all conspired to send Red Slayer 
slinking off, without any attempt to get a meal of 
chicken or duck or young turkey. Instead, he 
went a long way into the woods, searching for 
mice or rabbits, and spent the next day far from 
his burrow, and resumed the search after a rest 
in a hollow stump. He had picked up a fresh 
