RED SLAYER AND THE TERROR 257 
tion. He never entered or left his burrow across 
the open snow, but always by way of the stone 
wall and the fence below or the woods above. 
Yet the Terror was unpredictable, and unsmell- 
able. 
The end came when Red Slayer was engaged 
in the (for him) harmless occupation of skinning 
a mouse not eight feet from his wall, at a point 
where a single spring would carry him into an 
impregnable cave. ‘There were no trees near. 
The sky above was free of birds. Not a wing 
marred the rosy flecks of dawn clouds. Red 
Slayer had just lifted his head to see. 
But what he did not reckon on was the fact 
that the stone wall cut off a certain part of the 
celestial are from his lowly view-point. The 
Terror, flying low toward the wall, simply flowed 
up over it, and struck. This time the body of 
Red Slayer was between his own black tail tip 
and the dark body of the mouse. The mouse 
held the bird’s eye as well as the tail. He 
sprang—but it was too late. The talons sank 
into his beautiful white fur, into his slim, sleek 
body. The Red Slayer was slain. 
