Chapter II. 
CRABS. 
PROWLING on the seashore one evening, I espied 
another prowler, and he espied me, and avoided me as 
the burglar avoids the policeman. He did not run away, 
but just deflected his course a little, took advantage of 
a dip in the sandy beach, got behind a growth of screw 
pines and was not there. It was getting too dark to 
see clearly, but by these tactics I knew that he was a 
jackal. He had come down in the hope of catching a 
few crabs for his supper. Scarcely had he got himself 
away when, with a shrill squeak and a scrambling rush, 
a fat musk rat escaped from my foot into a heap of 
