THE PEREGRINE FALCON 
hideous. Every day the man came to renew 
the food and water which were so rarely 
touched, and sometimes other men came and 
peered through the bars. lolar saw, without 
observing them. He seemed to have lived so 
long in that cage, and to have travelled such 
immense distances to arrive there, that at first 
he did not even feel afraid. All these things 
seemed to be part of the narrow painful exist- 
ence which was now his life. Only, at first 
he could neither eat nor stand. But Seumas 
Skerritt, who saw a way to turn one crown 
into two, rubbed his feet with whisky, set 
him by the fire to thaw his frozen limbs, and 
put raw meat and potheen down 
his throat. And whether it were 
this treatment, or his own hardy 
constitution, in a day or two he 
could stand unsteadily on claws 
maimed by frost-bite, and lan- 
guidly feed himself. 
He hated men, chickens and cats 1 
alike, shrinking up into the corner 
of the coop, with talons spread 
and ruffled feathers. He 
hated also Seumas Skerritt's 
fat quiet little boy, who 
made mud pies by himself 
in the yard. 
7 1 
