THE WATER-HEN 
diver's work, that; half the time she lay with 
her head under water. 
On her way back she had premonitions of 
disaster. Surely that was not a twig which 
dangled from the nest brim ? She took wing, 
and bounced into the nest on top of the rat. 
He, cowering under buffeting wings and claws, 
had no choice but to defend himself. He 
knew that he might as well have bitten on a 
cuirass as on her close breast feathers, but as 
she turned on her back to strike, as moorhens 
will, his teeth nipped under her wing. Cearc- 
uise flung herself into the water, and the rat, 
glad to escape so easily, dived away at once, 
while she swam screaming up and down the 
Pool. 
She dared not go back to the nest. All the 
hunters from Grenogue to the river knew about 
it. It was a pillory where they might watch 
her meaningly where she sat, as they waited 
while her protector, the water, dwindled. The 
trees were in leaf now, and shut off what little 
light was reflected from the sky to the Pool. 
The surface of the water was as smooth as 
pitch and as black, but even in the darkness 
Cearc-uise dared not go back to that nest. 
The second rat slipped through the water with 
scarcely a ripple, but she felt the gentle current 
of his passage. Every fibre in her had been 
B 17 
