CHAPTER III 
FIRST BLOOD 
Vix lay under a bush with her brush curled round 
her nose and eyes. Only her ears, ever wakeful 
and alert, kept watch while she slept. It was 
six o'clock, and a still misty morning with a heavy 
dew over everything. Close by lay Redpad with 
his nose on his pads ; but he slept more lightly 
than Vix, for he had eaten less than she had done 
after their hunting. Thus he was the first to wake 
at the sound of a yelp in the valley. He sat up 
with a whimper and looked at his mother. He 
expected her to leap up, but she only stretched 
out her forelegs lazily and closed her eyes again. 
Perhaps her heavy meal at dawn had blunted the 
senses which as a rule gave her such timely warning 
of danger. Redpad could neither see nor smell 
anything suspicious, but those noises had con- 
vinced him that all was not right. He cast a last 
look at Vix, and then trotted away among the 
bushes. 
Presently he met an old badger plodding along. 
The badger was glancing back every now and then 
at the sound of a ' yow-yow-yow ' in the valley ; and 
by and by a hare scudded past in a panic. All 
the while the clamour was drawing nearer, and 
