GRIMALKIN THE CAT 155 
clearings. Grimalkin, unlike the men below, had 
a bird's-eye view of the place, and just before the 
line of beaters came abreast of it a rabbit hopped 
out of a runway. His white necklet proclaimed 
that he was the Collared Buck. He sat up upon 
his curious hare-like tail, and peered through the 
bushes. Just then another shot was fired, and a 
luckless rabbit close by crawled screaming through 
the fern. The Collared Buck made up his mind 
he rolled over limply upon his back and lay still. 
The beaters came up and began to whack the 
bushes, but he never twitched a whisker, and he 
might have escaped notice altogether had not one 
man caught sight of his white gorget gleaming in 
the grass, and walked over to pick up, as he con- 
sidered, the dead rabbit. The Collared one lay like 
a stone until a hand was put out to seize him, then 
he suddenly leaped sideways and ran for his life. 
Bang ! bang ! bang ! he bolted down the whole 
line of guns, and each fired as he passed ; but 
although the shot clipped twigs from the bushes all 
round him, he ran on unscathed. Just out of shot 
he paused, and then quietly and deliberately crept 
down an adjacent burrow, leaving the sportsmen 
the poorer of self-respect and 
cartridges. 
After this the weather 
