168 GRIMALKIN THE CAT 
skylark on the hill believed that he saw the false 
dawn, and rose singing to meet it ; and a cuckoo in 
the valley awoke and fluted drowsily. Out in the 
woods the ways of men seem very small and far 
away. Grimalkin looked round. ' Prr-r-eaow ! ' 
he cried, which being interpreted is : ' O my love, 
the desirable one ' ; and the cuckoo's voice mingled 
with the murmur of the river. Zoe's doubts fled. 
She forgot her former life, and all the kindness which 
she had always received from man. Grimalkin was 
calling and her heart went out to him Knockdane 
was calling and she obeyed it. She followed her 
mate to his lair. 
At the beginning of July Zoe left Grimalkin 
altogether. Now and then he caught a glimpse of 
her, but she always fled from him as though he 
had been some dangerous thing, and for many 
nights he hunted alone. 
Years before, a south-westerly gale had driven 
in from the Atlantic, and ploughed a deep furrow 
through the fir grove at the top of Knockdane, 
piling the snapped trunks on one another. Nobody 
moved them, and they lay there in rotting heaps ; 
but their fall let in the sunshine and rain to the 
earth, and the next summer a multitude of plants 
grew up where previously had been nothing but 
