LAND AND WATER 
May 15, 1915. 
flesh and skin. Courage I The cord was fraying, stretching, 
parting. Her eyes Bwam in a mist of blood; froth slavered 
from her lips; her fur was matted, sweat-drenched. Again 
the ghastly spinning of herself. The twisted tendons roped as 
one, and once more the cock crew. Her teeth ? Her teeth 
were her last hope. Fiercely, magnificently, she turned them 
on herself, sawed her own living flesh with them, mumbled 
and gnawed till the trapped wrist hung by one silver tendon. 
A last fierce bite, a last fierce wrench — Man would not 
take her this time. Three-legged she vanished in the gloom, 
nor cast a glance behind. 
Dawn rose from yellow shroud of mist, a wrinkled, 
haggard, spectre dawn. The gin held fast its spoil— the 
twisted pulp of flesh and fur, the oblation to Man's 
sovereignty. 
Down mournful hedgerows dripping tear.'f of snow, 
dragged Fuseline, three-footed, smudging a crimson trail. 
Now that the sRcrifice was past, her force, her energy 
collapsed. 
Blindly she dragged, unconsciously, until across the 
clouding of her brain flashed Instinct's lightuin<» warning— 
Sleep or Die. ° 
She checked her perilous open course; she whipped 
through thorny hedgegap; through trellis-work of leafless, 
trailing bramble. 
She reached a snow-capped drift of leaves, in whose soft, 
feathery pile hor feet sank deep. 
She coiled on it to lick her wound, and then to doze, and 
then to sleep-a sleep profound, nerve-, tendon-, muscle- 
laxmg; a sleep in which her warm young blood coursed heal- 
ing, soothing, mending. 
Twelve hours she slept, and, waking, licked her wound 
afresh, and crept to the hedge-bozden' She gazed? she 
hstcned ; ins inct-taught .he mapped a bee-line to her home 
boftly Ehe moved, bent low to earth, snaking her head 
between the tufts of grass. -".iiing nei nead 
And when she reached her alder-stump, she swarmed it 
S bS V"P^^'"f f ^'' ^''^^'' ^-Pit« the weakening loss 
of blood she gained her hole, and flung to its embrace, as 
tired-out child flings to a woman's lap. 
Six days the alder held her. Hour after hour she Ucked 
her stump— and fever was her food. 
shoui^er^^'* Je issued grid of skin and bone, owl-eyed, droop- 
ir^Ht'flrt^.: ''^ ^"PP^^ -^°- -^-^^7 'trengthen's 
But nothing now could drag her to the village, nor evea 
Her forest was sufficient. She waited for the Spring 
rhe^Spnng would bring the buds again, and, with thXdf; 
And, in two tepid nights. Spring came 
«„. I w^ ^*°g»ard soon sped northward. But after them 
would travel the main army, to quarter on the forest end t™ 
end, to plot a web of joy, and love, and music 
ihrus?r:ist/^f fbe^^eirsngr }" "^f '• t^ 
.ca^d^to attack bewildered dov^/j, ^^^^ S^tS 
p^.n,ter^irs;,EX sSi -^-^ - 
The weeks would shape their ordered course. She looked 
rtalked^ ''"''"^' '°^ '^'^''''^ -orning-scnted; 'event;' 
rr.;r,^r^ T^*^ 7^^ ^^''^' '^°°^ ^''«"«<J *» l>»d. The green 
lach th"£rLldt "'''' ^--^-fte^y of the sunsline 
tenanted '^' '^'^ ^'''''' ^^''^ ^1*°™ ^as 
As whim impelled her, Fuseline fed 
sioft'rsr fiT' "" ^''^'"^ '^°" "' ''^^"^^«' -"-«-- 
Blackbirds were easy twilight nrav Tli..,, ^=- i j i 
Unseen she slipped beneath them. The bird san<, nn . 
«be wormed six inches further; the shrtlhng ceaseSf she' 
checked and closed her eyes. What was she but a shadow in 
the tangle; a thickening of the knotted trunk to which she 
clung close-welded f 
And presently she gauged her leap, and seized her scream, 
ing prey, and stilled its screaming. 
Yet for such chase her skill was sorely hampered. 
The loss of limb meant slower leap, meant balance less 
assured. Often she missed, and screech of fright alarumed 
through the wood— the prelude of long weary wait in ambush. 
The last slow blossoms of the oak yielded to May's warm 
sun. In robe of green the Forest met her Lord, in robe of 
green ablaze with virid gems, with emeralds, beryls, chryso- 
at-es, with tourmalines, with jacinths. 
• The insect hum innumerable, the whisper of the burgeon- 
ing leaf, echoed, in drowsy undertones, the music of Spring's 
wooing. ^ " 
The birds' song was a livelier acclamation. 
• . '^^"^ ^''^^ th" *''■ ^^^^ pipings, twitterings, churrings 
with whistle-calls, with bubblings, chirrupings, sizzlings 
And Fusehne picked her course unheard, and reached the 
thrush 8 nest unseen. 
The mother bird, deep sunk in the nest's hollow, spread 
ruffling feathers to conceal her brood. But not for fear of 
i5 useline, though fear stared from her haunted eyes. A bird 
of prey had sighted her. He rode at anchor in the blue, sway- 
ing, yet holding station. Her eves had felt his eyes. In.stinct 
restrained her motionless, and bade her shield her brood with 
her own body. 
A pipe of call-notes from the wood proclaimed the enemy 
sighted. ^ 
The stragglers flocked together. The crows cawed hoarse- 
toned signals tree to tree, made plain the danger, shirked 
attack Let hira attack them first— and they would meet him 
u /^"^^^'■'* ^°°^^ no heed of them. His eyes were on 
the thrush. He swooped, but never reached her. 
He checked to grip the nearest branch. One claw held 
him in station, its fellow twitched in air. His neck stretched 
out, his curving beak gaped challenge at his rival. 
And Fuseline reared face of hate against him, and snarled 
lier lips, and bared her teeth, and flashed his challenge back. 
Between them cowered the mother thntsh, deep in the 
hollow of her nest, a beak, a tail, two frozen eyes, shielding 
her brood beneath herself, stilling the pipings of distress which 
lier own heart-throbs warranted. 
So Greek met Greek, the bird of prey, the beast of prey 
across a common victim. Their eyes glanced hatred, clashed 
like swords. 
And Fuseline struck home the first. 
mark^'^" ^^''^ '^^ ^°°^^^ '° "'"' '"^^ "^^"^ ^^^ *'^'^'*®*^ ^° <^^» 
Full weight she struck the breast-bone of the Buzzard, 
and jerked him, hke a squirrel, from his bou<rh. 
fhrn.SfT'T'''*^'^-^*'*/"^ '° "^« «''•' P°»»g«'J crashing 
her £ ^'^'' "' ^°'''^^ ^^^ h^l'^ ^nd gripped 
fli-ht^^^"'*'^''^ ^^ '^*'''^*^ heavily, his burden dragging at his 
His vengeance should come later. 
fl,« ^^'■'**^' sfa^ken, spun in dizzying, airy spirals, tossed on 
the windy ocean of the sky, the beast would surely sicken 
Then his crooked beak should drive at it. 
But this was not to be. 
At first the pendulous rocking swing, the parting from 
earth's solid base, bewildered, palsied Fuselme 
Eyes closed, she dangled limply, unconscious of the 
deepening gulf between her and her world 
th« S^t^^^'^A^^l f ' 7'^^^ *^°"'' i^f'iriate, gnashing at 
the claws, and. before beak could aim at her, reached the 
broad breast, and fastened with her teeth 
r>n„ \^"f 1°^ ^^°''^ ^f^^-°'^ spouting from the wound. As 
back * '''°^'' ^^" ^"^^^"-^ th^^'^ l^i« I'ead 
His talons slackened, loosed their 
hung dangling from her tooth-hold. 
But with a twist, she swung aloft, and, planting claws 
deep .n the feathered flanks, mumbled the ble;dhig! qufverin ' 
fle.sh, and burrowed to the heart. ^ 4"^verin^ 
• .1.'^"'"^ Tr *'l'^ ^■^^'*°' clinched on her, stiffened this time 
in throes of death stabbing her lungs, hJr entrails 
Upwards the huge bird ..oared, his supreme effort spent in 
flight, up, up, towards the Sun. euoit, speni in 
And suddenly hia pinions drooped. He swayed he 
swung, he foundered. "vvdyea, ne 
jrip, and Fuseline 
struckt^SfrJLTs 1.'^^' '™^"'^^*' '^° -™<^ -^- 
''"^"^ '' ^"' Vxcxoiu. Hous, PKiKxa^o Co.. Lxo.. Tudor S treet. VViiitefriara. London. KC. 
