Part 7

Scarcely were my eyes back on the pool before he landed on the islet, where he stood with the water dripping from his brindled coat, whilst with nostrils raised he sniffed the air. As I watched him through the stems, I became aware that he winded me; and when I saw him take to the water and head straight; for my hiding-place, I stole silently but swiftly away and, fearful of trusting to the muddy bed of the stream, committed myself to the bog.

I trod its treacherous surface as lightly as I could, but because of the smallness of my feet I kept breaking through the crust, and made only slow progress. Nevertheless I succeeded in getting farther than I expected before the hound sighted me. As soon as he did he burst through the rushes and, making a tremendous spring, landed within a few yards of where I was struggling with the mire.

This wild leap of his saved me. Had he been content to follow at his best pace, the chances are that he would have caught me before I could reach the bank of the river; but now, through the violence of his fall, he was so deeply embedded that I gained many yards before he could extricate himself. Indeed, by the time he had done so I had reached the more liquid part of the morass where I had all but foundered at sunrise. With the double danger threatening me, I exerted myself even more than then; but, madly as I struggled, my progress was not nearly as fast as that of the hound, now overhauling me. It was horrible to hear this murderous fiend whimpering and whining in his eagerness to get at me, and to feel that I was scarcely advancing at all. I was like a fox in a nightmare, only I was never more wide awake in my life. Fright however kept urging me on, and to my joy I at last felt firmer ground under my feet.

The bank gained, I turned my head for an instant, and saw my pursuer seemingly stuck in the treacherous mud-belt; but I did not waste precious time watching him. That he still reckoned me his I felt sure; that I should escape I had little hope; nevertheless, I meant to do my utmost to save my life. I galloped down-stream close to the water's edge, took the otter's path across the neck of the bend, swam the river, and on landing plunged into the great reed-brakes.

On, on I went at my full speed, driven by mortal fear. I knew I was not yet out of danger. Here a wild-duck rose in affright, there a moorhen scurried out of my way; but I kept straight on past clumps of osmunda ferns and flags, and across backwaters till at last, after swimming a maze of water-ways, I came to the grassy promontory that flanks the inflow of the river into the mere.

For a moment I stood there irresolute. Should I take to the water or trust to the bordering reeds? Whilst I hesitated, I thought I heard the hound coming, and the next instant dropped into the stream. Partly by swimming, but chiefly by the aid of the current, I succeeded in reaching the nearest islet of the little archipelago that studded the rippled expanse. There I hoped to find refuge from my relentless pursuer.

I had arrived only just in time, for, peeping through the sedgy growth that covered my hiding-place, I saw the hound gallop to the end of the promontory and stand gazing over the wide surface. Then he withdrew to the brake that rose like a lofty wall about the mere. I could trace his progress by the rising of the wild-fowl whose sanctuaries he invaded, and later by the glimpse I got of the angered swan swimming defiantly across the narrow opening of a big creek about which the array of reeds was densest. I saw no further sign of the brute that had so rudely violated the summer peace of the fenland, but wisdom seemed to dictate that I should look elsewhere for a more peaceful home.

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Transcriber's note:

Page 12: Changed "night" to "nights." (Orig: And how short those night were!)

Page 20: Changed "crusing" to "cruising." (Orig: crusing restlessly up and down the turf)

Page 23: Changed "noes" to "noses." (Orig: turned up our noes at such food)

Page 37: Changed "exhilirating" to "exhilarating." (Orig: It was most exhilirating to be wandering)

Page 40: Changed "thristing" to "thirsting." (Orig: stealthy enemy thristing for its blood)

Page 42: Changed "lucious" to "luscious." (Orig: every bit of the lucious morsel)

Page 53: Changed "malard" to "mallard." (Orig: a loud quack the malard disappeared)

Page 53: Changed "mallord" to "mallard." (Orig: How he enjoyed the mallord,)

Page 67: Changed "nothinginess" to "nothingness." (Orig: dwarf into nothinginess the annoyances)

Page 71: Changed "manteled" to "mantled." (Orig: skimmed the brake that manteled the steep slope)

Page 74: Changed "pursurers" to "pursuers." (Orig: I should be able to elude my pursurers)

Page 76: Changed "rocognized" to "recognized." (Orig: he rocognized the bedraggled cub)

Page 81: Changed "grievious" to "grievous." (Orig: Chief of these are the grievious losses)

Page 92: Changed "be" to "he." (Orig: killed by the pack; be was the man who,)

Page 103: Changed "waching" to "watching." (Orig: It was bitter work waching with the gale in your teeth,)

Page 132: Changed "pursurer" to "pursuer." (Orig: and saw my pursurer seemingly stuck)