knew who did not seem to be scandalized past
speech at the fact. Indeed, he went farther. He came upon a ripple
and a dot, some fifty yards farther on, which to the initiated such as
he, represented a water-vole ("rat," if you will) swimming.

Then, before you could take your pipe from your mouth to exclaim, the
water-vole was not swimming. He was squealing in a most loud and
public-spirited fashion from between Pharaoh's jaws, and it was the cat
who was swimming. He had just taken a flying leap from the bank and
landed full upon the dumbfounded water-vole--splash! Then he swam
calmly ashore and dined, all wet and cold. Now, what is one to say of
such a cat?

[Illustration: "Landed full upon the dumbfounded water-vole--splash!"]

III

Long did the keepers, in Colonel Lymington's woods and along the
hedges, search with dog and gun for Pharaoh, and many traps did they
set. The dogs truly found a cat--two cats, and the guns stopped them,
but one had a nice blue ribbon round his neck, and the other had
kittens; the traps were found by one cat--and that was the pet of the
colonel's lady--one stoat, one black "Pom"--and that was the idol of
the parson's daughter--and one vixen--and she was buried secretly and
at night--but Pharaoh remained where he had chosen to remain, and he
remained also an enigma.

Then the colonel's rare birds began to evaporate in real earnest.
Hawkley's little efforts at depleting them were child's-play to those
of Pharaoh that followed, although, of course, Pharaoh himself did not
know, or care the twitch of a whisker, whether the birds he slew were
rare or not.

Now, if there was one thing more than another about which the colonel
prided himself in his bird sanctuary, it was the presence of the
bittern. I don't know where the bittern came from, nor does the
colonel. Perhaps the head-keeper knew. Bitterns migrate sometimes,
but--well, that keeper was no fool, and knew his master's soft spot.

It was a night or two later that Pharaoh surmounted the limit, so to
speak, and "sprung all mines in quick succession." He had been curled
up all day in his furze fortress, that vast stretch of prickly
impenetrability which, even if a dog had been found with pluck enough
to push through to its heart, would still, in its massed and tangled
boughs, have given a cat with Pharaoh's fighting prowess full chance to
defy any dog.

He was beautifully oblivious of the stir his previous doings had ki