and
watchful protector. He had much desired to follow up the trail of
the two dingoes that escaped him, but he would not leave Jess long
enough at a time to make this possible. The wild folk of the bush
situated within a mile of the camp, however, became as much
accustomed to his presence as though he were in truth one of
themselves, so thoroughly and constantly did he patrol their range
during his guardianship of the wounded hound. In this period he
learned to know every twig in that strip of country, and
practically every creature that lived or hunted there. The snake
folk, brown, tiger, carpet, diamond, black, and death adder--he
came to know them all, from a very respectful distance; and he
studied their habits and methods of progression, and of hunting,
with the deepest interest.

For instance, on one occasion, towards evening, Finn saw a
carpet-snake pin a big kangaroo-rat, close to a fallen log. With a
swiftness which Finn's sharp eyes were unable to follow exactly,
the snake twisted two coils of his shining body round the marsupial
and crushed the little beast to death. Then, slowly, and as though
the process gave him great satisfaction, the snake worked his coils
downward, from the head to the tail of the kangaroo-rat, crunching
its body flat and breaking all its joints. Then, very slowly, the
snake took its victim's head between its jaws and, advancing first
one jaw and then the other, an eighth of an inch at a time, very
gradually swallowed the whole animal, the operation occupying
altogether a full ten minutes. When the snake had quite finished,
Finn leaped upon it from his hiding-place, killing the creature
with one snap of his jaws immediately behind the head. Finn's front
teeth actually met in the tail of the kangaroo-rat, which had only
reached thus far in its progress. Indeed, the tip of the tail was
still in the snake's mouth at the time, and Finn was perfectly
aware that in this condition the big reptile was not very
dangerous. Bill was just dismounting beside the gunyah when Finn
arrived, trailing just upon twelve feet of gorged snake beside him.

But this was only one small incident among the daily, almost
hourly, adventures and lessons which came to the Wolfhound during
this period of Jess's convalescence. He actually caught a
half-grown koala, or native bear, one hot afternoon, when Jess was
beginning to stroll about the clear patch; and, finding that the
queer little creature offered no figh