Along a log it raced in undulating leaps; in the middle
it stopped as though frozen, to gaze intently into a bed of
sedge; with three billowy bounds its sleek form reached the
sedge, flashed in and out again with a mouse in its snarling
jaws; a side leap now, and another squeaker was squeakless, and
another. The three were slain, then thrown aside, as the brown
terror scanned a flight of ducks passing over. Into a thicket of
willow it disap- peared and out again like an eel going through
the mud, then up a tall stub where woodpecker holes were to be
seen. Into the largest it went so quickly Rolf could scarcely see
how it entered, and out in a few seconds bearing a flying
squirrel whose skull it had crushed. Dropping the squirrel it
leaped after it, and pounced again on the quivering form with a
fearsome growl; then shook it savagely, tore it apart, cast it
aside. Over the ground it now undulated, its shining yellow
breast like a target of gold. Again it stopped. Now in pose
like a pointer, exquisitely graceful, but oh, so wicked! Then
the snaky neck swung the cobra head in the breeze and the brown
one sniffed and sniffed, advanced a few steps, tried the wind and
the ground.
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