Page:Stalky and co - Kipling (1908).djvu/19

Rh down where only a cliff-rabbit could have found foot-hold. Great gray and black gulls screamed against the jackdaws; the heavy-scented acres of bloom round them were alive with low-nesting birds, singing or silent as the shadow of the wheeling hawks passed and returned; and on the naked turf across the combe rabbits thumped and frolicked.

'Whew! What a place! Talk of natural history; this is it,' said Stalky, filling himself a pipe. 'Isn't it ? Good old sea!' He spat again approvingly, and was silent.

M'Turk and Beetle had taken out their books and were lying on their stomachs, chin in hand, The sea snored and gurgled; the birds, scattered for the moment by these new animals, returned to their businesses and the boys read on in the rich, warm sleepy silence. 'Hullo, here's a keeper,' said Stalky, shutting Handley Cross cautiously, and peering through the jungle. A man with a gun appeared on the sky-line to the east. 'Confound him, he's going to sit down!' 'He'd swear we were poachin' too,' said Beetle. 'What's the good of pheasants' eggs? They're always addled.' Might as well get up to the wood, I'' think,' said Stalky. We don't want G. M. Dabney, Col., J.P, to be bothered about us so soon. Up the wuzzy and keep quiet! He may have followed us, you know.' Beetle was already far up the tunnel They heard him gasp indescribably: there was the