“MADNESS” AND THE OWL
In the evening it is brother Black’s turn!
Reckless as “Madness” was in the daytime, it was nothing to what he became when darkness fell. The moment the sun had set, his claws itched to be out on the warpath....
At first he captured maybugs and grasshoppers; but when the darkness began to gather he prepared for serious work. From the top of the turf-house roof or from the brow of some hill he peered out over the landscape, listening: were there “humans” or dogs about?
Worming and creeping between molehills and grass-stems he made his way, stopping at frequent intervals to look round or listen. Where did the lark go to bed? Where did the partridges assemble? He was not in the least afraid of weasels and stoats; he let fly at them with his claws, spitting and hissing....
One night when the sky is lowering and the clouds are scudding he goes out as usual. He moves along on his soft, noiseless paws like a part of the silent darkness itself. The owl over in the village copse hoots hideously, making other creatures rush into hiding; but Black does not hide; the sound makes his blood rage!
He steals into the copse, choosing the leafless places near the boundary hedge and along the paths. “Ow!” Now he will be quite lame and crippled; for he is compelled to remain motionless and silent at the very moment he steps on a sharp-pointed stone.
The next second he is crouching flat on the ground, his ears directed ahead.... Something is moving in front of him!
Oh, it is only the little baby hare which he has seen several times already! It gambols round him—until the owl dives out of the darkness and blots out the hare with its black wings. Then it utters that diabolical shriek again. Black goes mad; it calls to him, he feels; it pulls him ... and he hurls himself forward—to be reduced to sheer spitting and spluttering at the sight that confronts him.
A cat like himself, but with feathers and wings, rolls a beaked head forward out of the bundle before him! It hoots mournfully, like the wind sighing among the giant stones—and tears his nose with its claws....