Several hours later the Master went to the woods to investigate,
followed by the rollicking Knave. At the forest edge the Master
shouted. A far-off bark from Lad answered. And the Master made his way
through shoulder-deep underbrush in the direction of the sound.
In a clearing he found Lady, her left forepaw caught in the steel jaws
of a fox-trap. Lad was standing protectingly above her, stooping now
and then to lick her cruelly pinched foot or to whine consolation to
her; then snarling in fierce hate at a score of crows that flapped
hopefully in the tree-tops above the victim.
The Master set Lady free, and Knave frisked forward right joyously to
greet his released inamorata. But Lady was in no condition to
play--then nor for many a day thereafter. Her forefoot was so
lacerated and swollen that she was fain to hobble awkwardly on three
legs for the next fortnight.
It was on one pantingly hot August morning, a little later, that Lady
limped into the house in search of a cool spot where she might lie and
lick her throbbing forefoot. Lad was lying, as usual, under the piano
in the living-room. His tail thumped shy welcome on the hardwood floor
as she passed, but she would not stay or so much as notice him.
On she limped, into the Master's study, where an open window sent a
faint breeze through the house. Giving the stuffed eagle a wide berth,
Lady hobbled to the window and made as though to lie down just beneath
it. As she did so, two things happened: she leaned too much weight on
the sore foot, and the pressure wrung from her an involuntary yelp of
pain; at the same moment a crosscurrent of air from the other side of
the house swept through the living-room and blew shut the door of the
adjoining study. Lady was a prisoner.
Ordinarily this would have caused her no ill-ease, for the open window
was only thirty inches above the floor, and the drop to the veranda
outside was a bare three feet. It would have been the simplest matter
in the world for her to jump out, had she wearied of her chance
captivity.
But to undertake the jump with the prospect of landing her full weight
and impetus on a forepaw that was horribly sensitive to the lightest
touch--this was an exploit beyond the sufferer's will-power. So Lady
resigned herself to imprisonment. She curled herself up on the floor
as far as possible from the eagle, moaned softly and lay still.
At sound of her first yelp, Lad had run forward, whining eager
sympathy. But the closed door blocked his way. He crouched, wretched
and anxious, before it, helpless to go to his loved one's assistance.
Knave, too, loping back from a solitary prowl of the woods, seeking
Lady, heard the yelp. His prick-ears located the sound at once. Along
the veranda he trotted, to the open study window. With a bound he had
cleared the sill and alighted inside the room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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