jaws to fly up, it must act on the same diabolical principle. Something is set loose by it—something that flies out to where the meat is, and kills the fox that is eating it. Something—but what? No matter; whatever it is, it is death. It comes and it kills, and it can only come from that long, ominous-looking tube, which is hollow at one end, and only one. Just from that end it was—quite a long way in front of the trigger—that the flame of fire flashed out. To be in front of that, then, and to pull the string, is death; but once behind it, the string may be pulled with impunity. Still, there is the trigger. To be behind that must be safer still, and if the string can be gnawed so as not to pull the trigger at all, that will be the safest of all. As for the string, there is no danger in _it_. It is to start the trap merely. It is not the trap itself. _That_ is obvious. Even a cub might see that. The whole thing lies in the trigger. If you pull that, you let off the trap: but if you can gnaw through the string without pulling it, you can take the meat without the trap going off, or if you can let the trap off without its hurting you, you can take the meat afterwards. It may be thought that not even foxes, though they are known to be cunning, could reason in this way; but if facts are to be taken as evidence, they must reason still more strongly. Not only do they draw the conclusion that to be behind the muzzle of the gun is to be in safety, but they even adopt a plan by which they are able, with almost equal safety, to go up to the meat and let the gun off, by taking it in their mouth. In the latter case, of course, the string need not be cut at all—except, indeed, afterwards, to eat the meat—but when it has to be, it is always that part of it which is near the trigger, that the fox gnaws through. This shows plainly that the danger must be connected in the animal’s mind not only with the string and trigger, but with the muzzle of the gun; but though it must, therefore, know that, being where it is the gun might be fired with impunity, the fox, having decided to sever the string before seizing the bait, does not do this, but leaves the trigger still on the cock. Now, as it must be as easy to gnaw through the string without discharging the gun, at one part as at another, it must be as a precaution against a possible accident that the fox does so at a point where, if it did go off, it could not hurt him: since it assures itself doubly, it cannot be said that it has not room for more than one idea in its head, at the same time.[17]