THE FAMILY BROKEN UP
Sitting there, the cub watched the lurid afterglow fade, dusk creep over
the rough water, and the sky darken till a star appeared in a break
between the scudding wrack. Then he rose and listened. The waves broke
against the point, the reeds hissed, the breakers thundered on the bar,
but no call from his mother reached his eager ears. He was beginning to
fear she had deserted him when from across the mere came the shrill
summons. Immediately he dived and, rising almost at once, headed at
excited pace for the creek, where soon, to his delight, he viewed his
mother and sister swimming to meet him. The wild gambols that followed
in the midst of the mere did not last long, for there was hunting to be
done.
The quarry the otter had set her mind on were the pike frequenting the
reedy bays, towards the largest of which the hunters swam. Near a bed of
lilies they dived, and had not made half the circuit of the wall of
stems before they espied a pike. He had already seen them, and in an
instant the protruding muzzle was withdrawn as the fish backed into his
ambush. It afforded him no refuge from the pursuers, who drove him from
one to another of its recesses, and pressed him so closely that, as he
saw, to remain meant capture. Out he flashed and, had he made right away
and gained the heart of the mere, he would have escaped. But he sought
the shelter of another lily-bed almost within sight of the first, and
there the otters followed in unrelenting chase. Presently he was gripped
by the male cub, but, freeing himself, forsook the weeds for the water
outside, where, with distended jaws and fins erect, he darted now here,
now there, to avoid his harassing pursuers. All was in vain. He had
missed his earlier opportunities, and to escape in his exhausted
condition was impossible. Conscious of this and determined not to die
unavenged, he summoned his remaining strength, dashed at the otter,
seized her by the throat, and held on despite her struggles. This
however left him at the mercy of the cubs. Instantly they fastened on
his shoulders and, using their powerful rudders, tried to raise him to
the surface. Beating his tail, the fish for awhile succeeded in
resisting their efforts; but in the end he tired, and presently the
writhing mass came to the top of the lake and, rolling over and over,
showed now on the crest, now in the trough of the waves. There the otter
wrenched herself free and, half-throttled though she was, at once joined
in the attack. The three soon overpowered their prey and landed with it
at an opening in the reeds. Whilst they were dragging it from the
water’s edge a tremor passed through the fish. Immediately the hungry
hunters relaxed their hold, fell to and sliced and sliced and champed
and champed till wellnigh half the fish was eaten and the great backbone
showed. The feast over, they licked their chops, brushed their whiskers
against the stems and, taking to the water, played hide-and-seek amongst
the lilies.
The exultation they felt over their capture showed in their excited
gambols and in their wild rush through the reed-bed on their way to the
bar. They crossed this at a gallop to the edge of the tide, plunged into
the breakers and, reaching the quieter water beyond the surf, headed
straight for the great pile of rocks over which the spray was dashing in
clouds. On landing, they threaded the sobbing passages between the
boulders and gained the caves that honeycomb the cliff behind. There
they came on the remains of old feasts—fish bones, crab and lobster
shells—and on old nests made of reeds. One cave there was where the
muffled boom of the waves was broken by the tinkle of falling water, and
where the skeletons of otters whitened the floor on the edge of the
runlet that had worn a channel in the rock. Quickly leaving it, the
animals made their way back along the low, tortuous passage by which
they had entered and, passing through the outer caves, regained the
clitter. There they chased one another until they tired. Then they took
to the sea, reached the line of the breakers, and landed through the
welter as easily as, later, they landed on the bank of the mere by the
inflow. The otter was then leading her cubs to the withy-bed and to the
boggy ground between it and the old decoy, where she trod the water-mint
as she went.
So the hours of darkness were spent, and when the grey light told of
coming day otter and cubs slipped into the stream and drifted towards
the mere. On reaching the choppy water they fell to swimming, turned up
the sheltered creek, skirted the island where two of them had kennelled
the day before, and landed near a bramble brake, in which they curled up
side by side. The cubs soon slept, but the excitement of the journey to
the salmon river kept the otter awake longing for dusk, so eager was she
to cross the moors and reach the pools. She dropped asleep at last, but
awoke long before setting-out time and, whilst awaiting nightfall,
watched the angry sun go down and the clouds scud by close overhead.
Before it was quite dark she aroused the cubs, and made up the hilly
ground towards the heart of the moor. It was a wild night, but the fury
of the gale seemed to quicken the energies of the wanderers, for they
breasted the foothills at a pace beyond their wont and soon gained the
high plateau with its chain of pools, known to men as the Black Liddens.
These they swam as they came to them, passed to the heathery waste with
its old Stone Circle, and reached the marshy valley and the lazy stream
which supplies the mere. The wind had little force there—the thorns,
shaggy with lichen, stood motionless, even the bulrushes scarcely
stirred; but over a stagnant backwater a will-o’-the-wisp kept dancing
like a lantern swung by invisible hands. Splash! splash! the otters
crossed the shallow pool near the stream; and again, splash! splash!
they rushed through the shoal water beyond it before turning up the brae
that led to the wind-swept moor. On, on the untiring creatures sped,
more like agents of darkness executing some urgent commission than
beasts of prey speeding to a new fishing-ground. Mile after mile of the
desolate upland they traversed: at one spot skirting a cairn whence came
that weirdest of all wild cries, the shrill chattering of badgers; at
another, passing the only road over the moor, where they left their
footprints between the fresh wheel-marks of the doctor’s trap. A
sleeping hamlet rose almost in their path, and so close did they
approach that they heard the creaking of the signboard of the Druid’s
Arms, about which the cottages cluster. Then over wall after wall they
clambered as they came to the crofters’ holdings, reached the lodge of
the keeper who had been the otter’s terror when her cubs were helpless,
gained the edge of the moorland above the old nursery, made their way
down the very gully along which the hounds had followed the fox and,
leaping the stream close to the hover, came out on the salmon pool
beyond the poplar.
Eager to see whether the pool held a fish, the otter slipped into the
water and swam to the favourite lie near the foot of the fall. A salmon
was there, and towards it she advanced so swiftly that it seemed she
must fasten before it could become aware of her presence. But the fish
had been harried by otters on its way up from the estuary, and was
prepared for her coming. In a flash he was off downstream, leaving the
otter far in his wake. At the tail of the pool he swung round, raising a
big wave that greatly excited the cubs where they watched on the edge of
the bank. After a short interval the wave came again, and again, and
again. Later the salmon leapt clear of the white water near the fall.
And so the chase continued, until the otter, seeing how vain were her
unaided efforts, summoned the cubs to her assistance. In an instant they
slipped into the pool and joined in the pursuit.
Now wherever the salmon turns an otter meets him. Conscious of the
danger he is in, he rushes at the shallows in a daring attempt to reach
the waters below. His three enemies hurry after him, breaking the
surface in their desperate haste, and while he is still floundering the
otter closes and strives to grip him beneath the gills. No defence has
he but his slippery scales and the lashing tail that sweeps his foes
aside. But these avail, and before the teeth fasten in him he struggles
through to the deep water beyond, where he easily outdistances his
pursuers. Pool after pool he passes at his utmost speed, making for a
refuge that lies near the foot of the rapids. He had rested in it on his
way up the river, and now swings into it and stays there gasping, in
dread of discovery. The otters soon show on the top of the rushing
waters, which they search as they descend, ducking their heads, and yet
avoiding the rocks against which the current threatens to dash them. In
a few seconds they are close to the spot where the fish lies exhausted,
and surely one or other will get a glimpse of him. But no, the
sheltering rock befriends him, or the foaming waters amidst which he
lies. The hunters pass on; but he is not safe yet. If they draw the
rapids against the stream they can hardly miss him. But will they?
Apparently not—at least, not for the moment. They are going on, despite
the near approach of day. How carefully they examine the hollow banks
and recesses of the boulders, disdaining even the grilse they disturb,
in their expectation of yet getting the salmon! Beneath the gloomy pines
that form a vista towards the brightening east they swim, eager as ever.
But, clear of the trees, they all at once cease their quest and listen.
Some suspicious sound downstream has alarmed them. They are all ears
when, above the voice of the river and the wild rustling of the
tree-tops, the penetrating note again makes itself heard. It is the toot
of the horn. The twice-hunted otter dreads that sound above all sounds
save the cry of the hounds, and before it has died away she and the cubs
are in full retreat to the holt in the salmon pool. Only at long
intervals do they rise to vent before reaching the rapids, where they
leave the water and gallop up the bank, as if fear itself were at their
heels. At the top they re-enter the river, and so gain the shelter of
the alder-roots near the fall.
The cubs, feeling safe in the holt, make their toilet as usual; but the
otter listens, and before long catches the dreaded cry. Then the cubs
hear it too: they begin to share their mother’s alarm and, when the
swelling clamour tells of the close approach of their enemies, seek the
inmost recess of their refuge. Soon the hounds enter the pool and
cluster like maddened things about the holt. ‘A good solid mark,’ shouts
the doctor to the squire. ‘He’s there right enough.’ The foremost hounds
can see the otter where she stands hissing through her white teeth, but
they cannot reach her. So the hounds are called off that a terrier may
get at the quarry, and after a terrible fight he compels the otter to
take to the water. Shouts of ‘Heu gaz’ from the field greet the
appearance of the bubbles that betray her flight, and the next moment
the twelve couple of hounds are in pursuit towards the stickle, where a
dozen men or more stand foot to foot to prevent her from going
down-water.
[Illustration: HOUNDS SWIMMING AN OTTER. To face p. 78.]
Round and round the big pool swims the otter, rising now under the bank,
now amongst the hounds, narrowly escaping their jaws. Time after time
she returns to the cubs, but only to be ejected by one or other of the
terriers. At last, after being badly shaken by the hounds, she lands,
gallops round the line of men with the white terrier at her rudder, and
gains the water beyond. At amazing speed she follows the winding reaches
to the rapids, and even succeeds in gaining Longen Pool, famous in the
annals of the Hunt. However, the hounds again press her sorely, and
after a while she takes to the tangled coppice on the hillside,
traverses it, reaches an ancient hedgerow matted with bramble and thorn,
and there lies listening, trusting to have escaped pursuit. But she has
left a burning scent, and soon the cry of the pursuers warns her that
her hopes are vain. Nevertheless, as she is very weary, and as the pool
to which the hedge runs down offers no harbourage, she remains where she
is. But though the hounds soon wind her, the denseness of the thicket
hinders them from getting at her until the terriers force her to the
river. In the shallow water every eye can mark her where she swims and
note her shortening dives. The end is near. Presently Dosmary seizes her
as she rises, and the pack worries her life out.
That night, when the storm had passed, the miller heard the cries of two
otters in the tangled coppice beyond the orchard, and as he knocked the
ashes from his pipe before going indoors, said: ‘They’re missin’ her,
I’m thinkin’.’ He was right. It was the voice of the cubs calling for
their mother.
They were there again the next night, and the next; after that they gave
up the vain search and withdrew to the moorland.
It was well for the young creatures, thus thrown on their own resources,
that they were able to fend for themselves. Indeed, as has been seen,
the male cub had already shown signs of revolt against his mother’s
authority, and of a desire for independence.
He was free now, free to roam as he liked, to keep to the trail or leave
it as he pleased, to fish when and where he chose; for his sister had no
influence over him. Yet, for all his selfish, headstrong ways, he proved
a safe leader, his movements being inspired by the wariness of the
outlawed creature. He was a stickler for good hours, rising late and
couching early. He curbed his passion for wandering, and showed rare
judgment in the choice of hovers, selecting always with an eye to
strength and invariably shunning such as were not near deep water where
refuge might be sought in emergency. On sallying out he generally fished
upstream for a mile or two, gambolled till the night was nearly gone,
and then floated back with the current, shooting the rapids and lesser
falls on the way. Yet fear haunted both him and his sister, for they
carefully scrutinized every bush, rock, and bole that might harbour an
enemy, and their fears grew to terror once when they happened on the
remains of one of their kind recently killed by the hounds. On the
discovery they were at once all consternation, as their puffing and
blowing showed, and forthwith forsook the tributary for the river,
kennelling at the end of their hurried retreat in a hover below the
mill. They lay in this holt on the following day, but the next found
them ensconced under the bank of the weir pool at Tide End. There they
were waked towards noon by the tide, which rose and rose till it invaded
their quarters, and compelled them to seek refuge in the opposite bank,
where a young dog-otter was already lying up. Their coming startled him
not a little, but the moment he saw the new arrivals were otters like
himself he settled down again, and soon all three were sound asleep. At
dusk they journeyed on together and, after fishing and sporting in the
salmon pool below the morass, sought the roots of the alder. They lay
there again on the morrow, a morrow momentous in one of its
happenings—the separation of the cubs. For when, at setting-out time,
the male cub began moving up-water, his sister, till that moment the
most faithful of followers, turned her back on him and, with the strange
otter at her heels, struck into the wood. She had renounced the brother
for the lover. Is it possible, animal though she is, that she can
abandon the companion of her life hitherto, without some sign of regret?
May not the slowness of her steps indicate reluctance to sever the ties
that have so long bound them? Surely it is so, for just as she is about
to enter the undergrowth, she stops and turns her head to find her
brother watching her. The next minute, however, she has passed out of
his sight and out of his life, as, with her mate, she follows the trail
that leads by the woodman’s cottage and the cairn to the distant mussel
creek whither she is bound.