While the others sneaked round in copse and cornfield, following their
crooked, winding hunting-paths, Red-kitten usually made a bee-line to
the nearest house or farm. Sometimes, at rare intervals, she ventured
into the village itself. She liked best to approach by means of the
high road and the path through the churchyard ... but it had to be very
late at night, when it was quite dark!
In broad daylight she preferred keeping under cover as much as
possible, and following cattle-paths, wheel-tracks, and ditches. The
nearer she approached to the village, the shorter and slower became her
steps--until at last she sat down to consider matters and spy out the
land.
She was cautious almost to absurdity; but caution as well as courage
were necessary if she were to succeed. She knew that the village
bristled with obstacles: dogs by the dozen to chase her, and other cats
who would bar her progress from sheer evil nature and jealousy. But
life is full of such worries!
She had developed a taste for “kitchen-game”: roast herring and lumps
of eel, boiled meat and delicious-smelling ham! She found that kind
of thing much easier to capture than mice or birds. She regarded
cream, especially, as a great delicacy--and her red-striped coat could
therefore often be seen where this brand of “kitchen-game” lay in
hiding.
The bailiff kept a sharp lookout for her. Once he kept watch the whole
day from morning till evening outside his back door, where an old,
dilapidated meat-safe of his had recently been plundered. In it lay a
freshly roasted pork chop, the smell of which he hoped would attract
the thief.
About noon, however, the bailiff became hungry and went indoors to
refresh himself after his morning’s tedious exertions--and when he
came out again half an hour later to resume his watch, he was just in
time to see the “red devil” vanish through the garden with the pork
chop in her jaws.
Red had scented the “kitchen-bird” in its cage on the wall and had
broken her way in; well for her that she had heard the footsteps in
time....
Whenever she found anything that suited her fancy she took it at
once. To do otherwise, it seemed to her, would be stupidity--and of
_stupidity_ no one had yet accused the thief-cat!