Ciaran squirmed and cursed. The vast weight crushed him to silence.
"I'm a hunter. I can hear a rabbit breathing in its warren. I heard the
woman speak. Free me or I'll make trouble."
Ciaran sighed resignedly, and Mouse went to work.
* * * * *
Ciaran looked around the circle of exhausted humans. Charcoal burners,
trappers, hoop-shavers--the lean, tough, hard-bitten riff-raff of the
border wilderness. Even the women were tough. Ciaran began to get
ideas.
There was a man crushed up against them on the other side--the man who
had hitherto been at the head of the column. He was tall and stringy
like a hungry cat, and just as mean looking, hunched over his knees
with his face buried in his forearms and a shag of iron-grey hair
falling over his shoulders.