But the blow did not fall.The sapling remained bent above him.When he moved it moved, and he growled at it through his clenched jaws; when he remained still, it remained still, and he concluded it was safer to continue remaining still.Yet the warm blood of the rabbit tasted good in his mouth.
It was his mate who relieved him from the quandary in which he found himself.She took the rabbit from him, and while the sapling swayed and teetered threateningly above her she calmly gnawed off the rabbit's head.
At once the sapling shot up, and after that gave no more trouble, remaining in the decorous and perpendicular position in which nature had intended it t grow.Then, between them, the she-wolf and One Eye devoured the game which the mysterious sapling had caught for them.
There were other runways and alleys where rabbits were hanging in the air, and the wolf-pair porspected them all, the she-wolf leading the way, old One Eye following and observant, learning the method of robbing snares -- a knowledge destined to stand him in good stead in the days to come.