Tangled Yarns: Breath-taking

"Where'd you come from?" demanded the second man, "Are you the only one?"

"Yes."

"What do you think you're doing, spying on us?"

"I wasn't spying."

"I found one," said the second man, interrupting.

"What is it?"

"Female. Good size too."

"Don't talk about it," said me first man, annoyed. "Why were you hiding?"

"I wasn't hiding," said Edna, "I just wanted to stay out of sight."

Edna knew now why the men were here. Penguins. They were hunting for penguins. There were quite a few around, at the right time of year. She had seen them on the beach, or up near their burrows many times. One in particular had arrived every year and become quite friendly. This penguin, the one the men were talking about, was so tame Edna could sit beside it and feed it little bits of fish. She called it Elbee, after the first letters of its name.

"You'd better go home now," said the first man.

"That's right," said the other, "Just run along. And don't come back till tomorrow, OK?"

"What do you want the penguins for?" asked Edna.

"You're too smart for your own good, you know that?" said the first man.

"Yeah," said the other, "I think you should just forget you ever saw us, and run home, OK?"

"You're not going to hurt them are you?"

"That's for us to know, and for you to forget."

Edna backed away from the men and started to run.

"Go!" shouted the men, men they laughed at her because they thought she was scared out of her wits. But she wasn't. She was more frightened for the penguins.

She pounded up the track and disappeared into the small rough hills of scrub and wild lupin and wind-battered