Then suddenly the noise was hushed.

The great bird half folded its wings and swooped, the air making a hissing hum in its rigid pinion tips.

The swoop was lightning swift, but even swifter was the disappearance of the Little Villager, and of all his neighbors for fifty feet about him.

Before the hawk reached earth they had dropped into their burrows.
"Checking himself abruptly, the hawk flew on over the tops of the hillocks, making unexpected zigzag rushes to right and left.

But wherever he went, there the villagers had vanished, almost as if the wind of his approach had whisked them away.