Spotting Alusa, "the dark one" far below, the Cooper's hawk hurdled toward her. Unaware of her danger Alusa slipped under some bent wild rice stalks and the frustrated Hawk slashed through the air toward her. For a moment the hawk hovered overhead, and Alusa, at last spotting him, screamed defiance at the predator. Then the hawk crashed-dived into the massed stalks trying to reach the mink. Angry that she had eluded him, he forced his talons through the rice stalks. As he reached for her, Alusa bit his leg, grasping one of the leg joints. The fierce hawk now closed his talons and beat his wings as he tried to lift Alusa clear of the vegetation so he could kill her with his beak. Alusa still clung to his leg. The talons on the other leg had involuntarily closed on some tough rice stalks. With a scream, the hawks struggle to pull free. Mice had dug along the roots. The roots began to loosen in the soil. Realizing that the stalks were pulling out of the ground, he beat his wings harder and slowly rose up into the air. The mink gnawed more determinedly at his leg. A Mink's Story tells the adventures of Alusa and her family of mink kittens. She and her offspring lived along the Mississippi river near Brownsville, Minnesota, where Benover Slough cuts through the Wisconsin's Island. In their wanderings they encountered such dangers as a pool of snapping turtles and two desperate brush wolves that had fled from hunters out in the prairie. A Mink's Story is the kind of exciting nature writing that readers have come to expect from the author of "A Beaver's Story" and "An Otter's Story" before his death. Emil Liers ran an otter sanctuary and was a technical adviser to Walt Disney on his film Beaver Valley.