Former U.S. soldier John Allen Muhammad (R), a Gulf War veteran, and 17-year-old John Lee Malvo, both suspects in the Washington area sniper slayings

In the cat-and-mouse game leading up to Thursday's arrests, one of the most mysterious episodes was the tale of a duck told by a Moose. At a news conference Wednesday, Montgomery County, Md., police Chief Charles Moose made reference to a "duck in a noose," a cryptic comment made, according to Moose, at the behest of the person presumed to be the Washington-area sniper. The line appears to be a reference to a Cherokee folk tale, whose recounting mayshed light onthe mind of the sniper.

"You have indicated that you want us to do and say certain things," Moose said at the news conference. "You asked us to say, 'We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose.' We understand that hearing us say this is important to you."

THE LEGEND

The Cherokee legend, commonly known as "The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting," is about a rabbit who is a braggart and a trickster able to persuade other animals that he canback uphis boasts. The rabbit brags that he can catch aquatic creatures just like the otter can and hatches a plan to convince the otter by matching his hunting feats.

The otter says he sometimes catches ducks, and the rabbit tells the otter to go first. The otter slips beneath the water, comes up beneath the ducks, grabs one and returns underwater.

While the otter is going about this task, the rabbit fashions a noose from tree bark.

The rabbit, no skilled swimmer, swims in sputtering fits and starts out to the ducks, comes up underneath them and manages to lasso one. The duck takes off, hoisting the rabbit into the air at the end of the tether.

The rabbit tires and falls, landing inside the hollow trunk of a sycamore tree, where he is trapped.
After several hungry days, the rabbit hears children playing nearby. He begins to sing: "Cut a door and look at me; I'm the prettiest thing you ever did see."

The children summon their father, who cuts a hole. The rabbit tells them to stand back so they'll have a good view as he emerges. They comply, and the rabbit dashes through the hole and escapes.

FBI agents carted away potential evidence, including the tree stump from the yard that investigators planned to examine for bullets or bullet fragments.

WHAT MEANING?

The tale still, of course, leaves questions unanswered. The sniper puts himself in the role of the duck, not the rabbit. Is the point that the police - presumably in the role of the rabbit - are bumbling frauds?

Or was the sniper perhaps giving the police a clue to his technique, like a villain on "Batman," with the words of the rabbit's song? Law enforcement sources said Thursday that the car in which two men were arrested at a Maryland rest area had been modified, with a hole through which the shooter could aim and fire unseen out the back of the vehicle.

Or might the tale have led investigators to seize stumps from the yard of a Tacoma, Wash., home?
Now that a noose has closed around two men in the sniper investigation, perhaps the hole through which to see the answer may be cut.

Note:
shed light on: 使某事物清楚明白地显示出来
back up: 实现

(Agencies)