"Dogs," growled Blue Wolf, coming into the circle,--"who"s got Dogs?"
"You"ll have them--on your back, presently," snapped the Jay. "Saw you sniffing around there last night. If your jaws were as long as your scent you would have had that leg off the roof, eh, Rof? Burnt Feathers! but I smell something," he continued; "has any one found a Castoreum Bait, and got it in his pocket? I don"t mean you, Beaver, you don"t smell very bad. Oh! here you are, Sikak; it"s you--I might have known what sweet Forest Flower had cut loose from its stalk. Have you been rolling in the dead Rose leaves this morning, my lover of Perfume?"
The white-striped Skunk pattered with quick, mincing little steps into the group, his back humped up and his terrible tail carried high, ready to resent any insult.
"Smothered anybody this morning, Sikak?" asked the Bird.
A laugh went round the circle at this sally of Jack"s; for Skunk"s method of fighting did not meet with universal approval. Blue Wolf thought Sikak was a good piece of meat clean thrown away. When hungry he could manage Badger, or even Porcupine; but Skunk! "Ur-r-r, agh!" it turned his stomach to think of the dose he had received once when he tried it.
"Good-morning, Your Majesty!" said Lynx, as he arrived shortly after Skunk.
"How is everybody up your way?" queried Jack. "How are all the young Wapooses?"
Lynx grinned deprecatingly.
"Pisew is not likely to forget the Law of the Seventh Year," remarked Carcajou, with a sinister expression, "so he is not so deeply interested in young Wapoos as he used to be."
"What is the meeting for?" asked Lynx.
"Francois has been visiting the pond of our little Comrade, Umisk,"
replied Black King.
"And has been at my Slide, too," declared Otter.
"Well, Comrades, we had better go with Nekik and examine into this thing," commanded the King.
"Oh, of course!" cried Jack; "every community must have Fishery Laws, and have its Fisheries protected."
The Otter slide was exactly like a boy"s coasting chute on a hill. A smooth, iced trough ran down the snow-covered bank, a matter of fifteen feet, to the stream"s edge, ending in an ice hole that Otter managed to keep open all Winter. Generally speaking, it was Nekik"s entrance to his river-home, and in the event of danger demanding a quick disappearance, he could shoot down it into the water like a bullet. It was also a play-ground for Otter"s family; their favourite pastime being to glide helter-skelter down the chute and splash into the stream.
"What"s wrong with it?" asked Black Fox. "There"s a nasty odour of Man about, I admit, but your Slide seems all clear and smooth."
"Something"s been changed. I had a little drop put in the centre for the Youngsters, and they liked it--thought it was like falling off a bank, you know; now that part is filled up nearly level, you see. I don"t know what is in it--was afraid to look; but expect Francois has set a Trap there."
"I"ll find out," said Carcajou. "These Traps all work from the top--I"ve discovered that much. If you keep walking about, you"re pretty sure to get into one of them; but if you sit down and think, and sc.r.a.pe sideways a bit, you"ll get hold of something that won"t go off."
Talking thus, he dug with his strong claws at the edge of the Slide. "I thought so!" he exclaimed suddenly. "Here"s a ring around a stake--I know what that means!"
Feeling cautiously for the chain, he presently pulled out a No. 3 steel Trap. With notched jaws wide open, and tip-plate holding its flat surface up inviting the loosening pressure, it was a vicious-looking affair.
"Let me spring it," said Wolf; "I"m used to them." Grabbing the chain end in his teeth, he threw the Trap over his head as a dog does a bone in play, and when it came down the sides clanged together with hurried fondness.
"Hurrah! hurrah!" whistled Otter. "Something told me not to go down that Slide. I felt it in my bones."
"You"d have felt it on your bones," piped Jay, ironically, "if you had slid your fat belly over that Trap."
"Oh, I"m just dying for a slide and a bath," continued Nekik--"here goes!"
"Wait a bit!" commanded Carcajou, grabbing him by the shoulder, "don"t be too eager. That isn"t Francois"s Lucky Trap. If he has discovered your front stream, you can just depend upon it his Lucky Trap is laid away somewhere for you--it"s got two red bands painted on the springs."
As these words of wisdom fell from Carcajou"s lips his Comrades gathered their feet more closely under them, and searched the surrounding territory apprehensively with their eyes.
"Where will it be?" cried Nekik, distressedly.
"In the water!" answered Carcajou, with brief decision.
"Dreadful!" whimpered Otter.
"Francois is a heartless wretch!" declared Beaver. "He tried to play that trick on me once."
"Where was that, Paddle-tail?" queried Jack, who was always eager for a bit of gossip.
"It was when I lived up on Pembina River. You know the way with us Beavers--we always take a month or two of holiday every Summer, and visit our Friends. It was in June--I remember; I opened the Lodge to let it air, and started down stream with my whole family. Of course we pa.s.sed many Beaver-roads running to the river, and when we thought they belonged to friends we"d pull out and go up on the bank. Carcajou, you know the little round bowl of mud we Beaver leave on our river-roads for visitors" cards?"
"Yes," replied Wolverine; "they"re a rather good idea. You always know just who has pa.s.sed, don"t you?"
"Yes, we can tell, generally. Well, as I was saying, we went up the bank in one of these Roads, and by the odour of the little clay mound I knew that Red Jowl, a cousin of mine, was just inside the Wood--or had been. So the family went among the Poplars to have a bite of bread; and just as we were felling a tree whom should I see but Francois drifting down the river in his canoe; we kept pretty close, you had better believe."
"Didn"t call out to him, Umisk, eh?" asked Jay--"didn"t clap each other on the back with your tails and say, "Here comes a Chum.""
Umisk proceeded, paying no attention to the flippant Bird. "When the Breed came opposite our Road he stopped his canoe, let it drift gently up to the bank, pulled out a Trap and set it in muddy water just at the foot of the path. He was clever enough not to touch the land even with his paddle, so there was no scent--nothing to warn a poor Beaver of the danger. Then he floated on down. If I had not seen the whole thing this depraved taker of our lives would have caught me sure; for you know how we go into the water, Nekik, just as you do--head and hands first."
"That"s an old trick of Francois"s," exclaimed Carcajou; "and you"ll find that is just what he has done here. If Mister Nekik will feel cautiously at the foot of his Slide he will find something hard and smooth, not at all like a stick or a stone."
"Fat Fish! but I"m afraid of my fingers," whistled Otter.
"Sure, if you work from the top," retorted Carcajou. "Sideways is the game with the Trap always--or upward."
"You forgot that, Mister Carcajou, when you tackled the Chimney,"
twittered Jay.
"I didn"t burn my tongue, anyway."
"Is Nekik afraid to safeguard his own Slide," sneered Whisky-Jack.
"Shut up, Quarrel Maker!" interposed the King, "you know Otter is one of the pluckiest fighters inside the Boundaries. It"s only brainless Animals who tackle things they know nothing about."
"Dive their beaks into hot Pork, your Most Wise Majesty," echoed Lynx, with a fawning smile.
"Here"s Sakwasew, he"ll find the Trap, he"s a water dweller," exclaimed Carcajou, as Mink, attracted by their chatter, came wandering down the stream. "Here, little Black-tail," he continued, "just dip down the hole there and look for evidence of Francois"s deviltry."
"It"s against the Law of the Boundaries," pleaded Mink, "for me to use Otter"s ice hole. By the Kink in my Tail, I"m not like some of my Comrades, always breaking the laws."
"Aren"t you, Mink? Who cut the throats of Gray Hen, the Grouse"s, Children, last July, when they were still in their pin-feathers? But I suppose that isn"t breaking the Law of the Boundaries," cried Lynx, taking Mink"s observation to himself.
"Oh, no," chipped in Whisky-Jack; "certain of you Animals think keeping the Law is not getting caught. My own opinion is, you"re as bad as Men.
When Francois puts out the White Death-powder, he thinks he is keeping Man"s law if the Red Coats do not catch him; and Sakwasew cuts the throat of Chick-Grouse, and you, Pisew, eat Kit Beaver, and it"s all within the Law if there be no witnesses. I don"t know what we are coming to."
"Stop wrangling, you Subjects!" commanded Black King; and the silvered fur on his back stood straight up in anger. "I"ll order Rof to thrash you soundly, if you don"t stop this."