Wilderness Ways

Kagax the Weasel, who turns white in winter, and yellow in

ungry, whining. Deep in the wild raspberry thickets a wood thrush rang his vesper bell softly; from the mountain top a night hawk screamed back an answer, and came booming down to earth, where the insects were rising in myriads. Near the thrush a striped chipmunk sat chunk-a-chunking his sleepy curiosity at a burned log which a bear had just torn open for

. "Mine, all mine-to kill," he snarled, and his eyes began to glow deep red. Then he stretched one sinewy paw a

drummed near his den and waked him out of sleep. But he was too heavy to hunt then, so he crept back again, leaving the bird untasted under the end of his own drumming log. Now Kagax was eager to make up for lost time; for all time

s nest, and was making a sensation over it, as he does over everything that he has not happened to see before. Had he known who was listening, he would have riske

"I intended to kill those young hares first," he thought, "but this fool squirrel will stretch

he was sure of the place, he rushed forward without caution. Meeko was in the midst of a prolonged snicker at the scolding jays, when he heard a scr

g his fall by catching and holding for an instant a swaying fir tip on the way. Then he rushed pell-mell over logs and rocks, and through the underbrush to a maple, and from that across a dozen trees to another giant spruce, where he ran up and down desper

eaks, and raising an outcry that brought a score of frightened, clamoring birds to the scene. But Kagax never heeded. His whole being seemed to be concentrated in the point of his nose. He followed like a bloodhound to the top of the second spruce, sniffed here and there till he caught the scent of Meeko's passage through the air, ran to the end of a branc

imes he stopped, went back, picked up the fresher trail, and went on again. A dozen times he passed within a few feet of his victim, smelling him strongly, but scorning to use his eyes till his nose had d

king the ground with a heavy thump. Kagax ran down the trunk, sniffed an instant at the body without touching i

ust below. Kagax began twisting in and out like a snake among the bushes, till a stir in a tangle of raspberry vines, which no ears but his or an owl's would ever notice, m

side away from the bird, crept to a branch over the nest, and leaped down. Mother Thrush was preening herself sleepily, feeling the grateful warmth of her eggs and listening to the won

mit thrush, pouring his soul out, far above on the de

d. There he just tasted the brain of his victim to whet his appetite, listened a moment, crouching among the dead leaves, to the melody ove

He killed them all, one after another, slowly, deliberately, by a single bite through the spine, tasting only the blood of the last one. Then he w

t where she was. Kagax wriggled lower among his helpless victims; his eyes blazed red again, so red that Moth

his hind legs so as to place his fore paws on her neck; chose his favorite spot behind the ears, and bit. The hare straightened out, the quivering c

right as Kagax jumped forward like lightning-but too late. Tookhees, the timid little wood mouse, who was digging under the moss for twin-flow

supper. But a few inches down, and the hole doubled under a round stone, then vanished between two roots close together. Try as he would, Kagax could only wear his claws out, without making any progress. He tried to force his shoulders through; for a weasel thinks he can go anywhere. But the hole was too

when he is safe, crouched just below the roots, looking up with steady little eyes, like two bl

reak his vengeance. Suddenly he struck a fresh trail and ran it straight to the clearing where a foolish field mouse had built a nest in a tangle of dry brakes. Ka

he lake shore; he began to climb the ridge. Up and up he went, crossing a dozen trails that ordinarily he would have followed, till he

net. The marten belongs to the weasel's own family; therefore, as a choice bit of revenge, Kagax would rather kill him than anything else. A score of times he had crouched in t

He stole forward at last and put his nose to the foot of the leaning tree. Two fresh trails went out; none came back. Kagax followe

hey began to grow very cold. Kagax ran to the great spruce, along a branch into another tree; then to the ground by a dizzy jump. T

ut turning, the smell of a brooding partridge on her eggs. There she was, among the roots of a pine, sitting close and blending perfectly with the roots and the brown needles. Kagax moved like a shadow; his nose found the bird;

back to her babies, but a big, strong, suspicious fellow, who knew how to make a run for his life. Kagax was still fresh and ea

re was startled. The scent was fresher now, so fresh that he co

ching his back track to see what was following. When he saw the red eyes of Kagax, he darted away wildly. A few hundred yards, and the

ll the red eyes of the weasel blazed into view. So it went on for a half hour, through brush and brake and swamp, till the hare had lost a

gax waited till he was almost run over; then he sprang up and screeched. That ended the chase. The hare just dropped

an ever to kill, he darted away on a fresh trail. But soon his feast began to tel

re and there; over, the nose a pair of fierce little eyes glowed deep red as Kagax's own. So the shadow came to the partridge's nest, passed ove

swiftly, found a fresh round hole, and tumbled in upon a mother bird and a family of young woodpeckers. He killed them all, tasting the brains again, and hunted the tree over for the father bird, the great black logcock tha

had made his way out over the snow to the settlement, and lived among the chicken coops. "Twenty big hens in one roost-that was killing," snarled Kagax savagely,

nt. He had tasted too much; his feet grew heavier than they had ever been before. He thought angrily that he would have to sleep anot

several times he had looked behind him with the feeling that he was followed. He stole back to the hare's form and lay hidden, watching his back track. He shivered again. "If it were not stronger than I, it would not follow my trail," thought Kagax.

k underbrush. Kagax's eyes glowed red again; he stole toward the sound for a last kill. Young sparrows' brains are a dainty dish; he would eat his fill, since he must sleep all day. He found the nest; he had place

wing young ones to feed, sometimes uses the morning twilight as well. Kagax lay still as a stone. Over him th

e hare's form with fierce red eyes. It followed Kagax's trail over that of the moth

n, they would rustle the leaves, or scratch on the stones, that all night long they had glided over in silence. He was

o strangled a brooding bird? who murdered his own kin?" came thundering through the woods. Kagax darted for his den. His hind feet struck a rotten twig that they should have cleared; it brok

prang up, and his teeth met; but no blood followed the bite, only a flutter of soft brown feathers. Then one set of sharp claws

quick, nervous, silent; his eyes showed like two drops of blood over his twitching nostrils. He circled swiftly about the end of the lost trail. His nose touched a brown feather, another, and he glided back to the fir