Part 3 (2/2)

But Neewa began to recover his good cheer For hi After hisexperiences with Miki and the man-beast the velvety touch of the soft pine-needles under his feet and the fa joy He was back in his old trails He sniffed the air and pricked up his ears, thrilled by the enlivening sensations of knowing that he was once more the small master of his own destiny It was a new forest, but Neeas undisturbed by this fact All forests were alike to him, inasmuch as several hundred thousand square miles were included in his domain and it was impossible for him to landmark thean to miss Challoner and the river, but became more and more disturbed the farther Neewa led him into the dark and mysterious depths of the tiorous protest, and in line with this decision he braced hi to the end of the rope, flopped over on his back with an astonished grunt Seizing his advantage Miki turned, and tugging with the horse-like energy of his Mackenzie father he started back toward the river, dragging Neewa after him for a space of ten or fifteen feet before the cub succeeded in regaining his feet

Then the battle began With their botto into the soft earth, they pulled on the rope in opposite directions until their necks stretched and their eyes began to pop

Neewa's pull was steady and unexcited, while Miki, dog-like, yanked and convulsed hiive way an inch at a time It was, after all, only a question as to which possessed theneck Under Neewa's fat there was as yet little real physical strength Miki had hirown bones there was a lot of pull, and after bracing hiave up the contest and followed in the direction chosen by Miki

While the instincts of Neewa's breed would have taken hiht as a die, Miki's intentions were better than was his sense of orientation Neewa followed in a sweeter te an unreasonable circle which was taking theer-ridden stream At the end of another quarter of an hour Miki was utterly lost; he sat down on his rump, looked at Neewa, and confessed as much--with a lohine Neewa did not move His sharp little eyes were fixed suddenly on an object that hung to a low bush half a dozen paces from them Before the man-beast's appearance the cub had spent three quarters of his ti he had not sed soHe was co to the bush set every salivary gland in hislife he had seen Noozak, his o up to nests like that, tear the paw, and then invite him to the feast of dead wasps within For at least a month wasps had been included in his daily fare, and they were as good as anything he knew of He approached the nest; Miki followed When they ithin three feet of it Miki began to take notice of a very distinct and peculiarly disquieting buzzing sound Neeas not at all alarround, he rose on his hind feet, raised his ar

Instantly the drone which Miki had heard changed into the angry buzzing of a saw Quick as a flash Neewa's mother would have had the nest under her paws and the life crushed out of it, while Neewa's tug had only served partly to dislodge the hoerous tribe

And it happened that Ahmoo was at hoive the nest a second tug they were piling out of it in a cloud and suddenly a wild yell of agony rose out of Miki Ah's nose Neewaat his face with both pahile Miki, still yelling, ran the end of his crucified nose into the ground In another hter in Ah on his own account Neewa turned tail to the nest and ran Miki was not a hair behind him In every square inch of his tender hide he felt the red-hot thrust of a needle It was Neewa that made the most noise His voice was one continuous bawl, and to this bass Miki's soprano wailing added the touch which would have convinced any passing Indian that the loup-garou devils were having a dance

Now that their foes were in disorderly flight the wasps, who are rather a chivalrous enemy, would have returned to their upset fortress had not Miki, in hisand Neewa the other--a misadventure that stopped them with a force almost sufficient to break their necks Thereupon a few dozen of Ah blood at last aroused, Neeung out and caught Miki where there was almost no hair on his ruht up with pain and terror that he had lost all sense of judg of Neewa's razor-like claas a deeper thrust than usual of the buzzing horrors that overwhelmed him, and with a final shriek he proceeded to throw a fit

It was the fit that saved the around to Neewa's side of the sapling, when, with their halter once more free fro at every juer did Neewa feel a horror of the river

The instinct of his kind told hiht as Challoner ht have set his course by a compass he headed for the stream, but he had proceeded only a few hundred feet when they came upon a tiny creek across which either of them could have jumped Neewa jumped into the water, which was four or five inches deep, and for the first ti tiht of day was di to swell from the tip of his nose to the end of his bony tail Neewa, being so much fat, suffered less He could still see, and, as the painful hours passed, a nu theun with the man-beast It was the man-beast who had taken his mother from him It was the man-beast who had chucked him into the dark sack, and it was the man-beast who had FASTENED THE ROPE AROUND HIS NECK Slowly the fact was beginning to ie itself upon hi

After a long tied themselves out of the rivulet and found a soft, dry hollow at the foot of a big tree Even to Neeho had the use of his eyes, it was growing dark in the deep forest The sun was far in the west And the air was growing chilly Flat on his belly, with his swollen head between his fore paws, Miki whined plaintively

Again and again Neewa's eyes went to the rope as the big thought developed itself in his head He whined It was partly a yearning for his mother, partly a response to Miki He drew closer to the pup, filled with the irresistible desire for comradeshi+p After all, it was not Miki as to blaloo himself still closer to the pup Neewa drew the rope between his fore paws With a little snarl he set his teeth in it And then, steadily, he began to che and then he growled, and in the growl there was a peculiarly communicative note, as if he wished to say to Miki:

”Don't you see?--I' Cheer up! There's surely a better day co after their painful experience with the wasp's nest, Neewa and Miki rose on four pairs of stiff and swollen legs to greet a new day in the deep and mysterious forest into which the accident of the previous day had thrown theh Miki was so swollen fros were rotesque than ever, he was in no way daunted from the quest of further adventure

The pup's face was as round as a ht reasonably have had a suspicion that it was on the point of exploding But Miki's eyes--as ht as ever, and his one good ear and his one half ear stood up hopefully as he waited for the cub to give so to do The poison in his systeave hie--but, otherwise, quite well

Neewa, because of his fat, exhibited fewer effects of his battle with the wasps His one outstanding defect was an entirely closed eye With the other, wide open and alert, he looked about his he was inspired with the opti his way He was rid of the man-beast, who had killed his , and the rope hich Challoner had tied hi the night Having dispossessed himself of at least two evils it would not have surprised hi up froht of herthe vast loneliness of his neorld, and thinking of hisswiftness hich their iven thee was , and he held his breath in anticipation of some new evil while Neewa scanned the forest about the was right, Neewa turned his back to the sun, which had been his mother's custom, and set out

Miki followed Not until then did he discover that every joint in his body had apparently disappeared His neck was stiff, his legs were like stilts, and five times in as many minutes he stubbed his clumsy toes and fell down in his efforts to keep up with the cub On top of this his eyes were so nearly closed that his vision was bad, and the fifth tiht of Neewa entirely, and sent out a protesting wail Neewa stopped and began prodding with his nose under a rotten log When Miki ca red vinegar ants as fast as he could catch the for so so, but for the life of hirily he nosed close to Neewa's foraging snout He licked with his tongue where Neewa licked, and he got only dirt And all the tirunts of satisfaction

It was ten minutes before he hunted out the last ant and went on

A little later they caround et, and after sniffing about a bit, and focussing his one good eye here and there, Neewa suddenly began digging Very shortly he drew out of the ground a white object about the size of a an to crunch it ravenously between his jaws Miki succeeded in capturing a fair sized bit of it Disappoint it in his ust, and Neewa finished the rerunt

They proceeded For two heartbreaking hours Miki followed at Neewa's heels, the void in his sto in his body di a torture Yet not a bit to eat could he find, while Neewa at every few steps apparently discovered so to devour At the end of the two hours the cub's bill of fare had grown to considerable proportions It included, areen and black beetles; nus, both hard and soft; whole colonies of red and black ants; several white grubs dug out of the heart of decaying logs; a handful of snails; a young frog; the egg of a ground-plover that had failed to hatch; and, in the vegetable line, the roots of two cae Now and then he pulled down tender poplar shoots and nipped the ends off Likewise he nibbled spruce and balsaum whenever he found it, and occasionally added to his breakfast a bit of tender grass