Mooswa & Others of the Boundaries Part 28

It being settled that way, the Council adjourned, Carcajou and Whisky-Jack being selected as a Committee of Execution. Wolverine showed Jay where the snare was placed, and while he cleverly arranged the bacon beyond its quick-slipping noose, the latter scoured the Forests and muskegs for Pisew until he found him.

"h.e.l.lo, Feather-Feet!" he hailed the Lynx with.

"Good-day, Gossip!" retorted Pisew.

"You're looking well fed for this Year of Famine, my carnivorous Friend," said Whisky-Jack, pleasantly.

"Yes, I'm fat because of much fasting," answered Lynx. "The memory of Carcajou's Fat-eating alone keeps me alive; I'm starved--I'm as thin as a snow-shoe. It's days since my form would even cast a shadow--can you not see right through me, Eagle-eyed Bird?"

"I think I can," declared the Jay, meaning Lynx's methods, more than his thick-woolled body.

"I'm starving!" rea.s.serted the Cat. "If Carcajou were half so generous as he pretends, he should give me another piece of that Fat-eating; it would save my life--really it would." He was pleading poverty with an exaggerated flourish, lest he be suspected of the ill-gotten wealth of Fish.

"Yes, Carcajou is a miser," affirmed Whisky-Jack. "He still has some of the Man's bacon cached."

"I wish I knew where," panted Lynx. "There is no wrong in stealing from a thief--is there, wise Bird?"

"I know where some of it is hidden," declared Jay, with an air of great satisfaction.

"Tell me," pleaded the other.

At first Jack refused utterly; then by diplomatic weakenings he succ.u.mbed to Pisew's eager solicitation, and veered around, consenting to point out some of Wolverine's stolen treasure.

"You are a true friend, Jack," a.s.serted Pisew, encouragingly.

"To whom?" asked the Bird, pointedly.

"Oh, to me, of course; for Carcajou is a friend to n.o.body. But, Jack,"

he said suddenly, "you are fond of Yellow-eating, aren't you?"

"Yes, I like b.u.t.ter."

"Well, I'll tell you where you can get rare good picking--it's a good joke on Carcajou, too, though it was so badly covered up that I thought it more like a Man's cache."

The Jay started. Had this wily thief stolen his b.u.t.ter also--the b.u.t.ter that Carcajou had hidden for him at the Shack looting?

"You see," continued Lynx, "I stumbled upon it quite by accident as I was digging for Grubs, Beetles, and poor food of that sort--hardly enough to fill one's teeth. Oh, this Seventh Year is terrible! I was starving, Friend--really I was; the gaunt gnawing which never comes to you, and of which you know nothing, for you are always with the Men who have plenty, was in my stomach. I was thinking of the hunger-hards.h.i.+p, and of the great store of Fat-eating Carcajou must have cached, when I came upon this wooden-holder of stuff that is like yellow marrow."

"b.u.t.ter," interrupted the Bird.

"I suppose so," whined Lynx.

"And you ate it?" queried Jack sharply, experiencing a sick feeling of desolation.

"There was only a little of it, only a little," iterated Pisew, deprecatingly; "hardly worth one's trouble in tearing the cover from the wooden-thing."

"The tub," advised Jack.

"Probably; I'm not familiar with the names of Man's things. But I just tasted it--that was all; just a little to oil my throat, and soothe the pain that was in my stomach. It is still there, really--under a big rotten log, where the water falls for the length of Panther's spring over high rocks in Summer."

"What's there,--the tub?" queried Jack, incredulously.

"Also the yellow marrow--the b.u.t.ter," affirmed Pisew.

"Oh!" exclaimed Whisky-Jack, drily. He knew the other was lying; if Pisew had found the tub he would have licked it clean as a washed platter. But the revenge he had in hand for this Prince of all Thieves was so complete that it was not worth while reviling him.

"Still I think you had better not touch Carcajou's Fat-eating," he advised.

Lynx laughed at this. Why shouldn't he--he was so very hungry?

"Well," said the Bird, "mind I don't wish to lead you to it--don't ask you to go--in fact, I think you had better keep away; but Dumpty's Fat-eating is hidden under the roots of that big up-turned Spruce, just where Mooswa's trail crosses the Pelican on its way to his Moose-yard."

"Do you really think it was hidden there by Carcajou?" asked Lynx. "Is it not Francois's cache--or some last year's cache of another Man? They are always wandering about through the Boundaries, looking for the yellow dust that is washed down by running waters, or for the white metal that sleeps in rocks."

"No, the white Meat belongs to our hump-backed Comrade--at least he rustled it from the Breed's Shack," answered Jay.

"Perhaps after all it would not be fair to take it, then," whined Lynx.

"I am hungry--oh, so hungry, but to steal from one of our Comrades, even to save one's life--I would rather die, I believe."

"Prince of deceitful wretches!" muttered Jay to himself. "Oh, the cant of it! now he means to steal it sure, but is afraid that I may inform against him."

"I'll not touch the Fat-eating," continued Pisew. "True, the Little Lieutenant stole it from Francois; but that is different, is it not, wise Brother--you who are learned in the Law of the Boundaries? To take from them who would rob us of our clothes is not wrong, is it?"

"No; that is understood by all of us," answered Jack, aloud; to himself he said, "the prating hypocrite!"

"So Carcajou is ent.i.tled by our law to half of the spoil, and I suppose that is the Fat-eating he has cached; the other half went in the love feast."

"Yes."

"Then I'll not touch it--I will starve to death first," and Pisew sat meekly on his haunches and rolled his eyes sanctimoniously.

"I had no idea there was so much honourable observance of the law in your nature," sneered Jack. "In the Plenty Year we are all honest; but in this, the Season of Starvation, to be honourable and regardful of each other's Eating is indeed n.o.ble. Will he swallow that?" queried the Jay to himself.

"Thank you, sayer-of-wise-words," murmured Pisew. "I always have been misunderstood--accused of the vilest things--even to the eating of Lodge-Builder's Children."

"Disgusting!" exclaimed Jack, smartly. "They must be horrible eating, those young wearers of Castoreum."

"No--they're delicious!" interrupted Pisew, unwarily,--"I mean--I mean--they're delightful little creatures," he added, lamely.

"Well, I must be off, you-who-keep-the-fast," declared Jack. "I'm glad you have resisted the temptation, for I must admit that I was only trying you."

"I thought so--I thought so!" snickered Lynx; "and at first I joked to draw you on--pretended that I would do this disgraceful thing--take our most worthy Lieutenant's store of Eating."

"Now I must warn the Council," thought Jack, as he flew swiftly through the forest, "for Pisew will make straight for Carcajou's bacon.

Deceitful wretch! he deserves to be hanged. His death will save many a Fox-Cub, many a Kit-Beaver, and many a Bird's egg."

"Wise Bird, indeed!" sneered Lynx. "I've deceived him. I'll soon have Gulo the Glutton's Fat-eating; and Whisky-Jack will bear witness to my honesty. They are all so wise; but Pisew, the despised, fares better than any one. No; n.o.body will know if I take it--not even the Devil-eyes of Carcajou will discover whose trail it is, for I will drag the Fat-eating, walking backwards, so it will look more like the trough-trail of Nekik, who slides on his belly through the deep snow.

And Blue Wolf's nose will discover only the scent of smoke-tainted meat, for it will come last over my tracks. Ha, ha!" he laughed disagreeably; "we'll see who lives through the Year of Distress by the aid of his brains."