text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/89

 as the fox reached for it, so he got a poor hold. There was a great squawking and flapping in the water. Mr. Fox got his third duck, but the hunting was spoiled for that day, and for the rest of the season as far as that particular cove was concerned, for the ducks became suspicious of the place.

But Redcoat was well satisfied with the morning's kill, for the fox family not only had duck for breakfast, but they had three ducks which lasted for two days.

After the young foxes were large enough so they could be left alone Redcoat occasionally took Fluffy with him upon his hunting expeditions. This was when the hunting needed two to accomplish the best results.

On the still hunt one was almost as good as two, but in carrying out the ambush two were essential to success.

There was a fat old woodchuck down in the pasture above the meadows whom Redcoat had been hunting for a long time. This old chuck was very wary, and he usually scented, or heard Redcoat coming and

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/89


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/90

 scurried into his hole. But after he had eluded the fox he would peep out of his hole, and then come out and watch the hunter from a distance just as though he taunted him. This the fox determined to remedy. No mere woodchuck was to make fun of him as a hunter. So one day he took Fluffy with him.

They made plenty of noise in approaching the favorite feeding ground of the old chuck, so just as Redcoat had supposed, he heard them and scurried for his hole.

Redcoat then posted himself behind a convenient stump close to the hole and intimated to Fluffy to go a short distance away and then to sit up in plain sight of the chuck's hole. This she did.

The woodchuck came to the mouth of his hole and saw the fox sitting upon her haunches some distance away, so he came out to taunt him.

He had his back to the stump where Redcoat was hiding, so did not see him when he rushed. The first thing Mr. Chuck knew he was seized in the strong jaws of the fox,

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/90


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/91

 and borne away to the fox burrow where the pups killed him.

Redcoat also played this two by two hunting on a flock of turkeys on the south side of the mountain. These turkeys belonged on the Mason farm.

Usually they kept near to the farm buildings, but in summer they were in the habit of going to a small calf pasture a quarter of a mile from the buildings to hunt grasshoppers. Redcoat discovered them there one day and watched them for several hours, but could not get within striking distance. So the following day he took Fluffy with him.

Of course this was dangerous hunting, stalking the man's fowls in full daylight. He might appear any moment with the thunder stick, but turkeys were a great prize, and Redcoat was always taking desperate chances.

He had noted that there was a clump of bushes running along a stone wall at one side of the lot.

By crawling upon his belly very carefully

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/91


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/92

 for a dozen rods, he secreted himself in the bushes. Then Fluffy went boldly into the open, but so far away from the turkeys that she did not scare them. They saw her but she made no move to steal upon them. Instead she walked very leisurely towards them, occasionally stopping and sitting down upon her haunches and watching them in a very disinterested manner.

The turkeys simply moved away when she came too near, and in this way they were driven close to the clump of brush where the hunter lay concealed. Finally a young gobbler came close enough. Redcoat waited until his back was towards him, then he sprang. It was a sure thing, and that day the fox family dined on turkey, while the Mason family that night made the count one turkey short. They never knew where the missing turkey went, and Redcoat was clever enough not to repeat the experiment. It was too near the house, and too risky hunting.

One moonlight night in midsummer when the pups were nearly half grown, Redcoat

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/92


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/93

 was hunting mice in the small meadows on the Holcome farm, to the north of the mountain. In the course of his hunting the fox discovered a ditch perhaps two feet deep running across the meadow, about forty rods from the house. It had about six inches of water in it, and Redcoat examined the ditch for its entire length.

The Red Hunter did not know just why he did this, but it was a part of his policy to always know the country where he hunted. In fact, to know all the country that he frequented. One could never tell when such knowledge would come handy. So Redcoat made a very thorough examination of the ditch.

About a week later Bud Holcome was awakened one morning by a great squawking among the hens. Some of them were already out in the yard, although it was not yet sunrise. Leaping from his bed, and running to the window, Bud was much excited to see a very large red fox leaping over the wall just across the road, carrying a half grown rooster in his jaws.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/93


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/94

 "Dad," cried Bud, "get up quick, Dad. That red fox has got one of the young roosters. Here Scottie, here Racer," and Bud whistled for the dogs.

Both canines who slept in the woodshed came running out, Scottie very wide awake, and Racer following more slowly.

"Seek him, Scottie, seek, him," cried Bud, pointing across the road.

Scottie ran to a bar way, and immediately espied the fox with his kill, and with excited barks gave chase, and Racer followed eating up the distance with great graceful bounds.

The house stood upon high ground, and Bud could see the race from his bedroom window, so he stood and watched. The fox had only about two hundred feet start, and, encumbered with the rooster, the dogs would surely overtake him and kill him before he was half across the meadows, so Bud waited and watched.

Bud thought he never in his life saw a fox run as that one did, yet the dogs, especially Racer, the greyhound, gained

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/94


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/95

 steadily upon him. When they reached the ditch at the middle of the meadows as suddenly as though the ground had opened and swallowed him the fox disappeared.

"Ah, ha," cried Bud. "He has gone into the ditch. Now they will get him surely. That was certainly a mistake." But when the two madly racing dogs came to the ditch they overran a couple of hundred feet before they discovered that their quarry had disappeared. Then they came back and ran up and down the ditch, for twenty rods in each direction.

Bud still watched from his window, for he expected each moment to see them rout out the fox, but no fox appeared.

Finally after ten or fifteen minutes the dogs came back to the house just as Bud came down stairs.

"Come on," cried Bud to the dogs. "I will help you find him."

They searched the ditch for a quarter of a mile, nearly its entire length, but no fox was to be discovered.

When Bud told Mr. Holcome how the fox

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/95


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/96

 had disappeared as though the ground had opened and swallowed him, the farmer laughed loudly. "I guess you were dreaming, Bud. You were not quite awake."

"Oh, get out, Dad. I wasn't. Didn't you hear the dogs barking?"

Mr. Holcome laughed again. "All right, Bud. There were half a dozen foxes if you want it so. I guess we had better get at the milking."

"There isn't any joke about that."

About ten o'clock that night, when everyone at the farmhouse was soundly sleeping, a wet bedraggled fox, carrying a wet bedraggled rooster, crawled out from under a small culvert, in the ditch, and after shaking both himself, and the wet rooster, started for the mountain.

This culvert in the ditch was a place where the hay wagon crossed in summer time when the farmers were haying. The three planks that formed the bridge, were only about a foot from the water. There was just room enough for Redcoat to squeeze in under the plank and hide until the danger was passed.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/96


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/97

 Had Scottie and Racer been foxhounds he would probably have been discovered, as the dogs had raced across the bridge twice in their search.

But not even Bud had thought of looking under this little plank bridge. So, knowing the country, and all of its features had saved the fox his rooster and his skin that time.

This policy also applied to all sorts of cover. A thick tangle of blackberry bushes, a sheer cliff, where there was an unseen way of escape. Tangles of laurel in the great swamp. All of these things were a part of Redcoat's equipment with which he fought his many enemies.

The north side of Redcoat's mountain which faced towards the Holcome farm was not as precipitate as was the west side which faced the larger meadows, and the great river; the side towards the city where the Fox Club lived. But at one spot the northern side was very precipitate. In fact there was an almost sheer drop of sixty feet.

Redcoat was always prowling around finding new trails and short cuts to his favorite

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/97


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/98

 hunting ground. Thus it happened that he discovered a very narrow trail leading to this precipitate place. Much of the way, this path led along a slope of forty-five degrees, but at the place where the cliff was sheer for sixty feet, the path became very narrow. At one point it was so very narrow and so dangerous that Redcoat debated whether to go back along the way he had come. But he finally hugged the cliff very carefully and got by the bad place. Just beyond the boulder which had made the path so narrow, there was a shelf three feet wide, and here Redcoat sat down and looked at the valley below. I do not know that a plan for using the narrow path against his enemies in the valley was then worked out. Perhaps when he did finally put it to use, it was just a sudden inspiration that came to him like a flash, just as many of his movements did, but the narrow path did stand Redcoat in good stead on more than one occasion. By its use he taught Scottie, and Racer, the tall greyhound, a lesson that they never forgot and he gave Racer an ex-

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/98


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/99

 perience that made that gaunt hound very wary about following him afterwards.

Redcoat had gone to the edge of the Holcome meadows, one night just before dusk. He did not usually go so early, but preferred the friendly shadows of night, even though the moon was bright. But on this occasion Redcoat was careless, just as most good hunters are sometimes.

He had just found a frog and was about to start back to the den with it for the young foxes to play with when he heard a sharp quick bark and looking in the direction from which the sound came, he saw Scottie, the Holcome collie, racing frantically towards him, closely followed by the great greyhound whom Redcoat knew could run like the wind.

If it had been just the collie Redcoat would have laughed at the idea of a good run in the dusk, but this greyhound was a different proposition, so Redcoat dropped the frog and ran for the mountain at his best pace.

Spite of all he could do, the greyhound gained steadily on him, so when he reached

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/99


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/100

 the foot of the mountain the hound was only a hundred feet behind. Whether by mere chance, or design, I do not know, but Redcoat chose the trail up the mountainside leading along the narrow ledge.

Once he was in the narrow path, he did not hurry so much, but let the greyhound get within fifty feet of him, and as they neared the narrow spot the greyhound was within thirty feet.

Bud Holcome, who had come out on the meadows to look for the dogs espied them at this point in the chase. Or rather, he saw the greyhound, and Redcoat just ahead of him, but he mistook the fox for Scottie, who was a red sable collie.

"Thunder," he ejaculated, "Scottie had better be careful, or he will get a tumble. I wonder what they are chasing up there." Then Bud noted another figure just behind the greyhound.

"Why, that was Scottie. The animal ahead was not Scottie at all."

Just at this point in the exciting chase Bud saw the animal ahead, which he decided

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/100


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/101

 was another collie cross the narrow place. It seemed to Bud that the venturesome dog would surely fall. But he made it, and then wheeled like a flash and backed up against the boulder behind, and Bud clearly heard his defiant snarl. "Why," thought Bud. "It isn't a dog at all they are after."

"By thunder! It looks like a fox. I guess they have got him. He's cornered."

At the narrow spot Racer hesitated for a second, but Scottie behind was barking frantically, and whining to get at the fox, who was almost in their reach. So he crowded Racer from behind, the snarl of Redcoat also urging him forward.

He made a movement, half jump, and half scramble, to get by the precipitate place, but just as his head and shoulders projected by the boulder the waiting fox slashed him furiously in the face. Once, twice, three times he struck, and poor Racer drawing back to escape the sudden onset, lost his balance and went hurtling to the rocks sixty feet below.

Scottie, peered over the cliff, and seeing

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/101


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/102

 his comrade falling to his doom, stuck his tail between his legs, and with a dismal howl started back down the narrow trail. He had seen enough of this terrible Redcoat who could throw dogs over a cliff to their doom.

"By Godfrey, it is a fox," cried Bud. "He has done for old Racer."

Bud was soon joined by the excited Scottie, and together they made their way to the foot of the cliff, where they found poor Racer, not dead, but terribly mauled up. Bud went home and got his father, and with the aid of a blanket, of which they made a litter they got the greyhound home, but he never cared to chase Redcoat again.

When Bud told Mr. Holcome of what he had seen, the farmer laughed heartily.

"I guess that fox is the mate to the one who jumped through the henhouse window," he taunted. "I guess the dogs were playing and Racer fell off the cliff."

"No," returned Bud, "I am sure that it was a fox that toppled him over, and I was thinking myself it was the same one."

To the south of Redcoat's mountain, and

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/102


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/103

 just opposite from the Holcome farm, was the Mason farm. This would not have been important in this story had it not been the home of pretty Kitty Mason, who lived with her parents and her small brother on the farm.

It was two miles as the crow flies across the mountain from one farm to the other. That was the way Bud usually took, but around the west end of the mountain, by the meadow road, it was four miles.

It was Kitty Mason's good fortune one day in August when she was picking blueberries in her father's pasture, on the south slope of the mountain, to make the acquaintance of Redcoat. She never knew where he came from, or what he wanted, if anything. But the first she knew of his whereabouts, he was standing not thirty feet away, looking intently at her. The wind was blowing her scent away from the fox, and so he was not at first fully aware of the dangerous man scent.

Most wild animals have a strange animal psychology which tells them which things

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/103


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/104

 are dangerous and which are not. A sort of wild instinct.

This instinct told Redcoat, that while this was one of the man-creatures' people, yet this particular person was not dangerous. So he stood and looked at her for a long time.

Finally Kitty tried the experiment of speaking to him in a soft caressing voice, and just how caressing her voice could be Bud Holcome could well have testified.

"Hello, Mr. Red Fox. Hello old chap. How are you this fine morning?"

To her great surprise the fox did not immediately flee, but instead cocked his head on one side and looked at her still more intently.

He rather liked this calm caressing sound. It gave him a strange tingling sensation in all his nerves, and he was not a bit afraid.

Just at this point in the pleasant acquaintance Kitty's small brother came running around the bush.

"Hush," warned Kitty, but she spoke too late.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/104


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/105

 "O Kit," cried the small boy. "Look, Kit! Look! See the great red fox."

If Redcoat had been doubtful as to the genus of the girl, he was not at all uncertain concerning her brother. This was one of the men in embryo. The other kind with the flowing garments about her might be harmless, but this other sort was dangerous. So Redcoat bolted like a streak.

Two other times Kitty saw Redcoat, and once he had his family with him.

Although they were quite a distance away, yet she had a good view of them at play. It was a wonderful sight, and there was no small boy along to break in on the fun this time.

Very casually, Kitty mentioned her acquaintance with Redcoat to Bud Holcome.

At first he laughed at the idea that she had ever talked with the sly fellow, but when she told more fully of the circumstances he was convinced.

"My," concluded Kitty, "but he had a beautiful coat. If he didn't have to be caught I would like him for a muff. You

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/105


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/106

 remember you gave me one fox skin last year. That made a fine neck piece, but I have no muff."

"Do you want him for a Christmas present, Kit?" asked the boy eagerly. "If you do say the word."

Now Kitty had long wanted a muff. All the other girls at school had one and they were very stylish. So without thinking of Redcoat's part in the bargain, and thinking only of the muff, she cried eagerly, "O Bud, I would dearly like a muff for a Christmas present."

"All right," returned Bud. "He is yours."

Thus it was that Kitty Mason, a kind-hearted girl, who would have shrunk from catching Redcoat in a steel trap herself, and who if she could have seen him thrashing and fighting, with his eyes full of pain and fear, and his jaws dripping foam, would have released him herself, became a party to the steel trap, and set in motion another grave danger to the life and happiness of the Red Hunter.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/106


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/107

NYONE who has ever seen that rare sight, a litter of fox pups at play while the old fox looks on, will agree with the statement that the fox family are very playful. The expression "as playful as a kitten," is proverbial, but "as playful as a fox" is almost as true. Few people, with the exception of woodsmen, or those who spend much time out of doors have ever been fortunate enough to behold this rare scene. This is because the foxes both young and old are very wary, and hide or flee away at the slightest alarm. One of the old foxes is always on guard, watching for danger while the little ones play, so it is hard to spy upon them. Also, the fox is so protectively colored, that it is hard to see him any time but in winter.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/107


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/108

 No litter of kittens ever played with more abandon than will a litter of small foxes. They will chase each other in the wildest sort of a game of tag, which usually ends in a rough and tumble, with a sham fight at the end. These sham fights, when the young foxes become half grown, are often quite serious scraps. Nor does this liking for play die out when the fox attains his full growth. I have on several occasions seen full grown foxes playing tag, or a sort of chasing game, upon the meadows, at about sunrise. First one would chase and the other run. Then they would face each other for several seconds, but soon they were off again.

Down on the last shoulder of Redcoat's mountain, was a pasture. It was mostly open, although there were some trees in it farther up the mountainside. It was in this pasture that Farmer Holcome kept those stupid animals, his cattle. It was Redcoat who thought of them as stupid. Redcoat had often spied upon the farmer when he came to look after the cattle. On these oc-

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/108


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/109

 casions Scottie, the farm dog, always accompanied the man. The dog could drive the cattle as well as the man could, and this rather surprised Redcoat, for he had characterized Scottie as stupid because he had eluded him so many times while thieving about the farm buildings.

In the late fall, when it was getting cold, the man and the dog came out and drove the cattle away, and put them in one of the farm buildings, the barn to be exact. So Redcoat, after the way of a fox, knew that the stupid animals belonged to the man, just as the dog did.

The fox often passed very close to these animals who were always chewing grass. Redcoat thought that very foolish, because grass was only good to eat when one was sick. But, these creatures ate it all the time. When it was very hot, these animals came up into the woods and lay in the shade. Then the fox could spy upon them at will. He had often noted that when Scottie drove the cattle he barked and that made them hurry. Really, it was a very interesting

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/109


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/110

 game that the man and the dog played with the stupid animals.

There was one animal in this herd who would not run for Scottie. In fact, he often faced the dog and got angry when he barked at him. He would even paw the ground and make a rumbling noise. One twilight, when Redcoat had strayed down into the pasture, he came upon this animal. He was chewing grass, and Redcoat came up very close to him before he noticed him. When the bull looked up and saw Redcoat so close to him, he snorted, and started to paw the ground. Then just for fun, Redcoat barked at him. This seemed to make him angry, and he pawed still more. So, Redcoat barked again. This time the bull made that deep rumbling sound which was almost as loud as the thunder stick. Really, this was getting quite funny, so the fox barked still more and went close to the angry animal. This was too much for the bull. To have a strange dog come into his pasture and taunt him in this way was more than he could bear. Scottie, he had to endure, but this strange

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/110


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/111

 dog had no right to bark at him. So, with a deep bellow he charged full at the fox. Redcoat sprang lightly aside, and for a few seconds skulked in the brush where the bull could not see him. But this play was too much fun to be given up easily, and he soon returned to his game of worrying the great animal. The second time the bull charged more readily than he had the first and the fox had to move lively to get out of his way. My, but this was great fun. He had never had anything quite like it. So, Redcoat returned to the worrying game again and again.

Finally, he had the great animal in a roaring rage, bellowing and charging madly.

When the game was at its very highest pitch, and Redcoat was having the time of his life, the man appeared in a distant portion of the pasture and began whistling, and calling, "Here, you Scottie. You come here. What are you doing? Come here." Redcoat shot into the bushes like a flash, and ran for fifteen minutes. He had been so intent upon the game he had not seen the man

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/111


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/112

 or scented him until he was in plain sight. He must be more careful. The man might have the thunder stick with him.

That evening, when Farmer Holcome came back from salting the cattle he was quite disturbed.

"There is one thing, Bud, that Scottie has got to stop doing, if he is to be a cattle dog. He has got to stop worrying the bull. Why he had him in a great temper to-night. He will make him cross. I am not going to have it."

"When was it?" asked Bud, quick to defend his friend. "I never saw Scottie worry the bull. When did he do it?"

"Not half an hour ago. I saw him when I was up salting the cattle."

"Why Dad, you must be mistaken," said Bud in surprise. "Scottie has been with me doing the chores all the time you have been gone. He has been lying on the barn floor."

"I guess I know when I see him worrying the bull," said Mr. Holcome, suspicious that Bud was defending Scottie, without reason.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/112


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/113

 "Honest Dad, he has been here all the time," returned Bud.

Father and son looked into each other's eyes and Mr. Holcome knew that Bud spoke the truth.

"Well," he said, "I don't see what in the dickens it was worrying the bull."

"I don't know about that," returned Bud. "But, it wasn't Scottie."

From tantalizing the big bull in the pasture to playing with Brown Buck was an easy and natural step, but it was quite a different proposition, for while the bull was slow and cumbersome Brown Buck was quick and agile, and he sprang like lightning and charged like a fury.

His favorite retreat was in the rabbits' swamp, three miles east of the den in the spruces, but Brown Buck often left this fastness and wandered along the mountainside and into the pasture, where he sometimes even mingled with the cattle. Occasionally, he had a doe with him, with a little spotted fawn following at her flank,

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/113


text: Index:Trustee Act 1925 (UKPGA Geo5-15-16-19 qp).pdf


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/114

 but more often Brown Buck was alone, for he was a rather morose animal, fond of his own company. When Redcoat first discovered him, he was in the pasture not far from the herd of cattle and the fox thought him one of the herd. But, when he started barking at the Buck as he had at the big bull, he discovered his mistake.

Brown Buck at first did not pay very much attention to the fox, but when the barking and teasing became too persistent he snorted and stamped and finally charged at the mischievous fellow.

Redcoat had no trouble in eluding the bull, but the Buck was a different proposition. He could spring a dozen feet at a bound, and his hoofs came down like piledrivers. Redcoat had to twist and turn and barely escaped being trampled, but he finally eluded his pursuer in a tangle of underbrush.

It was dangerous business, playing with this tall, agile animal, and Redcoat did not attempt it again for many days.

But, finally the spirit of mischief became

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/114


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/115

 too much for him. Hectoring the Buck was playing with lightning, but Redcoat did not know it.

This time, Brown Buck did not wait to be teased, but charged furiously, snorting and stamping. Out and in Redcoat raced, through brambles and thickets, the death dealing hoofs coming down again and again in the spot where the agile fox had been a second before.

At last, in an unfortunate moment, Redcoat stepped upon a thorn which pierced the pad of his forefoot. For a second he flinched and his attention was distracted from his pursuer. This moment almost cost him his life, for Brown Buck's hoofs again came down like a piledriver, and struck the fox a glancing blow on the shoulder.

Redcoat needed no further punishment to acquaint him with his danger, and he ran for the deep woods as he had never run before, regardless of the thorn in his foot. At this point in the mad chase, Bud Holcome appeared and began whistling shrilly and calling, "Scottie! Scottie! Scottie!"

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/115


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/116

 But, in shorter time than it takes to tell it, the fox and his pursuer had disappeared in the deep woods, where Redcoat soon gave the Buck the slip.

"Dad," said Bud Holcome to his father when he returned to the farmhouse an hour later, "Scottie has got to stop his playfulness or he will lose his skin one of these days. I saw him up in the pasture just now. I suppose he thought he was teasing the bull, but instead he was hectoring a big Buck, and he mighty near got him."

"Why," said Mr. Holcome, "that is strange, Scottie has been in the garden with me all the time you were gone."

It was Bud's turn to look astonished.

"But I saw him with my own eyes, Dad, and he and the Buck had a regular's 'set-to.

"I can't help it, Bud," returned Mr. Holcome, "he's been here with me all the time you were gone."

Perhaps the strangest and most interesting thing that came under the observation of Redcoat during his entire life was the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/116


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/117

 mighty thunderer. This strange monster ran upon the two shiny sticks that Redcoat himself had often used when trying to elude the hounds. It was true that these sticks had the same smell that the old steel trap had, that Redcoat's sire had shown him, and also the woodcutter's axe, of which he had smelled when he was a pup. His sire had told him that this scent was very dangerous and to always keep away from it, but Redcoat had discovered for himself that these long, shiny sticks did him no harm when he traveled upon them and they held little or no scent for the hounds to follow. The great thunderer was often seen passing north and south beyond the broad river to the west of Redcoat's mountain. It was also seen a mile and a half to the north of the mountain beyond the Holcome farm. If it was night-time, the thunderer had a large bright eye in his head and it shone through the darkness far ahead of him along his strange trail. Also, there was a red light behind, but this was smaller and not as bright as the light ahead.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/117


text:
Page:Travels into several remote nations of the world. In four parts (1726 Volume 1).djvu/26

 to the Eat and Wet-Indies, by which I got ome addition to my Fortune. My hours of Leiure I pent in reading the bet Authors, ancient and modern, being always provided with a good number of Books; and when I was ahore, in oberving the Manners and Dipoitions of the People, as well as learning their Language, wherein I had a great facility by the trength of my memory.

lat of thee Voyages not proving very fortunate, I grew weary of the Sea, and intended to tay at home with my Wife and Family. I removed from the Old Jury to Fetter-Lane, and from thence to Wapping, hoping to get Buines among the Sailors; but it would not turn to account. After three years Expectation that things would mend, I accepted an advantageous Offer from Captain William Prichard, Mater of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the South-Sea. We et ail from Britol, May 4th, 1699, and our Voyage at firt was very properous.


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/118

 Several times Redcoat had been very close to the trail when the thunderer passed, and the din that it made gave him a great fright, for the thunderer snorted and shrieked and whistled and made the earth tremble beneath Redcoat's feet.

Six miles to the east of the fox den, the trail of the thunderer turned to the South and ran between some hills. Here there was a place for an eighth of a mile where the thunderer's trail had such steep banks that it was almost impossible for either a man or an animal to climb up out of the trail.

One day, Redcoat in a curious mood, went down the trail through this deep cut. He had come to the further end, when looking a mile or so down the trail he saw the smoke that the thunderer always made, and then he heard the strange sound that the thunderer sometimes gave. If he would get back through the deep cut Redcoat must hurry. He had outrun a pack of swift hounds the week before and he felt very sure of his own fleetness. The thunderer could not catch him.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/118


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/119

 But as Redcoat scurried down the deep cut, the din of the oncoming train behind him grew at an alarming rate. Redcoat put forth his utmost strength and ran belly to earth. He had never run from the hounds like this. But, do what he would the roaring came nearer and nearer, and presently the thunderer again emitted that terrible shriek, which echoed from hill top to hill top. To the fleeing fox it was like the crack of doom. Presently the rails beneath Redcoat's flying feet were clicking and he knew the mighty monster was close upon him.

But, just at that moment when a terrible death had almost clutched him, the frantic fox espied a little cleft in the rock three or four feet from the ground. If he could only reach it and spring upon it perhaps the thunderer would pass by and not destroy him. So, he put every ounce of his remaining strength into the effort. A dozen frantic jumps brought him to this one chance of escape. He sprang, but his forepaws held for a moment on the ledge, then slipped off and he fell back upon the track. Once

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/119


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/120

 again, summoning the last ounce of his strength and in utter terror, Redcoat sprang for his life, and this time he made the shelf.

With a roar like the loudest thunder, and a shriek of the whistle, and a clang of the bell, and the sound of rushing wind, the thunderer tore by, leaving poor Redcoat cowering upon the shelf that had saved him. When the thunderer had passed, he jumped quickly down from his retreat and made all haste out of the cut. Never again did Redcoat use this short cut through the hills.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/120


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/121

HERE were two kinds of dangers that Redcoat had to be ever on the watch for. One was the danger which was out in the open, and the other was cunningly hidden, hidden with all the art of man. The open danger was from men, guns and hounds. Of the hidden danger I will speak later. Redcoat's safeguard against all danger was in his eyesight, his hearing, and very keen sense of smell, for his was the best nose in field or forest.

One illustration of the hidden danger against which no cunning could guard him will illustrate what I mean.

Redcoat was hunting in the rabbit warren and the hunting was not good, in fact it had been bad for several days. He was crouched behind an old stump, close to a rabbit path.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/121


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/122

 This pathway was the rabbit's main travel road through the swamp.

Redcoat had been sitting there in the cold with the snow sifting down upon him from the overhanging branches for more than an hour. He was cramped and disgusted with the poor hunting. Presently he peeked out from behind the stump and discovered a rabbit coming down this rabbit highway, but as ill luck for the hunter would have it the rabbit also saw Mr. Fox and turned and ran for his life. Ordinarily the fox would not have pursued him. He would have waited in ambush for another rabbit, but since the hunting was so poor pursuit seemed Redcoat's only course, so he went after the unfortunate cottontail bounding lightly over the laurel tops and scurrying around small spruces. Out and in they raced, a race of life and death, in which the fox steadily gained in spite of the rabbit's dodging and turning.

But it happened there was another hunter abroad that night; a surly old wildcat or bay lynx was sitting on an old log, waiting by

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/122


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/123

 the rabbit path. He had been waiting for a long time, and to see Redcoat chasing the rabbit he had hoped to get filled him with uncontrollable rage. He dug his claws into the bark on the log in a frenzy of fury, and as the rabbit scuttled by the wildcat crouched to spring, but not at the fleeing rabbit. Redcoat discovered him as he came hurtling through the air, else this hunt would have been his last. He did not have time to jump aside but simply dropped in the snow and the cat passed over him, just raking his back with his long needle like claws. Before he had time to recover Redcoat had sprung to one side and the cat's next jump missed him. In a fair run the bobcat was no match for him, so he soon left him far behind. But, it was a close call and it filled the Red Hunter with unspeakable rage, to think that his rabbit swamp had been invaded by this ugly old cat and that he had had to run in this unceremonious way for his life made Redcoat so angry that the hair on his back and neck bristled for hours whenever he thought of it.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/123


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/124

 About twenty rods below the spruces where the fox family had their den there was a wonderful little spring which gushed out from the rocks and fell in a perfect bowl which the waters had worn for themselves. It was fringed with ferns and moss and the water was deliciously cold. This was Redcoat's favorite drinking place. Very rarely did men come to the spring and Redcoat looked upon it as his own special possession.

So his surprise and disgust may well be imagined when one day he discovered man scent about the spring. The scent was not strong, yet it was unmistakable, but this was not all, for there were several small pieces of meat scattered about on the ground close to the spring. Redcoat sniffed the meat suspiciously, for it smelled delicious and made his jaws drip saliva. There was a faint suggestion of man scent about the meat, but it was nearly lost in the ravishing scent of the bloody meat.

In the old days when Redcoat had been just a small pup tagging about after his sire

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/124


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/125

 this wise old fox had given the pups to understand that those things which they did not have to work for often were not good for them. If they killed their meat they could be sure it was all right, but if it was killed for them and placed under their noses, then look out.

But Redcoat had partly forgotten this lesson. In fact, the old fox's untimely death at the hand of Bud Holcome had interrupted the education of the fox family. Besides, Redcoat was very hungry this morning and the meat smelled so tempting. Something inside him seemed to say beware. His good nose told him that the meat might possibly have come from the hand of his enemy man, but he was so hungry. Finally, after nosing one of the pieces for several seconds, he swallowed it hastily and it seemed to do him no harm; so he gobbled down the other pieces, took a good drink at the spring, and hurried away. It was not long however before a queer sensation came over him. He became dizzy. There was a prickling, tingling sensation in his nerves, and soon this

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/125


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/126

 was followed by violent pain inside and spasmodic twitching.

Then, the fact came to Redcoat that it was the meat which was making him sick. His enemy man had done some terrible thing to him. If he could only get rid of the meat. He knew a plant somewhere which would cause him to vomit. If he could only find it and eat some of the leaves. Ordinarily he knew where it was but now his wits seemed to forsake him. Up and down he raced, searching madly for the plant, and all the time his sickness grew upon him. His plight was getting desperate. He was becoming so dizzy he could hardly stand. Something must be done and that quickly. Then the wood nymph, that guardian angel who protects and shelters the wild creatures, must have come to his assistance, because of a sudden he remembered an old remedy that he had often used. He was standing knee deep in cut grass and he began breaking off the tips and eating them ravenously. Mouthful after mouthful he gulped down, and the tickling of the cut grass in his throat

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/126


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/127

 and stomach soon produced the desired effect and the poisonous meat came up with a rush. But Redcoat had already absorbed much of the poison in his system and he went away into the spruces and found a dark place under the top of a fallen tree, and there he laid for the rest of the day a very sick fox. It was hours before Nature threw off the effect of the poison and he finally went to the brook to slake his terrible thirst.

It had been a hard lesson and had nearly cost him his life, but he had learned it well. Never again would he touch any meat he did not kill himself. The whole thing had been too easy and he had been a fool, but they would never catch him again in just that way.

It did not matter that it was a felonious offence to lay poison in this way, where a dog instead of a fox might have gotten it, for some men fear not the laws of God or man and those who lay poison in this manner are of that class.

In the old days when Redcoat had been a pup tagging about after his sire with the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/127


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/128

 rest of the litter, that wise old fox had taught the youngsters many things, among which was the fear of steel and iron. The old fox had impressed upon the whelps that this smell was one of the most dangerous they had to fear.

He had discovered an old discarded steel trap by the brookside and together with the whelps had examined it carefully so they would know it when they saw it again. Finally he had driven the litter away from the trap with great ferocity, giving them plainly to understand that this was a great danger. Later on he had supplemented this knowledge of the smell of iron and steel with the scent of an axe which a woodsman had left for a night in the woods. They also discovered an iron horseshoe in a country road. Later on Redcoat himself had discovered many discarded utensils of iron, all of which he examined very carefully so that the scent of iron or steel was well worked into his system.

The reason for all this caution had been brought home to him one day with great

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/128


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/129

 force. He had been watching Bud Holcome who was walking along the banks of a small stream and stopping every now and then to examine something in the stream. At one point he pulled out one of those very strange instruments which Redcoat's sire had told him was so dangerous. After examining it for a few seconds Bud had replaced it in the water. A little further on to Redcoat's great surprise Bud hawled out another of the dread instruments and in it was a muskrat. The rat was dead. He had been in the trap for some time and being exhausted had drowned. Bud opened the mouth of the strange steel device and took out the muskrat which was held by the forefoot and then threw the rat down on the bank, and put the steel trap back in the river. Redcoat waited to see no more, but fled in great fear lest the strange device might catch him by the foot and hold him until Bud Holcome should come for him. This conclusion did not come to Redcoat all at once, but after several days' pondering on what he had seen he got the idea rather vaguely in his mind.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/129


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/130

 So, for this reason Redcoat was rather well fitted to cope with traps. This was why for a long time he avoided all the traps which Bud Holcome set for him, for Bud was determined that the fox's bright red coat should be Kitty Mason's Christmas present. A new muff would be a wonderful present for Kitty, and Bud was determined that he would do his best to get it. So with this in view, he had set trap after trap with all his trapper's skill. Some of these he set by the dry set method and others he placed in water, but Redcoat always detected the iron smell, or the man scent, and left them alone, even when they were baited with chicken heads, which fairly made his mouth water. Then Bud remembered a trapper's dodge of which he had read and he smoked his traps, which took away the steel smell, and he also dusted out his own tracks by using a balsam bough, which was very pungent. But even so, Redcoat usually discovered the ruse and still went free. But sooner or later even the most wary may get caught and Redcoat was no exception to the rule.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/130


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/131

 He had been hunting along a little stream one morning, in the hopes that he might find a muskrat in one of Bud's traps for he had become so bold that he had twice robbed a trap, once taking a mink. This had made Bud still more determined to catch him. This morning Redcoat had thought he noted Bud's scent at a certain place on the stream. But after careful examination he had concluded that it was a mistake. The trapper had been walking in the stream and the water had carried away nearly all the scent.

A few rods further up the stream Redcoat discovered something that made his mouth fairly water. It was a small bird dangling over the stream. The bird was apparently dead, and it hung head down. These were two facts which should have made Redcoat wary. Anything that was dead was dangerous as food. Things one did not have to work for were not good for one. Then the bird was hanging head down, that also was strange. So Redcoat began investigating very carefully. There was no

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/131


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/132

 man scent on either side of the brook and no man scent on the bird. He was certain of that because he could reach his nose out within a couple of feet of it. For half an hour Redcoat walked up and down the stream looking at the bird and pondering and gradually his suspicions were dissipated. Then he noted a small bunch of turf in the stream half way between him and the bird. Why that was just the thing to step on. He hesitated for several seconds with one paw upraised. Something seemed to say beware, but it was very faint. His hunger was great and the bird looked so tempting. Then Redcoat set his paw down lightly on the bit of turf, and click, snap. Although Redcoat sprang back like lightning and turned a somersault in his hurry to get back in time, yet he was not as quick as the trap which closed firmly over his forepaw, and he was held in a terrible grip—one that made his paw throb with pain, and filled him with an unspeakable fear. The terrible thing of which his sire had warned him, for which he had always been on the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/132


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/133

 watch had caught him at last. He was in the clutches of Bud Holcome and soon he would come searching along the stream to discover if this strange clam which he had put in the water had caught any of the wild creatures. Bud always carried a thunder stick with him and Redcoat knew well what his end would be. How could it have happened? He had always been so careful. It seemed more like a dream than a reality, but as the minutes passed the clutch of the trap upon his paw became more and more real. Yes, he, the Redcoat, who prided himself on his cunning, who had eluded men, dogs, and guns so successfully, was at last caught by this stupid clam in the brook. But it could not hold him. He would soon get free. So he shook his paw violently, but it did no good. Then he crossed to the other side of the stream thinking to leave it behind, but it went with him and the clanging snake-like thing followed also. Perhaps this was helping to hold him, so he seized the chain in his teeth and shook it violently, but that did no good. Then he fell to

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/133


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/134

 biting the trap savagely, but this only hurt his teeth. Then he resorted to another stratagem. With his free paw he dug a small hole, buried the trap, covering it with dirt, but as soon as he pulled with his captive paw the trap came up with it. Then he tried drowning the trap in the stream, holding it under the water for several minutes, but that also was useless, yet something must be done. The minutes were rapidly passing, so he went all through these manœuvers once again, yet all to no purpose. His thrashing around increased the pain in his paw until finally it was almost unbearable, but after an hour or two the paw became numb and the pain was less noticeable. But he was doing nothing to free himself and the coming of the trapper was drawing nearer and nearer. One, two and three hours went by and the misery of Redcoat grew. His nerves became keyed to the highest pitch. The chirping of a bird in the bushes or a snapping twig would make him jump. The woods seemed filled with fear. Danger lurched in every shadow.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/134


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/135

 Finally a desperate thought came to Redcoat. He would gnaw off his paw and leave that portion which the trap held. He had steeled his nerves and opened his jaws to give the first vicious crunch upon his own member when he heard the rattle of a stone in the brook, and looking up fearfully he saw Bud Holcome wading up the stream. It was too late to sever his paw. He was lost for Bud Holcome was carrying the dreadful thunder stick in the crook of his arm. Then Redcoat remembered the drowned muskrat. The man had taken it from the trap and thrown it upon the bank. Had the muskrat escaped? Redcoat had not waited to see. Did this suggest a way of escape for him? I do not know.

But when Bud Holcome parted the bushes and peered in where he had set his best trap he saw the beautiful Redcoat lying limp upon the water, just as the muskrat had lain. Bud's astonishment was beyond words, but he took the precaution to advance with his rifle cocked.

"By jing," he said at last. "If he hasn't

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/135


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/136

 drowned himself in less than a foot of water. Guess I better shoot him through the head though and make sure of him."

He raised the rifle and had almost pressed the trigger when he remembered that a fox skin tears very easily. He would tear the skin enough in getting it off without making any extra bullet holes in it, so he lowered the rifle and poked the fox with the muzzle instead. He was as limp as a bag of feathers. Then Bud pressed his head under the water and held it there for half a minute, but not a muscle moved.

"He's sure enough dead," said the trapper at last, "but I don't understand how it happened."

Standing his rifle against a tree nearby, Bud pulled the splendid fox out on the bank by the chain, released the forepaw from the trap and picking the fox up in his arms carried him a few feet from the stream and laid him in a patch of sun-light to dry. What a beauty he was Bud thought as he brushed the water from his bright fur. What a wonderful muff he would make for Kitty.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/136


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/137

 When Bud had satisfied himself with admiring the fox he went back to reset the trap. He had stooped down to place it on a flat rock in the stream when he heard a slight rustle in the bushes behind him. Turning in great haste, he beheld Kitty Mason's Christmas present flashing through the underbrush as he had never seen a fox run before. Bud sprang for his rifle and sent a shot after the fugitive, but he merely lopped off a twig ten feet behind him. Before he could load the rifle for a second shot the fox had disappeared. Bud rubbed his eyes. He looked at the spot where he had lain the fox a minute before. Then he looked at the empty trap in the stream, and then at the thicket where Redcoat had disappeared, and burst into a peal of boyish laughter, showing that he was a good sport and a good loser.

"Well, Mr. Redcoat," he said as he set the rifle up against a tree and went back to the trap, "you fooled me this time good and plenty, but I'll get you next time or my name isn't Bud Holcome."

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/137


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/138

 The next time that Redcoat fell into the power of Bud Holcome it was not his fault, but just one of those fatuitous happenings which sometimes befall the wild creatures. Neither his eyesight, his hearing, nor his scent had been at fault. Who could have known that this thing which was not really a trap could turn out to be a most diabolical trap, worse than any steel trap. Surely a poor fox could not be expected to understand the laws of physics, and nothing short of an understanding of physics could have saved Redcoat that time.

He had often run upon the rails of the trail which the great thunderer followed. These same rails had often befriended him, for they had allowed him to run for hundreds of rods leaving little scent, so that he might baffle the pack. The rails had never caught his feet. Only once had the thunderer's trail proved disastrous to him and that was when he had been caught in the deep cut. But this place where he was caught upon the occasion in question was on the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/138


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/139

 great meadows, with plenty of chance to escape in every direction.

It was a very frosty biting cold morning in early December. There was a hard sharp crust on the snow. It was very hard to break the crust on the meadows where the mice hunting was the best. Such wary little creatures as the wood mouse had been keeping their houses where Redcoat could not find them. So on this crisp frosty cold morning Redcoat was so hungry that his stomach fairly ached. Hunger gnawed like a rat at his vitals. Because of this fact he was looking everywhere for food, and would take a chance on anything that offered. He was trotting along on the railroad track, his keen nostrils sniffing the air, when he suddenly smelled something that made him stop still in his tracks and sniff again and again. It was blood that he smelled; red, rich blood, such as makes a fox's jaws drip saliva, and it was very close to him. Then he happened to look down on the rails beneath his feet and he saw it, red and vital. It was under

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/139


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/140

 his very feet, and scattered in bright drops all along the rails for several feet. Where this bright tantalizing red fluid had come from Redcoat did not know, but he knew it smelled good.

The blood was that from the veins of an unfortunate doe which had been killed by the morning express only an hour before. Yes, Redcoat could smell the man scent all about on the road bed. The men had climbed down from the train after the engine had struck the doe and loaded her on the train and taken her to the next station. All this Redcoat did not know, but he knew that the blood upon the road bed smelled delicious. First he lapped a dozen drops up from the white snow, but the blood was much plentier on the rails, so the unsuspecting fox began lapping the blood on the cold steel. But one drop was enough for him. To his great surprise and consternation his tongue clung to the rail as though it had been caught in a trap. Not only that, but the rail sucked and pulled at his tongue until it made him whimper, gritty chap that

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/140


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/141

 he was. He tried carefully at first to pull his tongue free, but every effort seemed to glue it more firmly to the rail. Then he pulled desperately until it seemed as though he would pull his tongue out, but it did no good. Finally, this struggling made him sick and faint, and he lay down to rest and to think.

This was another trap. It was the work of men. Another of their plans to capture him. First Bud Holcome had caught him by the paw, and now he was caught in a much worse manner, by his tongue.

Even as Redcoat struggled desperately to free himself, yet was held fast by that terrible grip of the frosty rail upon his tender tongue, the voice of the mighty thunderer, that long demoniacal shriek which Redcoat knew so well, sounded. It was just as he had thought. He had been caught and held upon the track in order that the thunderer might grind him to dust. But this was not all, for the horror of this dread sound had barely died away in his ears when he heard the rhythmic breathing of that strange ma-

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/141


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/142

 chine in which men travelled so fast over their smooth trails, and looking up the road, which crossed the trail of the thunderer very close to where Redcoat struggled, the distracted and fear crazed animal discovered his enemy Bud Holcome coming rapidly towards him. Bud saw Redcoat almost as soon as he saw the boy, and stopping his Ford sprang hastily out, and advanced toward the prisoner and Redcoat saw that he was carrying the thunder stick on his arm. So it was a conspiracy of all his enemies to destroy him. Bud had noted, almost as soon as he discovered the fox, that he was held fast in some way, otherwise he would have run away as fast as his legs could have carried him. Perhaps it was a trap which he had dragged for a distance and finally caught the chain between the ties. But even Bud, trained woodsman that he was, was not prepared for the terrible dilemma of this coveted red fox. When he discovered that the fox was held by his tongue in the desperate frost grip of the rail, his surprise was beyond words. But he also had heard the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/142


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/143

 train coming. He must shoot the fox quickly and then get him off the track before the train tore the beautiful skin to ribbons. But, as he raised the rifle and took aim, Redcoat looked him full in the face. It seemed to Bud that the eyes of the fox and his own eyes met, and there was something so unspeakably pathetic and imploring in the cry for mercy which came from the two wide wild eyes. It was as though Redcoat had been praying to the god of the wild creatures to save him. But it was the warm kindly heart of Bud Holcome which heard, for he lowered the rifle quickly. Again the thunderer shrieked and this time it was only half a mile away. Whatever Bud did, must be done like lightning. Then in a flash the boy remembered his luncheon, for he was going to fish through the ice for pickerel and had taken his dinner. There was the thermos bottle of hot coffee with his lunch. Bud raced back to the automobile as he had never raced before. The lunch box troubled him for a moment, but he tore it frantically open and raced back with the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/143


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/144

 bottle of boiling coffee. Again the train whistled; it was now barely an eighth of a mile away. Bud stooped down and gazed doubtfully at the train, and again Redcoat looked up at him imploringly. The cap came off but the cork stuck in the bottle. Bud worked at it desperately for a second or two, but the locomotive whistled frantically for him to get off the track and for down brakes. He could waste no more time, so with a quick movement he broke the nozzle of the bottle on the rail as close up to Redcoat's jaws as he could. The boiling coffee released the fox's tongue as suddenly as though Bud had released the jaws of a steel trap. The rails were now clicking beneath his feet, and the solid earth was shaking. Bud sprang backward with all his strength and rolled down the embankment on one side of the track, while Redcoat sprang to the other side, and with a roar of car wheels the thunderer rushed by. Another second and boy and fox would have shared the fate of the unfortunate doe. From his sprawling position in the ditch

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/144


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/145

 Bud looked up at the train as it thundered by. To his surprise he saw the engineer and the fireman leaning out of the window looking at him. Also, several of the passengers were looking from the windows. It had been a closer call than he had appreciated. As Bud picked himself up and looked about for Redcoat he discovered this maker of all his trouble standing about a hundred feet away looking at him. Bud thought that the fox wagged his tail, but he was not sure. The sight of the fox reminded Bud of his rifle. To shoot a fox when he was caught in the pitiable manner this one had been and when he was looking up into one's face was one thing, while to shoot him out in the open was another. So, Bud raised the rifle. But as soon as the cunning fox saw the thunder stick pointed at him he started for the distant woods in such a series of wild bounds that Bud knew it was almost useless to shoot at him; yet he sent a shot after him, but only succeeded in kicking up a shower of snow ten feet behind him.

If poor Redcoat was confused as he raced

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/145


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/146

 for the woods who will wonder. For this man creature had doubtless helped to entrap him, catching him in that cruel way by his tongue. He had then called the Great Thunderer to crush him, but had freed him just in time, only to try and kill him with the deadly thunder stick when he was free. What strange and terrible creatures men were!

"Well," said Bud as he clambered back into the Ford. "I guess this is my last try at Kitty Mason's Christmas present for this year. But I will get him in time for next Christmas or I'm mightily mistaken."

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/146


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/147

HE Red Flower had always had a strange fascination for Redcoat. It drew him with an irresistible force. It was as a magnet to his being. He had first seen it in the summer time when he was a pup. He had been standing with his sire and the rest of the young foxes on the ledge that served as a fox lookout. It was to this ledge that the old fox always went when he wanted to discover what was going on in the valley below.

Bud Holcome had been burning some brush-heaps down in the pasture and it was that which afforded the young foxes their first sight of the Red Flower. How it leaped and danced in the gloom of the summer evening. It seemed to Redcoat that it must be alive. It would flare up with sudden brilliancy when the night wind fanned

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/147


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/148

 it, lighting the pasture for rods around, then it would quickly die down, only to leap forth again sending up a shower of tiny stars. It was a weird, wild spectacle and it filled the young foxes with wonder and dread. The old fox could not fully explain to them what it was. He merely intimated that it was a utility of man and something that foxes should keep away from.

The following Summer, when Redcoat was a year and a half old, six or eight Boy Scouts came to the Holcome pasture to camp. First they set up a small, square, white house in which they lived while they were there. Then, as night came on, they kindled the Red Flower and set its bright beams glancing into the darkness. For a long time they sat about the campfire laughing, talking and singing, all of which was very strange to Redcoat who was watching and listening from his lookout. When the boys had all disappeared in the small white house and the Red Flower had died down, Redcoat crept down to the camp to investigate. He went close up to the place where

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/148


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/149

 the Red Flower had been but he could not discover it. At last he found a little gleam of a dying coal in the ashes and he poked it with his paw. Wow! He had to grit his teeth tight to keep from yelping and disclosing his whereabouts. Then as he began gingerly backing away he stepped on another coal. This time he could not smother his yelp. He had had enough of the Red Flower for that night, so he went limping to the spring to cool his throbbing paws in the cold water. So this was where the Red Flower went when it finally disappeared. It hid in the ground and it could bite a fox's paw as badly as a thistle or a thorn.

The Spring that Redcoat was three years old was long remembered by the farmers who tilled the broad meadows and the uplands adjacent to Redcoat's mountain. It was called the year of the great drouth.

The fall rains had been very light. There had been little snow in the winter, and almost no rain in the Spring. The grass sprang up in the pasture only to die down of great thirst. Leaves that should have been bright

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/149


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/150

 green became yellow or brown, and only the great meadows kept their verdure, and dust was everywhere. The corn and onion fields were simply so many acres of dust which rose in air at the slightest puff of the wind. When the wind blew strong, as it often did across the broad meadows, the dust came shifting along the mountainside almost like a snow storm. Each morning the sun arose in a yellow haze and set in a pool of blood. It was a Spring when old weather prophets shook their heads and looked doubtful. All the wild creatures felt it, even as the men did. Ring Tail, the racoon, who is usually a clever fellow became very morose. Whenever Redcoat passed him he growled and showed his teeth. White Weasel became so thirsty for blood that he rushed at Redcoat one day and only ceased his bloodthirsty attack when Redcoat killed him. A muskrat strayed far up the mountainside away from his friendly creek and finally went mad. Redcoat had often killed muskrats for food, but this one he had to kill in self-defense.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/150


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/151

 It was at such a time as this, when everything was ripe and ready, that the Red Flower went mad, and great was the excitement among both men and the wild creatures. It started its mad career on the Holcome farm down on the edge of the meadow. No one ever knew how it happened. Perhaps it was a cigarette butt or a partly extinguished match, but anyhow the mischief was done. One evening from his lookout Redcoat saw the Red Flower leap up in half a dozen places. After a short time he saw men striking at it with spruce bows. They were running hither and yon and seemed very much excited. They would beat the Red Flower down to earth in one spot only to have it leap up in another. As soon as they went to the new fire it would flame up in the spot they had just left. The night wind would catch it even as it did the dead leaves and it would go racing through the grass at a frightful pace. Soon the men brought teams and plowed furrows trying to stop it. Then they started other fires and tried to make them run towards the one that

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/151


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/152

 was racing to the mountain, but the Red Flower swept on, fanned by the night wind, for it had gone mad and it was beyond the power of man to stop it. Soon it mounted to the lower slopes of the mountain and began creeping up the trunks of the trees. Up one tall pine it shot, twisting and writhing, and finally leaped fifty feet into the air, even lighting the ledge where Redcoat paced to and fro nervously. He could now hear the Red Flower roaring in its madness, and the smoke from the great conflagration choked him. Occasionally he coughed and sneezed. Frantically the men worked, plowing furrows, felling trees, and even using dynamite, but they could not stay the onward rush of the Red Flower. All that night Redcoat watched, and the flames crept higher and higher up the mountainside and came closer and closer to the den in the spruces. Finally the smoke became so thick that Redcoat could no longer watch this fascinating but terrible sight, so he fled into the spruces and marshaled his little family in preparation for moving them to safety.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/152


text: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/153

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/153


text: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/154

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/154


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/155

 He took one of the pups and carried it fifty rods over the mountainside and hid it in a hollow in the rocks. But, the Fox family had not yet learned the lesson of obedience, so when he went back after another the little fox came whimpering after him. Again he grabbed it unceremoniously in his mouth and started further down the mountain on the side which was away from the fire. It was now daylight and Kitty Mason had come up into her father's pasture to watch the smoke which was curling up over the mountain, obscuring the sunrise, and to see if she could discover any of the fire-fighters. Thus it happened that in a little woodland path half way up the mountain, she came face to face with Redcoat fleeing from the fire with his offspring.

Usually Redcoat would have bolted at sight of her but he was now so disturbed and unnerved by the terrible night that he stood for a moment uncertain. This was not the man creature, although it had the same scent its form was different, and Redcoat's intuitions told him that the girl coming along the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/155


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/156

 woodland path would not hurt him. Perhaps it was the friendly one he had seen in the pasture the year before. Then in his desperation a strange resolve came to Redcoat for he trotted forward until within ten feet of her and laid the pup on the ground before her. Then he backed away and growled at the little fox when it tried to follow him. He looked up at the girl beseechingly and his countenance said as plain as words, "Don't you see I am in great trouble? You take care of this one while I go back for the others." The girl understood or thought she did, so when the pup started to follow she dropped her broad brimmed summer hat over him and finally gathered the little fox in her lap, then sat down with her back to a friendly tree to see what would happen next.

Foremost among the fire-fighters had been Mr. Holcome and Bud, for the fire had started on their farm and it was through their timberland that it was racing. As the day dawned Mr. Holcome told Bud to skirt the fire on the West side and go to the top

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/156


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/157

 of the mountain to see how it looked from that altitude. Thus it happened that Bud met Redcoat and Fluffy bringing the other three puppies from the spruces. Redcoat had two in his mouth, one sprawling from either side, while Fluffy had one, but the foxes bolted at sight of Bud and he had too many troubles of his own on hand to pay any further attention to them. Fifteen minutes after Redcoat had deposited the first little fox at the feet of Kitty Mason he returned, closely followed by Fluffy, carrying the two small foxes in his mouth. At the sight of the girl he paused in the pathway for several seconds uncertain and then turned sharply to one side and disappeared in the underbrush closely followed by his mate. After a few minutes he returned, and the girl knew that he had found a safe hiding place for the three small foxes and that the mate was guarding them while he had returned for the fourth. He came up to within about ten feet of her and stood watching her narrowly, waiting to see what she would do. He was plainly anxious, so

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/157


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/158

 she did not keep him in suspense but put the small fox on the ground at her feet. Then Redcoat uttered a low whimpering note and the little fox scampered to him. He picked it up in his mouth, and after giving the girl a friendly look and with what she thought was a wag of his tail intended for her, he turned and trotted away through the underbrush and she saw him no more.

Thus it happened that Redcoat and his family were introduced for a second time to Kitty Mason, the girl who had thought she coveted his bright coat for a Christmas muff, while Bud Holcome who was the best trapper among the boys of the valley had promised the Christmas gift and he intended to keep his word.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/158


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/159

Y the Autumn when Redcoat was nearly four years old, the fall after the Red Flower went mad, and drove him and his family out of his beloved spruces, his fame had gone abroad through the countryside until his was the most coveted brush in four counties. Not only was he the largest and most beautiful fox on the mountain range, but he was also the cleverest, if one could believe all the stories he heard about him, which one could not. Hunters and fishermen are so apt to spin yarns when a company of good fellows get together, that it is often hard to disentangle truth from fiction. That is why the naturalist has to discard so many good stories about animals. But there was no discounting the fact that Redcoat was a wonder. He had given hounds and men many a long futile chase.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/159


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/160

 Few members of the Meadowdale Fox Club had really seen him, although many of them said they had. Almost any fox seen at a distance was surely the great red fox. It made it seem more exciting to tell it in that way. It was not an unheard of event to see just an ordinary fox, but to see the clever one, the Phantom Fox of the mountain, was quite another story. Several of the Fox Club had shot at him, or thought they had. According to their accounts he had been mortally wounded many times, and had only escaped by the tip of his brush. But as a matter of fact, he had never been wounded more than to get an occasional scratch, which did him no harm. Most of the members of the club, if we could believe their stories, had come very near to "bagging" him. If their gun had not missed fire, or they had been just over the top of the next ridge, they would have surely gotten him. But, there had always been that little "if."

So Redcoat still possessed that much coveted brush, and still barked defiance at the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/160


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/161

 farm dogs from a safe distance when he wanted to discover if they were at home, and played with the fox hounds in an amazing manner.

His stratagems in eluding the pack had often been described by the members of the club at their banquets at the clubhouse on the bank of the river; the river that ran through the meadows where Redcoat hunted mice; the river which with very thin ice had saved the wary red fox more than once. The old dodges such as back-tracking, and then jumping upon a boulder and then away by a series of leaps from stone to stone, was too old to need description. But Redcoat had several variations of that dodge, which were most successful. There was the old dodge of making a fox and geese track of the trail, and then leaving it by a back track, or running in the brook, and upon the railroad track. This latter dodge was a favorite strategy and one that had often non-plussed the pack. Then he would run in a skunk's track, if he could find one, until the pack could not tell whether they were following

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/161


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/162

 a skunk or a fox. He would run in the main traveled road of the rabbit warren in hopes that the pack would leave him for rabbits, which they sometimes did.

When he was hard pressed he always took to his favorite mountain. Here he was at home. Here he knew all the winding devious paths along the sides of the slippery mountain. He could run for an eighth of a mile upon trap rock, which nearly always threw off the pack. More than once he had led the pack into very dangerous positions when the mountainside was smooth with a glare crust. His cunning in this particular was almost unbelievable. In fact, one could not believe many of the stories told about him, and that is the trouble in tracing the real history of Redcoat. The more wonderful had been Redcoat's ruse, the greater the exploit of the hunter, so they usually embellished their tales most lavishly. One hunter even went so far as to declare that Redcoat had smeared his paws with the oil upon the switches along the railroad track,

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/162


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/163

 in order to cover up his own scent. Probably the member of the club who knew the most about Redcoat and who had seen him most frequently was Bud Holcome, but he always kept his counsel, for he had designs upon Redcoat himself, for was not that wonderful red robe to be Kitty Mason's Christmas present? So, Bud did not want anyone else to get the celebrated fox, and he evaded all inquiries about the Phantom Fox. But Bud knew full well that Redcoat's headquarters were in the little clump of spruces, for he had seen him bringing away his family at the time of the great fire. He had also seen him in the meadows upon the farm on moonlight nights, and likewise on going to school he had on two or three rare occasions seen the great runner flashing across the fields. Then, there was that dramatic occasion when Bud declared that Redcoat had thrown Racer over the cliff. But Mr. Holcome always classed that with the rest of the wild fox yarns. Only Racer himself could have told all about that incident, and

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/163


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/164

 he kept his counsel. Bud also told no one that he had trapped Redcoat and been outwitted by him.

Thus it happened that in the Autumn of which I write the Meadowdale Fox Club went into solemn conclave and mapped out a campaign which it was confidently predicted would put that much coveted brush upon the walls of the clubroom along with other trophies of the chase.

Two days before Thanksgiving the first snow had fallen, and it was an unprecedented storm, for the time of year. When the great feathery flakes finally ceased to sift down upon mother earth, fifteen inches of soft wet snow covered the ground. It furnished a condition that made fox hunting ideal. That is, it was ideal for men and dogs, but very hard for the poor fox. The long legged hounds could run easily in the deep snow, compared with the fox who is very susceptible to wet snow and who prefers to run upon a thick crust or on a hard surface. The pines and spruces were loaded to the breaking point with the new

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/164


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/165

 snow and every little bush by the roadside had become glorious, while, in the words of Lowell, "every twig was ridged with pearl."

Thanksgiving morning dawned bright and beautiful, but an hour before daylight the Meadowdale Fox Club had been astir. A Bugler had gone from house to house arousing the hunters at four o'clock, so that half an hour before sunrise the club members had taken their positions and had let loose the hounds.

I do not know whether it was because it was Thanksgiving Day, a day of chicken and turkey, that Redcoat had sensed, and so had felt the chicken hunger himself, but certain it was that he had started forth that morning to secure chicken for himself and his family. He had passed around to the west end of the mountain and then descended into the valley. He had gone a mile or so to the south and had then struck off in towards the river, where there were several farmhouses with good roosts of chickens. Redcoat had dined at their expense before and he knew the lay of the land

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/165


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/166

 well. While he had been prowling about the farmhouse in question picking up his chicken, the hounds had picked up his fresh track where he had crossed the road and came after him full cry. The club had also deployed along the roadway, for they knew Redcoat would have to cross it to get back to his mountain, to which refuge he always fled when hard pressed. So, the roadway was picketed with men armed with shotguns, one every forty rods, and they stretched out for nearly two miles, so the culprit was seemingly cut off from his retreat.

Redcoat heard the pack afar off. It was a clear beautiful morning and sound carried a long way. He knew at once that it would be a long hard race. For the first quarter of an hour he clung stubbornly to his chicken as his Thanksgiving dinner had cost him much trouble. But finally seeing that it weighted him down, and that the running was very hard, he hid it in a clump of bushes and gave all his attention to extricating himself from his dilemma. He

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/166


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/167

 did not yet fully appreciate the seriousness of this morning run, but it was soon borne in upon him.

First he led the hounds for a mile further down the river through a rough pastureland. Then he doubled back towards the road. By great good luck he approached the road where there was a long level stretch, so he discovered the first two hunters standing with thunder sticks in readiness waiting for him. He veered off towards the river, trying the roadway further up, but here his good nose told him another hunter was waiting, although he did not see him. For a mile he skirted the roadway, trying to find a place where it was not guarded. Once he drew the hunter's fire from long range but it did no harm. So, he finally doubled back southward and went all over the long hard run again. Perhaps the men would get tired of waiting and go home. But they did not. Four different times Redcoat ran the length of the half circle which inclosed him between the river and the roadway, and each time that he came back to the road he found the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/167


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/168

 hunters still waiting for him. Each time he made the circle the pack closed up the distance between him and it. The snow was wet and heavy, and finally Redcoat's beautiful brush dragged in the snow behind him, as he was so tired that he could no longer hold it up. Neither did he now run with the free gallop that he had assumed at the start. His pace had now slowed down to a dog trot.

On the fifth lap of this weary race, which was now telling upon Redcoat and taking his utmost strength, he entered a small woods of pines which was about a quarter of a mile in length, and perhaps twenty rods wide with the further end resting on the bank of the river. Redcoat ran along the south side of the woods, keeping just inside the cover. His plan was to come back on the north side, doubling back on himself, but keeping out of sight. In this way he would get a half mile run in the cover and here he hoped to gain on the pack. But unluckily, when he was doubling back, one of the hounds in the pack happened to spy him

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/168


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/169

 through an open spot in the woods and gave chase. The whole pack at once abandoned the old track for the new and poor Redcoat lost more than half of the distance which he had held upon the pack. This put him in a desperate plight. He was being rapidly run back towards the roadway, and with the pack only about a hundred yards behind. Something must be done at once. He must shake the pack off immediately, or he would run into one of the hunters, or the pack would catch him. Either happening would be fatal.

This time Redcoat approached the road farther south than he had before, under a little cover of brush. Perhaps he might find a place where there was no hunter in sight. He must depend upon his good nose to warn him in advance. As he neared the roadway, with the pack so close behind in full cry, he heard a squeaking and a tinkling which he knew the teams that men drove sometimes made. It was almost at the point where he had planned to reconnoitre the road. Cautiously Redcoat advanced and

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/169


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/170

 peered through the bushes. The sounds he had heard were made by a logging team. In fact a load of logs was passing in the road not thirty feet away. As the end of the load passed by and Redcoat heard the cry of the pack coming so desperately near, a plan which was like a flash of hope in his consciousness came into the quick wits of the red fox. If he could only break the trail. If he could get back the distance he had lost. He could see his beloved mountain not over a mile away.

The end of the load was passing and Redcoat noted that the bottom log on the load stuck out about three feet further than the rest of the load. The quick witted fox saw his chance and took it. As the load passed, he trotted quickly forward and sprang lightly on the projecting log and flattened himself down upon it. His red coat was quite the color of the reddish brown bark of the logs and he blended nicely with the load and was so low down the driver could not see him. The team moved slowly along the road, while the cries of the hounds came

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/170


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/171

 rapidly nearer. A hundred feet further on, the log team rounded a bend in the road which hid it from sight and Redcoat breathed easier. He only wanted just a little more. Another hundred feet and he espied a clump of bushes beside the road. As the sled passed it, the fox sprang lightly into the bushes. Then, keeping the bushes between him and the driver of the team, he ran for the mountain with all his remaining strength.

When the pack came to the road, the full throated cry resolved into excited yelps and finally the hounds were silent. At first the dogs overran and not finding the track in the field beyond, came back to the road and went a hundred yards in the wrong direction. Then they came back to the starting point and went in the right direction till they found the scent, but by this time Redcoat had covered half the distance between him and his retreat and he reached the mountain a quarter of a mile ahead of the pack. He picked his way carefully up the mountainside where it was very steep by his fa-

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/171


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/172

 vorite pathway that led along a precipitate cliff to the very spot where he had tumbled the Holcome greyhound over the precipice. Here he stopped upon the old shelf to rest and watch the pack. They would not venture to climb along that narrow way with the soft snow underneath. In fact, they were already quitting. When Redcoat had satisfied himself that he had gotten rid of his pursuers he yawned and shook himself and started for his beloved spruces. He had escaped. He had outwitted both men and dogs, and was satisfied. But it had been a long hard run and a close call. He would be careful how they cornered him in that way again.

The club never knew just how it happened. It was probably more of that Redcoat's deviltry, for when they had thought they had him for sure, he had slipped through their fingers. But wait, there were more hunts coming. They would get him next time. So the hunters waited and bided their time.

The second great fox hunt was like the

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/172


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/173

 first, only it was more spectacular and more inexplicable to hounds and men.

For several days after this first narrow escape from the hunters, Redcoat kept to his mountain. When he finally did venture forth, it was to go to the south. Long experience had taught him that the hunters did not as often try the country south of the mountain. The men and dogs had combed the region to the north and west of the mountain for six days without starting the Phantom Fox, although they had started two or three other foxes and secured one brush. But they had their hearts set on securing the wonder fox, so kept right on trying.

Just a week from the day of the first great run, Redcoat again got the wanderlust and went to the farming district south of the mountain. There was often very tasty refuse thrown out from the farmhouses at this time of the year. For men were eating chickens and what they left was often a good meal for a hungry fox.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/173


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/174

 Again Redcoat was unlucky, for once more the pack took his track half an hour after he had passed the roadway leading parallel with the mountain and came after him full cry. The men employed the same stratagem they had done the week before, for they deployed along the road, an eighth of a mile apart, so as to head him off from the mountain. Once again Redcoat tried all his old ruses to throw off the pack, but it clung to his track like a burr and refused to be dislodged.

Again the running was very hard, for the deep snow of the week before was still there and six inches more had been added to it. There had been no freezes hard enough to make even a thin crust, so it was a case of straight hard running, with the victory to the one with the longest legs and the best wind. Redcoat's wind was just as good as that of any hound, but his legs were not as long; besides a pack had an advantage over an individual, for always some one of the pack which was spread out fan shaped would discover a loop in the trail and cut across.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/174


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/175

 For this reason, Redcoat did not dare backtrack very much, but confined his running to long gradual turns. Short sharp cuts he soon found were very costly.

For hours the desperate relentless grilling went on. There was no chance to stop for a few minutes to get one's breath or courage back. Several times Redcoat tried the roadway, but he always found it well guarded. He only dared to reconnoitre it at the open spots for fear he would run directly into a hunter. Yet, not withstanding his caution, he finally did encounter a hunter. He ran full upon one of the sentries who had been posted outside the roadway upon a commanding hilltop. It was only by the most desperate running and the wildest jumping and all sorts of jack rabbit stunts that Redcoat saved his brush, but even so the man fired twice. Twice the terrible thunder stick spoke to Redcoat in that awful voice, and each time the small pellets fell like hail about him. The second time he felt a sharp daggerlike pain in his shoulder and discovered to his great consternation that he

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/175


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/176

 could not use his right fore-leg. He was badly wounded and would have to run as hard and as far as he could on three legs. This was the beginning of the end. It was only a matter of perhaps half an hour, for the pack had been gradually gaining on him as it was and with one good fore-leg gone the race was hopeless. As this fact was born in on Redcoat he gazed longingly at his mountain, dreaming in the distance. Again Redcoat turned southward, running on three legs. This retarded his speed by twenty-five per cent. Not only that, but it also made the remaining good fore-leg sink deep in the snow as he bore his full weight upon it. Fifty rods of this three legged running tired him more than a mile on all fours. Soon his tongue was out full length and he was panting and wheezing and all the time the pack was drawing closer and closer. The sound of its perpetual baying was to his overwrought nerves like the crack of doom and filled him with such fear as he had never known before. This would never do. He must turn back and try the road

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/176


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/177

 again at another point. If he could not reach the mountain at this attempt he was lost. He might even not be able to make this stronghold though he crossed the road safely. So Redcoat turned to the heavily patrolled roadway, knowing it was his only hope.

He approached the road by a thin cover of bushes just as he had done the week before and once again he heard the low sweet tinkle of bells, as he had in the first instance, but this time it was not a load of logs, but Kitty Mason driving her father's horse in a light sleigh. Just as the team neared the clump of bushes which fringed the roadway, Kitty was amazed to see a great beautiful red fox flounder out of the cover and fall in the road just ahead of her horse. There was blood on its shoulder, and Kitty divined at once that he was badly wounded. The fox was not dead but he lay panting with his breath coming in quick hard sobs like those of a child that is trying not to cry. Then the import of the two shots which the girl had just heard, and the cries of the oncoming

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/177


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/178

 pack came home to Kitty. The men and the hounds were after this beautiful creature to take away the only thing he valued in the whole world, his life.

At the sound of the oncoming pack, an overwhelming sense of the brave struggle this wild creature was waging against the men with their guns and dogs came over the girl and her sympathetic woman's heart felt a great wave of compassion. They should not take this beautiful creature's life if she could help it.

It did not matter that the fox represented her future muff and that she had abetted Bud Holcome for months in his capture of the fox. For the first time, she now saw the whole matter from the standpoint of the hunted and a great repulsion against being a party to the killing of Redcoat came over her. Without considering what she was doing, or how to accomplish the daring plan that had come to her, and without any fear that he might bite her, Kitty sprang from the sleigh and catching up the warm blanket, hurried to where Redcoat lay pant-

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/178


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/179

 ing in the snow. Without a particle of fear she dropped the protecting blanket over him and picked him up in her arms and quickly deposited him in the bottom of the sleigh, pushing him as far as possible under the seat. As the back of the sleigh was closed he could not escape and he was too spent to resist or to put up a fight if he had wanted to. Besides, he did not want to, for something that was wiser than he, told him here was a protector. Some one who had come to deliver him.

"All right, Mr. Fox," cried the spirited girl as she prepared to drive the gauntlet of the hunters. "They will have to reckon with me and the horse whip before they get you. You just keep quiet and we will give them the slip." With this assurance she whipped up the horse.

They were barely a hundred feet away when the hounds broke into the roadway in full cry. But again their baying was resolved into perplexed yelping and finally died away.

Twenty rods further on Kitty encountered

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/179


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/180

 the first hunter who was standing a few rods away from the road waiting with cocked gun.

"Miss Mason," he called as he saw her. "Did you see anything of the fox?"

"What fox?" inquired Kitty innocently.

"Why the fox that the hounds are running."

"What, are the dogs running a real red fox? How exciting," she shouted back.

"Well, I guess you don't know any more about the fox than I do," returned the hunter. "If you see him tell the men further down the road."

Two other hunters hailed Kitty and about the same questions and answers were exchanged and they found out as little as the first one.

When she was far enough away not to create suspicion, Kitty put the horse into a gallop and did not let him slow down until she reached a wood road branching off from the main traveled road and running up into her father's wood lot. Up to that time, she had not known just what she would do with

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/180


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/181

 Redcoat, but the sight of this branch road gave her the clue. She slowed down the horse and drove for half a mile into the deep woods, going for a quarter of the way up the south slope of the mountain towards which Redcoat had been straining his every energy when she had discovered him. At the end of the road there was a turntable or circle where the woodsmen had turned the teams about. Here Kitty stopped and got out of the sleigh and cautiously lifted up one corner of the blanket. At the move Redcoat lifted his beautiful head and looked at her furtively, but made no move to get out. Then she uncovered him as much as she dared to without getting her hands too close and stepped back four or five paces from the sleigh.

Redcoat slowly arose and stood looking at her and she saw to her great delight that he partly rested his weight upon the injured paw. In fact, the injury had been only temporary. A shot had struck a large nerve and had then buried itself in the flesh. The lameness had been caused by a partial paral-

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/181


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/182

 ysis which had now partly passed. Redcoat stood looking curiously at the girl for several seconds. "It is all right, old chap," she said in a low musical voice. "I won't hurt you. Now run along and don't let them get you again."

Redcoat hesitated for another few seconds and then jumped lightly down upon the snow, and trotted slowly into the thicket, but just as he was about to pass from sight, he turned and looked back, and again Kitty thought, just as she had when he looked back at her with the pup in his mouth, that he wagged his tail in friendship and gratitude, but she was not quite sure.

Bud Holcome, who had been one of the hunters, was glad when Kitty called him that evening over the telephone. He was always glad to hear the girl's voice. But this night she sounded very serious.

"Bud, listen," said Kitty, when the usual salutations were over.

"I want you to get this straight, if you don't ever understand anything I say to you in the future. You know that you have

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/182


text:
Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/183

 been trying to get the big red fox for my Christmas present. Well, listen. I don't want him, and what is more, if you ever trap him, or shoot at him, or so much as harm a hair of his coat, I will never have anything to do with you again. I mean it too, Bud."

"Well, I'll be blest," ejaculated Bud as he hung up the receiver. "If girls aren't the limit. One day they want a thing, the next day they don't."

There was an unwritten law in foxdom that the foxes on the east side of the river should not venture across to the meadows on the west side unless the ice on the river was strong enough to bear them. The foxes on the west side might hunt mice in their own meadow because when they were started by the hounds they could flee to their own mountains to the westward, but these same meadows were a death trap to the foxes from the east. This tradition had perhaps come naturally to Redcoat but it had also been dinned into him by several close calls he had experienced on the west side of the river.

title: Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/183