Muskwa

“ Mooswa felt a little pat on his lofty horn, and looked up. "Lift me down, Brother," whispered Beaver.
"Where's Carcajou?" queried the King.
"Poking around the chimney--he made me nervous.
"Wuf!" sniffed Muskwa, gently. "Our Man burns the stink-weed in his mouth--it's horrible!" François was smoking.
"WUF!" SNIFFED MUSKWA, GENTLY. "OUR MAN BURNS THE STINK-WEED IN HIS MOUTH." Carcajou was busy examining the mud-and-stick wall of the chimney, which stuck up three feet above the roof. "I'm sure they've made it too small," he muttered; "I'll never be able to get down. That will be too bad. ”

“ Sa'-zada interrupted Camel, and continued: "A dig from the spurs and the Cayuse would refuse to budge; but, of course, the rider knew that.
"Eagle Child thought that the Bear was working down in a certain direction, but, as you know, Comrades, Muskwa is a fellow of many notions, turning and twisting and changing his course beyond all calculations."
"Yes, we are like that," assented Muskwa. "It is our manner of life. We find our food in small parts, and in many places—berries here, and Ants there, and perhaps Honey on the other side. ”

“ Whisky-Jack preened his mischievous head, ruffled his blue-gray feathers, broke into the harsh, cackling laugh of the Jay, and sneered, "Eating! always of eating; and never a more beautiful song to you, or--"
"Less thieving to you, eh, Mister Jay," growled Muskwa. "You who come by your eating easily have it not so heavily on your mind as we Toilers." ”

“ Bruce sprang to his feet.
"Come on!" he cried. "The black's dead! If we hustle we can get our grizzly!"
And down in the meadow Muskwa ran to Thor with a bit of warm black hide in his mouth, and Thor lowered his great bleeding head, and just once his red tongue shot out and caressed Muskwa's face. For the little tan-faced cub had proved himself; and it may be that Thor had seen and understood.
CHAPTER NINE
Neither Thor nor Muskwa went near the caribou meat after the big fight. ”

“ While he still lay panting and very much frightened, Thor came down from the rocks. Muskwa's mother had given him a sound cuffing when he got the porcupine quill in his foot. She had cuffed him for every accident he had had, because she believed that cuffing was good medicine. Education is largely cuffed into a bear cub, and she would have given him a fine cuffing now. But Thor only smelled of him, saw that he was all right, and began to dig up a dog-tooth violet. ”

“ Thor rose from beside the rock with a prodigious whoof that roused Muskwa. The cub got up, blinked at Thor and then at the sun, and shook himself until he fell down.
Thor eyed the black and tan mite a bit sourly. After the sapoos oowin he was craving red, juicy flesh, just as a very hungry man yearns for a thick porterhouse instead of lady fingers or mayonnaise salad—flesh and plenty of it; and how he could hunt down and kill a caribou with that half-starved but very much interested cub at his heels puzzled him. ”

“ And François the Guide ate his tail and said it was equal to fat bacon."
"Unthinking Wretch!" cried Umisk angrily, bringing his broad tail down on a stone like the crack of a pistol.
"I picked his bones," taunted the Jay; "he was dead, and cooked too, so it didn't matter."
"Cannibal!" grunted Bear.
"They eat you also, Muskwa; only when they're very hungry though,--they say your flesh is like bad pork, strong and tough."
Black Fox interrupted the discord. "Comrades," he pleaded, "don't mind Jack; he's only a Jay, and you know what chatterers they are. ”

“ The next instant a wild yell startled the mountain-tops as Muskwa's needle-like teeth sank into one of Langdon's fingers. Bruce's howls of joy would have frightened game a mile away.
"You little devil!" gasped Langdon, and then, as he sucked his wounded finger, he laughed with Bruce. "He's a sport—a dead game sport," he added. "We'll call him Spitfire, Bruce. By George, I've wanted a cub like that ever since I first came into the mountains. I'm going to take him home with me! Ain't he a funny looking little cuss?" ”

“ Seventy-five yards below them their cache was being outraged. The robber was a huge black bear. He was a splendid outlaw. He was, perhaps, three hundred pounds lighter than Thor, but he stood almost as high, and in the sunlight his coat shone with the velvety gloss of sable—the biggest and boldest bear that had entered Thor's domain in many a day. He had pulled the caribou carcass from its hiding-place and was eating as Thor and Muskwa looked down on him. ”

“ Also each day one of us will make a fresh trail here, so that the Man may think we still live in this house."
So while Speed glided swiftly through the Boundaries uttering his whimper call to Mooswa, Muskwa, Rof, and Carcajou, François and Rod shouldered each a bag of Traps and started to lay out the Marten Road, as was called a big circle of Traps extending perhaps thirty miles, for the Winter's hunt. ”

“ And Thor, if he explained to him at all, told him that winter was very near, and that these slopes were their last feeding grounds. In the valleys the berries were gone; grass and roots alone were no longer nourishing enough for their bodies; they could no longer waste time in seeking ants and grubs; the fish were in deep water. It was the season when the caribou were keen-scented as foxes and swift as the wind. Only along the slopes lay the dinners they were sure of—famine-day dinners of whistlers and gophers. Thor dug for them now, and in this digging Muskwa helped as much as he could. ”

“ Umisk has to live under the ice nearly all Winter, and would be of no more service to us than Muskwa--that's the real objection."
"My!" cried Beaver, patting the ground irritably with his trowel-tail, "one really never knows just how vile he is till he gets running for office. Besides, I don't want to be King--I'm too busy. Perhaps sometime when I was here governing the Council, François, or another enemy, would break my dam and murder the whole family; besides, it's too dusty out here--I like the nice, clean water. My feet get sore walking on the land." ”

“ An hour after they left the sheep trail they came to the rise in the valley where the waters separated. From this point one creek flowed southward into the Tacla Lake country and the other northward into the Babine, which was a tributary of the Skeena. They descended very quickly into a much lower country, and for the first time Muskwa encountered marshland, and travelled at times through grass so rank and thick that he could not see but could only hear Thor forging on ahead of him. ”

“ In the winter, when the snow betrays his traces, he is more easily shot, and his skin and flesh are then also in the best condition. In spite of his apparent clumsiness and stolidity, the muskwa is more alert than the brown bear, whom he nearly approaches in size; he runs so fast that no man can overtake him, and is an excellent swimmer and climber. When attacked, he generally retreats as fast as possible into the forest; but if escape is impossible, he turns furiously upon his pursuers, and becomes exceedingly dangerous. ”

“ And François says they will stay here all Winter and kill fur. There are three big Bear Traps in the outfit--I saw them, Muskwa; what think you? Great steel jaws to them, with hungry teeth. They would crack the leg of a Moose, even a Buffalo; and there are Number Four Traps for Umisk and Nekik; and smaller ones for you, Mister Marten--many of them. Oh, my! but it's nice to have an eight-dollar coat. All the Thief-trappers in the land covet it. ”

“ It's born in us to want to kill."
"And we take it all out on brute creation," mused Langdon. "After all, we can't have much sympathy for ourselves if a generation or two of us are killed in war, can we? Mebby you're right, Bruce. Inasmuch as we can't kill our neighbours legally whenever we have the inclination, it's possible the Chief Arbiter of things sends us a war now and then to relieve us temporarily of our blood-thirstiness. Hello, what in thunder is the cub up to now?"
Muskwa had fallen the wrong way out of his crotch and was dangling like the victim at the end of a hangman's rope. ”

“ The little White Powder that is the essence of death is put in a hole in the Meat. I know; I've seen them at it. Haven't their Train-Dogs noses also--and didn't two of them that time eat the Bait, and die before they had travelled the length of a Rabbit-run. I saw them--they grew stiff and quiet, like the White Man who fell in the snow last Winter when he was lost. But I'm satisfied with Black Fox; and you can be his Lieutenant--I don't care."
"Yes," continued Carcajou, "who among us is more fitted to be King? Muskwa is strong, and big, and brave ”

“ Your understanding runs to a fine discrimination in perfumes--prominent odours, like Castoreum, or dead Fish. If you were a Man you'd have been a hair-dresser.
"Muskwa, your pelt's a useful one; still it doesn't sell for a very great figure. Last year at Wapiscaw I saw pictures on the Factor's walls of men they call Soldiers, and they had the queerest, great, tall head-covers, made from the skins of cousins of yours. And the Factor also had a Bear pelt on the floor, which he said was a good one, worth twenty dollars--that's your value dead, twenty dollars.
"Mooswa's shaggy shirt is good ”

“ The Indian turned too, and with growing passion caught him by the arm. 'I but follow the teaching of my own mind. A man must obey the love call, though the world rise to hold him back.'
Muskwah spoke from his own by no means narrow philosophy. The workings of the world were certainly beyond his understanding; the ways of Nature he was in close touch with. He was pushing dimly towards one definite aim in life. The Chief was tottering to his death. When the funeral smoke had cleared, he might well be chosen head of the tribe. ”

“ The Jay blinked his round bead-eyes, snapped his beak, and retorted: "They put in their evenings laughing over the roasting you got when you dropped into the fire."
"Where's François, Babbler?" asked the King.
"Gone out to bring in Deer Meat."
"Did he make a Kill?"
"U-h-huh! my crop is full."
"You horrid Beast!" cried Carcajou, disgustedly. "Where is it cached?"
"Not Mooswa?" broke in Black King, with a frightened voice.
"No--Caribou. Such a big shovel to his horn too--must have been of the Knowledge Age. Ugh! should have known better than to let a Man get near him. ”

“ The fort runner pointed to a ledge of rock that jutted out on the highest point of the hill.
"The Little Fool stood there, waiting," he observed. "He had seen the fur train of the French Hearts coming and thought to travel with them to their fort. But soon his thoughts were changed. He saw me and disappeared in the trees. When I caught him, he had no food or rifle. Yet I brought them to you, Strong Father.
"He is a little devil as well as a little fool," Maskwa summed up. "He deserves no pity. Mark you, Strong Father, he has been the right hand of that wicked French Heart, the Black Ferguson. ”

“ Walking with the leading sledge, Maskwa whirled as he passed the sentinel and felled him with a quick blow of the rifle butt. Quickly he removed the unconscious man's weapons and threw him on the sled.
"Strong Father, the thing is easy, as I told you," the Ojibway muttered to the first snow-coated giant guard, who was in reality Bruce Dunvegan.
"Too easy," was Bruce's answer. "Listen! There is no stir about the buildings, no sound. That puzzles me, Maskwa."
"Men sleep soundest just before the light breaks," explained the fort runner in a tone of satisfaction. ”

“ Why, they hide under sticks, and get up in shallow water among the stones, so that I can hardly see them. It must be pleasant to sit up on your quarters, nice and dry, pull down the bushes and eat great, juicy Berries. I wish I lived on fruit."
"No you don't," snarled Jay; "you'd sell your Mother for a fish."
"If you're quite through wrangling," interrupted Wolverine, "I'll go on talking about the King. Who is better suited than Black Fox? Is it Mooswa? He would make a very magnificent-looking King. See his great horns. He would protect us--just now ”

“ But an Indian, running out of the winter wigwams, stopped Maskwa from entering the village by a peculiar motion of his crossed hands. The others saw the fort runner halt in his tracks and draw away, while a momentary conference in the native dialect took place.
The Ojibway beckoned to Dunvegan who ran up hastily.
"Strong Father," spoke Maskwa quickly, "an Indian has come to this village and he has fever. We cannot enter. Else will the fever spirit destroy our own men."
"Where's Father Brochet?" Bruce demanded, speaking in Cree. "Where's the priest—the praying man. ”

“ It is even better than having Soft Eyes, the husband, fall in the fight."
"Ah! you mistake my meaning, Maskwa," observed the chief trader hastily. "The woman is in my protection, not in my possession."
"So!" the fort runner exclaimed with a slight inflection of surprise. "The French Heart may steal, but Strong Father steals not. How is that?"
"We are different men," answered Bruce, as they entered the store.
Desirée still waited beside the door. Maskwa passed her by without a look, making his way toward the trading room. ”

“ I wish he hadn't followed me--I wish I hadn't killed him."
"THE BALL STRUCK ME IN THE SHOULDER, AND MADE ME FURIOUS WITH RAGE." "You were justified, Mooswa," said Black King; "there is no blame--that is the Law of the Forest:--
"'First we run for our lives,
Then we fight for our lives:
And we turn at bay when the killer drives."
"Bravo, bravo!" applauded Whisky-Jack. "Don't fret about the Indian, old Jelly-Nose. I'm glad you killed him. I've heard the White Trappers say that the only good Indians are the dead ones." ”