t content with bringing themselves into the borders of Carboona, the
intruders had brought a third thing with them--Fire! The human creature
had collected sticks and made a pile. And out of the pile had come
strong-smelling mist that stung your nose; and, presently, an awful
shining, like the sun and moon gone mad!

The great news travelled far and wide. It penetrated even into the damp
dullness of the tamarack swamp where old Goshmeelee, the black bear,
lived with her precious cubs. The little peoples of fur and feather
caught the scatterings of it in the air and went uneasy in their minds.

But the person who could have given you more information than anybody
else, was one who started the news travelling--Baltook, the Silver Fox.

CHAPTER XI

WHY THE FOXES TRUSTED DUSTY STAR

When Dusty Star and Kiopo, after many long days of journeying came into
the valley below the den of the Silver Fox, they saw that there was
water, and a good place for rest. They did not waste any time in
discussing its advantages or drawbacks. They simply decided at once that
here was the goal of their wandering and that here they would make their
camp. That is to say, Dusty Star would make it. Kiopo would look on and,
if he approved, would consent to making it his temporary home. If he did
_not_ approve, he would show his dislike and uneasiness in so many plain
ways that Dusty Star had no peace until they moved elsewhere. Even if
the wolf was satisfied that no hidden danger lurked in the
neighbourhood, and that they might safely settle down for a time, he
could never take kindly to a sitting-down existence. For the great life
that he had was always in his feet, so that he must be continually on
the move, or going long journeys or short ones, as the case might be,
but sooner or later, always coming back. So while Dusty Star built the
tepee, Kiopo went exploring up and down the valley, getting every point
of it well into his eyes, and every drifting smell it had well up his
nose. And more than once, when he tried the wind suspiciously, he caught
a faint yet unmistakedly musky odour that suggested a fox.

That night they slept soundly; Dusty Star in the bough-built tepee,
Kiopo stretched full length across its entrance. And all night long,
Carboona, the old savage home of countless lives, gloomed darkly above
them, though they did not even know its name. Still less had either of
them the least idea that they had chosen their resting-p