their nest, not daring to move a claw lest the owl should hear.

Behind him the same shadow that had passed over the partridge's nest
looked into the hare's form with fierce red eyes. It followed Kagax's
trail over that of the mother hare, turned back, sniffed the earth,
and came hurrying silently along the ridge.

[Illustration: Kookooskoos]

Kagax crept stealthily out of the thicket. He had an awful fear now of
his feet; for, heavy with the blood he had eaten, they would rustle
the leaves, or scratch on the stones, that all night long they had
glided over in silence. He was near his den now. He could see the old
pine that lightning had blasted, towering against the sky over the
dark spruces.

Again the deep _Whooo-hoo-hoo_! rolled over the hillside. To Kagax,
who gloats over his killing except when he is afraid, it became an
awful accusation. "Who has killed where he cannot eat? who strangled a
brooding bird? who murdered his own kin?" came thundering through the
woods. Kagax darted for his den. His hind feet struck a rotten twig
that they should have cleared; it broke with a sharp snap. In an
instant a huge shadow swept down from the stub and hovered over the
sound. Two fierce yellow eyes looked in upon Kagax, crouching and
trying to hide under a fir tip.

Kagax whirled when the eyes found him and two sets of strong curved
claws dropped down from the shadow. With a savage snarl he sprang up,
and his teeth met; but no blood followed the bite, only a flutter of
soft brown feathers. Then one set of sharp claws gripped his head;
another set met deep in his back. Kagax was jerked swiftly into the
air, and his evil doing was ended forever.

There was a faint rustle in the thicket as the shadow of Kookooskoos
swept away to his nest. The long lithe form of a pine marten glided
straight to the fir tip, where Kagax had been a moment before. His
movements were quick, nervous, silent; his eyes showed like two drops
of blood over his twitching nostrils. He circled swiftly about the end
of the lost trail. His nose touched a brown feather, another, and he
glided back to the fir tip. A drop of blood was soaking slowly into a
dead leaf. The marten thrust his nose into it. One long sniff, while
his eyes blazed; then he raised his head, cried out once savagely, and
glided away on the back track.

IV. KOOKOOSKOOS, WHO CATCHES THE WRONG RAT.

[Illustration: Kookooskoos]

Kookooskoos is the big brown owl, the _Bubo Vir