lted for safety. Miki followed,
yelping at every jump. No longer did Neewa feel a horror of the river.
The instinct of his kind told him that he wanted water, and wanted it
badly. As straight as Challoner might have set his course by a compass
he headed for the stream, but he had proceeded only a few hundred feet
when they came upon a tiny creek across which either of them could have
jumped. Neewa jumped into the water, which was four or five inches
deep, and for the first time in his life Miki voluntarily took a
plunge. For a long time they lay in the cooling rill.

The light of day was dim and hazy before Miki's eyes, and he was
beginning to swell from the tip of his nose to the end of his bony
tail. Neewa, being so much fat, suffered less. He could still see, and,
as the painful hours passed, a number of things were adjusting
themselves in his brain. All this had begun with the man-beast. It was
the man-beast who had taken his mother from him. It was the man-beast
who had chucked him into the dark sack, and it was the man-beast who
had FASTENED THE ROPE AROUND HIS NECK. Slowly the fact was beginning to
impinge itself upon him that the rope was to blame for everything.

After a long time they dragged themselves out of the rivulet and found
a soft, dry hollow at the foot of a big tree. Even to Neewa, who had
the use of his eyes, it was growing dark in the deep forest. The sun
was far in the west. And the air was growing chilly. Flat on his belly,
with his swollen head between his fore paws, Miki whined plaintively.

Again and again Neewa's eyes went to the rope as the big thought
developed itself in his head. He whined. It was partly a yearning for
his mother, partly a response to Miki. He drew closer to the pup,
filled with the irresistible desire for comradeship. After all, it was
not Miki who was to blame. It was the man-beast--and THE ROPE!

The gloom of evening settled more darkly about them, and snuggling
himself still closer to the pup Neewa drew the rope between his fore
paws. With a little snarl he set his teeth in it. And then, steadily,
he began to chew. Now and then he growled, and in the growl there was a
peculiarly communicative note, as if he wished to say to Miki:

"Don't you see?--I'm chewing this thing in two. I'll have it done by
morning. Cheer up! There's surely a better day coming."

CHAPTER SEVEN

The morning after their painful experience with the wasp's nest, Neewa
and Miki rose o