"Agreed!" Peter Mink cried. "And now, how are you going to set me free?"
"I'm going to bite your leg off," Grumpy Weasel said cheerfully.
"Oh, no! You're not going to do that!" Peter Mink howled. "I don't want you to do that!"
"I made a bargain with you," Grumpy Weasel reminded him, "and I intend to carry out my part of it."
"Stop a moment," Peter Mink cried. For Grumpy Weasel, with his back arched like a cat's, and his white whiskers twitching, had already taken a step towards him. "If you bite off my leg I'd never be able to get rid of Mr. Snowy Owl."
That brought Grumpy Weasel up
short. He thought deeply for a moment; and then he exclaimed: "I have it! You must bite off your own leg!"
But Peter Mink proved a hard one to please.
"You don't understand!" he said. "If I lose a leg I know I never could get Mr. Snowy Owl out of the valley."
At that Grumpy Weasel lost his temper completely. With a cry of rage he sprang at his cousin, Peter Mink, prisoner though he was. And Grumpy would have buried his white teeth in him except for just one thing. As he leaped forward Peter Mink leaped backward. And in that moment Peter freed himself. He had been caught only by the merest tip of a toe, anyhow. And now he crouched with his back against the bank of the brook, facing Grumpy Weasel with mouth wide open. His meekness had dropped off him like an