“Cease your quarreling over such petty things,” he said. “There are greater things for the herd to consider than this.”
“What can be greater than a question of honor?” interrupted White Tail boldly. “Your son has spread falsehoods about me, and I challenge him to prove it by fighting.”
“And I tell you to cease your quarreling,” added Black Buck. “You may need your strength for a different kind of challenge. Know you not what has happened?”
White Tail looked mystified. Suddenly it occurred to him that he hadn’t seen Father Buck or Mother Deer. They hadn’t come forth to greet him. Had anything serious happened to them?
“No, I don’t know what has happened,” White Tail admitted. “I have been away, and know nothing.”
“Then listen!” replied Black Buck. “Our leader has failed. He stumbled in the chase, and missed his footing. When we crossed the brook he failed to clear it. He is no longer our leader. He’s old and broken. Tomorrow we meet at the Council Tree to choose a new leader.”
White Tail stood dumbfounded. Father Buck had been disgraced! He had fallen and missed his footing! He had failed to cross the brook in a single jump! He was to be deposed as leader!
It seemed incredible, and White Tail was on the point of saying so when he remembered the words of Father Buck, and his prediction that some day he would fail through old age and weakness. The thing had happened then in his absence. White Tail was glad of that, for it would have been hard for him to witness the leader’s downfall.
Without another word to Black Buck, he whirled around to hunt up Father Buck and Mother Deer. He wanted the truth from their lips, and not from one who found pleasure in it. The sneer in Black Buck’s words angered him.
He found the two quietly resting under a tree back of the herd, a little to one side as if they had already been cast out and ignored by those who had so recently looked up to them. Mother Deer rose and ran to greet her son.