Red Ben suddenly realized he was getting tired out. A kind of desperation seized him. He crossed barn yards, where the children delightedly shouted at him; dodged down roads in plain sight of people in automobiles, and in his ignorance of the country, did other things which in the old days on the Ridge would have seemed impossibly reckless.
Everyone shouted and cheered and followed as well as they could, until Red Ben lost them in a friendly wood. Here he threw himself down, panting as never before. His limbs ached all over and smarted where he had been bitten in the fight with Gray Fox; he felt indeed as if he could never get up. But when the dogs came over the meadow in plain view, he somehow jumped up once more and circled the wood; then he found the scent of another fox.
With new hope he turned into the wind and followed it unerringly until he reached long rows of wire pens in which were a number of creatures that seemed to be foxes, but were black. He had stumbled upon a fox ranch, kept by a dealer who raised the beautiful black ones for their pelts, which he sold. Every fox Red Ben saw there was worth many hundreds of dollars.
Scarcely knowing what to do, he followed the outer fence a short distance, then slipped to a thicket where he could hide and watch what would happen.
The dogs came soon in a long line, five of them, with Ben’s big hound still in front. They blundered into the first line of wire, looked up, and saw the foxes running in all directions. At this sight, one mighty yell burst from every one of them. They leaped around the outer enclosure in frantic efforts to get in. Trails were forgotten now that foxes were actually in sight. Indeed the one idea of each was to catch a fox before the others got him; so they jostled each other and scrambled and fought, with such a din that the ranch owner came running out with his gun and broke up the party with two stinging loads of bird shot, one of which peppered the black and white hound in a way he would not soon forget.
Quiet instantly followed. The black foxes were so well protected by the double line of fencing that they were not in the least hurt, or even much scared. They soon slipped out of their shelters and basked in the sun, while Red Ben in his thicket sprawled out flat and slept. His first day of travel had been an eventful one.
CHAPTER XIV
BLACKIE
In the afternoon, soft snow, the first that Red Ben had ever seen, fell for several hours. He did not fear it, but wondered at its whiteness, which soon wiped out the green and brown colors of his thicket and deadened all the woodland scents he was used to. Nevertheless, as soon as darkness made it safe to move about, he crept out of his hiding place and again visited the fox ranch. On three sides he found thickly planted spruce trees, which sheltered the yards, and made them so secluded and cozy that the timid animals could live there almost as happily as in the North Woods, whence those came which had not been born in captivity.
The whole ranch was enclosed with the strong wire which had kept out the dogs. Inside this fence were the pens, each holding a pair of the wonderful silver black foxes. A shed ran along their northern side, giving protection against rain and the coldest winds.
Red Ben moved stealthily between the snow laden spruce boughs, climbed the outside fence with the ease of a cat, and approached the first pen. Here stood watching him a beautiful fox, jet black to the tip of her tail, which was pure white. Blackie seemed mightily interested in Red Ben. She even stuck her dainty black nose through the wire for him to touch, which he did rather shyly.