“Old Man Coyote will get him this time,” thought Jumper, and didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry. He wanted with all his might to be rid of Billy Mink. At the same time he didn’t want anything to happen to Billy.
Billy Mink wasted no time looking for a hiding-place. Like a flash he climbed the nearest tree, for you know Billy is a very good climber. There, just out of reach of Old Man Coyote, Billy crouched on a limb and told Old Man Coyote just what he thought of him. Billy was angry clear through. It was one thing to hunt and quite another thing to be hunted. Old Man Coyote didn’t seem to mind what Billy Mink said. He sat down at the foot of the tree quite as if he intended to stay there.
Jumper waited to see no more. Very quietly he crept out from under the brush pile on the other side and then took to his heels. He meant to put as great a distance as possible between himself and these two enemies. And as he ran he chuckled. “That’s the time an enemy proved a friend,” said he, for he knew that he would have nothing more to fear from Billy Mink that night.
CHAPTER XL
SOMETHING BILLY MINK DIDN’T KNOW
A time there is to run away,
And also there’s a time to stay.
Billy Mink.
The tree up which Billy Mink had scrambled was a big hemlock. He went only high enough to be out of reach of Old Man Coyote, for while Billy can climb easily, he doesn’t do any more of this than he has to. He prefers to be on the ground. He will climb readily enough when there is something to climb for, but otherwise he seldom takes the trouble.
Billy was very angry. Old Man Coyote had appeared at just the wrong time. Billy had felt sure that sooner or later he would catch Jumper. But Old Man Coyote had interfered. So Billy spitefully called Old Man Coyote all the bad names he could think of. Old Man Coyote simply looked up at Billy and grinned. “That’s a sharp tongue of yours, Billy,” said he, “but calling another bad names never yet hurt anybody. I have a mind to keep you up there for a while just to pay you for your impudence.”
This is just what Old Man Coyote did. Perhaps he hoped that Billy Mink might lose patience and try to get down. But Billy didn’t. He knew when he was well off. He proposed to stay right where he was until Old Man Coyote should lose patience and give up. After a long time Old Man Coyote did give up, and trotted off through the Green Forest.