"Still I think you had better not touch Carcajou's Fat-eating," he advised.
Lynx laughed at this. Why shouldn't he--he was so very hungry?
"Well," said the Bird, "mind I don't wish to lead you to it--don't ask you to go--in fact, I think you had better keep away; but Dumpty's Fat-eating is hidden under the roots of that big up-turned Spruce, just where Mooswa's trail crosses the Pelican on its way to his Moose-yard."
"Do you really think it was hidden there by Carcajou?" asked Lynx. "Is it not François's cache--or some last year's cache of another Man? They are always wandering about through the Boundaries, looking for the yellow dust that is washed down by running waters, or for the white metal that sleeps in rocks."
"No, the white Meat belongs to our hump-backed Comrade--at least he rustled it from the Breed's Shack," answered Jay.
"Perhaps after all it would not be fair to take it, then," whined Lynx. "I am hungry--oh, so hungry, but to steal from one of our Comrades, even to save one's life--I would rather die, I believe."
"Prince of deceitful wretches!" muttered Jay to himself. "Oh, the cant of it! now he means to steal it sure, but is afraid that I may inform against him."
"I'll not touch the Fat-eating," continued Pisew. "True, the Little Lieutenant stole it from François; but that is different, is it not, wise Brother--you who are learned in the Law of the Boundaries? To take from them who would rob us of our clothes is not wrong, is it?"
"No; that is understood by all of us," answered Jack, aloud; to himself he said, "the prating hypocrite!"
"So Carcajou is entitled by our law to half of the spoil, and I suppose that is the Fat-eating he has cached; the other half went in the love feast."