Wolverine winked solemnly at the Red Widow.
"Yap! that won't do--been fighting!" came from the King.
"It was a Doré, Your Majesty," pleaded Sakwasu, "and I caught him first."
"Just as I dove for him," declared Otter, "Sakwasu followed after and tried to take him from me--a great big Fish it was. I've been fishing for four years, but this was the biggest Doré I ever saw--why, he was the length of Pisew."
"A Fisherman's lie," quoth the Red Widow.
"Who got the Doré? That's the main question," demanded Carcajou.
"He escaped," replied Nekik, sorrowfully; "and we have come to the Meeting without any breakfast."
"Bah! Bah! Bah!" laughed Blue Wolf; "that's rich! Hey, Muskwa, you heard the end of the story--isn't it good?"
"I, too, have had no breakfast," declared Muskwa, "so I don't see the point--it's not a bit funny. Seven hard-baked Ant Hills have I torn up in the grass-flat down by the river, and not a single dweller in one of them. My arms ache, for the clay was hard; and the dust has choked up my lungs. Wuf-f-f! I could hardly get my breath coming up the hill, and I have more mortar in my lungs than Ants in my stomach."
"Are there no Berries to be had, then, Muskwa?" asked Wapistan.