"No--Caribou. Such a big shovel to his horn too--must have been of the Knowledge Age. Ugh! should have known better than to let a Man get near him. Of course François stuck the head on a tree to make peace with Manitou, and I'm fixed for a month."
"Cannibal!" again exclaimed Carcajou. "Where did you say your friend, Murderer, had cached the quarters?"
"'Cannibal,' eh? Go and find out, Glutton. Be careful, though--I saw some one handling the White Medicine last night."
"The White Medicine!" ejaculated Black Fox, turning with dismay to the speaker.
"Uh, huh! but I never steal the Bait, like Carcajou, so I don't care. I eat what the Men eat."
"What they leave, you mean, Scavenger--what they throw to the Dogs!" retorted the Lieutenant.
"You'll get enough of Dogs, First-Cousin-to-Ground Hog--François says he is going to have a train of them. They will squeeze your fat back if you come prowling about the Shack to steal food."
"Dogs," growled Blue Wolf, coming into the circle,--"who's got Dogs?"
"You'll have them--on your back, presently," snapped the Jay. "Saw you sniffing around there last night. If your jaws were as long as your scent you would have had that leg off the roof, eh, Rof? Burnt Feathers! but I smell something," he continued; "has any one found a Castoreum Bait, and got it in his pocket? I don't mean you, Beaver, you don't smell very bad. Oh! here you are, Sikak; it's you--I might have known what sweet Forest Flower had cut loose from its stalk. Have you been rolling in the dead Rose leaves this morning, my lover of Perfume?"
The white-striped Skunk pattered with quick, mincing little steps into the group, his back humped up and his terrible tail carried high, ready to resent any insult.