"I was only joking, dear friend Carcajou," said Lynx, fawningly, for he dreaded the anger of the other animals. "Don't say a word about it to the King; he might think I was in earnest."
"Traitor!" snarled Wolverine; "go back and watch for François."
"Don't say any more about it," pleaded Pisew, "and I'll watch, oh, so carefully, most loyal, true Lieutenant."
Whisky-Jack's shrill call from a tree startled the family of the Red Widow.
"Quick, Royal Son," she cried, "there's a danger signal. Listen: 'Hee-e-e-p, hee-e-ep, he-e-e-ep!' That means some one caught. Where are my Sons? All here but Stripes, Goodness!" She wrung her paws miserably, and in her eagerness rushed to the door. "What is it, Bringer of Evil News? Who's caught--not my Baby Cub?" she asked of Whisky-Jack.
"No, Good Dame. Would you believe it, the cleverest one in all the Boundaries, excepting your Son, is now keeping the jaws of a Trap apart with his own soft paws--it's Carcajou."
"What's to do?" cried Black Fox, joining his Mother.
"Carcajou is caught!" she answered, heaving a sigh of relief that it wasn't Cross-stripes.
Jay Bird explained the situation.
"Nobody but Muskwa can spring a Number Four Trap," asserted the King; "and he is holed up these two days--isn't he, Mother?"