68 Redruff 



hips to stay his gnawing hunger, then re- 

 turned to the prison-drift and clucked and 

 stamped. He got only one reply, a teeble 

 '■peete, peete* and scratching with his sharp 

 claws on the thinned granular sheet he soon 

 broke through, and Graytail feebly crawled out 

 of the hole. But that was all ; the others, scat- 

 tered he could not tell where in the drift, made 

 no reply, gave no sign of life, and he was forced 

 to leave them. When the snow melted in the 

 spring their bodies came to view, skin, bones* 

 and feathers — nothing more. 



VII 



It was long before Redruff and Graytail fully 

 recovered, but food and rest in plenty are sure 

 cure-alls, and a bright, clear day in midwinter 

 had the usual effect of setting the vigorous 

 Redruflf to drumming on the log. Was it the 

 drumming, or the tell-tale tracks of their snow- 

 shoes on the omnipresent snow, that betrayed 

 them to Cuddy? He came prowling again and 

 again up the ravine, with dog and gun, intent 

 to hunt the partridges down. They knew him 

 of old, and he was coming now to know them 

 well. That great copper-ruffed cock was be- 

 coming famous up and down the valley. Dur« 



