CHAPTER IX 



THE BALKING OF FIRE-EYES 



!THER days were much like 

 this as the Snow-moon 

 slowly passed. But one 

 there was that claimed a 

 place in his memory for 

 long. He had gone farther afield to 

 another grove of hickories, and was dig- 

 ging down so deep into the snow that cau- 

 tion compelled him to come out and look 

 around at intervals. It was well he did so, 

 for a flash of brown and white appeared 

 on a near log. It made toward him, and 

 Bannertail got an instinctive sense of 

 fear. Small though it was, smaller than 

 himself, the diabolic fire in its close -set 



[59] 





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