292 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
Finally a chorus of eager barking in a different 
tone from what has thus far been heard announces 
to experienced ears that the dogs have some game 
at bay. The hunters dispute as to what it is as 
they crash and stagger on through the gloom, 
each swearing he knows by his cur’s voice what 
sort of an animal he has in view. ‘Arrived at the 
scene of the clamor, the dogs are found in frantic 
excitement around the foot of a tree, in whose 
shadowy foliage something is supposed to be hid- 
den. Will it be a ’coon, or will it turn out a ’pos- 
sum, a wild-cat, or mayhap an owl? 
First of all a fire is lighted, and its upreaching 
blaze sends fitful rays of yellow light far among 
the overhanging branches. Now there may be dis- 
cerned a hollow near the summit of the trunk, and 
as dead branches are heaped upon the fire sharp 
eyes may detect a triangular head peering out of 
what was once, perhaps, the front door of a wood- 
pecker’s home, and glints of green are reported to 
be the glare of a raccoon’s eyes. 
To shoot him there would now be easy enough, 
but the eager hunters have no wish to dispose of 
him so summarily. They have other uses to put 
him to. The Iroquois felt the same way when 
they had tracked and caught a Huron or a Jesuit. 
The nimblest man in the party is sent up the tree, 
and given a stick wherewith to frighten or poke or 
pry the cornered animal out of his castle. Com- 
pelled to leave the hole, it creeps out upon a limb, 
