“THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE”’ 19 
fields about his house, they were upon him and 
dragged him down, and his master never knew 
why he didn’t come home. 
That meal helped them on their southward 
way. 
They came presently to something quite new 
in their experience—mountains. These moun- 
tains, low at first, but soon getting higher and 
higher, were covered with forests or scrub, and 
though the valleys between held farms and roads 
—the dreaded signs of the two-legged creatures 
with the fire sticks—Swiftfoot and his two com- 
panions learned speedily that by keeping well up 
on the ridges they could travel long distances in 
perfect safety. These ridges, too, led steadily 
southward. And the hunting was good again! 
In fact, they had scarcely entered this moun- 
tain region before they picked up the fresh track 
of a deer, and were off in full ery. It gave them 
a long, hard run, taking them finally far up on a 
rocky ledge, where they pulled the buck down, 
and feasted royally on fresh venison, the first they 
had tasted for three weeks. That day they slept 
up in the warm rocks, on the southern slope of the 
