56 
Northern Trails . Book I 
crouching under a bush or root, with the mother off 
at one side perfectly hidden as usual. 
Presently a rabbit appeared, hopping along in a crazy 
way, and ran plump into the jaws of a wolf cub, which 
leaped up as if out of the ground, and pulled down 
his game from the very top of the high jump which 
Moktaques always gives when he is suddenly startled. 
Another and another rabbit appeared mysteriously, and 
doubled back into the cover before they could be caught. 
The cubs were filled with wonder. Such hunting was 
never seen before; for rabbits stirred abroad by day, 
and ran right into the hungry mouths instead of run¬ 
ning away. Then, slinking along like a shadow and 
stopping to look back and sniff the wind, appeared a 
big red fox that had been sleeping away the afternoon 
on top of a stump in the center of the thicket. 
The old mother’s eyes began to blaze as Eleemos 
drew near. There was a rush, swift and sudden as the 
swoop of an eagle; a sharp call to follow as the mother’s 
long jaws closed over the small of the back, just as the 
fox turned to leap away. Then she flung the paralyzed 
animal back like a flash; the young wolves tumbled in 
upon him; and before he knew what had happened 
Eleemos the Sly One was stretched out straight, with 
one cub at his tail and another at his throat, tugging 
and worrying and grumbling deep in their chests as the 
lust of their first fighting swept over them. Then in 
