--raving mad! I have heard those screams before--in the Eloise
insane asylum, near Detroit. He's--"

The words were frozen on his lips. Again the cry echoed up the
chasm. It was nearer this time, and with a sobbing, terrified sound,
something that Wabi had never heard fall from Mukoki's lips before,
the old warrior clung to Roderick's arm. Darkness hid the terror in
his face, but the white boy could feel it in the grip of his hands.

"Mad, raving mad!" he cried. Suddenly he gripped Mukoki fiercely by
the shoulders, and as Wabigoon crouched forward, ready to fire at the
first movement in the gloom, he thrust the butt of his rifle in his
back. "Don't shoot!" he commanded. "Mukoki, don't be a fool! That's
a man back there, a man who has suffered and starved, starved, mind
you!--until he's mad, stark mad! It would be worse than murder to kill
him!"

He stopped, and Mukoki drew back a step, breathing deeply.

"Heem--starve--no eat--gone bad dog?" he questioned softly. In an
instant Wabi was at his side.

"That's it, Muky--he's gone bad dog, just like that husky of ours who
went bad because he swallowed a fish bone. White men sometimes go bad
dog when they are thirsty and starving!"

"Our Great Spirit tells us that we must never harm them," added Rod.
"We put them in big houses, larger than all of the houses at the Post
together, and feed them and clothe them and care for them all their
lives. Are you afraid of a bad dog, Muky, or of a man who has gone bad
dog?"

"Bad dog bite deep--mebby so we kill heem!"

"But we don't kill them until we have to," persisted the quick-witted
Wabigoon, who saw the way in which Rod's efforts were being directed.
"Didn't we save our husky by taking the fish bone out of his throat?
We must save this bad dog, because he is a white man, like Rod. He
thinks all men are his enemies, just as a bad dog thinks all other
dogs are his enemies. So we must be careful and not give him a chance
to shoot us but we mustn't harm him!"

"It will be best if we don't let him know we are in the chasm," said
Rod, still speaking for Mukoki's benefit. "He's probably going out on
the plain, and must climb up this break in, the mountain. Let's move
our stuff a little out of his path."

As the two boys went to the canoe their hands touched. Wabi was
startled by the coldness of his friend's fingers.

"We've fixed Mukoki," he whispered. "He won't shoot. But--"

"We may have to," replied Rod. "That will be up