ly down on
the Dog-Wolf's head.

"To the Northland."

[Illustration: "STEADY, DOG-WOLF, STEADY," ADMONISHED SHAG,
"THIS IS A FRIEND OF MINE."]

"I know," quoth the Bird; "but I stick to the plains; why, I
don't know, for there are few Buffalo now. This summer I made a
long trip. I started in at Edmonton with a Herd of the Man's
Buffalo."

"I've seen them," said Shag; "great clumsy things without shape
or make; as big behind as they are in front; of a verity the
shape of their own carts."

"Well," continued the Bird, "there was a matter of a dozen of
these creatures tied to a four-wheeled cart, and I followed the
Herd through to the place they call Fort Garry. But I got tired
of it--day after day the same thing. What I like is to fly about.
Now, I'll travel with you to-day, just for companionship, and
to-morrow I shall be off with some new friend."

"Perhaps," mumbled the Wolf.

"Did you speak, Wolf?" perked the Bird.

"I said, 'Good riddance,'" snapped A'tim.

"He, he, he!" laughed the Cow-Bird; "your friend is pleasant
company, Great Bull."

That night the two Outcasts and the Cow-Bird camped together,
near the Saskatchewan River; the brown body curled up contentedly
on Shag's horn, while the Dog-Wolf slept against his paunch.

In the morning the Cow-Bird was gone.

"Have you seen him?" Shag asked of A'tim.

"He flew away early," answered the Dog-Wolf.

"He should have taken all his coat with him," answered Shag,
thrusting from his mouth a bunch of grass in which were three
brown feathers.

"He flew far away," affirmed A'tim sheepishly.

"The length of your gullet, Dog-Wolf," declared Shag. "Thou must
be wondrous hungry to eat one of our own party--a cannibal."

A'tim answered nothing as they journeyed down along the steep,
heavily wooded river bank, its soft shale sides slid into mighty
terraces, but in his heart was a murder thought, as he eyed the
great bulk of his Brother Outcast, that he would also eat him.

They passed over the broad Saskatchewan, running emerald green
between its high, pink-earthed banks, through a long, tortuous
ford, taking Shag to the belly and half way up his ribs. As they
topped the north bank and rested after the steep climb, A'tim
pointed his nose to a distant flat where nestled the white
stockaded fort of the Hudson's Bay Company.

"That's Fort Edmonton," he said bitterly; "and see the cluster of
teepees all about, thick as Muskrat lodges in a muskeg. Because