personal dignity. For an animal of the mink's size the
fox was an overwhelmingly powerful antagonist, to be avoided with care
under all ordinary circumstances. But to the disappointed hunter, his
blood hot from the long, exciting chase, this present circumstance
seemed by no means ordinary. Noiseless as a shadow, and swift and
stealthy as a snake, he sped after the leisurely fox, and with one
snap bit through the great tendon of his right hind leg, permanently
laming him.

As the pang went through him, and the maimed leg gave way beneath his
weight, the fox dropped his burden and turned savagely upon his
unexpected assailant. The mink, however, had sprung away, and lay
crouched in readiness on the snow, eying his enemy malignantly. With a
fierce snap of his long, punishing jaws the fox rushed upon him.
But--the mink was not there. With a movement so quick as fairly to
elude the sight, he was now crouching several yards away, watchful,
vindictive, menacing. The fox made two more short rushes, in vain;
then he, too, crouched, considering the situation, and glaring at his
slender black antagonist. The mink's small eyes were lit with a
smouldering, ruddy glow, sinister and implacable; while rage and pain
had cast over the eyes of the fox a peculiar green opalescence.

For perhaps half a minute the two lay motionless, though quivering
with the intensity of restraint and expectation. Then, with lightning
suddenness, the fox repeated his dangerous rush. But again the mink
was not there. As composed as if he had never moved a hair, he was
lying about three yards to one side, glaring with that same immutable
hate.

At this the fox seemed to realize that it was no use trying to catch
so elusive a foe. The realization came to him slowly--and slowly,
sullenly, he arose and turned away, ignoring the prize which he could
not carry off. With an awkward limp, he started across the ice,
seeming to scorn his small but troublesome antagonist.

Having thus recovered the spoils, and succeeded in scoring his point
over so mighty an adversary, the mink might have been expected to let
the matter rest and quietly reap the profit of his triumph. But all
the vindictiveness of his ferocious and implacable tribe was now
aroused. Vengeance, not victory, was his craving. When the fox had
gone about a dozen feet, all at once the place where the mink had been
crouching was empty. Almost in the same instant, as it seemed, the fox
was again, and me