the fisher kept out of reach. Next a feint was
made on the other side, with the same result; then many, as though the
fisher were trying to tire out the tail or use up all its quills.

Sometimes the assailant leaped on the log and teased the quill-pig to
strike upward, while many white daggers already sunk in the bark showed
that these tactics had been going on for some time.

Now the two spectators saw by the trail that a similar battle had
been fought at another log, and that the porcupine trail from that was
spotted with blood. How the fisher had forced it out was not then clear,
but soon became so.

After feinting till the Kahk would not strike, the pekan began a new
manceuvre. Starting on the opposite side of the log that protected the
spiny one's nose, he burrowed quickly through the snow and leaves. The
log was about three inches from the ground, and before the porcupine
could realize it, the fisher had a space cleared and seized the spiny
one by its soft, unspiny nose. Grunting and squealing it pulled back and
lashed its terrible tail. To what effect? Merely to fill the log around
with quills. With all its strength the quill-pig pulled and writhed, but
the fisher was stronger. His claws enlarged the hole and when the victim
ceased from exhaustion, the fisher made a forward dash and changed
his hold from the tender nose to the still more tender throat of the
porcupine. His hold was not deep enough and square enough to seize the
windpipe, but he held on. For a minute or two the struggles of Kahk were
of desperate energy and its lashing tail began to be short of spines,
but a red stream trickling from the wound was sapping its strength.
Protected by the log, the fisher had but to hold on and play a waiting
game.

The heaving and backward pulling of Kahk were very feeble at length; the
fisher had nearly finished the fight. But he was impatient of further
delay and backing out of the hole he mounted the log, displaying a much
scratched nose; then reaching down with deft paw, near the quill-pig's
shoulder, he gave a sudden jerk that threw the former over on its back,
and before it could recover, the fisher's jaws closed on its ribs, and
crushed and tore. The nerveless, almost quilless tail could not harm him
there. The red blood flowed and the porcupine lay still. Again and again
as he uttered chesty growls the pekan ground his teeth into the warm
flesh and shook and worried the unconquerable one he had conquered.