and Neewa these were the monsters of
the black forest out of which they had escaped so narrowly with their
lives. But as a matter of fact they were not of Oohoomisew's breed of
night-seeing pirates. They were Snowy Owls, unlike all others of their
kind in that their vision was as keen as a hawk's in the light of broad
day. Mispoon, the big male, was immaculately white. His mate, a size or
two smaller, was barred with brownish-slate colour--and their heads
were round and terrible looking because they had no ear-tufts. Mispoon,
with his splendid wings spread half over the carcass of Ahtik, the dead
bull, was rending flesh so ravenously with his powerful beak that Neewa
and Miki could hear the sound of it. Newish, his mate, had her head
almost buried in Ahtik's bowels. The sight of them and the sound of
their eating were enough to disturb the nerves of an older bear than
Neewa, and he crouched behind a stone, with just his head sticking out.

In Miki's throat was a sullen growl. But he held it back, and flattened
himself on the ground. The blood of the giant hunter that was his
father rose in him again like fire. The carcass was his meat, and he
was ready to fight for it. Besides, had he not whipped the big owl in
the forest? But here there were two. The fact held him flattened on his
belly a moment or two longer, and in that brief space the unexpected
happened.

Slinking up out of the low growth of bush at the far edge of the dip
lie saw Maheegun, the renegade she-wolf. Hollow-backed, red-eyed, her
bushy tail hanging with the sneaky droop of the murderess, she advanced
over the bit of open, a gray and vengeful shadow. Furtive as she was,
she at least acted with great swiftness. Straight at Mispoon she
launched herself with a snarl and snap of fangs that made Miki hug the
ground still closer.

Deep into Mispoon's four-inch armour of feathers Maheegun buried her
fangs. Taken at a disadvantage Mispoon's head would have been torn from
his body before he could have gathered himself for battle had it not
been for Newish. Pulling her blood stained head from Ahtik's flesh and
blood she drove at Maheegun with a throaty, wheezing scream--a cry that
was like the cry of no other thing that lived. Into the she-wolf's back
she sank her beak and talons and Maheegun gave up her grip on Mispoon
and tore ferociously at her new assailant. For a space Mispoon was
saved, but it was at a terrible sacrifice to Newish. With a single
lucky sl