e branch that was already
bending dangerously under his weight seemed impossible.

It was at this point that Kawook began to scold fiercely. With a final
frantic yelp Miki sat back on his haunches and watched the thrilling
drama above him. A little at a time Kawook advanced, and inch by inch
Neewa retreated, until at last he rolled clean over and was hanging
with his back toward the ground. It was then that Kawook ceased his
scolding and calmly began eating his dinner. For two or three minutes
Neewa kept his hold. Twice he made efforts to pull himself up so that
he could get the branch under him. Then his hind feet slipped. For a
dozen seconds he hung with his two front paws--then shot down through
fifteen feet of space to the ground. Close to Miki he landed with a
thud that knocked the wind out of him. He rose with a grunt, took one
dazed look up the tree, and without further explanation to Miki began
to leg it deeper into the forest--straight into the face of the great
adventure which was to be the final test for these two.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Not until he had covered at least a quarter of a mile did Neewa stop.
To Miki it seemed as though they had come suddenly out of day into the
gloom of evening. That part of the forest into which Neewa's flight had
led them was like a vast, mysterious cavern. Even Challoner would have
paused there, awed by the grandeur of its silence, held spellbound by
the enigmatical whispers that made up its only sound. The sun was still
high in the heavens, but not a ray of it penetrated the dense green
canopy of spruce and balsam that hung like a wall over the heads of
Miki and Neewa. About them was no bush, no undergrowth; under their
feet was not a flower or a spear of grass. Nothing but a thick, soft
carpet of velvety brown needles under which all life was smothered. It
was as if the forest nymphs had made of this their bedchamber,
sheltered through all the seasons of the year from wind and rain and
snow; or else that the were-wolf people--the loup-garou--had chosen it
as their hiding-place and from its weird and gloomy fastnesses went
forth on their ghostly missions among the sons of men.

Not a bird twittered in the trees. There was no flutter of life in
their crowded branches. Everything was so still that Miki heard the
excited throbbing of life in his own body. He looked at Neewa, and in
the gloom the cub's eyes were glistening with a strange fire. Neither
of them was afraid, y