Suddenly Shadow stopped running and sat up to look about with fierce
little eyes, all the time testing the air with his nose. Jumper's heart
sank. He knew that Shadow had caught a faint scent of some one. Then
Shadow began to run back and forth once more, but more carefully than
before. And then he started straight for where Jumper was crouching!
Jumper knew then that Shadow had found his trail.
Jumper drew a long breath and settled his long hind feet for a great
jump, hoping to so take Whitey the Owl by surprise that he might be able
to get away. And as Jumper did this, he looked over to that stump where
Whitey had been sitting so long. Whitey was just leaving it on his great
silent wings, and his fierce yellow eyes were fixed in the direction of
Shadow the Weasel. He had seen that moving black spot which was the tip
of Shadow's tail.
Jumper didn't have time to jump before Whitey was swooping down at
Shadow. So Juniper just kept still and watched with eyes almost popping
from his head with fear and excitement.
Shadow hadn't seen Whitey until just as Whitey was reaching for him with
his great cruel claws. Now if there is any one who can move more quickly
than Shadow the Weasel I don't know who it is. Whitey's claws closed on
nothing but snow; Shadow had dodged. Then began a game, Whitey swooping
and Shadow dodging, and all the time they were getting farther and
farther from where Jumper was.
The instant it was safe to do so, Jumper took to his long heels and the
way he disappeared, lipperty-lipperty-lip, was worth seeing. Whitey the
Snowy Owl had saved him from Shadow the Weasel and didn't know it. An
enemy had proved to be a friend.
CHAPTER XIII: Whitefoot Decides Quickly
Your mind made up a certain way
Be swift to act; do not delay.
--Whitefoot.
When Whitefoot had discovered Whitey the Snowy Owl, he had dodged down
in the little hole in the snow beside which he had been sitting. He had
not been badly frightened. But he was somewhat upset. Yes, sir, he was
somewhat upset. You see, he had so many enemies to watch out for, and
here was another.
“Just as if I didn't have troubles enough without having this white
robber to add to them,” grumbled Whitefoot. “Why doesn't he stay where
he belongs, way up in the Far North? It must be that food is scarce up
there. Well, now that I know he is here, he will have to be smarter than
I think he is to catch me. I hope Jumper the Hare will have sense enough
to keep perfectly still. I've sometimes envied him his long legs, but I
guess I am better off than he is, at that. Once he has been seen by an
enemy, only those long legs of his can save him, but I have a hundred
hiding-places down under the snow. Whitey is watching the hole where
I disappeared; he thinks I'll come out there again after a while. I'll
fool him.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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