long before the dawn of the following morning, wongo settled himself behind a thick clump of bushes a short distance from cho-gay’s cave and waited.

about the time the first streaks of dawn lighted the east, sandy, followed by his escort of coyotes, which by this time had grown to include about all of the coyote family, trotted up through the sage below the flat rock and seated themselves in the clearing.

wongo, who could see without being seen, had decided not to show himself, for, in fact, he did not care to have even a coyote know that mere curiosity had led him on the long night journey.

he looked all about him in the bushes and trees for kaw, but if the old crow had arrived, he was too well hidden to be seen. then he looked among the coyotes for old rip, but he was not there. had the little bear been in a position to see behind the rocks that stood above cho-gay’s cave, he would have seen the wolf crouched behind one that stood[109] above the little cave in which the old mountain sheep had been confined. the sheep had been kept in this hole long enough to leave a strong scent behind him, and rip had no difficulty in locating the right spot.

“here,” thought he, “i will remain until my partner, sandy, gets cho-gay into the cave to hear the secret news, and then a strong push will upset the flat rock that imprisons the sheep, and the rest will be easy and satisfying.”

the greedy old wolf licked his great chops, as he thought of the juicy taste of fresh mutton, and could hardly wait for the time when the indian man-child would come out and invite sandy into the cave. surely this would be a great day for rip and the fox. as for the coyotes, they were nothing, and they knew enough to give their great cousin a wide berth until he permitted them to come and gnaw on the sheep bones that he might leave for them.

just as the sun peeped over the hills, cho-gay came out of his cave and yawned as he stretched his arms over his head. sandy, who had never taken his eyes from the cave entrance since he arrived, mistook the upraised arms for a signal for him to approach and he trotted boldly up to the flat rock.

[110]“a good-morning to you, brother cho-gay. i am here to know what you would like to hear from the mouth of red-eagle fox, the hunter.”

cho-gay, who was never in very good humor before breakfast, stared at his caller and then at the row of coyotes seated in the clearing below.

“so you are the rascal who they say is a maker of lies. we will have ears for your strange story when i have had food,” said cho-gay as he returned to his cave.

this remark had the effect of a dash of cold water on the boastful little sandy, and the row of grins that faced him from the escort below did not add to his comfort. but he turned his back on them and waited as patiently as he could for the reappearance of cho-gay.

a few minutes later the indian boy came out and, seating himself on the flat rock, commanded the now timid sandy to tell his story about flying like an eagle to the top of skull-top mountain.

although he had rehearsed the story again and again during his journey to the cave, the little fox now told it in such a halting manner that cho-gay, wongo and the coyotes were very certain that it was untrue.

“you would have us believe,” said cho-gay, “that you flew through—”

[111]“that i jumped into the air,” corrected sandy, “from the sage of the valley and did not light until i reached the highest cliffs on skull-top mountain. and while i was up there, where no fox had ever been before, a big rock rolled down and when rip, my hunting partner, heard it he ran in great fear up the valley, shouting ‘the mountain is falling! the mountain is falling!’”

“you have no wings and can jump but a little way,” said cho-gay, “so it is plain to all that your words are not true.” then he called out to the coyotes below, “you have heard the words of the fox. are they true?”

“no—no—no!—they are lies!” came the replies.

then to the surprise of all present, a loud, “yes! they are true!” came from the top of the old juniper tree and kaw flew down to a bush beside the flat rock.

at this the eyes of cho-gay went wide in surprise and wongo, the bear, forgetting that he had been hiding, raised up with a grunt of amazement. both the indian boy and the little bear had known kaw a long, long time and neither had ever doubted his honesty.

wongo, now that all knew he was there, came forward a bit sheepishly, but the others were too[112] surprised at the crow’s remark to consider him.

“do you make a joke, brother kaw?” asked cho-gay.

“no,” replied the crow, “the funniest part of sandy’s story is that it is all true.”

“i think i must go now,” said the little fox, who seemed to have been made very nervous by the unexpected appearance of the crow. “brother kaw, could i see you privately for a minute before i go?”

“no one shall leave until this matter is settled,” said cho-gay, as he rose to his feet. “our brother kaw says the words of the fox are true; let us hear why he says so.”

“you do not doubt the word of kaw,” cried sandy desperately. “why should he tell—”

“let brother kaw tell! let him tell! let him tell!” came the voices of the coyotes.

“let us hear the proof, brother kaw,” added wongo.

“our ears are waiting for the proof,” said cho-gay, as he folded his arms commandingly.

no word or act of the situation had escaped the old crow and he was enjoying himself more than he had for many a day. clearing his croaking voice, he began:

“it was this way, for our brother sandy did[113] pass through the air just as he has said. one evening i saw sandy and rip coming down through the sage valley on the other side of skull-top mountain. i could see that they were tired and hungry and i said to myself, ‘i shall tell them where to find good hunting.’ i flew over to a tree under which they would pass and as they came beneath it i called out:

“‘to the fierce and the strong, we two belong;

that’s why we’re fat and merry.

oh, we’re out for game that’s strong or lame,

and we always get our quarry!

“‘so give us meat that’s good to eat,

or we’ll fill you all with terror!

we’re out to kill, and that we will,

if it takes us two together!’

“then when they had stopped i said, ‘down the valley a little way are some nice fat rabbits and what is still better, there are some nice, big rabbit-hawks circling around just above where they are hiding in the sage.’

“‘fine,’ said sandy. ‘we can catch rabbits but how could we catch a hawk?’

“‘that is easy,’ said i, for i have no use for hawks. ‘come along and i will show you.’ when we got almost to the sagebrush where i had seen[114] the rabbits, i said, ‘now, sandy. go and catch a fat rabbit, but do not eat it.’ rip growled at such instruction, but i told him to wait and that if they followed my instructions they would have both hawk and rabbit. then they both sat quiet while i told them what to do.

“‘when you have killed a rabbit,’ said i, ‘drag him to the edge of the sage and lay him down in the open near a sagebrush. then crouch down beside the brush ready to spring. in no time, as you both know, a hawk will see mr. rabbit and make a dive for him. rip can hide here in the jack-oak bushes to wait for you and i will fly to the top of the tall pinyon tree where i can signal to you when to jump. when i see a hawk about to swoop down for the dead rabbit i will give a loud caw. then jump for mr. hawk and you’ll have both hawk and rabbit.’

“‘fine! fine!’ said both of the hunters, and it was not long before sandy—who is really a wonderful hunter—had a rabbit and laid it out beside a big sagebrush just as i had directed him to do. then as i watched with great joy for the coming of a hawk, there came a sudden black shadow from out of the blue sky above and i almost fell off the limb as i recognized old baldy, the eagle, swooping down on the rabbit. i gave one[115] loud scream to warn sandy, but he mistook my scream for the signal to jump and a moment later the claws of baldy had closed on the hide of sandy instead of the rabbit. and away he flew to his nest at the top of skull-top mountain. i don’t think that baldy knew that he had missed the rabbit and caught a fox until he let sandy fall beside his nest on the cliffs. in the meantime old rip had eaten the rabbit and run up to the foot of the mountain to see if sandy would come back.

“when sandy found himself free from the claws of the surprised baldy, he ran behind a rock where the eagle could not reach him and as i flew up the mountain i could see old baldy scolding and screaming around the rock, and the bushy tail of sandy sticking out from behind it.

“baldy was too angry and excited to notice me and, as it was my advice that had gotten sandy into his plight, i flew along looking for help. on a trail a short distance from baldy’s nest i found old grayhead, the bear, and i asked him to go up and keep baldy away from the rock so that sandy could run for cover.

“grayhead did as i told him and in the mix-up the old bear rolled the stone down the mountain side to scare baldy. well, the stone scared someone else more than it did baldy, for as it rattled[116] over the rocks and sand i saw old rip, the wolf, with his ears laid back and his tail between his legs, dashing madly across the valley in a cloud of dust. i had to fly like sixty to get near him. i shouted to him to stop and that there was no danger, but the louder i called the faster he ran. i stopped when i saw it was no use trying to keep up and the last i saw of him he was running across the third valley and still going like the wind!”

as kaw ended his story, and the loud laughter of wongo, the coyotes and cho-gay had died down, the indian boy spoke:

“brothers, the words of our brother sandy are then true, and though he did not tell us how he flew to the mountain top, he made no lie.”

as the laugh seemed to have turned on old rip instead of himself, the little fox felt more at ease. then, suddenly remembering that he had important news for cho-gay, he hastily arose and said:

“brother cho-gay, i had almost forgotten that i have very important news to tell you, and it may mean life or death to many of us. and,” he added nervously, as he glanced up toward the rocks above the cave’s entrance, “i must tell it to you alone. can we go into your cave while i tell it?”

[117]

rip meets big-paw, the bobcat

[118]“yes,” spoke up kaw, who now saw what none of the others but sandy could see—that rip lay hidden behind a certain rock on the hillside above. “let brother sandy tell his great news privately, but let there be a witness. no doubt wongo will do. the rest of us will wait outside, for it may be that strange things are about to happen.”

[119]“it is agreed,” said cho-gay, addressing kaw, “but why would you not be the witness?”

“i am not used to caves,” replied the crow, “but wongo lives in one.”

kaw’s remarks decided cho-gay to hear the news of the little fox and he said,

“come, brother wongo, we will learn what brother sandy has to say.”

scarcely had the three reached the back of the cave, when there came the sound of a falling rock on the hillside above, and a moment later there arose a fearful noise of combat, of wolf howls, screeches, and the snarls of an angry cat.

then out of a tumbling mixture of cat and wolf, old rip scrambled to his feet and tore away like mad, and a moment later disappeared in a cloud of dust on the trail below.

when cho-gay, wongo, and sandy ran out of the cave to learn the cause of the awful noise, the angry but triumphant young bobcat was loping away up the mountain.

kaw, who alone knew what had happened, was[120] laughing so hard he was unable to answer at once the many eager questions that were asked, but when he could speak, he said:

“brother rip has just had a little surprise party. it seems that on his way to our gathering he must have accidentally upset the stone that stood over the entrance to the cave that housed your prisoner, big-paw, the bobcat. it may be that he mistook big-paw for a sheep and jumped at him before he realized his mistake. anyway, it was a mistake for poor old rip, and for some reason he didn’t even stop to explain. and big-paw has gone away mad, and i fear he will not come back.”

as they realized what had happened, both wongo and cho-gay laughed and the coyotes, who had gathered near, took up the laughter in a hundred “ki—yi—yi’s” of mirth, but the meek smile on the face of sandy was made with an effort, for he feared his next meeting with his old hunting partner would not be a pleasant one.

“but the news! the news!” exclaimed kaw. “what is the news that brother sandy has told?”

“i didn’t have time to tell it,” said sandy, “but now that—that is—i may as well tell it here,” he added lamely.

“the news is that kil-fang and his pack of fifty wolves are coming from the north to kill cho-gay!”