The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1915-03-18

Inc plnemarLen-nO small mann'
e of highwayman himself-sighted p
n kan from an upper branch. In thes
: woods all beasts turned aside for tn
e pine marten, save perhaps the badge
I Smaller than Pekan, tribal cousin
, in fact, he was many kinds of ter
ror. A fox is clumsy, a springing ca
| slow, in comparison with this beast
OF all the outlawed ones he is perhap
the most graceful.
He halted, stark and rigid on tn,
gaunt bough. He watched Pekal
glide into a smother of briars, ant
out again, after an interval of ter
minutes. There was a rabbit in thai
briar patch before Pekan visited it.
not after, at least not a live one. He
saw Pekan ascend a tree, maybe he
marveled at the agility of this new
horror, for he was a specialist in
agility.
Followed pause, during which a
long horned owl came silently and
perched near by, then he caught sight
of Pekan and retired in haste.
The screech that broke the still
ness of those cathedral shades made
the pine marten jump as if he had
been shot, and yet he had been ex-
pecting it. After the screech was
flutter and sounds of something hap
pening up there among the branches.
A big bird, evidently blackjack,
to judge by the grandeur of his black
green livery, came to the ground very
quickly. He had waited to fly down,
he had fallen. Moreover, he quite
forgot to get up and fly away.
More slowly followed Pekan. He
did not fall-for he was not dead like
the blackcock-but came by way of
the trunk. Then the pine marten
swore-it was very loud and vitup-
erative chatter-though why he swore
cannot tell, except that he was pine
marten, and pine martens suffer from
he same uncomfortable desire to use
bad language as cat or squirrel |
Pekan, who was half way between
he tree trunk and the smitten black
,ock, stopped dead and looked up with
hat direct, sharp scrutiny peculiar
o all weasels. And the pine marten
or the life of him could not cease
wearing.
Pekan sauntered to the tree where
ne pine marten was, one might al
1ost call it hopping, stood for mo-
lent gazing at the abusive one
bove, and glanced round, taking in
ne surroundings with that calm de-
beration which is also peculiar to
Il the weasels. Then he let himself
o.
What followed was a surprise to
lat most agile, foul-mouthed one.
No one saw Pekan go up that tree
u did any hear him. Yet he must
I've gone up, because Donald, who
as watching from behind tree-he
I'd heard the swearing-distinctly
members seeing the pine-marten
Il backwards to avoid Pekan's jaws,
d yet, so it seemed to him, there
is no time even for anything to =
We flown up to that branch r
Further, Donald states that he does
t know what happened Immediately
.er, though there was a moon at
| power, and Donald's eyes are no
linary eyes-ask the poachers.
He was sure of some thing, or
ngs, whirling about from tree to
e overhead and on the ground.
and down and all ways at once.
believes, though he himself cannot
for certain, that Pekan did not i
it to descend trees, but sprang
N one to the other like monkey;
K flying leaps through the air that
lid have made the senses reel if
Y had been left time to think about
which they were not
onald says that he himself felt
y with watching these acrobatic |
utions and that after vainly try
to aim with his gun, and finding
even his hand, unincumbered T
| the weight of the weapon, could | b
follow Pekan, he gave it up. t
he end came when the pine-mar- v
gave yell and crashed down
ugh the branches head first. The
on he came down was good and
Gent. Pekan had killed him.
Nv, Donald declared, that though
brew up his gun actually before
touched the ground
id not see Pekan. The fisher mar
had gone, gone like a wrath,
ed among the branches into moth
gone out like a night light.
cover, no living man ever saw
again.
is possible that in some sullen,
essible glen in the heart Of the
.ish mountains there still lives
great fisher-marten, Pekan by
:, who hunts through the lonely,