The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1926-04-16

later, out of the heavy timber of the
creek bottom into the more open
spaces of small plain that ran along
the foot Of ridge. 1t was in this
plain that Oohoomisew hunted.
Oohoomisew was a huge snow-owl.
He was the patriarch among all the
owls of Pierrots trapping domain. He
was so old that he was almost blind,
and therefore he never hunted as
other owls hunted. He did not hide
himself in the black cover of spruce
and balsam tops, or float softly
through the night, ready in an instant
to swoop down upon his prey. His
eyesight was so poor that from a
spruce top he could not have seen a
rabbit at all, and he might have mis-
taken fox for a mouse.
So old Oohoomisew, learning wis
dom from experience, hunted from
ambush. He would squat on the
ground, and for hours at time he
would remain there without making
sound and scarcely moving a feather.
W0ltlAS Will tHC pattCuNC Va OOO IVA
something to eat to come his way.
Now and then he had made mistakes.
Twice he had mistaken lynx for a
rabbit, and in the second attack he
had lost foot, so that when he Sum-
bered aloft during the day he hung to
his perch with one claw. Crippled,
nearly blind, and so old that he had
long ago lost the tufts Of feathers
over his ears, he was still giant in
strength, and when he was angry one
could hear the snap of his beak twenty
yards away.
For three nights he had been I'M
lucky, and tonight he had been par
ticularly unfortunate. Two rabbits
had come his way, and he had lunged
at each of them from his cover. The
first he had missed entirely; the sec
ond had left with him a mouthful Of
fur-and that was all. He was raven
ously hungry, and he was gritting his
bill in his bad temper when he heard
Baree approaching.
Even If Baree could have seen I'M
der the dark bush ahead. and had dis
covered Oohoomisew ready to dart
from his ambush, 1t is not likely that
he would have gone very far aside.
His own fighting blood was up. He,
too was ready for war.
Very indistinctly Oohoomisew saw
him at last, coming across the little
open which he was watching. He
squatted down. His feathers ruffied
up until he was like ball of fire.
Ten feet away, BARGE stopped for a
moment and licked his wound. Oohoo-
misew waited cautiously. Again
BARGE advanced, passing within six
feet of the bush. With swift hop
and sudden thunder of his powerful
wings the great owl was upon him.
This time Baree let out no cry of
pain or Of fright. The wolf is kipichi-
mao, as the Indians say. No hunter
ever heard trapped wolf whine for
mercy at the sting of bullet or the
beat of club. He dies with his fangs
barred. Tonight it was wolf-whelp
that Oohoomisew was attacking, and
not dog-pup. The owls first rush
keeled BARGE over, and for moment
he was smothered under the huge,
outspread wings, while Oohoomisew-
pinioning him down-hopped for a
claw hold with his one good foot, and
struck fiercely with his beak.
One blow Of that beak anywhere
about the head would have settled for
rabbit, but at the first thrust Oohoo-
misew discovered that it was not q
rabbit he was holding under his wings.
A blood-curdling snarl answered the
blow, and Oohoomisew remembered
the lynx, his lost foot, and his mar
row escape with his life. The old
pirate might have beaten retreat, but
Baree was no longer the puppyish
Baree of that hour in which he had
fought young Papayuchisew. Expert
ence and hardship had aged and
strengthened him; his jaws lad
passed quickly from the bone-licking
to the bone-cracking age-and before
Oohoomisew could get away, if he was
thinking of flight at all, Baree's fangs
closed with vicious snap on his one
good leg.
In the stiffness of night there rose a
still greater thunder Of wings, and for
few moments Baree closed his eyes
to keep from being blinded by Oohoo-
misew's furious blows. But he hung
on grimly, and as his teeth met
through the flesh Of the old night pi-
rates leg. his angry snarl carried de.
fiance to Oohoomisew's ears. Rare
good fortune had given him that grip
on the leg, and Baree knew that tri-
umph or defeat depended on his
ability to hold 1t. The old owl had
no other claw to sink into him, and it
was imposslble-caught as he was
for him to tear at Baree with his
beak. SO he continued to beat that
thunder of blows with his four-foot
wings.