THE DUEL ON THE TRAIL

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 18, 6 May 1905, Page 7

THE DUEL ON THE TRAIL

By

Charles G. D. Roberts

"W jF HITE and soft over the wide, sloping upland lay the snow, marked across with the zig-zag, gray lines of the fences, and spotted here and there with little clumps of woods or patches of bushy pasture. The sky above was as white as the earth below, being mantled with snow-laden cloud not yet ready to spill its feathery burden on the world. One little farmhouse, far down the valley, -served but to emphasize the spacious emptiness of the silent winter landscape. Out from -one of the snow-streaked thickets jumped ti white rabbit, its long ears waving nervously, and paused for a second to look back with a frightened -air. It had realised that some enemy was on its trail, but what that enemy was it did not know. After this moment of perilous hesitation, it went leaping forward across the open, leaving a vivid track in the soft surface snow. Ihe little animal’s discreet alarm, however, was dangerously corrupted by its curiosity; and at the lower edge of the field, before going through a snake fence and entering another thicket, it stopped, stood up as erect as possible on its strong hind quarters and again looked back. As it did so the unknown enemy revealed himself, just emerging, a slender and sinister black shape, from the upper thicket. A quiver of fear passed over the rabbit’s nerves. Its curiosity all effaced it, i't went through the fence with an elongated leap and plunged into the bushes in a panfic. Here it doubled upon itself twice in a short circle, trusting by this well-worn device to confuse the unswerving pursuer. Then, breaking out upon the Lower side of the thicket, it resumed its headlong flight across the Helds. .Meanwhile the enemy, a large mink, was following the trail with the dogged jM‘.rsistence of a sleuth-hound. Sure of Iris methods, he did not pause to sei* what the quarry was doing, but kept his eyes and nose occupied with the fresh tracks. His speed was not less than that of the rabbit, and his endurance vastly greater. Being very long in the body, and extremely short in the legs, he ran in a most peculiar fashion.

arching his lithe back almost like a measuring-worm and straightening out. like a steel spring suddenly released. These simrous bounds were grotesque enough in appearance, but singularly

effective. The trail they made, overlapping that of the rabbit, but quite distinct from it. varied according to the depth of the surface snow. Where the snow lay thin, just deep enough to receive

an imprint, the mink’s small fret left a series of delicate, innocent looking marks, much less formidable in appearance than those of the pad footed fugi live. But where the loose snow had gathered deeper the mink’s long body and sinewy ta.il from time to tian* -.tamped thi'in«*lves unmistakably. When the mink reached the second thicket, his keen ’and experienced craft penetrated al once the poor ruses of the fugitive. Cutting across the cir (dings of (In* trail, he picked it up again with implacable precision, making almost a straight line through the underbrush. When he emerged again into the open the rabbit was in full view ahead. The next strip of woodland in the fugitive’s path was narrow and dense. Below it, in a patch of hillocky pastureground sloping to a pond of steel-bright ire. a red fox was diligently hunting. He ran hither and thither, furtive hut seem ingly erratic, poking his nose into half covered moss-tufts and under the roots ot dead '•lumps, looking for mire or shrews. He found a couple of the lat ter. hut these were small satisfaction to his vigorous winter appetite. Present’s he paused, lifted his narrow cunning no-e toward the woods and appeared to ponder the advisability of going on a rabbit bunt. His tine tawny ample* brush of a tail gently swept the light snow behind him as he stood undecided. All al onre he crouched flat upon the -now quivering with excitement. like a pupp\ about to jump at a wind blown leal. Hr had >crn ihe rabbit emerging Irom the woods. Absolutely motionless he lay. so -.til] that in spite of his warm colouring be might have* hern taken for a fragment of dead wood. \nd as hr watched, tense with .anticipation, he saw the rabbit run into a long, hollow log. which lay half veiled in a cluster of dead lnstantly he darted forward, ran at top and crouched before the* lower eilel of the* le>g. wlicie he- kne*w ihe i a bblt most conic out. Within a dozen sre<»ml- tin mink nr rive»d. and fedlowml the i’iiu* i'e* straight into his ineffectual retreat. mu row quarters were* ju-t what the mink loved. 'The> next instant the* rabbit sheit forth to be caught in mid air bv the*

waiting fox. and die before it had time to realise in what shape doom had come upon it. All unconscious that he was trespassing upon another's hunt, the fox will a skilful jerk of his head flung the limp and sprawling victim across his shoulder. holding it by one leg, and started away down the slope toward _his lair on the other side of the pond. As the mink’s long body darted out from the hollow log he stopped short, crouched flat upon the snow with twitching tail, and stared at the triumphant intruder with eyes that suddenly blazed red. The trespass was no less an insult than an injury; and many of the wild kindreds show themselves possessed of a nice sensitiveness on th# point of their personal dignity. For an animal of the mink’s size the fox was an overwhelmingly powerful antagonist, to be avoided with care under all ordinary circumstances. But to the disappointed hunter, his blood hot from cne long, exciting chase, tiiis present circumstance seemed by no means ordinary. Noiseless as a shadow, and swift and stealthy as a snake, he sped after the leisurely fox, and with one snap bit through the great tendon of his right hindleg, permanently laming him. As the pang went through him, and the maimed leg gave way beneath his weight, the fox dropped his burden and turned savagely upon his unexpected assailant. The mink, however, had sprung away, and lay crouched in readiness on the snow, eying his enemy malignantly. With a tierce snap of his long, punishing jaws the fox rushed upon him. But—the mink was not there. With a movement so quick as fairly to elude the sight, he was now crouching several yards away, watchful, vindictive, menacing. The fox made two more short rushes, in vain; then he, too, crouched considering the situation and glaring at his slender, black antagonist. The mink’s small eyes were lit with a smoldering, ruddy glow, sinister and implacable; while rage and pain had cast over the eyes of the fox a peculiar greenish opalescence.

For perhaps half a minute the two lay motionless, though quivering with the intensity of restraint and expectation. Then, with lightning suddenness, the fox repeated his dangerous rush. But again the mink was not there. As composed as if he had never moved a hair, he was lying about three yards to one side, glaring with that same immutable hate.

At this the fox seemed to realise that it was no use trying to eateh so elusive a foe. The realization came to him slowly—and slowly, sullenly, he arose and turned away, ignoring the prize which he eould not carry off. With an awkward limp he started across the ice, seeming to scorn his small but troublesome antagonist. Having thus recovered the spoils, and succeeded in scoring his point over so mighty an adversary, the mink might have been expected to let the matter rest and quietly reap the profit of his triumph. But all the vindictiveness of his ferocious and implacable tribe was now aroused. Vengeance, not victory, was his craving. When the fox had gone about a dozen feet, all at once the place where the mink had been crouching was empty. Almost in the same instant, as it seemed, the fox was again, and mercilessly, bitten through the leg. This time, although the fox had seemed to be ignoring the foe, he turned like a flash to meet the assault. Again, however, he was just too late. His mad rush, the snapping of his long jaws, availed him nothing. The mink crouched, eying him, ever just beyond his reach. A gleam of something very close to fear came into his furious eyes as be turned again to continue his reluctant retreat. Again, and again, and yet again, the mink repeated his elusive attack, each time inflicting a deep and disastrous wound, amt each time successfully escaping the counter-assault. The trail of tiro fox was now streaked and flecked with

scarlet, and both his hind legs dragged heavily. He reached the edge of the smooth ice and turned at bay. The mink drew back, cautious for all his hate. Then the fox started across the steel-gray glair, picking his steps that he might have firm foothold. A few seconds later the mink once more delivered his thrust. Feinting towards the enemy’s right, he swerved with that snake-like celerity of his, and bit deep into tire tender upper edge of the fox’s thigh, where it plays over the groin. It was a cunning and deadly stroke. But in recovering from it, to dart away again to safe distance, his feet slipped, ever so little, on the shining surface of the ice. The delay was but for the minutest fraction of a second. But in that minutest fraction lay the fox’s opportunity. His wheel and spring were this time not too late. His jaws closed about the mink's slim backbone and crunched it to fragments. The lean, black shape straightened out with a sharp convulsion and lay still on the ice. Though fully aware of the efficacy and finality of that bite, the fox set his teeth again and again, with curious deliberation of movement, into the limp and unresisting form. Then, with his tongue hanging a little from his bloody jaws, he lifted his head and stared, with a curious, wavering, anxiously doubtful look, over the white, familiar fields. The world, somehow, looked strange and blurry to him. He turned, leaving the dead mink on the iee, and painfully retraced his deeply-crimsoned trail, dust ahead was the opening in the log. the way to that privacy which he desperately craved. The code of all the aristocrats of the wild kindred, subtly binding even in that supreme hour, forbade that he should consent to yield himself-to death in the garish publicity of the open. With the last of his strength he crawled into the log, till just the bushy tip of his tail protruded to betray him. There he lay down with one paw over his nose, and sank into the long sleep. For an hour the frost bit hard upon the fields, stiffening to stone the bodies but now so hot with eager life. Then the snow came, thick and silent, filling the emptiness with a moving blur, and buried away all witness of the fight.