Page:Gray Eagle (1927).pdf/236

 watch Ringtail stalk a victim, he would have bagged the big gobbler which his father expected or at least hoped for. He was deeply chagrined at his failure, which he felt was his own fault; and for some hours after the affair in the Otter Woods he had hunted diligently, hoping that he might still have the luck to "walk up" a feeding or roosting turkey. His search, however, had been fruitless. He had seen no game which would serve his purpose, though once at long range he had glimpsed the white flag of a fine buck which leaped from its bed in the green top of a fallen pine tree. Finally, he had given up his quest, and turned homeward.

A deer path brought him to the woods' edge, and for some distance he followed the margin of the forest. To his left stretched a wide expanse of abandoned ricefield, thickly grown with tall cattails, reeds and water-grasses, yellow and sere now that autumn had come. Beyond the ricefields wound a river; and beyond the river lay a wilderness of marsh and low thick jungle, stretching for miles, an almost impenetrable fastness, the home of many deer and even a few black bear.

Chad watched the open spaces to his left rather than the woods to his right. In the woods, little visible life was stirring; but above the ricefields, above the river and above the jungly wilderness beyond, the air was full of movement. Small platoons