The Desert Home: The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

  BATTLE OF THE MARTEN AND PORCUPINE.

  "It was in the middle of the winter. A light snow had fallen upon theground--just enough to enable us to follow the trail of any animal wemight light upon. Of course, the snow filled us with the idea ofhunting; and Harry and I started out upon the tracks of a brace of elkthat had passed through our opening during the night. The tracks werevery fresh-looking; and it was evident that the animals had passed inthe morning, just before we were up. We concluded, therefore, that theyhad not gone far off, and we hoped soon to come up with them.

  "The trail led us along the side of the lake, and then, up the left bankof the stream. Castor and Pollux were with us; but in our huntingexcursions we usually led them in a leash, so that they might notfrighten the game by running ahead of us.

  "When about half a mile from the house, we found that the elk hadcrossed to the right bank of the stream. We were about to follow, when,all at once, our eyes fell upon a most singular track or tracks that ledoff in the direction of the woods. They were _the tracks of humanfeet--the feet of children_!

  "You may fancy the surprise into which we were suddenly thrown. Theywere about five inches in length, and exactly such as would have beenmade by a barefooted urchin of six years old. There appeared to be twosets of them, as if two children had passed, following one another onthe same trail. What could it mean? After all, were there human beingsin the valley besides ourselves? Could these be the footprints of twoyoung Indians? All at once I thought of the Diggers--the _Yamparicos_--the root-eaters,--who are found in almost every hole and corner of theAmerican Desert. Could it be possible that a family of these wretchedcreatures existed in the valley? `Quite possible,' thought I, when Ireflected upon their habits. Living upon roots, insects, andreptiles,--burrowing in holes and caves like the wild animals aroundthem,--a family, or more, might have been living all this time in someunexplored corner of the valley, without our having encountered anytraces of them! Was this really so? and were the tracks before us thefootmarks of a brace of young Diggers, who had been passing from pointto point?

  "Of course, our elk-hunt was given up until this mystery should besolved; and we turned off from the trail of the latter to follow that ofthe children.

  "In coming out to an open place, where the snow lay smoothly, and thefootprints appeared well defined, I stooped down to examine them moreminutely, in order to be satisfied that they _were_ the tracks of humanfeet. Sure enough, there were the heels, the regular widening of thefoot near the toes, and the toes themselves, all plainly stamped uponthe snow. Here, however, arose another mystery. On counting the toes,I found that in some of the tracks there were five--as there should havebeen,--while in others there were only four! This led me to examine theprint of the toes more carefully; and I now saw that each of them wasarmed with a claw, which, on account of some hairy covering, had madebut a very indefinite impression in the snow. The tracks, then, were_not_ the footmarks of children, but those of some animal with claws.

  "Notwithstanding that we had come to this conclusion, we still continuedto follow the trail. We were curious to see what sort of a creature hadmade it. Perhaps it might be some animal unknown to naturalists,--somenew species; and we might one day have the merit of being the first todescribe it.

  "We had not far to go: a hundred yards, or so, brought us in sight of agrove of young cotton-woods; and these we saw at a glance were `barked'by a porcupine. The whole mystery was cleared up,--we had beenfollowing in the trail of this animal.

  "I now remembered that the porcupine was one of the _plantigrade_family, with five toes on his hind feet, and only four on the fore ones.The tracks were undoubtedly his.

  "My companion and I were somewhat chagrined at being thus drawn awayfrom our hunt by such an insignificant object; and we vowed to takevengeance upon the porcupine as soon as we should set our eyes upon him.We were not long in doing this,--for as we stole quietly forward, wecaught sight of a shaggy animal moving among the branches of a treeabout fifty yards ahead of us. It was he, of course. At the samemoment, however, another animal `hove in sight,' in appearance asdifferent from the porcupine as a bull from a blue-bottle.

  "This creature--tail and all--was not less than a yard and a quarter inlength, and yet its body was not thicker than the upper part of a man'sarm. Its head was broad and somewhat flattened, with short, erect ears,and pointed nose. It was bearded like a cat, although the face had moreof the dog in its expression. Its legs were short and strong; and bothlegs and body denoted the possession of agility and strength. It was ofa reddish-brown colour, with a white mark on the breast, and darkeralong the back and on the legs, feet, nose, and tail. Its wholeappearance reminded one of a gigantic weasel--which in fact it was--thegreat marten of America, generally, though improperly, called the`fisher.' When we first saw it, it was crouching along a high log, thatran directly toward the tree, upon which was the porcupine. Its eyeswere fixed intently upon the latter; and it was evidently meditating anattack. We stopped to watch it.

  "The porcupine had not yet perceived his enemy, as he was busily engagedin splitting the bark from the cotton-wood. The marten, afterreconnoitring him for some moments, sprang off from the log, and camerunning toward the tree. The other now saw him; and at the same instantuttered a sort of shrill, querulous cry, and appeared to be greatlyaffrighted. To our astonishment, however, instead of remaining where itwas, it suddenly dropped to the ground almost at the very nose of itsadversary! I could not at first understand the meaning of this artfulmovement on the part of the porcupine, but a moment's reflectionconvinced me it was sound policy. The marten would have been as much athome on the tree as himself; and had he remained among the branches--which were slender ones--his throat and the under part of his body--bothof which are soft and without quills--would have been exposed to theteeth of his adversary. This, then, was why he had let himself down sounexpectedly; and we noticed that the instant he touched the ground, herolled himself into a round clew, presenting on all sides the formidable_chevaux-de-frise_ of his quills.

  "The marten now ran around him, doubling his long vermiform body withgreat activity--at intervals showing his teeth, erecting his back, andsnarling like a cat. We expected every moment to see him spring forwardupon his victim; but he did not do so. He evidently understood theperil of such an act; and appeared for a moment puzzled as to how heshould proceed. All this while, the porcupine lay quiet--except thetail. This was, in fact, the only `feature' of the animal that could beseen, as the head and feet were completely hidden under the body. Thetail, however, was kept constantly in motion--jerking from side to side,and flirted occasionally upwards.

  "What would the marten do? There was not an inch of the other's bodythat was not defended by the sharp and barbed quills--not a spot wherehe could insert the tip of his nose. Would he abandon the contest? Sothought we, for a while; but we were soon convinced of our error.

  "After running around several times, as we have described, he at lengthposted himself near the hind-quarters of the porcupine, and with hisnose a few inches from the tail of the latter. In this position hestood for some moments, apparently watching the tail, which stillcontinued to oscillate rapidly. He stood in perfect silence, andwithout making a movement.

  "The porcupine, not being able to see him, and perhaps thinking that hewas gone, now waved his tail more slowly; and then suffered it to dropmotionless.

  "This was what the other was waiting for; and, the next moment, he hadseized the tail in his teeth. We saw that he held it by the tip, whereit is destitute of the thorny spines.

  "What would he do next? Was he going to bite off the end of theporcupine's tail? No such thing. He had a game different from that toplay--as we soon witnessed.

  "The moment the marten caught the tail, the porcupine uttered itsquerulous cries; but the other heeding not these, commenced walkingbackward, dragging his victim after him. Where was he dragging it to?We soon saw
. He was pulling it to a tree, close by, with low branchesthat forked out near the ground. But for what purpose? thought we. Wewondered as we watched.

  "The porcupine could offer no resistance. Its feet gave way, andslipped along the snowy ground; for the marten was evidently the muchstronger animal.

  "In a short time, the latter had reached the tree, having pulled theother along with him to its foot. He now commenced ascending, stillholding the porcupine's tail in his teeth; taking good care not to brushtoo closely against the quills. `Surely,' thought we, `he cannot climbup, carrying a body almost as big as himself!' It was not his intentionto climb up--only to one of the lowermost branches--and the next momenthe had reached it, stretching his long body out on the limb, andclutching it firmly with his cat-like claws. He still held fast hold ofthe porcupine which was now lifted into such a position, that only itsforequarters rested on the ground, and it appeared to stand upon itshead--all the while uttering its pitiful cries.

  "For the life of us, we could not guess what the marten meant by allthis manoeuvring. _He_ knew well enough, as he gave proof the momentafter. When he had got the other as it were on a balance, he suddenlysprang back to the ground, in such a direction that the impetus of hisleap jerked the porcupine upon its back. Before the clumsy creature wasable to turn over and `clew' itself, the active weasel had pounced uponits belly, and buried his claws in the soft flesh, while, at the sametime, his teeth were made fast in its throat!

  "In vain the porcupine struggled. The weasel rode him with suchagility, that he was unable to get right side up again; and in a fewmoments the struggle would have ended, by the porcupine's throat beingcut; but we saw that it was time for us to interfere; and, slippingCastor and Pollux from the leash, we ran forward.

  "The dogs soon drove the marten from his victim, but he did not run fromthem. On the contrary, he turned round upon them, keeping both at baywith his sharp teeth and fierce snarling. In truth, they would have hada very tough job of it, had we not been near; but, on seeing usapproach, the animal took to a tree, running up it like a squirrel. Arifle bullet soon brought him down again; and his long body laystretched out on the earth, emitting a strong odour of musk, that wasquite disagreeable.

  "On returning to the porcupine--which our dogs took care not to meddlewith--we found the animal already better than half-dead. The blood wasrunning from its throat, which the marten had torn open. Of course, weput the creature out of pain by killing it outright; and taking themarten along with us for the purpose of skinning it, we returnedhomeward, leaving the elk-hunt for another day.

  "All this, as I have said, occurred afterwards. Let us now return tothe narrative of our fishing excursion.

  "As soon as the porcupine had been disposed of, we were reminded of thesufferings of our dogs, who had ceased their howling, but required to berelieved of the barbed spines with which their lips were sticking full.We drew them out as easily as we could; but, notwithstanding this, theirheads began to swell up to twice the natural size, and the poor brutesappeared to be in great pain. They were fairly punished for theirinconsiderate rashness; and it was not likely that they would run theirnoses against another porcupine for some time to come."