STORY XIII
White Tail Hears Unpleasant News
Great Horn found White Tail a long way down the stream, but by that time morning was dawning, and the light began to hurt the Owl’s eyes. He caught a glimpse of something moving through the bushes, and flew toward it, for he could not in the early light see very far.
“Ah! I’ve found you, White Tail!” he cried. “I knew it was you.”
“How did you know it, Great Horn?” asked White Tail. “I know you can’t see very well in this light. I don’t believe you can see me yet. You only hear me.”
“The idea!” snapped Great Horn. “I can see you as well as you can see me.”
“I don’t believe it,” replied White Tail. “Can you see Rusty sitting on the end of my antlers?”
“Rusty! Rusty! Is he there?” exclaimed Great Horn excitedly. Now the thought of being so near to his prey made him very hungry, and he flew straight at White Tail’s head. This was what the buck wanted, and when the Owl was close enough he swung his antlers around swiftly and caught Great Horn on the end. The blow was enough to knock the breath out of the bird, and he fell with a plump in the bushes.
“That’s for betraying me to Puma,” White Tail said. “Now call to him when you can get back your breath. I’m off.”
And through the bushes he ran, leaving Great Horn so surprised and stunned that he couldn’t call to Puma for a long time. White Tail had made good his escape.
A few yards through the woods he came upon the other stream, the broad river which he knew so well. He crossed this, and made his way up the other embankment. Then, with the woods before him familiar to his eyes and nose, he ran rapidly toward home. He had made his way out of Puma’s hunting and through the higher timberland to his home.
His appearance was hailed with delight by all his friends. “Oh, White Tail, we thought you were dead!” exclaimed one.
“Dead! Huh! Why should you think that?” he sniffed.
“That’s for betraying me to Puma,” White Tail said.
“Young Black Buck said you were. He left you, and he was sure the dogs would catch you. He was sorry for you, but you couldn’t keep up with him, and he didn’t want to die because you couldn’t run as fast as he.”
“What!” exclaimed White Tail. “Has Young Black Buck returned? And did he tell such a tale?”
“Why, yes, that’s what he said.”
With a roar of rage at this falsehood, White Tail pushed his way into the middle of the herd, and stood face to face before Young Black Buck.
“You have been spreading more false stories about me, Young Black Buck!” he said. “After the way I saved you from the dogs, you lie about me!”
Young Black Buck stood all atremble at the sight of White Tail. He had truly believed that the dogs would catch him, and he thought there would be no harm in telling a story of his escape that would hurt White Tail and help himself.
“Listen!” White Tail added, swinging around and facing the herd. “Listen to a story of treachery. Young Black Buck has lied to you, and you must hear me. When he stumbled and sprained his leg, I stayed with him until it healed. Then when the man hunters started the dogs on our trail, we ran together until Young Black Buck’s weak leg crippled him again. The dogs would have caught him, but I waited for them, and when they saw me I led them off on my trail. Young Black Buck escaped while I led the dogs a merry chase. I saved his life, and he rewards me for it by lies—nothing but lies!”
The commotion that followed these words was great, and the herd gazed from one speaker to the other.
“I challenge you to deny it!” continued White Tail, facing Young Black Buck. “See he cannot deny it! He knows it to be the truth!”
Young Black Buck, indeed, looked guilty. His limbs were trembling, and his head drooping. For once he had no ready story to explain his lies.
“To punish you for it, Young Black Buck, I challenge you to a fight!” went on White Tail, now so enraged that he wanted to punish his rival.
It was then that Black Buck interfered.
“Cease your quarreling over such petty things,” he said. “There are greater things for the herd to consider than this.”
“What can be greater than a question of honor?” interrupted White Tail boldly. “Your son has spread falsehoods about me, and I challenge him to prove it by fighting.”
“And I tell you to cease your quarreling,” added Black Buck. “You may need your strength for a different kind of challenge. Know you not what has happened?”
White Tail looked mystified. Suddenly it occurred to him that he hadn’t seen Father Buck or Mother Deer. They hadn’t come forth to greet him. Had anything serious happened to them?
“No, I don’t know what has happened,” White Tail admitted. “I have been away, and know nothing.”
“Then listen!” replied Black Buck. “Our leader has failed. He stumbled in the chase, and missed his footing. When we crossed the brook he failed to clear it. He is no longer our leader. He’s old and broken. Tomorrow we meet at the Council Tree to choose a new leader.”
White Tail stood dumbfounded. Father Buck had been disgraced! He had fallen and missed his footing! He had failed to cross the brook in a single jump! He was to be deposed as leader!
It seemed incredible, and White Tail was on the point of saying so when he remembered the words of Father Buck, and his prediction that some day he would fail through old age and weakness. The thing had happened then in his absence. White Tail was glad of that, for it would have been hard for him to witness the leader’s downfall.
Without another word to Black Buck, he whirled around to hunt up Father Buck and Mother Deer. He wanted the truth from their lips, and not from one who found pleasure in it. The sneer in Black Buck’s words angered him.
He found the two quietly resting under a tree back of the herd, a little to one side as if they had already been cast out and ignored by those who had so recently looked up to them. Mother Deer rose and ran to greet her son.
“It is well, White Tail, that you’ve come back at this time,” she said quietly. “You have heard the news?”
“Yes, I’ve heard it. It is true then—that—that—”
“Yes, my son,” interrupted Father Buck, “I have led my last chase. Never again will the herd follow me. What must come to all of us at some time has befallen me. There is nothing to regret. One and all must face it sooner or later. Why should we not accept it complacently?”
White Tail was surprised, and yet pleased, by the quiet acceptance Father Buck took of his downfall. It softened the load that he was carrying in his own heart.
“I prepared you for it, you remember White Tail,” the old leader continued. “Well, tomorrow they will choose a new leader. They will demand that I step aside. But until then I’m leader, and no one shall dispute that right.”
He rose and shook his huge antlered head, looking for all the world like a leader, and when he bellowed an order every one started. He was not yet deposed. In the next story what happened at the Council Tree will be told.