Kagax gave it up at last and took to running in circles. Wider and
wider he went, running swift and silent, his nose to the ground,
seeking other mice on whom to wreak his vengeance. Suddenly he struck
a fresh trail and ran it straight to the clearing where a foolish
field mouse had built a nest in a tangle of dry brakes. Kagax caught
and killed the mother as she rushed out in alarm. Then he tore the
nest open and killed all the little ones. He tasted the blood of one
and went on again.
The failure to catch the wood mouse still rankled in his head and kept
his eyes bright red. Suddenly he turned from his course along the lake
shore; he began to climb the ridge. Up and up he went, crossing a
dozen trails that ordinarily he would have followed, till he came to
where a dead tree had fallen and lodged against a big spruce, near the
summit. There he crouched in the underbrush and waited.
Up near the top of the dead tree, a pair of pine martens had made
their den in the hollow trunk, and reared a family of young martens
that drew Kagax's evil thoughts like a magnet.
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