seemed as though he would raise the full grown fox in air. But while he still flapped, and the mother fox fought him, a red flash shot in several lightning bounds across the intervening distance, and Redcoat struck the great owl like a catapult. He did not stop with a leg, but closed upon the bird's neck. For several seconds there was a furious battle.
The owl tore with his talons, and struck with his sharp beak.
Finally he ceased to struggle, and Redcoat laid him upon the ground quite dead. He had inflicted several bad wounds upon the two adult foxes but he had paid for his daring, with the price of his life, and the pup had been saved.
It was a great victory, and filled Redcoat with pride at his cunning.
Redcoat had always been a good hunter, but after the coming of the pups, he had developed resources, and invented new methods of hunting that probably made him the most clever fox that ever hunted upon the mountain, or the great meadows. He had
