Strapped on a pack board borrowed from the express agent, the six crates
were neither a heavy nor a clumsy burden. Each box was divided by a
partition, with a muskrat at either end. Andy had specified that they be
shipped in such a fashion because he wanted to be sure of mated pairs
and he also wanted to be certain of forestalling domestic arguments
among his charges. It was entirely possible that a male and female
muskrat, regardless of how long they'd been mated, might start
exercising their formidable cutting teeth on each other if put together
in the same small crate. Now and again, there came a scraping of claws
as one of the muskrats, unbalanced by a twist or turn, slid across the
wooden floor of its prison.
As he carried his new acquisitions up the dark mountain, Andy pondered.
Muskrats, his research had taught him, are almost entirely aquatic
creatures, though occasionally they make overland journeys. Their food
consists of aquatic plants, tender roots and bulbs, and they are very
fond of fresh-water mussels. They construct houses of mud mixed with
plant stalks or dig burrows in the bank. The entrance to either type of
dwelling is always under water. They store food but remain active under
the ice all winter long.
Very prolific, they produce from two to five litters a year, with from
four to as many as a dozen young in each litter. There is a reason for
this. Muskrats, like rabbits, are the prey of numerous things that walk,
crawl or fly. They counterbalance heavy casualties with large and
frequent families. Some naturalists claim that, by the end of the first
summer, the earliest young born will rear families of their own. Others
declare that no young breed until the spring following their birth.
Because this was at best an uncertain experiment and Andy could have no
idea as to how it would work out, he had chosen six mated pairs. His
plan was to release them in six different parts of the swamp and see
where they flourished best. After he had a better idea of what he was
doing, he could buy more breeding stock--but there was still one great
worry.
These muskrats had been reared in a large pond where, insofar as they
had had to find their own food, build their own houses and dig their own
burrows and tunnels, conditions were approximately the same as would
have been encountered in the wilderness. However, it was a fenced pond
and a carefully patrolled one. There had been no predators to keep them
alert, whereas the swamp was filled with sudden death in many forms.
Would pen-raised muskrats be able to survive the unfamiliar perils?
Andy carried his captives into the house, unbuckled the straps that
held their pens on his shoulders and eased them gently to the floor. He
then separated the crates so that there was space between them. The
animals emitted an offensive odor, but this was only because they had
been in the tiny boxes so long. They'd cleanse themselves after they had
room in which to do it. Unless they are sick, few animals will tolerate
uncleanliness.
Andy grimaced. It was less than an alluring prospect to have the
muskrats in his house all night, and, other things being equal, they'd
be perfectly all right on the porch. But the battle had already started.
If they were left outside, a prowling mink might well happen along and
put an end to all twelve. It was wiser to endure the odor overnight and
keep his charges safe.
Andy slept well, nevertheless. He was up and had breakfasted with the
first hint of dawn. Kicking off his slippers, he pulled rubber boots
over his trousers. The sun was just rising when, with five crates of
muskrats back on the pack board--the sixth he intended to release in the
watery slough directly in front of his house--he started out.
His step was light and his heart happy, as it always was when he went
into the swamp. It was to Andy what his mountains are to the born
mountaineer; his rolling prairie to the confirmed plainsman; his
sun-scorched hills and forbidding acres of cactus to the desert lover.
The swamp was grim and Andy knew it. But it was also beautiful and he
saw its beauty. As no other place could ever be, it was home.
He wended his way around the watery slough. Swamp grasses, each one of
which bore myriad seeds as delicate as fairy dust, brushed against him
as he walked. Beneath his feet, the earth trembled. There were firm
areas in the swamp, rocky places and high knolls where the green trees
grew. But much of that which was not given over to surface water was a
huge, floating island, undermined by water. In numerous places, it was
possible to stand on grass, punch a hole through to the water below,
lower a baited hook and pull out a wriggling perch.
Andy walked swiftly and confidently, for he knew exactly where he was
going. When he came to a long slough that varied between a foot and five
feet in depth, he plunged unhesitatingly in and waded across without a
thought for the death that lurked on either side. This was Dead Man's
Slough. Across the center, where Andy had walked, extended a solid path
which at no point was more than twenty inches wide. To step off that was
to step into bottomless quicksand.
According to legend, an armed party of Trulls and Casmans, in close
pursuit of Bije Gates, had turned back at Dead Man's Slough. Leading,
Arvin Casman had stepped off the path and disappeared before his friends
could help him. His bones were still in the quicksand. Andy didn't know
and he didn't much care whether this tale was true. The feud was long
over, a thing of the past, and sleeping dogs were better left alone. But
it was a foregone conclusion that, if Arvin Casman or anyone else had
stepped into Dead Man's Slough, his bones were still there.
At the far side of the slough, Andy turned left along its weed-lined
shore, lowered his load to the ground, gently unfastened the wire that
fastened one of the partitions shut and opened the door. A cautious
brown nose was thrust forth and immediately withdrawn. The muskrat in
the partition crouched nervously. Now and again there came the sound of
a scraping paw.
Puzzled, Andy frowned. Then suddenly he understood.
He had assumed that, after their long imprisonment in the tiny cages,
the animals would be wild for freedom. However, they had been uprooted
from safe and comfortable homes, endured a long and nerve-wracking
journey, seen sights and heard sounds that must have been terrifying,
and, through all this, they had stayed safe in their cages. It was small
wonder that they were reluctant to leave. Andy tilted the box and
spilled both its occupants into the water.
They went down, came up gasping and, for a short space, swam in a
frenzied, meaningless fashion. Then their sudden fright passed. The
nightmare was behind them. They were back in the water and muskrats are
born for water. They began to enjoy themselves.
For the sheer luxury of so doing, they dived. Though they must have come
within a hair's breadth of the bottom, they were such expert swimmers
that they dislodged not even one fleck of mud. Forty feet away, they
surfaced and played with each other for a moment. Somewhat clumsy on
land, but incredibly graceful in the water, they swam around and around
in the slough and regarded Andy with beady little black eyes.
Andy worried, for this was what he had feared most. Animals acquainted
with danger would never expose themselves so recklessly. He threw
pebbles at them, but though they dived when the pebbles splashed near,
they surfaced again almost at once. Finally they swam to the weed-grown
bank and began to eat ravenously.
Andy left them and went on. Throwing pebbles at this freshly liberated
pair all day long, or all week long, would teach them nothing except how
to dodge pebbles. If they were to survive in the swamp, they'd have to
do so through their own instincts and intelligence, plus, probably, a
great deal of luck.
Andy released his remaining pairs of muskrats at scattered points and
returned the way he had come, to pick up the empty crates. Without so
much as a glance for him, four of the five pairs he had freed were
calmly eating the tender young shoots of marsh weeds or digging in the
mud for bulbs. The remaining pair, the second he had liberated, dived
hastily beneath an overhanging bank and refused to show themselves
again. Andy began to have hopes. Perhaps it would not take the animals
as long as he had thought it would to learn caution. Or maybe this pair
was just naturally cautious. If they were, and remained that way, they
stood a good chance of surviving.
Reaching home, Andy took his sixth and final pair of muskrats down to
the watery slough in front of his house. He had deliberately saved them
until last because he wanted to study at some length just how they
reacted when released and just what they did.
Andy carried the crate to the water's edge, opened the door and jumped
just in time. The first five pairs had huddled in their crates until
spilled out, but these two had both ideas of their own and a grudge
against the human race. As soon as the crate was opened, the two rushed
Andy. Bristled, clicking their teeth, they pursued him for five yards.
Then, as though discussing the situation between themselves, they
clicked their teeth at each other and, in no hurry at all, turned back
to the slough.
Andy grinned his appreciation. Together, the two muskrats weighed
perhaps five pounds. He weighed a hundred and seventy. But they hadn't
hesitated to charge him when they thought circumstances warranted it;
there was nothing wrong with their courage. Andy watched them closely.
Still unhurried, and obviously with no intention of hurrying, the pair
waddled back to the crate and inspected it thoroughly. Then they went
into the water and their delight knew no bounds. They dived. Surfacing,
they swam about for the sheer joy of swimming, then dived again. For a
few minutes they occupied themselves eating swamp growth. Then they
submerged beneath an embankment and a cloud of mud stained the water.
Evidently this pair intended to lose no time in setting up housekeeping;
the cloud of mud could mean only that they were excavating a burrow. The
underwater entrance would lead upward into the bank.
One of the pair--it was hard to distinguish between them but Andy
thought it was the male--came up for a hasty look around and promptly
dived again. Muddy water continued to flow out from beneath the bank.
Andy went to his house for a bite of lunch and when he returned to the
slough the muskrats were still submerged. He grinned smugly. Obviously
this particular pair of muskrats needed a den in a hurry and there could
be only one reason for such a rush. A family was already on its way.
There was motion on the opposite side of the slough and a lithe brown
mink appeared in the rushes there. It stood still, one paw raised like a
pointing dog's and serpent-like head extended. After a moment, it
slithered back into the rushes and disappeared. Andy frowned.
Mink are savage creatures, and now this one knew of the muskrats'
presence. It had made no effort to investigate closely, either because
it had just fed and wasn't hungry or because it had other game in mind.
But it might have marked the muskrats as a possible future dinner and
mink were almost the only predator able to follow a muskrat into its
den.
Though they preferred peace, muskrats could fight savagely and they had
the courage to fight. If there were easier game available, a mink might
very well choose it rather than risk a battle. But a hunger-driven mink
would never reckon the odds and unless it was very lucky, no muskrat
could defeat or escape from one.
This presented a serious problem. Furs provided an important part of
Andy's income. If he trapped the mink now, instead of waiting for cold
weather to bring prime furs, he'd get nothing for it. But if the mink
started killing his muskrats, he'd have to trap it. Mink were one of the
many things he'd have to watch closely.
Late in the afternoon, Andy started back into the swamp to see how his
charges were doing.
The pair he'd left in Dead Man's Slough were busy making themselves a
house. When Andy approached, they swam cautiously to a clump of reeds
and lurked near them. Studying him with watchful eyes, they swam in
little circles. When he made a sudden move, they dived. Satisfied, Andy
went on. These two were at least beginning to suspect that all callers
wouldn't necessarily be friendly.
The second pair, the naturally cautious ones, were not in sight when
Andy approached the slough where he'd left them. But dimly beneath the
water he saw the entrance to a den. No doubt the muskrats were in it.
Andy came to the third slough just in time to see a clean-limbed gray
fox, a muskrat dangling limply from his jaws, trotting away from it.
Andy muttered under his breath. He hadn't brought a gun because, though
he'd known that predators might be raiding his muskrats, he hadn't
expected to catch any in the act. But from now on he must always be
armed and definitely he would have to eliminate this particular fox.
Having learned that it could catch muskrats, it might hunt them
constantly and conceivably could catch all twelve.
Returning to his house, Andy took two fox traps and a bottle of fox
scent from his storage room. Slipping the bottle into his pocket and
taking the traps in one hand and his repeating .22 rifle in the other,
he went back to the slough. He tied a flat stone to the pan of each
trap, waded into the slough and set the traps so that only the stone
protruded above water. Then he cut two willow withes and dipped one end
of each into his bottle of fox scent. Eighteen inches from his traps, he
thrust them into the mud until only the scented ends protruded. It was
an old and effective trapper's trick, based on a fox's dislike of
getting wet. Excited by the tantalizing scent and wanting to get close
to it, the fox would use the stone on the trap pan as an effective means
of so doing and, of course, spring the trap.
Twilight fell, and, in the gathering gloom of early evening, Andy
hurried to the next slough. He halted in his tracks and muttered
angrily. On a patch of smooth grass, five feet from the water's edge,
lay the gnawed head and naked, scaley tail of a muskrat. There was no
track or sign to show what had caught it, but clinging to a nearby reed,
Andy found a cottony puff of fur from a bobcat. He muttered again.
It was too dark to go to the house for more traps, but it would be well
to have some waiting here. The killer, probably a bobcat, knew of the
other muskrat and would return to get it.
Andy trotted toward the next and last slough and found both muskrats
swimming placidly. A split second later, a great horned owl dipped out
of the sky, plucked one of the swimming animals from the water and
floated away with its victim in its talons.
It happened so suddenly and so unexpectedly that Andy needed a moment to
realize it had happened at all. It was like watching a peaceful scene in
which a bomb is suddenly exploded. Uncannily silent wings giving not the
slightest hint of his approach, the owl was not there, then he was, then
he was gone. So perfectly timed and executed was the maneuver that it
was carried through from start to finish without the owl's ruffling a
single feather or missing one beat of his wings. It was a master feat by
a master craftsman.
Leveling his rifle, sighting as best he could in the uncertain light,
Andy snapped a shot after the fleeing owl. He shot a second time, a
third, and watched the bird fly out of sight. When he lowered the rifle,
there was dread in his heart.
He had hoped that, in time, his muskrats would come to know and learn to
avoid land prowlers, such as foxes and bobcats. But there was not and
couldn't possibly be any defense against raiding great horned owls. The
wariest muskrat would never hear them coming and, nine times out of ten,
would never see them. They were destruction itself, death in its most
efficient form. A very few of them, hunting the swamp regularly, could
make it impossible ever to raise muskrats there.
Andy made up his mind. No believer in the unnecessary destruction of
anything at all, he must defend that which was his. The only possible
course lay in keeping the swamp as free of great horned owls as he
could.
Somewhat dejectedly, he made his way back to the house. Turning his
swamp into a muskrat farm had seemed like a grand dream, but maybe it
could never be anything except a dream. He had expected to lose some,
but the first day was not yet ended and he'd lost a quarter of all the
muskrats liberated. If casualties kept up at this rate, he'd have none
left in another three days.
The next morning, carrying more traps and armed with his .22, he went
back into the swamp. Passing Dead Man's Slough, he sighed in relief to
discover that the two muskrats he had left there were safe. The second
pair, the cautious ones, were not in sight but a partly finished house
was evidence that they were still in the slough. Why they wanted a house
when they already had a den was puzzling, but Andy supposed they had
their own reasons.
Approaching the third slough, the one from which the fox had taken the
muskrat, Andy halted and stood quietly.
A leaning log angled from the bank into the slough, and the surviving
muskrat sat on it, shucking a fresh-water mussel. It bit through the
tough mechanism that clamped the shell, scooped out and ate the tender
flesh within, let the shell fall into the water and dived for another
mussel.
The gray fox that had caught the first muskrat had come back for the
second one. He was lying motionless on the bank. As soon as the muskrat
dived, the fox rose, paced forward and, a split second before the
muskrat's head broke water, went into another crouch.
Slowly, making no swift move that would call attention to himself, Andy
raised and sighted his rifle. But he did not shoot because he was
interested.
The fox, evidently a young one that had not yet learned that it pays to
look in all directions all the time, was so intent on the muskrat that
it paid no attention to anything else. The muskrat climbed out on the
log, ate his mussel and dived for another one. The fox rose, paced
forward, and threw himself down again.
Crouching, he seemed a part of the grass and Andy could not help
admiring both his plan and the way he was putting it into effect. He
continued to hold his fire because here was a chance to learn exactly
how foxes catch muskrats and such knowledge might very well be useful.
The muskrat reappeared, climbed on the log . . . and the fox leaped.
He should have pinned his quarry, but something warned the muskrat and
the fox was still in the air when it rolled off the log and dived.
Struggling wildly, the fox splashed water with his front paws and fought
desperately to get back onto the bank. He could not.
The bottom of this slough was stony for the most part, but just off the
bank from which the fox had leaped was more quicksand and the animal was
hopelessly enmeshed in it. He made a mighty effort to hold his nose out
of water and Andy's shot caught him in the head just before he went
down. It was by far the kindest thing to do.
Andy was surprised and pleased when the day passed and he lost no more
muskrats. He was mystified when a whole week went by with no further
losses. Then the answer occurred to him. Muskrats, like everything else,
produce their quota of fools, and two of the three that had died the
first day probably belonged in that category. The third, the one taken
by the great horned owl, had been just plain unlucky.
Andy caught a young bobcat, picked up his traps . . . and in three days
lost the two muskrats in Dead Man's Slough and the one whose mate had
been killed by the bobcat! There were neither tracks nor any other sign
to identify the raider, but on one of the high knobs Andy found him.
It was another great horned owl that sat quietly in a gnarled oak, with
his tufted ears silhouetted against the sky and his eyes closed against
the sun's glare. Andy's shot caught him squarely, and he flapped his
wings just once as he toppled from the perch.
Leaving him where he fell, Andy went ruefully home. It was very evident
that muskrat farming was somewhat less than the ideal way to get rich
quick. Of his original stock of twelve, he had exactly six left. They
were the pair in front of his house, the cautious pair, and two singles.
Not too much could be expected from them, and Andy thought of his lean
bank balance. To buy more muskrats for predators to kill fell short of
wise investment.
Dejectedly Andy went to the slough in front of his house and sat with
his arms clasping his knees. The male muskrat came up to stare haughtily
at him and Andy stared defiantly back.
"All right!" he invited. "Go ahead and look!"
The muskrat--Andy had whimsically named the pair Four-Leaf and
Clover--made a lazy circle and turned to fix unblinking eyes on the boy.
Andy grimaced. At no time had he exerted the slightest effort to make
pets of any of his charges because it was better to have them wild. But
Four-Leaf and Clover, living so near and visited so frequently, were on
familiar terms with him. He had an uncomfortable feeling that they were
not on equal terms. Four-Leaf and Clover considered themselves vastly
superior to any mere human being!
"If you don't wipe that sneer off your face," Andy threatened, "I'll
turn you into a genuine muskrat-hide glove!"
He picked up a pebble and was about to plunk it into the water near
Four-Leaf when Clover's head broke water. Behind her, in formation so
precise that they seemed to have drilled for it, came an even dozen
small copies of herself. Andy dropped the pebble and a broad smile
lighted his face.
"Glory be! Darned if we'uns haven't got ourselves some babies!"
His dejection melted like mist before the rising sun. Happily he pulled
on his boots and went into the swamp. He'd lost half his original stock
and still had six more muskrats than he'd started with. Reaching the
slough where the cautious pair lived, Andy crouched quietly in the grass
beside it.
A half hour later, they appeared with ten babies, and when Andy passed
the sloughs inhabited by lone muskrats whose mates had been killed, he
was amazed to find each of them with eight young. Obviously, both
females had survived.
Jubilantly, Andy threw his hat into the air, and when he reached home he
went carefully over his plans for the future. If he forgot about the new
rifle he had intended to give himself for Christmas and made his old
clothes last a while longer, he could buy twenty more mated pairs. The
next morning he walked into town and mailed his order.
* * * * *
A week later, while patrolling the swamp to inspect his various colonies
of muskrats, Andy saw a great horned owl flying low over the grass with
what appeared to be a black muskrat in its talons. Suddenly the victim
twisted about to attack its captor.
When they came nearer, Andy saw, to his vast astonishment, that the
supposed muskrat was a black kitten!
4