The hunter, hidden near the pond of Paddy the Beaver, chuckled
silently. That is to say, he laughed without making any
sound. The hunter thought the warning of Mr. and Mrs. Quack by
Sammy Jay was a great joke on Reddy. To tell the truth, he was
very much pleased. As you know, he wanted those Ducks himself.
He suspected that they would stay in that little pond for some days,
and he planned to return there and shoot them after he had got
Lightfoot the Deer. He wanted to get Lightfoot first, and he knew
that to shoot at anything else might spoil his chance of getting
a shot at Lightfoot.
"Sammy Jay did me a good turn," thought the hunter, "although he
doesn't know it. Reddy Fox certainly would have caught one of
those Ducks had Sammy not come along just when he did. It would
have been a shame to have had one of them caught by that Fox.
I mean to get one, and I hope both of them, myself."
Now when you come to think of it, it would have been a far
greater shame for the hunter to have killed Mr. and Mrs. Quack
than for Reddy Fox to have done so. Reddy was hunting them
because he was hungry. The hunter would have shot them for
sport. He didn't need them. He had plenty of other food.
Reddy Fox doesn't kill just for the pleasure of killing.
So the hunter continued to sit in his hiding-place with very
friendly feelings for Sammy Jay. Sammy watched Reddy Fox
disappear and then flew over to that side of the pond where the
hunter was. Mr. and Mrs. Quack called their thanks to Sammy, to
which he replied, that he had done no more for them than he would
do for anybody, or than they would have done for him.
For some time Sammy sat quietly in the top of the tree, but all
the time his sharp eyes were very busy. By and by he spied the
hunter sitting on the log. At first he couldn't make out just
what it was he was looking at. It didn't move, but nevertheless
Sammy was suspicious. Presently he flew over to a tree where he
could see better. Right away he spied the terrible gun, and he
knew just what that was. Once more he began to yell, "Thief!
thief! thief!" at the top of his lungs. It was then that the
hunter lost his temper. He knew that now he had been discovered
by Sammy Jay, and it was useless to remain there longer. He was
angry clear through.