16 Frightful and Oksi Run the Show

Sam backed down the steps, found his pack in the hemlock grove, and whistled for Mole. Together, they crossed the field in the direction of the mountains. The two men saw them stride along. "I think we should have gone to town." Henry said. "We're not free to do anything but what we did," Sean answered, watching with no little longing the young man who walked to his own inner music. IN WHICH Frightful and Oksi Run the Show The sun was held back by rain clouds the morning Frightful saw Sam and Mole come home from their wanderings. Sam whistled hello, but she did not reply. She was concerned with Oksi. This day had dawned cold, Chup was out hunting, and she had to brood the eyas.

Just as Sam and Mole went into the tree house, Chup came home to feed and brood Oksi, and Frightful took off. She sped with the air currents into a thermal that spiraled her high above Delhi. At the top of the warm air bubble, she peeled off and dove straight down. She landed on the cupola of the county courthouse. Frightful drew herself up tall. The courthouse pigeon flock was winging into sight. She knew each pigeon personally. She knew the healthy and quick on wing. She knew the dumb and the clumsy. And she knew those with the highly contagious pox virus. She selected one of these and struck. The virus died with the bird, and she carried it back to Oksi. When Frightful returned with food that day, Chup was freed from his nest brooding. Oksi was old enough to be left alone while Frightful hunted. He flew from tall tree to the tallest, spread his wings, and soared far from Frightful's Mountain. He had never been comfortable in the forest. He was a bird of the cliffs, open river valleys, and the bottoms of clouds. Spread-winged, he rode an air current to a cliff in Catskill Park, a three-minute

falcon flight from Oksi. He was still concerned about her. While Sam and Mole were away, Oksi had changed. The tips of her flight feathers had grown in, and she could stand and walk. She jumped on leaves that blew into the box and watched every bird that flew past. But the greatest change of all was that she jabbed a foot at Frightful when she came into the box with food. Chup returned to the box one day to find no food at the aerie. He flew down to the river and brought back a duck. Alighting on the box, he was met by Oksi's two yellow feet and black talons. He left the food and took off. As she grew and changed, the wooden box intrigued Oksi. It was far different from her first home. It did not look out on a vast landscape, but on a hemlock forest. From it she did not see ducks, but frogs and songbirds. The winds around her did not jet, but swirled and bumped. Instinctively she disliked it, but because her parents fed her here, she became accustomed to it. Sam would sit at his table at mealtimes and watch Oksi. He knew the box in the forest was all wrong

for a peregrine, and so he would wonder what would happen when it came time for her to pick her own nesting site. Would she choose a cliff, a bridge—or, he mused almost longingly, would she pick a beautiful hemlock forest like this? Was she imprinted on Frightful's Mountain? He was watching Oksi through the binocs one evening when Jessie Coon James came up to him and begged for a handout. Sam laughed and gave her his leftover rabbit stew. Ordinarily he gave it to Mole, but Mole was chasing a fox, and that could take all night. Jessie ate voraciously, then climbed the old hemlock and draped herself over a limb. She closed her eyes. "Are you sleeping out tonight, Jessie?" Sam asked. "That's a good idea. Think I will, too. It's a balmy night." A breeze rocked Jessie on her willowy limb. Sam spread his deerskin sleeping bag on the big stone table and, after completing his chores and writing in his journal, he lay down and watched the stars come out. Sam listened to the night sounds. A screech owl awoke and called, the barred owl by the mill

house hooted, and from far away, he heard the lugubrious voice of Mole reporting his progress in a game of "catch the fox," a game both animals thoroughly enjoyed. After Mole found the scent and began the chase, the fox took great pleasure in tricking him. When Mole got too close, the fox would splash into a stream and wash away his trail, or he would sit in a scented wintergreen patch and watch Mole run right past him. Sometimes he fooled Mole by running the tops of fences or turning around and going back over his own trail. Before dawn, they both understood, the game ended. The fox would slip into his den, and Mole would go home, panting happily. This night it was Jessie Coon James who had the game plan. When Sam was asleep, she stole down the tree and circled Baron Weasel's den. Moving quietly, she swam across the millpond to the sluice

and climbed up the wall. The shale bricks made perfect hand- and footholds. She was headed for the roof but was stopped by the overhang. She backed down and tried climbing the down-mountain side of the mill house. Again she was turned back by the overhang. While she puzzled, Oksi slept, Frightful slept, Sam slept, and Mole ran the top of an old stone fence, following the fox. Jessie Coon James was not defeated. She walked to the up-mountain side of the mill house. She climbed again, and this time she reached the stovepipe. It was metal and slippery but was braced with steel bands. She caught a band with one front claw and was able to grab the overhang with her hind feet and, scratching hard on the shakes, pull herself up onto the roof. Oksi awoke. It was dark. She could not see, but she could hear. Something was coming her way. She felt fear for the first time and backed into the corner of the box. Jessie could see as well in the dark as she could in daylight. She approached the box, hooked eight