He was too far gone now to hunt for crayfish or kill the weakest bird.

But he came just as Sekoosew, the ermine, the most bloodthirsty little pirate of all the wild--was making a kill.
That was fully a hundred yards from where Baree lay stretched out under a spruce, almost ready to give up the ghost.

Sekoosew was a mighty hunter of his kind.

His body was about seven inches long, with a tiny black-tipped tail appended to it, and he weighed perhaps five ounces.

A baby's fingers could have encircled him anywhere between his four legs, and his little sharp-pointed head with its beady red eyes could slip easily through a hole an inch in diameter.