The voices were over him; the strange feet almost stumbled in the hole where he lay.

Looking out of his dark hiding place, he could see one of his enemies.

It was Nepeese, the Willow.

She was standing so that a last glow of the day fell upon her face.

Baree did not take his eyes from her.
Above his pain there rose in him a strange and thrilling fascination.
The girl put her two hands to her mouth and in a voice that was soft and plaintive and amazingly comforting to his terrified little heart, cried: "Uchimoo--Uchimoo--Uchimoo!" And then he heard another voice; and this voice, too, was far less terrible than many sounds he had listened to in the forests.
"We cannot find him, Nepeese," the voice was saying.