The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1899-09-14
1--WE ketehed EN- in the shack.
What shack? Where 2"

to live, on tother side of the crick."
Eyes, but how did you catch wolves
in this shack?" questioned the treas
urer. How came the wolves in the
shack?"
"They went in to get the boss head
and the steer bones"
"Bones that you put there for bait?
But what kept the wolves from coming
out?''
The boy explained that "her"-mean-
ing Rose, whose black eyes blinked
rapidly when the treasurer looked at
her-had made a kind of spring catch
from dry ash wood and a leather string,
attached to which was a stone for
weight The door of the shack, or small
log shanty, was left ajar about ten
inches, so that wolf, ''lion," or any
other creature, approaching the empty
structure could put its head in and look
about the interior.
To all appearance the door was I'M
fastened, swinging free, and the wolf
or other wild beast was not alarmed
by anything that it saw either within or
without. To get the bones it had but
to walk in; yet when it did so, the larg-
er part of its body pushed the door back
little farther, and the ashen spring
at the top, bending slightly, released
the weight attached to the spring.
Then-as the creatures body passed in
the door was pulled to with just suffi-
cient force to latch it. The animal was
thus entrapped, and all so quietly that
it scarcely felt any alarm at first.
How the girl had learned so cunning
stratagem was not explained; perhaps
from her Indian mother. There was
very little TO it of gear or mechanism,
and nothing whatever in the way of
metal; otherwise it would have failed,
since it is now almost impossible to take
these wolves in steel traps, or in log
traps such as white hunters sometimes
construct
Yet to this primitive device, contrived
by the hand of an 11-year-old child, five
large gray wolves had, one after an
other, fallen victims. Two, indeed, had
been entrapped at once, the second hav-
ing apparently pushed into the shack
with the first.
The shack itself was simply little
low log house without windows, and
having a sod roof. When once the door
had swung to and latched behind the
wolf, it was prisoner
By the time the boy had explained it,
and told how the spring and weight
were adjusted, the treasurer became
convinced of his truthfulness. lie
brought out his punch and hammer,
and proceeded to make holes in the ears
of the skins, as by law directed, wild lit
tie Rose eying his every movement with
attention to details.
"How did you know when you had
caught a WOLFE" the treasurer asked.
"Her went up to look every morning.,
said the boy.
"What did you do when you found
YOU had a wolfe" the treasurer asked
the girl; but she only blinked half
dozen times in second, and it was still
the boy who replied for her that she
ran home to get Grandpa Hogan to
make pill" for it.
The old man had been wolf-hunter
in his day, and knew that to shoot a
wolf inside the shack would spoil all
chance of trapping another there. He
inclosed enough strychnine to kill a
wolf in bit of tallow, the size of
hens egg. This the children carried to
the shack and poked in through chink
between the logs, and after they had
gone the VOLTS hunger soon did the
rest.
Toward evening the two small hunt
ers were wont to return, and IN no case
had failed to find the wolf dead. They
then opened the door, and attaching
bit of rope to the animals hind legs,
hauled it home in triumph.
Although too infirm to go abroad in
the snow, the old man was able to skin
the wolves when brought to him.
The treasurer paid the children the
bounty money-$19 in all-and with an
amused smile watched them drive to
the store to buy grub stuff" of which
the fororn family was no doubt in need.
1t was likely that they would be able to
sell the skins for as much more, how
ever, and the treasurer concluded that
there was no immediate cause for alarm
concerning the Foulkrods as long as
they had little Rose to trap for them
and Custer to do the talking.-Youth's
Companion.
Judge and lawyer.
The resounding and ELUSIVE court