Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-11-20

brush down upon the canoe on the
white strip Of sand. When Sandy re-
turned. after an hour Of futile stalking.
two fresh tracks led straight down to
the canoe. He looked at them in
amazement and then sinister grin
wrinkled his ugly face. He chuckled
as he went to his kit and dug out
small rubber bag. From this he drew
tightly corked bottle, filled with gel
atine capsules. In each little capsule
were Ave grains Of strychnine. There
were dark hints that once upon time
Sandy McTrigger had tried one Of
these capsules by dropping It in cup
Of coffee and giving 1t to q man, but
the police had never proved It, He
was expert in the use Of poison. Prob
ably he had killed thousand foxes in
his time, and he chuckled again as he
counted out dozen OF the capsules
and thought how easy It would be to
get this inquisitive pair OF wolves. Two
or three days before he had killed
caribou, and each of the capsules he
now rolled up In little ball Of deer
fat, doing the work with short sticks
in place Of his fingers, SO that there
would be no man smell clinging to the
deathbaits. Before shutdown Sandy set
out at right angles over the plain,
planting the bats. Most OF them he
hung to low bushes Others he dropped
in worn rabbit and caribou trails. Then
he returned to the creek and cooked
his supper.
Then next morning he was up early
and off to the poison bats. The first
bait was untouched. The second was
as he had planted 1t. The third was
gone. A thrill shot through Sandy as
he looked about him. Somewhere with.
in q radius Of two or three hundred
yards he would find his game Then
his glance fell to the ground under the
bush where he had hung the poison
capsule and an oath broke from his
lips. The bait had not been eaten. The
caribou fat lay scattered under the
bush and still imbedded in the largest
portion of it was the little white cap.
sule - unbroken. 1t was Sandy's first
experience with wild creature whose
instincts were sharpened by blindness,
and he was puzzled. He had never
known this to happen before. If a fox
or wolf could be lured to the point
Of touching a bait. 1t follow ed that the
bait was eaten Sandy went on to the
fourth and the fifth BATS They were
untouched. The sixth was torn to
pieces like the third. In this instance
the capsule was broken and the white
powder scattered. Two more poison
bats Sandy found pulled down In this
manner. He knew that Kazan and
Gray Wolf had done the work, for he
found the marks Of their feet In dog
en- different places. The accumulated
bad humor Of weeks Of futile labor
found something tangible to curse. The
failure of his poison bats he accepted |
as sort Of climax to his general bad
luck. Everything was against him, he
believed, and he made up his mind to
return to Red Gold City Early In the
afternoon he launched his canoe and
drifted down stream with the current.
He was content to let the current do
all Of the work today, and he. used his
paddle Just enough to keep his slender
craft head on. He leaned back COM
fortably and smoked his pipe, with the
old rifle between his knees. The wind
was in his face and he kept sharp
watch for game.
(To be continued.)