Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-10-28

was a pocket knife.
y And meanwhile Kazan and Gray
Wolf found the home they were seek,
ing III a thick swamp five or six miles
from the cabin that Henri Lott had
built
Always Two by Two.
1t was January when a guide from
the cost brought Paul Weyman to Hen
ri Lofts cabin on the Waterfound. He
was a man of thirty-two or three, full
of the red blooded life that made Hen
ri like him at once. If this had not
been the case, the first few days In the
cabin might have been unpleasant, for
Henri was In bad humor. He told
Weyman about it their first night, as
, they were smoking pipes alongside the
redly glowing box stove.
! TT is damn strange" said Henri. II
have lost seven lynx in the traps, torn
to pieces like they were no more than
rabbits that the foxes had killed. No
thing - not even bear has ever
tackled lynx in trap before. It is
the first time I ever see it. And they
are torn up so bad they are not worth
cne half dollar at the post. Seven!-
that is over two hundred dollar I have
lost! There are two wolves who do
it. Two - know it by the tracks -
always two - an - never one. They
follow my trap line an eat the rabbits
l catch. They leave the fisher cat, an
the mink, an the ermine, an the mar.
zen: but the lynx sacre an damn
they jump on him an pull the fur from
him like you pull the wild cotton balls
f,,N, J, h,,r hy1c hoy y0 fv~fn
strychnine in deer fat, an have set
traps and deadfalls, but I can not
catch them. They will drive me out
unless get them, for have taken
only five good lynx, an they have des-
troyed seven"
This reused Weyman. He was one
of that growing number Of thought
full men who believe that mans egoism
as race, blinds him to many Of the
more wonderful facts of creation. He
had thrown down the gauntlet, and
with logic that had gained him a ma
ton wide hearing, to those who be-
lieved that man was the only living
creature who could reason, and that
common sense and cleverness when
displayed by any other breathing thing
were merely instinct. The facts be-
hind Henri's tale Of woe struck him as
important, and until midnight they
they talked about the two strange
wolves.
There Is one big an one smaller"
said Henri. "An' it is always the big
wolf who goes in an fights the lynx.
I SEQ that by the snow While he's
fighting, the smaller wolf makes many
tracks in the snow just out Of reach,
an then when the lynx is down, or
dead, 1t jumps in an helps tear it into
pieces. All that I know by the snow.
Only once have seen where the small
Ter one went in an fought with the
other, an then there was blood all
about that was not lynx blood; trail
cd the devils mile by the dripping"
During the two weeks that followed,
Weyman found much to add to the ma
teria] Of his book. Not a day passed
that somewhere along Henri's trap
line they did not see the trails OF the
two wolves, and Weyman observed
that - as Henri had told him - the
footprints were always two by two,
and never one by one. On the third
day they came to trap that had held
a lynx, and at sight Of what remained
Henri cursed in both French and Eng
FISH until he was purple in the face
The lynx had been torn until it's pslt
was practically worthless.
(To be Continued.)