Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1918-03-08


ness had developed her scent and
hearing until they were next to in
fallible. First she had heard the rattle
of Sandy McTrigger's paddle against
the side of his canoe quarter of q
mile away. Scent had followed swift.
~. Five minutes after her warning
howl kaZan stood at her side, his head
flung up, his jaws open and painting.
Sandy had hunted Arctic foxes, and he
was using the Eskimo tactics now,
swinging in half-circle until he should
come up in the face Of the wind. Ka-
Fan caught single Whit of the man
tainted air and his spine grew stiff.
the little red-eycd fox of the north. Her
pointed nose slowly followed Sandy's
progress. She heard dry stick crack
under his feet three hundred yards
away. She caught the metallic click Of
his gun-barrel as 1t struck birch sap
ling. The moment she lost Sandy in
the wind she whined and rubbed her
self against Kazan and trotted few
steps to the southwest.
At times such as this KaZan seldom
refused to take guidance from her.
They trotted away side by side and by
the time Sandy was creeping up snake
like with the wind In his face, Kazan
was peering from the fringe of river
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 amaze
ment and then sinister grin wrinkled
his ugly face. He chuckled as he went
to his kit and dug out a small rubber
bag. From this he drew q tightly
corked bottle, filled with gelatin cap
sules. In each little capsule were five
grains Of strychnine. There were dark
hints that once upon a time Sandy Nc
Trigger had tried one of these capsules
by dropping 1t In a cup of coffee and
giving 1t to a man, but the police had
never proved 1t. He was expert in the
use Of poison. Probably he had killed
q thousand foxes In his time, and he
chuckled again as he counted out a
dozen Of the capsules and thought how
easy 1t would be to get this inquisitive
pair Of wolves. Two or three days be-
fore he had killed caribou, and each
of the capsules he now rolled up In a
little ball Of deer fat, doing the work
with short sticks In place Of his fin
gers, so that there would be no man.
smell cllnging to the death-baits. Be
fore 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 re-
turned to the creek and cooked his sup
per.
The next morning he was up early,
and off to the poison bats. The first
bait was untouched. The second was
as he had planted It, The third was
gone. A thrill shot through Sandy as
he looked about him. Somewhere with
In 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 1t 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 bait, 1t followed 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 n dozen diff.
ferent places. The accumulated bad
humor of weeks of futile labor found
vent in his disappointment and anger.
AT last he had found something tangible
to curse. The failure of his poison
baits he accepted as n 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 con-
tent 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 comfortably
and smoked his pipe, with the old rifle
between his knees. The wind was In
his face and he kept u sharp watch for
game.
1t was late in the afternoon when
kaZan and Gray Wolf came out on
sand bar five or six miles down-stream
kazan was tapping up the ceol water
when Sandy drifted quietly around
bend hundred yards above them. Ii
the wind had been right, or If Sandy
had been using his paddle, Gray Wolf
would have detected danger. 1t was
the metallic click-elick of the old-fash-
Toned lock of Sandys rifle that aWak-
ened her to n sense of peril. Instantly
She was thrilled by the nearueSs of il