nail from which it was suspended bent and allowed the cord to slip.
She started off across the open, and the first fold of canvas flapped
loosely under her feet and tripped her. Halfway to the timber the meat
dropped out and she took it, leaving the cloth behind; something over an
hour later she turned up at the den with the first meat she had ever
furnished for her own pups.

The prospector returned to his cabin and while still a mile away he
heard the bellowing of the dog. The first sight that greeted him was the
canvas, flapping limply in the open, and he found Shady's dust tracks
round the cabin, and swore. He ducked hurriedly into the house and
reappeared with a shotgun, unsnapped the chain from the cabin wall and
resnapped it in his belt, and he was off, with the eager hound tugging
ahead of him on Shady's trail.

Shady, elated by her first success, had left the den for another hunt.
As she swung back toward home she heard the steady bellow of a hound and
put on full speed ahead. The baying ceased except for an occasional
bark, and when Shady came to the last fringe of trees along the ridge
she saw a man standing at the den. The hound was chained to a single
tree some thirty yards away and she knew there was naught to fear from
him. The man started excavating with a light miner's pick and a
short-handled shovel which he unslung from his back. In half an hour he
had opened one tunnel till he could peer into the den hole. Then he
unwound a strange instrument from about his waist, a wolfer's "feeler",
three strands of wire twisted into a pliable cable ten feet long, the
three ends of the strands extending forklike a bare two inches beyond
the cable braid at one end. This simple invention eliminates much
tedious excavation work, the sensitive tool following the curves of the
branching tunnels which each wolf pup makes for himself as soon as he is
able to dig. Shady prowled along the edge of the timber and viewed these
preparations suspiciously.

The man inserted the end of the feeler in a hole that led off the main
cavity of the den, and advanced it by gentle thrusts, twisting it as he
pushed to clear the forks. There was not a sound from the den. The
feeler would go no farther. He grasped it flat between the palms of his
hands and twirled the cable rapidly from right to left. There was a
sudden spitting explosion of baby snarls from the depths of the hole.
The man gave one tentative tug and felt resistance, then ha