e
great snow, which could cause her a moment's perturbation. For the
trail of the wolf-pack she had small concern--for the hungriest wolves
could never climb a tree. But this was the broad snowshoe trail, which
she knew was made by a creature even more crafty than herself. She
glanced about keenly, peering under the trees--because one could never
judge, merely by the direction of the trail, where one of those
dangerous creatures was going. She stood almost erect on her haunches
and sniffed the air for the slightest taint of danger. Then she
sniffed at the tracks. The man-smell was strong upon them, and
comparatively, but not dangerously, fresh. Reassured on this point,
she decided to follow the man and find out what he was doing. It was
only when she did not know what he was about that she so dreaded him.
Given the opportunity to watch him unseen, she was willing enough to
pit her cunning against his, and to rob him as audaciously as she
would rob any of the wilderness kindreds.

Hunting over a wide range as she did, the carcajou was unaware till
now that a man had come upon her range that winter. To her experience
a man meant a hunter--and--trapper, with emphasis distinctly upon the
trapper. The man's gun she feared--but his traps she feared not at
all. Indeed, she regarded them rather with distinct favour, and was
ready to profit by them at the first opportunity. Having only strength
and cunning, but no speed to rely upon, she had learned that traps
could catch all kinds of swift creatures, and hold them inexorably.
She had learned, too, that there was usually a succession of traps and
snares set along a man's trail. It was with some exciting expectation,
now, that she applied herself to following this trail.

Within a short distance the track brought her to a patch of trampled
snow, with tiny bits of frozen fish scattered about. She knew at once
that somewhere in this disturbed area a trap was hidden, close to the
surface. Stepping warily, in a circle, she picked up and devoured the
smallest scraps. Near the centre lay a fragment of tempting size; but
she cunningly guessed that close beside that morsel would be the
hiding-place of the trap. Slowly she closed in upon it, her nose close
to the snow, sniffing with cautious discrimination. Suddenly she
stopped short. Through the snow she had detected the man-smell, and
the smell of steel, mingling with the savour of the dried fish. Here,
but a little to one side, she b