ment in the pride of
an army with banners, carrying the grouse daintily between his jaws.

Or the shot failed. Jim waited until he heard the click of the gun as
its breech closed after reloading, then moved forward with well-bred
restraint to sniff long and inquiringly where the bird had been.

These things Regis Brugiere saw, following the hunt through the
thickets, so that he broke the tenth commandment and coveted Jim with a
great love. He worshipped the dog's aloof dignity, his gentlemanly
demeanour of unhasting grace in the woods, his well-bred far-away gaze
as he sat on his haunches staring into the distance.

So Regis Brugiere stole Jim, the black-and-white setter, and concealed
him well. To him it was a little thing to do. He did not know Jim's
value, for in the north country a dog is a dog. After the strangers had
gone, bewailing their loss, Regis Brugiere loaded a toboggan with
supplies and traps and set out into the northwest on his annual trapping
excursion. He took with him Jim, by now entirely accustomed to his new
master.

The two journeyed far through the forest, over many rivers and muskegs,
through many swamps and ranges of hills. Regis Brugiere drew the
toboggan after him. The task should have been Jim's, but to the trapper
that would have seemed like harnessing Ignace St. Cloud, the seigneur
of Ste. Jeanne, to an apple-cart. So Jim ranged at large in diagonals
having a good time, while the man enjoyed himself by watching the
animal. In due course they came to a glade through which ran a soggy,
choked, little spring-creek. Here Regis Brugiere kicked off his
snow-shoes with an air of finality. Here he erected a cabin, and
established himself and Jim.

Over a circumference of forty miles then he set his traps, for the
beaver, the mink, the fox, the fisher, the muskrat, and the other
fur-bearing animals of the north. At regular intervals he visited these
traps one after the other, crunching swiftly along on his snow-shoes.
Jim always accompanied him. When the snow was deep, he wallowed
painfully after in the tracks made by Regis Brugiere. When it was not so
deep, he looked for grouse or ptarmigan, investigated many strange
things, or ran at large over the frozen surfaces of the little lakes.

At the trapping-places Jim had to stay behind. The man left with him his
capote and snow-shoes, which Jim imagined himself to be guarding
faithfully. Thus he was satisfied.

Then on the return journey the tw