climbed to the top; still he could not see
the horses. Becoming somewhat anxious at their disappearance, he made
his way across the meadow, hoping to find that they had discovered a
richer pasturage farther on. As he looked round, he saw, to his dismay,
two horses lying motionless on the ground. He hurried towards them.
They were dead, and fearfully torn and mangled.

"The wolves have done this, the savage brutes. We will be revenged on
them," he exclaimed as he surveyed the dead steeds. "Father and I must
have slept very soundly during the night not to have been awoke by their
howling. It will be a sore grief to the old man, and I would that he
had found it out himself, rather than I should have to tell him.
However, it must be done." Saying this, he set off on his return to the
camp.

"The brutes shall pay dearly for it," exclaimed the old trapper, when
Laurence brought him the intelligence of what had happened. "Whether
Injuns or wolves wrong him, Michael Moggs is not the man to let them go
unpunished;" and his eyes lighted up with a fierce expression which made
the young boy instinctively shrink back from him. "We have three strong
traps which will catch the biggest wolf on the prairies; and if they
fail, I'll lie in wait till I can shoot the savage brutes down with my
rifle. We shall have to tramp it on foot, boy, with the furs on our
backs. That's bad for you, but we can leave the traps hidden away _en
cache_; and as the snow will soon cover the ground, the cunning Injuns
are not likely to find them. It's not the first adventure of the sort I
have met with; and though I am sorry for your sake, and for the loss of
our poor horses, I am not going to be cast down."

Some time was spent in scraping the skins, and in repacking the most
valuable of those already obtained in a compass which would enable the
old man and his son to carry them. Not wishing to leave such valuable
property in the hut, which might be visited during their absence by some
wandering Indian, they then strapped the bales on to their backs, the
old man carrying his rifle and the steel traps, and set out towards the
meadow where their horses had been killed.

Having planted the traps round the carcases of the slaughtered animals,
and concealed them carefully, so that they could not be seen by the
savage wolves, they returned to their hut.

"The brutes will pay another visit to the poor horses, unless they fall
in with other prey in