selves. Michael, fetch me my rifle."

It was not more than half past six when the party set forth on their
journey. Our two travellers rode along at an easy gait, and Wat Adair,
throwing his rifle carelessly across his shoulder, stepped out with a
long swinging step that kept him, without difficulty, abreast of the
horsemen, as they pursued their way over hill and dale.

They had not journeyed half a mile before they reached a point in the
woods at which Adair called a halt.

"My trap is but a little off the road," he said, "and I must beg you to
stop until I see what luck I have this morning. It's a short business
and soon done. This way, Horse Shoe; it is likely I may give you sport
this morning."

"Our time is pressing," said Butler. "Pray give us your directions as to
the road, and we will leave you."

"You would never find it in these woods," replied Wat; "there are two or
three paths leading through here, and the road is a blind one till you
come to the fork; the trap is not a hundred yards out of your way."

"Rather than stop to talk about it, Wat," said the sergeant, "we will
follow you, so go on."

The woodman now turned into the thickets, and opening his way through
the bushes, in a few moments conducted the two soldiers to the foot of a
large gum tree.

"By all the crows, I have got my lady!" exclaimed Wat Adair, with a
whoop that made the woods ring. "The saucy slut! I have yoked her, Horse
Shoe Robinson! There's a picture worth looking at."

"Who?" cried Butler; "of whom are you speaking?"

"Look for yourself, sir," replied the woodman. "There's the mischievous
devil; an old she-wolf that I have been hunting these two years. Oh, ho,
madam! Your servant!"

Upon looking near the earth, our travellers descried the object of this
triumphant burst of joy, in a large wolf that was now struggling to
release herself from the thraldom of her position. The trap was
ingeniously contrived. It consisted of a long opening into the hollow
trunk of the tree, beginning about four feet from the ground and cut out
with an axe down to the root. An aperture had been made at the upper end
of the slit about a foot wide, and the wood had been hewed away
downwards, in such a manner as to render the slit gradually narrower as
it approached the lower extremity, until near the earth it was not more
than four inches in width, thus forming a wedge-shaped loophole into the
hollow body of the tree. A part of the carcase of a