almost smooth, bare trunk, a fierce blow from the unencumbered paw of
one of the wild cats, securely seated on the large lowest limb, which
ran out almost parallel from the trunk of the tree, quickly caused him
to loose his grip and fall helplessly to the ground. Then, with
apparent satisfaction, the wild cat would take another bite or two of
his muskrat. Several times, as though on purpose, the wild cats dropped
small bits of meat or half-picked bones to the ground. The taste or
smell of these fairly drove the wolverines furious, and so they would
desperately make fresh attempts to get at their enemies, but without
success.

It was fortunate for our party that the wind was blowing toward then,
and also that the air was so thoroughly tainted with the musky smell of
the muskrats. Under ordinary circumstances they would have been
detected long ere they had reached the top of the hill. So,
unsuspected, they watched the strange antics of these animals, until
suddenly the reports of a couple of guns rang out, and then up sprang
both Mustagan and Paulette and dashed down to the foot of the tree,
loudly calling to the rest of the party to quickly follow. Following
Mr Ross, the boys speedily obeyed, and when they reached the tree they
found that one wolverine was dead and the other was hobbling off, as
speedily as he could, on three legs. The other had been broken by the
ball of one of the Indians. The frightened wild cats had dropped what
was left of the muskrats, which was not much, and had found their way
much higher up in the large tree, where they vainly tried to hide
themselves by stretching out on a couple of large branches. Quickly
loading his gun again, Paulette hurried off after the wounded wolverine,
that, in spite of his broken leg, was rapidly making for the distant
dense forest. But vain were all his efforts, for behind him was an
Indian who, although now well up in years, was one of the fleetest
runners in the tribe. Soon the gun rang out and another wolverine was
dead.

It was decided that the boys should have the work of shooting the wild
cats. So close and flat did they crawl down on the big branches that
the boys had to move back to a considerable distance from the tree to
get a good aim. Sam and Alec were to fire first, and if either cat
failed to drop, then Frank was to bring it down. Mr Ross and Mustagan
with loaded guns stood ready for any emergency, for wild cats are
uncertain animals, a