the trap?" asked Shand.

"I'm comin' to that. It was sprung, and there was a goose's quill
stickin' in it. Now, I leave it to you if a wild goose ain't too smart
to go in a trap. And if he did, he couldn't get a feather caught by
the butt end, could he?"

They murmured in astonishment.

"Me," began Husky; "yesterday I was cuttin' wood for the fire a little
way back in the bush, and I got het up and took off my sweater, the
red one, and laid it on a log. I loaded up with an armful of wood and
carried it to the pile outside the door here. I wasn't away two
minutes, but when I went back to my axe the sweater was gone.

"I thought one of you fellows took it. Remember, I asked you? I looked
for it near an hour. Then I came in to my dinner. We was all here
together, and I was the first to get up from the table. Well, sir,
when I went back to my axe, there was the sweater where I first left
it. Can you beat it? It was so damn queer I didn't like to say
nothing."

"What about you?" Jack asked of Shand.

Shand nodded. "To-day when I walked up the shore there was something
funny. I had a notion I was followed all the way. Couldn't shake it.
Half a dozen times I turned short and ran into the bush to look.
Couldn't see nothing. Just the same I was sure. No noise, you
understand, just pad, pad on the ground that stopped when I stopped."

"What do you know?" Jack asked in turn of Joe.

"W--wait till I tell you," stammered Joe. "It's been with me two days.
I couldn't bring myself to speak of it--thought you'd only laugh. I
saw it a couple of times, flitting through the bush like. Once it
laughed----"

"What did it look like?" demanded Jack.

"Couldn't tell you; just a shadow. This morning I was shaving outside.
Had my mirror hanging from a branch around by the shore. I was nervous
account of this, and I cut myself. See, there's the mark. I come to
the house to get a rag.

"You was all in plain sight--cookee inside, Jack and Husky sittin' at
the door waitin' for breakfast, Shand in the stable. I could see him
through the open door. He couldn't have got to the tree and back
while I was in the house. When I got back my little mirror was hangin'
there, but----"

"Well?" demanded big Jack.

"It was cracked clear across."

"Oh, my God, a broken mirror!" murmured Husky.

"I--I left it hanging," added Joe.

Meanwhile the chair, the table, and the boxes were quickly consumed,
and the fire threatened to die down, leaving