'n take the bigger chap and we'll cook the tail.
Where did you set your snares?"

"In amongst the scrub, thar," Rube pointed.

There was a fine jack-rabbit in the first snare they came to. Rube
gave the animal a sharp knock on the back of the head, killing it
instantly.

"Guess we'll have this yer feller for dinner," he said; "stewed with
plenty of onions an' some taters."

"You see," observed Kiddie, "we're already beginnin' ter be
self-supportin'. Fish, meat, honey--there wasn't any occasion t' bring
a butcher's shop along with us. We c'd even make our own bread at a
pinch. I'm plannin' ter make a fruit pudding. Thar's a bush 'most
breakin' down with its weight of ripe and juicy thimbleberries, back of
the old cedar tree. Bees have been at 'em."

The next snare they visited was empty. In another a woodgrouse was
caught, and in yet another a fox cub. Kiddie's steel traps were set
farther away. He went first to the one about which he had been so
particular.

"Gee!" he exclaimed. "It's sprung! Bait's taken. Remains of that
rabbit have been eaten, too!"

"Lynx is a cunnin' critter," said Rube. "You gotter wear two pairs o'
moccasins t' git level with a lynx."

"I ain't just sure that it was a lynx," mused Kiddie, searching the
ground for signs. "You never happened on a jet-black lynx around here,
did you, Rube?"

"Nope," Rube answered. "They's allus the same tawny colour. Why d'you
ask?"

Kiddie looked down at the tight shut jaws of the gin.

"Thar's a tuft of black fur in the teeth of the trap," he pointed out.
"An' look at them claw marks! Guess that critter's some bigger'n a
lynx. May's well stay another night in this camp an' try ter git the
critter, eh?"

"Dunno 'bout that," Rube demurred. "Might be a whole fam'ly o'
rattlers lyin' around. 'Tain't just healthy."

"Guess that rattlesnake we killed had done with family life a long
while ago," said Kiddie. "Anyhow, I'm curious to know what critter it
was that sprang this trap."

"Mebbe he shoved his nose inter one of the others," suggested Rube.

Kiddie led the way unerringly among the forest trees. His traps had
all been visited by wild animals. Two of them had been sprung
ineffectually; in others he found a raccoon, a cross-fox, a musk-rat
and an otter. One had been dragged away, and was found some hours
afterwards with part of a fox's tail between the teeth.

Rube Carter rather prided himself on his skill in cooking, and