the behavior of the deer in the yard had puzzled upton not a little. he could evolve no theory to account for it. why at this season of the year should those two does have appeared so terror stricken at his approach, and why should the buck have been in such an ugly mood? from all accounts he had read, and from what pat had said, he had had good grounds for expecting the animals to be fairly tame. he put the matter up to pat as they tramped homeward, but his reply was evasive and unsatisfactory. in fact, the big fellow was not inclined to talk. he appeared to have something on his mind, and strode along with a black scowl darkening his usually good-humored face. once walter thought he detected a slight shake of his head at sparrer as the latter started to say something. he was sure of it when the latter abruptly changed the subject.
pat set a stiff pace. he seemed in a hurry to get back to the cabin. as he opened the cabin door and looked in a flash of what looked to upton very much like relief crossed his face as he saw that it was empty, it being too early for alec to have returned. this puzzled walter more than ever, but he held his tongue and forbore to ask questions. he felt sure that in his own good time pat would unburden himself. the latter at once went to work on the broken shoe, replacing the twine with a rawhide thong made pliable by soaking in water. this would contract in drying and the broken frame would be stronger than ever.
he had just finished the job when alec came in with two marten. "any signs of our friends, the enemy?" asked pat whimsically.
alec shook his head. "no one has been near the traps," he replied. "i dinna think they will dare come so near the cabin."
"you've got another guess coming, alec," retorted pat. "the murthering thaves killed two deer within a mile of here yesterday."
"what!" exclaimed walter and hal in unison, while alec suspended his skinning knife in mid air and shot a keen glance at pat.
"it's a fact," pat went on. "sparrer will tell you so."
sparrer nodded in confirmation of pat's surprising statement.
"but we didn't hear any guns," protested hal.
"no," replied pat, "for the very good reason that no guns were fired. they were not hunting; they were butchering." then he graphically described for alec's benefit upton's experience with the buck that morning, and the story lost nothing in the telling. "walt," he continued, "knows enough about deer to realize that the deer he saw did not behave as he expected they would, and he's been puzzling over it ever since. i'll tell you the reason. they've been hunted and harried in that yard till their nerves are on the jump so that they will run from their own shadows, all but the buck, and i guess now after his scrap with the snow-shoe he will be as bad as the does. as it was he was simply fighting mad, knowing their helplessness outside the yard. ordinarily he would have simply trotted off quietly with the does. but they were hunted yesterday to a point where the old fellow was desperate, and the proof of it is what sparrer and i found."
"what was it?" demanded walter eagerly.
"we found where a fawn and a doe had been driven into the deep snow and butchered with a knife," replied pat. "the story was plain enough for any one who can read signs. it was no trick at all for those bloody poachers on snow-shoes to run them down and drive them into the snow. after that no gun was needed. besides, a gun is too noisy for thieves and lawbreakers. walt didn't tell you what he saw yesterday. fire away, walt, and tell 'em."
upton told briefly what he had seen on the peak by the pass and his reasons for telling only pat. alec's face hardened as he listened and a steely glint crept into his eyes. when walter had finished pat continued.
"you fellows wondered why i was so keen on getting back to the cabin. it was because i don't believe it is safe to leave it unguarded. as long as the snow was soft those thieves kept away from the hollow, but with this crust to leave no tracks they've come down here, and they've been watching us. they know how many of us are here and are watching our movements. they'd raid the cabin in a minute if they saw the chance. but as long as anybody is here they'll keep out of sight. hereafter we'll leave a guard when we go out. to-morrow alec and i will start before daybreak to look for those fellows and leave you youngsters to amuse yourselves. i have an idea that their camp isn't so far away as alec thought it was. now we'll have dinner, and this afternoon alec and i will look over a couple of the short lines, one of you can keep guard here and the other two can go with us or do anything else you please."
upton insisted that he should keep guard, hal decided to go with alec, and sparrer with a little hesitancy confessed that he would like to hunt rabbits. the experience of christmas morning had whetted his taste for hunting and following a trap line seemed tame sport in comparison. he was eager to try his luck alone, and when walter offered the loan of his rifle his happiness was complete. when the others had departed he shouldered the rifle and at upton's suggestion started to follow the course of the brook up to the beaver ponds so as to see the houses and dams and then go on to the swamp at the head of the ponds where spud ely had found the rabbit tracks which had ultimately led to his finding of alec smith the fall before.
it did not take him long to reach the first or big dam. it was difficult for this boy of the city to believe that this could be the work of animals and not men, and had he not seen some of the beaver cuttings in the bronx park at home he would have been inclined to think that upton had been stuffing him when he told him about the dam. there was little opportunity to examine the construction, because it was covered with snow and was in effect a long solid wall of glistening white. beyond stretched the smooth even surface of the big pond, with nothing to break the dead level of it but three white mounds over toward the north shore. these he knew must be the houses of which upton had told him, and he at once decided to go over and investigate them.
as he approached them he discovered several small mounds around two of the houses, but thought nothing of this until he noticed that the snow around them had been recently disturbed, and that the mounds themselves were not crusted. instantly every sense which his scout training had developed was aroused. here was something peculiar, and to be investigated. could this be the work of the beavers? he would find out. rapidly he dug into one of the mounds and presently disclosed evergreen boughs over which the snow had been heaped. could this be some work of the strange little animals of which he had never heard? he lifted one of the boughs and looked at the butt. it had been broken off and not cut by teeth. moreover, it was freshly broken. he examined another with the same result. underneath was a larger one, and this had been cut with an axe.
sparrer straightened and looked keenly in all directions. a sudden suspicion was rapidly crystallizing into conviction in his mind. this was the work of man. what did it mean? so far as he could see there was not another living thing in all that great white waste. the vast silence was oppressive. involuntarily he shivered. for the first time the loneliness of complete solitude gripped him, the more so that hitherto in all his life he had never known what it was to be absolutely alone. from babyhood he had been surrounded night and day by human beings, many of them evil, but human nevertheless. even since he had entered the woods he had not been out of speaking distance of one or more of his companions until now. an overwhelming sense of littleness and insignificance swept over him. there was something sinister and threatening in the towering hills. he had the feeling that unseen eyes were watching him and it made his flesh creep. he knew it was, must be, only a feeling, yet he could not rid himself of it. it is a feeling which every one who is alone for the first time in the wilderness experiences.
then he shook himself. "youse is sure losing yer goat, sparrer," he muttered. "buck up!"
with this he resumed his investigations. when the last of the boughs had been removed he found a hole in the ice about a foot and a half wide and a trifle longer. along one end and both sides small dead sticks had been driven into the mud and close to the edges of the hole. these were about four inches apart and formed a little pen with one end open. close to one side and projecting beyond the pen through the open end was a long freshly cut green poplar stick fastened about two inches above the bottom. the water was shallow and presently he made out a steel trap dimly outlined well inside the pen quite close to the poplar stick, the chain fastened to one of the pen stakes.
it was all perfectly clear now to even such a novice as sparrer. it was a set for beaver. he knew enough about the animals to know that their favorite food is poplar bark. the green poplar stick was bait. it seemed queer to think of a stick of wood as bait, but this is what it was, and nothing else. he saw that it was securely fastened at the butt end in a corner of the pen and was staked down near the opening so that there could be no cross movement. it could not be pulled out. the only way for a hungry beaver to get it would be to enter the pen and cut it off and in doing this he could hardly fail of stepping in the trap. then he would drown miserably under the ice. the part left sticking out beyond the pen was by way of a teaser. it would be the first part touched by the animal and would undoubtedly be cut off close to the pen. having had a taste of the fresh green bark and no harm having come from it the animal would unsuspectingly enter the pen to secure the remainder, whereas with the bait wholly within the pen in the first place the animal would be suspicious and wary of entering. it was all very simple, clever and diabolical.
sparrer's first impulse was to spring the trap, but on second thought he decided to leave it alone. it might well be that his discovery were better unknown. his life in new york streets had taught him that it is possible to know too much; that some things are better forgotten as soon as learned. he recalled what had been said about the illegality of trapping beaver. if pat and alec were doing a little quiet poaching it was none of his business. they would not thank him for interfering. of course the trap must be theirs. there was no one else trapping in the hollow. the poachers there had been so much talk about were working miles beyond the hollow, on the long line. he remembered now that neither pat nor alec had once suggested a trip up this way. good reason. they wanted to avoid any embarrassing questions about those queer little mounds, for he knew now that each one covered a trap-pan. the boughs and the snow were to keep the holes from freezing over. he counted the mounds. there were three at one house and four at the other.
"youse better cover this up and make yer get-away while the going's good," he muttered as he replaced the boughs and packed the snow over them until the mound was as nearly as he had found it as it was possible to make it. then he made a hasty examination of the houses. the snow was melted on the tops of the two around which the traps were set, sure sign that they were inhabited. this was caused by the warm air from the interior escaping through the air holes which are always left in the top of a beaver house. the third was solidly crusted over, a reasonably sure indication that it was abandoned.
having satisfied his curiosity sparrer started back to the dam and followed it to the woods on the farther shore. he had intended to go straight across the pond to the second dam, but his discovery of the traps had aroused his sense of caution and he decided that it would be better to keep to the woods. on the broad white expanse of the pond he would be altogether too conspicuous should it happen that curious eyes were watching. as he skirted the shore of the pond through the brush his thoughts were so busy with his discovery that for the time being he quite forgot to keep an eye out for rabbit signs. the illegality of this attempt to catch beaver in a closed season did not impress him at first. he had had nothing to do with game and game laws. they were entirely outside his range of experience. in fact, he failed utterly to grasp the purpose back of the laws and like a great many others he regarded them as a restriction of individual liberty, and a violation as of no very great moment. they were to him very much as the "keep off the grass" signs in the city park.
so it was no shock to the boy to think that his new idol, pat, should be breaking a law for which he could see no reason. but what did give him a shock was the method employed. this outraged his strong sense of fair play. "it's hitting 'em below de belt. dey ain't got a chance in de world," he kept saying over and over to himself. "dey finds de food right by dere houses under de ice where dey ain't looking for no foul blow, and dey helps demselves and gits a knockout widout a show." he could overlook the breaking of the law because it held no meaning for him, but it was hard to reconcile this flagrant outrage on fairness with what he knew of pat.
"maybe alec's doing it on de side and pat don't know nothin' about it," he thought, and with this comforting reflection he felt better. as he tramped on his thoughts grew clearer. he recalled alec's strong assertion that he was for protecting beaver. if alec had been sincere this eliminated him, and pat had not been away from the cabin unattended since they arrived. moreover the traps had been set since the last snow, and that fact effectually disposed of both pat and alec. as he realized this sparrer gave vent to a low whistle. "it's some other mugs, as sure as shootin'!" he exclaimed. "bet it's de same guys dat killed de deer, and pat an' alec don't know nothin' about it." he paused, undecided whether to go back or keep on, but a moment's reflection decided him. pat and alec were out on the trap lines, and would not be back until dark. he would keep on and have his hunt. the news would keep until he got back.
but this new-born certainty that there were others in the hollow gave him an uncomfortable feeling and he decided that he would keep as much away from the open as possible. for this reason as he approached the second dam he was content to look at it from the screen of brush. it was similar to the first, but smaller, and there were no houses in the pond above. the third dam was but a short distance above and this was the smallest of the three. beyond this lay the swamp where he hoped to find the rabbits. that his nerves were jumpy he realized by the way he started at every unexpected sound. the grinding of one tree against another, even an unusually loud clack of his own snow-shoes, made his heart jump. once he could have sworn that he heard a stick snap behind him, and for a full two minutes he stood listening. but he heard nothing further and nothing moved within his range of vision. charging it up to an overwrought imagination and chiding himself for a silly chump he moved on.
presently he discovered fresh rabbit sign, and this drove everything else out of his head. slowly he moved forward, his rifle cocked and ready. profiting by his experience with pat the day before he scanned every little irregularity in the surface of the snow with suspicious eyes. presently he discovered a little mound ahead of him and a bit to one side of the path he was following. it seemed to sparrer that it was if anything a trifle whiter than the surrounding snow. study it as he would, to his untrained eyes it bore no resemblance to an animal. but presently he noticed two dark spots, and it flashed over him that they were eyes, intently watching him. slowly he started to raise his rifle, but at the first movement the white mound dissolved into a long legged animal which bounded behind a stump and was gone before he could get his gun to his shoulder.
disappointed, but resolved that the next one should not get the jump on him sparrer kept on. sign was plentiful everywhere, and his hopes ran high. so fearful was he of another rabbit's repeating the surprise of the first one that as he stole forward he kept his gun at his shoulder, until at last he was forced to lower it from sheer weariness. but in spite of his care and watchfulness he saw no more game and at last sat down on an old log to rest. he was tired and if the truth be known somewhat discouraged. he was too new at the hunting game to realize that his was no more than the usual experience of the hunter and that his chances of success, if no better, were no worse than in the beginning.
