toes in
the trap.

"Pegged him," he said. "Pegged old Breed. He'll be minus two hind toes
from now on out--but he could lose two toes off each foot and still beat
the game. The whole coyote tribe must have been up here to look him over
from the number of tracks."

When Collins returned to his shack he found six stockmen awaiting him.
The stampede of the sheep and the big kill made by Breed's pack up in
the hills had enraged the sheepmen. They had confidently expected that
some man would collect Breed's scalp on a fresh tracking snow, but while
every rider had scoured the foothills for Breed's tracks after every
storm, no man had cut his trail. After gorging on warm meat at night a
wolf runs sluggishly the following day; his muscles lack snap and his
wind is leaky, and a good horse can wear him down. Twice in his first
year Breed had been harried far across the foothills by hard-running
horses, and now the first spitting flakes of a coming storm brought
recollections of those desperate races and roused his uneasiness to such
a pitch that he set off for the hills and remained there till the wind
had piled the snow and cleared long stretches which made tracking from a
running horse impossible.

The sheepmen at the cabin informed Collins of the big killing and their
tale was punctuated by every possible epithet applicable to the coyote
tribe. Collins, owning no sheep, was in a position to view the killing
in a more philosophical light than they.

"You can't rightly blame 'em," he said. "Men raise up sheep to kill 'em
in cold blood; coyotes kill 'em when they're hungry. Two sides to it,
'cording to whether you're a coyote or a man."

The stockmen stated the purpose of their visit. Their association had
raised the bounties, making it profitable for wolfers to hunt even in
the summer months when pelts were unprime and valueless; the price for
spring pups had been raised to equal the reward posted for adults; and
now the association would furnish free poison for all wolfers and
advocated its use all through the year. They stated their belief that
this system, if followed ruthlessly, would result in the practical
extermination of prairie wolves. They rested their case and anxiously
awaited the Coyote Prophet's verdict on their plan. Collins shook his
head.

"Part of it's good," he told them, "and part of it's dead wrong. Anyhow
you can't kill 'em all. I've told you so for twenty year and I stand on
what I've said. There