the whole a clover-leaf
effect with his cabin as the base. He had used no bait until his scent
should have been blotted out round his traps, not from fear that coyotes
would not approach the bait while his scent was fresh but from certain
knowledge that they would approach too soon, locate his traps and
uncover them. When the third trap circle was complete he started back
over the first and baited the sets, then commenced the steady routine of
riding one string each day and thus covering his entire line in three
days.

Shady frequently accompanied Collins on these trips and when he made a
trap set she sat down some distance away and watched him with full
understanding of what he was about; for Shady's past experience with
traps had been large. She had seen Collins take many a coyote from his
traps. Twice she had slipped away to steal the bait from some set near
the cabin and both times had felt the sudden deadly clutch of steel jaws
on her foot, remaining in their grip till Collins had released her. She
had seen coyotes dead and bloated from eating poison baits,--and meat
was now a danger signal to Shady, not a lure. She would touch no food
except that which she obtained at the cabin.

The trap line had yielded many coyote pelts while Breed was still in the
hills and he knew nothing of the widespread mortality among the coyotes
in his absence or the dangers which lurked in wait for him on his
return.

There were two hundred sheep scattered for miles through the hills and
Breed and the coyote pack found easy killing. Winter had claimed the
lofty peaks, while but little snow had fallen below timber line.

Breed sensed the coming storm. The movements of the elk herds told him
it would be a heavy one. It was nearing the end of the elk rutting moon
but the bulls were still bugling. Breed heard the clear bugle note of an
old herd bull, the piercing sound reaching him from many miles back
among the snowy peaks. It was closely followed by others. The elk
migration had begun; the herds were evacuating the lofty basins of their
summer range and boiling out through the high passes of the peaks before
the snowfall of the coming storm should block them in,--coming down to
winter in the lower valleys of the hills.

[Illustration: The elk migration had begun. _Page 63._]

The certainty with which animals gauge a coming storm is cited as proof
of that mysterious instinct with which men credit them; yet this
information may reach