ed 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.
Or