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