one side, took off his coat, tucked up his
sleeves, grasped his axe, and attacked a mighty tree. Like Ulysses of
old, he swung the axe with trenchant power and skill. Huge chips flew
circling round. Ere long a goodly tree creaked, groaned, and finally
fell with a crash upon the ground. It was tough work. Ian heaved a
sigh of satisfaction and wiped his streaming brow as he surveyed the
fallen monarch. There was another king of the same size near to the
opposite precipice, which he felled in the same way. Both monarchs
mingled and severely injured their royal heads in the middle of the
pass, which thus became entirely blocked up, for our woodsman had so
managed that the trees fell right across it.

Next, Ian attacked the united heads, and with great labour hewed a
passage through them, near to a spot where a large boulder lay.
Selecting another forest king, Ian cut it so that one end of it fell on
the boulder. The result of all this hewing and guiding of the falling
monarchs was that the only available track through the pass was a hole
about four feet in diameter, with a tree of great weight suspended above
it by the boulder.

To chop off the branches and convert this latter tree into a log did not
take long. Neither did it take much time or exertion to fashion a sort
of support, or trigger, in the shape of a figure 4, immediately under
the log, so as to obstruct the hole before mentioned. But to lower the
log gently from the boulder on to this trigger without setting it off
was a matter of extreme difficulty, requiring great care and much time,
for the weight of the log was great, and if it should once slip to the
ground, ten Ian Macdonalds could not have raised it up again. It was
accomplished at last, however, and several additional heavy logs were
leaned upon the main one to increase its weight.

"If he returns this way at all, he will come in the evening," muttered
Ian to himself, as he sat down on a stump and surveyed his handiwork
with a smile of satisfaction. "But perhaps he may not come back till
morning, in which case I shall have to watch here all night, and those
impatient geese in the camp will be sure to disturb us on the plea that
they feared I had been killed--bah! and perhaps he won't come at all!"

This last idea was not muttered; it was only thought, but the thought
banished the smile of satisfaction from Ian's face. In a meditative
mood he took up his gun, refreshed the priming and slig