for a glimpse of the
man-beast. But he did not hurry. A third, a fourth, and a fifth trap he
robbed of their meat.

Then, as the day ended, he swung westward and covered quickly the five
miles between the swamp and his windfall.

Half an hour later Le Beau came back over the line. He saw the first
empty KEKEK, and the tracks in the snow.

"TONNERRE!--a wolf!" he exclaimed. "And in broad day!"

Then a slow look of amazement crept into his face, and he fell upon his
knees in the snow and examined the tracks.

"NON!" he gasped. "It is a dog! A devil of a wild dog--robbing my
traps!"

He rose to his feet, cursing. From the pocket of his coat he drew a
small tin box, and from this box he took a round ball of fat. In the
heart of the fat was a strychnine capsule. It was a poison-bait, to be
set for wolves and foxes.

Le Beau chuckled exultantly as he stuck the deadly lure on the end of
the bait-peg.

"OW, a wild dog," he growled. "I will teach him. To-morrow he will be
dead."

On each of the five ravished bait-pegs he placed a strychnine capsule
rolled in its inviting little ball of fat.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The next morning Miki set out again for the trapline of Jacques Le
Beau. It was not the thought of food easily secured that tempted him.
There would have been a greater thrill in killing for himself. It was
the trail, with its smell of the man-beast, that drew him like a
magnet. Where that smell was very strong he wanted to lie down, and
wait. Yet with his desire there was also fear, and a steadily growing
caution. He did not tamper with the first KEKEK, nor with the second.
At the third Le Beau had fumbled in the placing of his bait, and for
that reason the little ball of fat was strong with the scent of his
hands. A fox would have turned away from it quickly. Miki, however,
drew it from the peg and dropped it in the snow between his forefeet.
Then he looked about him, and listened for a full minute. After that he
licked the ball of fat with his tongue. The scent of Le Beau's hands
kept him from swallowing it as he had swallowed the caribou meat. A
little suspiciously he crushed it slowly between his jaws. The fat was
sweet. He was about to gulp it down when he detected another and less
pleasant taste, and what remained in his mouth he spat out upon the
snow. But the acrid bite of the poison remained upon his tongue and in
his throat. It crept deeper--and he caught up a mouthful of snow and
swallow