there I discovered two men robbing one of my otter traps. One man was
holding up the otter by the tail and laughingly commenting on his gain,
while the other was resetting the trap beneath the ice. I raised my
gun and was about to fire, when it occurred to me that, after all, a
man's life was worth more than an otter's skin; so I let them go, and
left it to the Redcoats (Mounted Police) to settle with them. I knew
them both. They were half-breeds from near Montreal, and were well
learned in the ways of the whites."

[Illustration: It was on my father's hunting grounds, and late one
afternoon, after passing through heavy timber, I came out upon its
shore, and there I discovered two men robbing one of my traps. One man
was holding up the otter by the tail and laughingly commenting on his
gain, while the other was resetting the trap beneath the ice. I raised
my gun and was about to fire, when . . . See Chapter VI.]

But before setting out on our way--I forgot to tell you--we cached our
moose meat in a tree as was previously agreed upon with old Granny,
who, with the boys, was to come and take it home; and in order to
prevent wolverines from stealing or spoiling the meat, the hunter
wrapped round the trunk of the tree an old bag to which were fastened
many fish hooks, all with their barbs pointing downward and ready to
impale any creature that tried to climb the tree. Needless to say, as
that tree stood alone, no wolverine touched that meat.

That day we covered about twenty miles, and by the afternoon of the
second day we had arrived at the lake on the far shore of which lived
Oo-koo-hoo's sister, Ko-ko-hay--The Perfect Woman--with her daughter
and her son-in-law and four granddaughters. As we drew near the camp
we found the women about a mile from shore fishing through the ice for