Raymond S. Spears

“ Then as he realized the fact that death was in that anguish—that the mystery was menacing him—the wolf turned and dashed back through the sage brush and, going through another runway, ran his own head into another of the five-snare cluster in that acre and died as his deserted partner had done. ”

“ There remained a score more of snares to look at. He went on past these perfunctorily, inspecting them from a distance. A trapper keeps away from his engines as far as possible, so as not to arouse the suspicions of intended victims who would ponder on the meaning of the occasional or frequent passing of a human in particularly runway neighborhoods. Even deer and bear notice where hunters go by, and keep an eye on human trails. Far more a wolf pays attention to the questionable habits of his enemies of a thousand generations. ”

“ He was tired. He was quite sure none of them contained anything worth going to. Yet because he was a thorough worker, with some feeling of compassion for the poor brutes whose appetites made them essential victims of cattle grower and sheep raiser enemies, he went up the draws and valleys to where he had placed the engines of capture.
As he rode in the soft sand of the approach to the fine spring where he had camped the night he lost his horse to the attack of the lobos, three of whom were now dead, he heard the distant clink and the metallic rattle of a chain. ”