Raymond S. Spears

“ CHAPTER XII CLOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN A FORTUITOUS incident had given Delos Conklin a curious opportunity. Wild creatures are always sneaking around the isolated cabins and camps of men. Coyotes come to their camp-fires, cougars even walk with humans in the dark, and many a bear has gone into a shack in the search of adventure, information or something to eat. Conklin could have shouted aloud for joy when he heard the uproar when the foolish young but full-grown cougar took a chance at attacking the penned-in horses. ”

“ By daylight Conklin found three traps set at the pass fence gate, including the one which had tripped him. He brought them down to the cabin and hung them up. He didn’t know what to do. He had committed no crime, yet he was involved in a pretty bad business. A killing is never pleasant to acknowledge, even if justified. Surely, the account was fully settled with the fur thief. That was really the only concern Conklin had in the matter. ”

“ Had the jaws struck unevenly, or a right-and-left blow, instead of exactly opposite his leg bone would surely have been broken—and here he was sixty or seventy miles back in the wilderness at the least, a country more than a hundred miles from any settlement, in all probability. ”