THE OTTER SLIDE 



FOR the next few days Francois was busy 

 completing his Marten Road, quite un 

 conscious of the undoing that followed him. 

 Fifteen miles out he constructed a small rest- 

 house that would do for a night s camping ; thus 

 he could go the round of his Traps nicely in two 

 days. The People of the Boundaries watched 

 him, and where they found a Trap, sprang it and 

 stole the Bait. He fixed up the chimney that 

 had suffered from Carcajou s diabolical curiosity. 

 Winter had properly set in ; streams were frozen 

 up, the ground covered with snow, and the days 

 were of scarce more length than a long drawn out 

 forenoon. Affairs were in this state when one 

 morning the Red Widow heard Beaver s plain 

 tive whistle from the Cottonwood. 



&quot; Son,&quot; she cried to Black Fox, &quot; Umisk calls ; 

 something has gone wrong in the Forest.&quot; The 

 King turned over, stretched his sinewy legs, and 

 yawned ; the sharp-pointed, blood-red tongue 

 curled against the roof of his mouth, and the 



