XVIII. 

 TRIPLEFOOT 



I OPENED up my cabin one winter morning, 

 at daylight, to find the dooryard covered with 

 two inches of light snow. A mass of fox 

 tracks centred about a piece of meat, which 

 was nailed to the trunk of a pine-tree. When 

 the fox left, about daylight, it went down 

 the old highway, and this is the trail it made : 



Two tracks started from a cluster near 

 the meat, followed by a space, then three 

 tracks followed by another space, and so on, 

 in regular order, three tracks and a space. 

 I had no difficulty in solving the mystery. 



