Lobo 19 



been pursuing his career of rapine to-day, but 

 for an unfortunate alliance that proved his 

 ruin and added his name to the long list of he- 

 roes who, unassailable when alone, have fallen 

 through the indiscretion of a trusted ally. 



Ill 



Once or twice, I had found indications that 

 everything was not quite right in the Currum- 

 paw pack. There were signs of irregularity, I 

 thought ; for instance there was clearly the trail 

 of a smaller wolf running ahead of the leader, 

 at times, and this I could not understand until 

 a cowboy made a remark which explained the 

 matter. 



" I saw them to-day," he said, "and the wild 

 one that breaks away is Blanca," Then the 

 truth dawned upon me, and I added, " Now, I 

 know that Blanca is a she-wolf, because were 

 a he-wolf to act thus, Lobo would kill him at 



once." 



This suggested a new plan. I killed a heifer, 

 and set one or two rather obvious traps about 

 the carcass. Then cutting off the head, which 

 is considered useless offal, and quite beneath 

 the notice of a wolf, I set it a little apart and 

 around it placed six powerful steel traps prop- 



