HANK HOTCHKISS 187 



standpoint were it not for the bounty which cattle- 

 men offered, usually from ten to twenty dollars for 

 an adult lion, wolf or bear, which are all great cattle 

 destroyers. 



"I've shore had hard luck," he complained, "I'd 

 orter had oodles of skunks, foxes an' bob cats in my 

 little traps, but by gum, I been a catchin' my dawgs 

 in 'em more'n anathin' else. That there ornery 

 Spot would travel twenty miles to git into a trap. 

 Every time I go out I find him a howlin' in one of 

 'em sum'mers! 



"The other night he went out huntin' an' never 

 showed up in the mornin'. I knowed right away 

 what had happened. Soon's I got to my first traps, 

 down on Squaw Canyon, thar was Spot, caught by 

 the foot and howlin' reel mournful. I took him out 

 an' beat him t'well I was plumb wore out, an' he 

 went off toward th' house lickity split. An' by gum, 

 afore I made the round of my traps I found the pore 

 fool caught in another trap. I give it up after that. 

 If that there's his idee of pleasure I figger tain't 

 goin' to do no good to try an' break him of it. Hit 

 remines me of th' time I caught an Injun. D'ye 

 ever hear tell o' that? No ! Well, I never seen him 

 myself, but I hearn tell of it afterwards. He shore 

 got in th' trap an' I was plumb pleased he got away 

 'fore I found him, becuz I could tell by th' way he'd 

 tore things aroun' there he'd a-been mighty hard t' 

 turn loose." 



Continuing the score of his misfortunes, Hotch- 



