BIG REDDY, STRATEGIST 59 
Then, panting, he sat down and listened. 
There was no sound, even to his keen ears! The 
dogs had given up the chase. Reddy hunted out 
a warm hole in an old fallen log, and finished his 
nap. To tell the truth, he was rather pleased 
with himself. 
A few nights later, having found poor hunting 
elsewhere and being hungry, he was impelled to 
go back over the ridge and have another try at 
that same chicken yard, especially as he now felt 
confident of being able to outwit and outrun the 
dogs. Besides, those dogs didn’t live at that 
farm, he felt sure. They had been brought in by 
the farmer. Reddy may have seemed reckless, 
but he really never was. He was merely self-con- 
fident. He never relaxed his alertness for a 
second. 
Now, as he drew near the farm, from the rear, he 
was suddenly aware of man tracks, and the smell 
of meat. Investigating, he detected the presence 
of a bone, buried under the snow beside the path 
he had taken when he carried off the hen. Very 
carefully he walked all around the spot, and there 
was no smell at all there but meat. He thrust in 
