240 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
clean, and when he bounded over the snow about 
all you could see of him was his black tail tip, so 
white he was. A wood-chopper was going up 
through the pasture, and chanced to spy him, but 
evidently not until after Red Slayer had scented 
the man and seen him, too; for he was standing 
with all four feet on the snow, his neck upraised, 
his bead-like eyes fixed with suspicion yet alert 
curiosity upon the big creature with the ax. The 
man made a step toward him, and Red Slayer dis- 
appeared. The man was perplexed. It seemed 
utterly incredible that anything sixteen inches 
long could disappear from sight on a field of bare, 
clean snow. He peered about, and suddenly saw 
the black tip of Red Slayer’s tail behind a tuft of 
dried grass which stuck up above the snow ten 
feet from the spot where he had first seen him. 
The man took another step. By keeping his eyes 
fixed on that black tail tip, he saw the weasel 
make two springs of ten feet each, his hind feet 
coming down almost in the tracks of his front 
feet, and vanish into the wall. The man let his 
eyes rove along the wall. In no more time than 
it took him to move them, Red Slayer’s head, up- 
