"Because the tracks are always the same," answered David Brown. "They
show that three toes have been lost from the left forefoot."

"She's been caught in a trap some time, I guess," said Putnam.

"Samuel Stark saw her the other morning," said Tanner. "He says she
was a monster; and she was running straight toward the hills with a
little lamb in her mouth. They say she has a family of young wolves
up there; and that is why she kills so many lambs."

"Here are the tracks again," said Putnam.

They could be seen very plainly, for here the ground was quite muddy.
The four men followed them for some distance, and then lost them on
the hillside.

"Let us call the neighbors together and have a grand wolf hunt to-
morrow," said Putnam. "We must put an end to this killing of lambs."

All the other men agreed to this, and they parted.



II


The next day twenty men and boys came together for the grand wolf hunt.
They tracked the beast to the mouth of a cave, far up on the hills.