force. He had been watching Bud Holcome who was walking along the banks of a small stream and stopping every now and then to examine something in the stream. At one point he pulled out one of those very strange instruments which Redcoat's sire had told him was so dangerous. After examining it for a few seconds Bud had replaced it in the water. A little further on to Redcoat's great surprise Bud hawled out another of the dread instruments and in it was a muskrat. The rat was dead. He had been in the trap for some time and being exhausted had drowned. Bud opened the mouth of the strange steel device and took out the muskrat which was held by the forefoot and then threw the rat down on the bank, and put the steel trap back in the river. Redcoat waited to see no more, but fled in great fear lest the strange device might catch him by the foot and hold him until Bud Holcome should come for him. This conclusion did not come to Redcoat all at once, but after several days' pondering on what he had seen he got the idea rather vaguely in his mind.
