Part 21 (2/2)

It was not over an hour when he once more made his appearance, with the excited Ajax towing him. And evidently Max had had no easy job of it, trying to hold the eager hound in, for he looked relieved and rubbed his muscles after Trapper Jim took the leash.

The boys were deeply interested in all that followed. They saw the trapper hold the soiled rag upon which the thief had perhaps wiped his hands for the hound to sniff at for a minute or two.

Then Trapper Jim led Ajax to the footprints and made him catch the same particular odor,

When the intelligent hound gave a bay and led the way along the trail of the thief, his nose close to the ground and his tail in perpetual motion, Trapper Jim looked pleased.

”He's got the scent, all right, lads,” he observed, ”and after this he'll never forget it. There are few hunting dogs that can be taught to follow a human being as well as they do animals; but Ajax is an exception.”

”Now we're off!” exclaimed the restless Steve, exultantly.

”Yes, and the rascal will have to hump himself if he hopes to escape us.

I haven't given up all hopes of reclaiming that silver fox pelt yet,” and the trapper really seemed in a better humor than he had enjoyed since the first discovery of his great loss.

For quite some time they hurried on. Ajax was straining at his leash most of the while, and seemed capable of picking up the scent even when there was not the faintest trace of marks that Max could discover.

”It was a mighty good thing we thought of the dog,” Steve admitted, and then, seeing the trapper looking humorously at him, he gave a short laugh, as lie hastily added: ”I mean it was a wise head that concluded to send for Ajax, and not start off half-shot, like some foolish fellows would have done.”

”Yes,” added Max, ”in several places I've lost the trail. And three times now the fellow's run along a fallen tree, jumping off where he saw hard ground or stones. That would have given us trouble and delayed us, but Ajax followed the scent without looking for a trail.

”Here's a creek,” interrupted the trapper, ”and chances are the thief will use it to try and hoodwink us.”

They waded through, regardless of the icy cold, for the water was not up to their knees.

”Don't see any tracks on this side, Uncle Jim,” sang out Steve.

”No, and I guessed we wouldn't,” replied the other.

”But he crossed over, didn't he!” demanded the boy.

”Chances are he did,” answered Trapper Jim, ”but before stepping out he went either up or down the creek a ways. First of all we'll try up. If that fails us after we've gone some distance, we'll come back here and try the other way.”

But it chanced that his first guess was the right one. They had gone along the bank of the creek less than eighty feet when Ajax uttered a sound and gave evidence of renewed excitement.

”The rascal found the water too cold and came out at the first chance,”

remarked Trapper Jim. ”You see, there's a shelf of rock here. No sign left for our eyes, because the warm sun has dried up any wet marks he made. But Ajax has caught the same scent as there was on that rag.”

”And we're off again. Hurrah!” cried Steve, delighted to know that the clever tactics of the pelt thief could not prevail against that keen sense of smell possessed by the hound.

After that the fugitive did not seem to think it worth while to make any more efforts to conceal his trail.

”That cold water was too much for him,” suggested Steve.

”Or else he expects he's done enough, and that no one, not even Trapper Jim, could follow him,” Max had said; ”but I rather think he knew a dog would be put on his track. That water business is always the trick used to throw a hound off the scent.”

”Quite right, son,” remarked the trapper; ”but I allow this fellow has got me guessing good and hard, and that's a fact.”

<script>