"We don't know," was the answer, "but we saw her tracks down there by the brook. It's the same old wolf that has been skulking around here all winter."
"She killed three of my lambs last night," said the one whose name was
David Brown.
"She's killed as many as twenty since the winter began," said Thomas
Tanner.
"How do you know that it is only one beast that does all this mischief?" asked the fourth farmer, whose name was Israel Putnam.
"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."