"I have cotched the old thief at last, in spite of her cunning! With a warning to boot. Here is a mark I sot upon her last winter," he added, as he raised her fore leg, which was deprived of the foot; "but she would be prowling, the superfluous devil! It is in the nature of these here blood-suckers, to keep a going at their trade, no matter how much they are watched. But I knowed I'd have her one of these days. These varmints have always got to pay, one day or another, for their villanies. Wa'n't she an old fool, Horse Shoe, to walk into this here gum for a piece of dead mutton? Ha, ha, ha! if she had had only the sense to rear up, she might have had the laugh on us! But she hadn't; ha, ha, ha!" "Well, Wat Adair," said Robinson, "you had a mischievous head when you contrived that trap." "Feel her ribs, Mr. Butler," cried Wat, not heeding the sergeant; "I know who packed that flesh on her. There isn't a lamb in my flock to-day that wouldn't grin if he was to hear the news." "Well, what are you going to do with her, Adair?" inquired Butler; "remember you are losing time here." "Do with her!" ejaculated the woodman; "that's soon told: I will skin the devil alive." "I hope not," exclaimed Butler. "It would be an unnecessary cruelty. Despatch her on the spot with your rifle." "I wouldn't waste powder and ball on the varmint," replied Adair. "No, no, the knife, the knife!" "Then cut her throat and be done with it." "You are not used to these hellish thieves, sir," said the woodman. "There is nothing that isn't too good for them. By the old sinner, I'll skin her alive! That's the sentence!" "Once more, I pray not," said Butler imploringly. "It is past praying for," returned Adair, as he drew forth his knife and began to whet it on a stone. "She shall die by inches, and be damned to her!" he added, as his eye sparkled with savage delight. "Now look and see a wolf punished according to her evil doings." The woodman stood over his captive and laughed heartily, as he pointed out to his companions the quailing and subdued gestures of his victim, indulging in coarse and vulgar jests whilst he described minutely the plan of torture he was about to execute. When he had done with his ribaldry, he slowly drew the point of his knife down the back-bone of the animal, from the neck to the tail, sundering the skin along the whole length. "That's the way to unbutton her jacket," he said, laughing louder than ever. "For God's sake, desist!" ejaculated Butler. "For my sake, save the poor animal from this pain! I will pay you thrice the value of the skin." "Money will not buy her," said Wat, looking up for an instant. "Besides, the skin is spoiled by that gash." "Here is a guinea, if you will cut her throat," said Butler, "and destroy her at once."