Once they had run the trap lines, and their store of furs was increasing
finely. They had taken twenty-five beavers and counted on getting two
or three each time they went to the ponds. But they got an unpleasant
surprise in December, on going to the beaver grounds, to find all the
traps empty and unmistakable signs that some man had been there and had
gone off with the catch. They followed the dim trail of his snowshoes,
half hidden by a recent wind, but night came on with more snow, and all
signs were lost.
The thief had not found the line yet, for the haul of marten and mink
was good. But this was merely the beginning.
The trapper law of the wilderness is much like all primitive laws; first
come has first right, provided he is able to hold it. If a strong rival
comes in, the first must fight as best he can. The law justifies him
in anything he may do, if he succeeds. The law justifies the second in
anything he may do, except murder. That is, the defender may shoot to
kill; the offender may not.
But the fact of Quonab's being an Indian and Rolf supposedly one, would
turn opinion against them in the Adirondacks, and it was quite likely
that the rival considered them trespassers on his grounds, although the
fact that he robbed their traps without removing them, and kept out of
sight, rather showed the guilty conscience of a self-accused poacher.
He came in from the west, obviously; probably the Racquet River
country; was a large man, judging by his foot and stride, and understood
trapping; but lazy, for he set no traps. His principal object seemed to
be to steal.
And it was not long before he found their line of marten traps, so his
depredations increased. Primitive emotions are near the surface at all
times, and under primitive conditions are very ready to appear. Rolf and
Quonab felt that now it was war.