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 "You mean that the detectives can get after the guilty person while his trail is fresh?"

"Yes, but in the woods it is far otherwise. There Nature is the criminal's best ally. She seems to league herself with him in many ways. Often she delays the discovery of his ill-doing; she covers his deeds with her leaves and her snow; his track she washes away with her rain, and more than all she provides him with a vast area of refuge, over which she sends the appointed hours of darkness, during which he can travel fast and far. Life in the wilderness is beautiful and sweet, if you will, but it has its sombre places, and they are often difficult indeed to unveil."

"All things considered, it is surprising that so many woods crimes are brought home to their perpetrators."

"There you are forgetting one very important point. As you know, my profession, that of medicine, touches, at one point, very closely upon the boundaries of criminal law, and this subject of woods crimes has always possessed a singular fascination for me. I have been present at many trials and the most dangerous wit-