Part 20 (2/2)

”Sure, two or three times, and pretty good ones at that,” replied the trapper, with a chuckle. ”But you know, it's always the same old story in this business.”

”What's that?” asked Max.

”The skins you've captured in the past never compare with those you see on the backs of live animals. The best is always to come, eh, Max?”

”J-j-just like it is in f-f-fis.h.i.+ng,” declared Toby. ”The big one in the w-w-water b-b-beats the one you've l-l-landed. I used to think the w-w-water just m-m-magnified 'em.”

”No, it's the hope we have. Possession dulls the interest. You boys know that the apples next door always taste better than those you have in your own orchard.”

The three whom Trapper Jim addressed just looked at each other and laughed. n.o.body answered him. There was really no need of words. Jim knew boys from the ground up, and loved them, too. He had once been a boy himself.

On the way back home he told them many interesting things connected with the shrewdness of mink and otter, and how smart the trapper had to be to outwit them.

”That's one of the pleasures of the business,” he went on to say; ”this continual matching of a man's wits against the instinct and cunning of these same clever little varmints. Why, a single old mink has kept me guessing pretty much all winter and changing my methods a dozen times.”

”But I reckon you got him in the end, Uncle Jim,” said Max.

”What makes you believe that, son?”

”Oh, because you never give up once you've set your mind on a thing,”

replied the boy, admiringly.

”Well, I don't knuckle down _very_ often, that's a fact,” chuckled the trapper; ”though there have been occasions. That girl episode was one, you remember, Max.”

”But you got the sly old mink, didn't you?” persisted Owen.

”Yes, I got him when I had just about exhausted every scheme I could think up,” answered the trapper; ”and let me tell you, boys, that day when I carried him to the cabin I felt as big as the President of the United States.”

Another night of comfort followed. Trapper Jim said it began to feel real lonely, now that the bold bobcat no longer came prowling around trying to steal things.

But the boys enjoyed having a good rest undisturbed by any sudden clamor.

This time only Max and Steve accompanied the trapper. Owen found that he had wrenched his ankle, and had better take a day off, and Toby had arranged to try the pickerel with Bandy-legs, who had caught a few on the previous day.

Steve had heard about the traps set for the ”silver,” and he wanted to be along if there was anything doing.

When they arrived near the first trap it was untouched. But the second they found sprung and empty.

”Oh, he was caught and broke away. It's too bad!” cried Steve, pointing to traces of blood and some s.h.i.+ning black hairs on the jaws of the Victor trap.

But Trapper Jim was saying angry words to himself.

”Caught the finest silver I ever set eyes on only to have him s.n.a.t.c.hed by a sneak of a pelt thief!” and he pointed as he spoke to the imprint of a shoe in the soil.

CHAPTER XIV.

<script>