SECRET locks are more useful than strong ones for a country house which is
left alone during the winter months, for it is not so much cupidity which
causes such houses to be broken into as it is the curiosity of the native
boys. But while these lads often do not hesitate to force or pick a lock
they will seldom go as far as to smash a door to effect an entrance;
hence, if your lock is concealed your house is safe from all but
professional thieves, and such gentry seldom waste their time to break
open a shack which contains nothing of value to them. The latches shown by
Figs. 193, 200, and 201 may be made very heavy and strong, and if the
trigger in Fig. 200, the latch-string hole in Fig. 193, and the peg hole
in Fig. 201 are adroitly concealed they make the safest and most secure
locks for summer camps, shacks, and houses.
If a large bar (Fig. 201½ _B_) be made of one-by-four-inch plank, bolted
in the middle of the plank with an iron bolt through the centre of the
door and fastened on the inside by a nut screwed on to the bolt it will
allow the bar to revolve freely on the inside of the door and bar the door
when resting in the _A_ and _C_ catches. But if a string is attached to
one end it may be unfastened by pulling the string up through the gimlet
hole in the door.
To conceal this lock, draw the string through the gimlet hole and fasten a
nail on the string. When it is undrawn the door bar is horizontal and the
door consequently barred. Then push the nail in the gimlet hole so that
only the head appears on the outside and no one not in the secret will
ever suppose that the innocent-appearing nail is the key to unfasten the
door. When you wish to open the door from the outside, pluck out the nail,
pull the string, and walk in.
There are a thousand other simple contrivances which will suggest
themselves to the camper, and he can find entertainment for rainy days in
planning and enlarging on the ideas here given. In the real wilderness,
however, every camp is open to all comers--that is, the latch-string hangs
outside the door, but the real woodsmen respect the hospitality of the
absent owner and replace whatever food they may use with fresh material
from their own packs, wash all dishes they may use, and sweep up and leave
the shack in "apple-pie" order after their uninvited visit, for this is
the law of the wilderness which even horse thieves and bandits respect.