THE ENGLISH PILGRIMS
Jack felt a little reluctant to crawl out of his warm blankets next
morning when he heard the snapping and crackling of the fire, but habit
was too strong for sleepiness, and he got up and hurried into his shoes
and clothing as rapidly as he could, and then went out to the fire.
It was still dark, and even the first signs of dawn had not begun to
appear in the east.
"Now, son," said Hugh, "go out just as quick as you can, and get a
pack horse and bring him in and put the saddle on him. We may as well
walk this morning, but if we get a couple of beaver we ought to have
a horse. By the time you get a saddle on him, grub will be ready, and
mighty soon after that it will be light."
Hugh was quite right, and by the time they had finished eating it was
light enough to see, and a few moments later they were on their way
to visit the traps. The English party had camped quite close to where
the first trap was set, and it had not been disturbed. Hugh declared
that the white tent, set back on the bank not far from the stream,
had frightened the beaver away. The next trap, a little lower down,
contained a beaver, and so with the other two across the pond. The
beaver were loaded on the pack horse, and then a round was made of the
dead-falls, from which five mink were taken.
"Quite a bunch of fur for the traps we set," said Hugh, as they
returned to camp.
As they passed the camp of the Englishmen, the packer was seen building
a fire, having apparently just gotten up, but the Englishman and his
son had not yet arisen, and Jack called out to the packer, asking him
to tell Henry Clifford to come over to their camp after he had finished
breakfast, and a muffled call from the inside of the tent showed that
the boy had heard the message.
A moment later he was seen peering out of the tent door, and staring
with greatest intentness at the pack horse and its load of fur-bearing
animals.
Hugh and Jack returned to their camp, but when they reached it, Hugh
said to Jack, "Now, son, if we're going to stay here three or four
days, we don't want to litter up this camp with a lot of carcasses.
Let's go off back into the timber a little way, and do our skinning
there instead of doing it in the camp."
"I think so, too, Hugh," answered Jack. "It'll be a great deal more
comfortable for us, and it's really no more trouble to go up there a
short distance than to dump the load out here."
"All right," said Hugh, "we'll go up there, and we can choose a place
from which we can see camp, and then if that young Englishman comes
over, you can call him up to where we are, if he wants to see what
we're doing."
Accordingly, they got their skinning knives and whetstones, and, going
up the side of the valley, sat down on the hillside just within the
pine timber. Both the camps were in sight from there.
They were both hard at work, each one on his first beaver, when Jack
happened to look down toward the camp and saw the English boy and his
father standing in front of the tent and gazing around as if looking
for the owners of the camp.
"There are our friends down in camp, Hugh," said Jack.
"Well," said Hugh, "call them up here if you want to, or, at all
events, let them see where we are, and then they can come if they feel
like it."
Jack stepped out on the open hillside and whooped, and, when the
strangers looked at him, waved his hat, and father and son started
towards them, while Jack went back to resume his work.
Presently the two Englishmen came up to where they were, panting a
little from the exertion of the climb. The son had his eyes fast on
the beaver and the skinning, but his father, as soon as he reached the
place, turned about and looked up and down the valley and across at the
opposite mountains.
"An extraordinarily beautiful spot you've chosen for your work," he
said to Hugh, and Hugh nodded without speaking. And, indeed, it was a
lovely place. Opposite, the mountainside rose steeply, clothed with
dark green timber to its crest. Away to the northeast lay the valley
of the stream, with little parks and openings through which flowed the
shining waters, amid groves of pale aspens, which, as the valley met
the hillside, changed to dark pines. Up the valley the view was cut
off by the hills, but where the company was gathered there was bright
sunshine, and a lovely view.
"Are those beavers?" said Mr. Clifford, pointing to the animals that
lay on the ground. "My son told me that you were trapping, and we came
over to see what your success had been."
"Yes," said Hugh, "those are beaver, and this is a part of the work of
getting them."
"How very interesting," said Mr. Clifford. "But, is not the work very
hard?"
"Well," said Hugh, "that depends a little on how you look at it. Work
that a man is used to does not seem hard to him, while a new job may
seem very hard."
"True, true," said Mr. Clifford. "But I think the work of skinning
these animals, to say nothing of trapping them and bringing them to
this place, would seem to me very difficult."
"That is what Jack thought for the first two or three days that we
were at work, but he's got so used to it now that he can skin a beaver
pretty nearly as fast as I, and I don't think he minds the work nearly
as much as he did."
Henry Clifford had seated himself on the ground close to Jack, and was
watching the operation of skinning with the utmost interest.
"You seem to do that wonderfully well," he said, "and very fast. I
wonder if I could learn how to do it?"
"Of course you could," said Jack, "if you feel like it; but it's greasy
work, as you can see for yourself."
"Oh, I shouldn't mind that," said Henry. "I should like to try and see
if I could do it."
"Well," said Jack, "you have to be pretty careful not to cut the skin.
If you make a hole in it, that takes away from its value, and every
particle of the skin has got to be cut loose from the fat. You can not
strip it off, as you can the hide of a deer."
"Would you mind if I tried to help you?" said Henry.
"Not a bit," said Jack, "I'd rather like to have you. If you like, I'll
give you this knife that I'm using, and I'll take my jack-knife, and we
can work together on this beaver. Perhaps if we do that we'll be able
to beat Hugh, and get the hide off before he finishes his."
Jack whetted his knife on the whetstone and gave it to Henry, showing
him how to take hold of the knife, and how to cut through the fat. "You
had better roll up your sleeves," he said, "before you begin, for this
grease gets all over everything."
Henry did so, and Jack took his jack-knife out of his pocket, and they
both set to work.
Of course Jack had to watch Henry, to see that he did not cut the hide
and that he did not leave too much fat on it, and that made him work
more slowly than he otherwise would have done, but Henry took hold
very well, and seemed to remember everything that Jack told him, and
before long it was only necessary for Jack to give an occasional glance
at the other's work.
Hugh had only just pulled the hide free from his beaver when the two
boys threw aside the carcass at which they had been working.
"Ah, Hugh," said Jack, "since I've got an assistant here I can work
nearly as fast as you."
Hugh looked around and saw that both boys had been skinning, and seemed
surprised and pleased, as did also Mr. Clifford, who said, "Why, Henry,
I had no idea you knew anything about skinning an animal. Where did you
learn?"
"I've learned all I know since we've been sitting here, father. Jack
explained to me how it was done, and he and I have been working
together ever since we got here."
Mr. Clifford, who had been talking continuously with Hugh in a low tone
of voice, seemed greatly interested in him, and finally asked him if he
was willing that he and his party should stay with him and Jack so long
as they were here in the valley.
Hugh had replied that they would be glad to have them do so, but had
said also that it was uncertain how long they would be here. They had
proposed to go only up as far as the pass at the head of the stream,
and then to return and to go south, into Middle Park, by way of Arapaho
Pass.
The English people seemed very pleasant, and very much interested in
all that they saw, and were evidently anxious to learn from Hugh and
Jack all that they could about the country and the ways of life in it.
It was not yet the middle of the day when they had finished their
skinning, and dragging the beaver carcasses off to one side, left them
on a little bench of flat meadow, above which a spring trickled out
of the hillside. Good-sized pine trees grew on the knolls on either
side of this little meadow. As all hands started down for Hugh's camp,
Hugh said to Jack, "We'll keep a lookout on those carcasses, and maybe
before we go back we'll get a bear there."
"Why, Hugh," said Jack, "have you seen any sign?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "the day we got here I saw a little sign up the
creek, and you know you started a bear yourself that same day."
"That's so," said Jack. "I don't expect, though, that bears will come
down in the daytime to feed right in sight of the tents."
"No," said Hugh, "they won't. We've got to build a dead-fall here, and
very likely we won't catch anything until we've moved."
Mr. Clifford and his son, who had heard this conversation, were more or
less mystified by it, and Mr. Clifford asked Hugh, "Are there really
bears about here, Mr. Johnson?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "there are plenty of bears, but, of course, you might
travel a long time in these mountains without ever seeing one. There is
no animal in all the hills that is as shy as the bear, and it's always
likely to see and hear and smell you before you see it."
"And what is a dead-fall?" said Mr. Clifford.
"Why," said Hugh, "if you and your boy will come with us now you'll be
able to see some, and can understand what it is better by looking at it
than by having me explain it."
They stopped at the tent, and while Hugh prepared to cook the noon
meal, Jack brought some water and chopped some wood and built the fire.
Their friends sat down on the ground near at hand, and talked about
their trapping.
"How very fortunate we are to have met you," said Mr. Clifford. "All
this life and all the creatures of the mountains seem to be known to
you. Then, too, your eyes are trained; you see a thousand things that
we do not see, and never would see unless they were pointed out to us.
I have read in books so many stories about the wonderful skill of the
western mountain man in reading the signs of the prairie. I feel that
we are very fortunate to have met people who can do that."
So Mr. Clifford and Hugh talked over many things, and Jack was somewhat
astonished to hear Hugh speak freely about matters connected with
Hugh's early life of which he himself had known only within two or
three years.
"I should like to see a trap built to catch a bear," said Henry.
"Well," said Jack, "I never saw a big dead-fall built, but it must be a
lot of work to make one. You see, a bear is a powerfully strong animal,
and a very heavy weight would be needed to crush it. I have seen quite
a number of grizzly bears, and it seems to me that they're the most
powerful animal that there is. I believe that a grizzly bear, nine
times out of ten, would be able to kill a buffalo, and a buffalo is
about the biggest and strongest thing that we have in this country."
After the four had eaten, Hugh and Jack quickly washed up the dishes,
and then Hugh said to Jack, "Son, let us go and look at those mink
traps of ours. You and Henry can go ahead, if you like, and Mr.
Clifford and I will follow. If you find anything in the traps, reset
them, and if the bait is gone, get some more and I will bring the
medicine along."
Hugh got his bottle of beaver medicine and hung it around his neck, and
then the two older men followed the boys, who had started off. When
they passed the Cliffords' camp, their packer was seen sitting under
the shade of a bush, and when the boys came in sight he walked over to
meet them, and said, "Well, I'm glad to see you again. I tell you it's
been a mighty lonely morning, with nothing to do and nobody to see."
"Come on with us," said Jack. "We're going to look at some traps we've
set along the creek."
"I'd be right glad to," said the young man, and the three walked
briskly along. At the first dead-fall the bait was undisturbed, but in
the second a mink was found. Jack stopped and explained the principle
of the dead-fall to Henry, illustrating it by what was now before their
eyes.
While they were talking, Hugh and Mr. Clifford came up and the lesson
had to be gone over again, this time by Hugh, for the benefit of the
older man. Hugh took the mink, and, slitting it across from one heel
to the other under the tail, skinned away a little bit from the hams,
and cutting out the two glands about which he had warned Jack when
they first began to skin minks, he cut one of them open and smeared it
over the bait. The odor of the cut gland was very offensive, but Hugh
declared that it was the best kind of medicine for mink.
A round of the traps gave them two more mink, and Hugh declared that
mink must be pretty plenty, since, during the morning, three had
gone into the traps. By midafternoon they had made their rounds, and
on their way back to camp stopped at the Cliffords' tent, and here
Mr. Clifford and Henry asked them in, showed them a number of things
that they had brought with them from England, among them a huge knife
nearly a foot long, which to Jack seemed to have a hundred blades and
implements. Mr. Clifford gave Hugh a package of tobacco, and Henry
presented Jack with a volume which contained six books of Homer's
Iliad. Then the two Americans went on to their tent, having promised to
come back and eat supper with the Cliffords.
"That was a wonderful knife Mr. Clifford had, wasn't it, Hugh?" said
Jack, as they approached their tent.
"Yes," said Hugh, "it was sure a wonderful thing. It seemed to me fit
to be stuck up in a museum. I wouldn't pack around a piece of hardware
as big as that if one would give it to me. There are, maybe, three or
four useful tools in it, and the rest of it is just so much wood and
iron."
"That's just what I was thinking, Hugh, that more than half of the
things there were no good, and that you'd pretty nearly have to have an
extra horse to carry it around with you."
"Yes," said Hugh, "that's just one of those things that storekeepers
get up to sell to pilgrims. The storekeepers don't know what is
needed out in this country, and the pilgrims don't, either, but the
storekeepers pretend they know, and the pilgrims believe them. That's
mighty pleasant tobacco that Mr. Clifford gave me," he continued. "I
tried some of it this morning. I don't know as I like it as well as my
plug, but it was mighty kind of him to give it to me, for I reckon it
costs a good lot of money."
"Yes," said Jack, "that was nice, and it was nice in Henry to give me
this book. I am a fool not to have brought two or three good books out
with me into this country. A man has lots of time when he might read,
and instead of that I always lie down and go to sleep. I'm going to try
and read a lot of this book before our trip is over."
That afternoon Jack read for an hour in his book, and then proposed to
Hugh, who was working over one of the newly stretched beaver skins,
that they should take their rifles and walk up the creek for an hour.
"I don't mean to hunt," said Jack, "but just to see how the trail is."
"That's good," said Hugh, "I'd like to go, and we can just as well walk
as ride."
They set out, following the dim trail, which soon went into the green
timber. After they had gone a mile or more up the valley, they came
upon abundant sign of deer and elk, and a little later, as they paused,
just before stepping out into a park, Hugh touched Jack on the shoulder
and pointed to the mountain side far above him, where, after looking
for a moment, Jack saw half a dozen elk walking across a little opening
in the timber.
"I reckon," said Hugh, "there's lots of elk right here close. Of
course, those that are down low are all cows and calves, but I reckon
that if we get up high we will find the bulls. I expect likely these
Britishers would like mighty well to kill an elk, and I expect, also,
that we can take them right up to one."
"My," said Jack, "I would like to do that. I would like to watch that
boy when he got close to game and see what he does. But, Hugh," he went
on, "he tells me that he never shot his gun at anything. He hasn't any
idea where it shoots, nor how."
"Well," said Hugh, "why don't you take him out and give him a lesson in
shooting?"
"Well," said Jack, "so I might, but, of course, I can't do it around
the camp. It would scare the beaver, and we'd scare the bear, and we
might scare the elk."
"Well," said Hugh, "take him down the creek three or four miles to some
little park there, far enough off so that the guns won't sound like
much, and give him a lesson. You know very well he'll never be able to
hit anything until he has learned how his gun shoots."
"I believe I'll try that to-morrow, Hugh," said Jack.
It was soon time for them to turn back, and immediately after reaching
camp they went over to the Cliffords and supped with them.
During the evening Jack proposed to Henry that on the following day,
after the work was over, they should go down the stream a short
distance and try their guns, and Mr. Clifford, when he heard what
they were talking of, asked to be of the party, also. After some
discussion, it was agreed that all hands should start as soon as
possible next morning, and that the rifles of both the Cliffords should
be tried, so that later, if possible, they might be able to kill some
game, but the events of the next day somewhat modified this program.
Jack and Hugh had reached their first beaver trap in the gray of the
next morning, and after they had made the rounds they found themselves
with two beaver and seven mink. The loaded pack horse was taken up to
the place where they had skinned the day before, and the loads thrown
down; but before Hugh began work he stepped over to where he could look
down on the little meadow where the beaver carcasses had been thrown
yesterday.
After he had looked, he returned to where Jack had already split his
beaver, and said, "Well, son, the bears have been down at our meat
below, and I reckon that instead of going down the creek to teach the
boy how to shoot, two or three of us will have to stay here and build
that trap."
"It will be quite a job, won't it, Hugh?" said Jack. "A lot of trees
will have to be cut and hauled and put up. We're in better shape now to
do it than we would have been before these strangers came, but still,
it's going to be quite a lot of work, isn't it?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "of course it will be some work, but maybe not so
very much. If this young man Jones is any kind of an axman, he and I
can cut the trees and build the pen in half a day. We ought to begin
that right away, and if possible get the pen built to-night. Then, if
we put these carcasses in it without setting it to-night, we'll have a
mighty good show of catching something to-morrow night."
"Well, Hugh, I don't see why we couldn't do it," said Jack. "We
certainly need another bear hide or two."
"Yes," said Hugh, "so we do. Of course, though, if these strangers
help us to build the pen, why, the fur has got to be divided up with
them."
"That's so," said Jack, "but just think what fun it will be for them
to help build the trap and to get the bear, if we do get one. They'll
think that they're right in it, won't they; that they're real old
trappers?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "I reckon they will. They seem to be mightily taken
with all this life out here, and we'd both be glad to show them
anything that we can."
"Of course we would," said Jack. "I think they're having a bully time,
and it seems to me that Mr. Clifford is having about as good a time as
his son."
"Yes," said Hugh, "I think they both like it. I reckon before long
they'll both of them be up here, and then we can talk over the bear
trap matter."
As Hugh had predicted, it was not long before Mr. Clifford and Henry
were seen walking over, first to Hugh's camp, and then, when they found
that deserted, up to the hill where Hugh and Jack were skinning.
After a little talk, the subject of the bear trap was broached, and
both the Englishmen were delighted with the idea of putting it up.
"But how long will it take to build it?" said Mr. Clifford.
"Oh," said Hugh, "I reckon we can get it in shape before night; that is
to say, if we all work at it, and, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if
we could finish it two or three hours before sundown. Do you know what
sort of an axman Jones is?"
"No," said Mr. Clifford, "I do not; but I can handle an ax myself. I
have chopped down a good many trees back in the old country."
"Why," said Hugh, "that's better yet. But I don't know if we've got
axes enough for three people to handle; we've only one in our camp."
"I think we have two," said Mr. Clifford.
"Well," said Hugh, "if you have two, why don't you and Henry go down
and get your man and the three axes and come up here, and then just as
soon as we've finished our work we can go and cut some timber. There's
lots of it here, and it's right handy to snake down. Then, while we are
chopping, the boys can get the horses, and they can snake the logs out
to where we'll need them."
"Good enough," said Jack. "I'll bet we'll get those logs down faster
than they can cut and trim them."
Mr. Clifford and his son started on their errand, and not long after
their return with Jones and the three axes the work of skinning the fur
was over, and the beaver carcasses were ready to be used for bait.
Hugh now led the way up on the hillside to where there were a number of
tall, slender pines, and he and Mr. Clifford and Jones each attacked
one. The trees were eight or ten inches through, and were soon brought
to the ground. Then they were cut in twenty-foot lengths, and the
branches trimmed from them. Meantime, Jack and Henry had gone down to
the camp, saddled four of the riding horses, which were brought back to
where they were chopping, and Jack, putting a lariat around one end of
a log, and taking a turn of the other about his saddle horn, started
off to draw the stick out to the place where the trap was to be built.
Hugh showed Henry how to do the same thing, and thus the logs were
gradually brought out of the timber and to the meadow. Once in a while
the end of a stick would catch on a root, and it would be necessary
to dismount and lift it over, but after a while a trail was worn, in
which the logs slipped smoothly. Before long Hugh declared that enough
sticks had been cut, and then, going to the tops of the trees which had
been cut down, he cut a number of stakes about eight feet long, which
he sharpened at one end, Mr. Clifford and Jones helping him in this
work. Then the boys snaked bundles of these stakes down to the building
ground, and waited to see Hugh make his trap. He built his pen in the
shape of a narrow V, driving these sharpened sticks into the meadow
and piling the logs against them so as to make a wall of logs. Shorter
logs and brush were then piled on top of the V nearly to its opening.
A bed-stick was laid across the opening, just as had been done with
the mink dead-fall, and the fall-log was arranged to run between four
tall stakes, two on either side. All this was not done without much
use of the ax, much lifting of logs, and much expense of strength and
perspiration; but at last, when it was done, Hugh seemed satisfied, and
said, "There, I guess that will do. Now," he said, "we will lift up
this fall-log and prop it so that the bears cannot pull it down. They
may not feel like going in the first night, but if there should be any
young, foolish ones in the family they'll go in, and when the old ones
see that they are not hurt, they'll come in, too. Then the next night
we'll see what will happen."
The trigger and spindle for the trap were not yet prepared, but Hugh
had cut two sticks from which they were to be made, and declared that
he would do that work in camp. The carcasses of the beaver were now
thrown into the traps so that they lay about four feet inside of the
bed-stick, and were fastened there by a stout stick driven through them
into the ground.
"There," said Hugh, "I guess now we can quit. That job is all right,
and if we get some beaver to-morrow, we're likely to have bear the next
morning."
They all felt better when they had returned to camp and washed off the
grime of their work and were sitting around the fire. It was not yet
supper time, and yet there was not time for the boys to go off on the
target-shooting trip which Jack had planned. He spoke of this to Henry,
and explained to him over again how hopeless it was for him to do any
hunting unless he had learned just how his gun shot, and just how the
trigger pulled off.
Mr. Clifford, who was listening, seemed interested, and said, "I can
understand, Jack, something of what you say. I have never shot a rifle
until I came to America, but it is easy to understand why the muscles
of the shoulders and arms and of the fingers must all work together
perfectly to send a bit of lead over a great distance to a particular
spot. We are learning a great deal in these last two or three days, are
we not, Henry?"
"Yes, indeed, we are, father," his son replied.
"I think, if you will let me, Jack, I will go with you to-morrow and
try my gun when Henry tries his."
"Why, of course, Mr. Clifford," said Jack. "I'd be mighty glad if
you would. I was talking about that with Hugh only this morning, and
telling him I didn't see how it would be possible for you to have any
luck hunting until you had learned these things. You see, I am now
telling you only just what Hugh told me years ago, when I first came
out here. These are not discoveries that I have made, but things that
I've been taught, and that I suppose everybody must be taught, or must
learn for himself."
"Well," said Hugh, "I've always said that you took hold of this rifle
shooting, almost from the start, son, better than anybody that I ever
saw begin. Just as soon as you had learned something about shooting,
you were always steady and a good shot."
"Well," said Mr. Clifford, "why should we not all go off to-morrow to
this place where Jack is going to try Henry's gun, and then both of us
can take a lesson? Why will you not come, Mr. Johnson, and teach me
while Jack teaches my boy?"
"Why, surely, I'd like to," said Hugh. "No reason why I should stay in
camp to-morrow afternoon."
Hugh asked Mr. Clifford and his son and Jones to eat supper with them
that night, and they did so, and after the visitors had returned to
their camp, Hugh said to Jack, "Son, we are poor for meat again; you
or I will have to go up in the hills and kill something, or else we'll
have to eat beaver."
"Well," said Jack, "let's wait and see what happens to-morrow. Perhaps
we might run on something when we go down the creek."
"We might," said Hugh, "but I don't think we'll go down far enough to
see any antelope, and we're not likely to run on any game down here in
the valley."
"Well," said Jack sleepily, "we've got to have something to eat, of
course," and they went to bed.
Jack was pretty anxious to go up to the bear trap the first thing next
morning and see what had been there, but, as usual, they went down
over the trapping ground, and this morning their luck was bad. Only
one beaver was found, and in the dead-falls there were but three mink.
"Time for us to move, I guess, son," said Hugh.
"Looks that way, doesn't it?" said Jack. "Well, never mind; we've done
pretty well here, and there are lots more creeks here in the mountains."
"Well, yes," said Hugh; "we can load up both horses with beaver, if we
want to, but I don't believe you do."
"No," replied Jack, "I don't believe I do."
When they had reached the skinning ground, Jack looked down on the bear
trap and could see that something had been there; in fact, it looked as
if a regular trail led through the grass up to the entrance to the pen.
"I declare, Hugh," he said, "it looks to me as if there had been a
whole drove of bears down there by the opening of that pen. There seems
to be more sign than we saw yesterday, a good deal."
"I wouldn't be surprised," said Hugh, "if quite a lot of bears had come
down there. Animals learn soon about good feeding places; I don't know
how, but they do."
"Well, now, if you will skin these three mink, I'll take this beaver,
and we'll see which gets through first." They had almost finished
skinning, when their friends came up.
"I'll tell you, Henry," said Jack, "you've got to get up earlier in the
morning if you're going to be a sure enough mountain man. I like mighty
well to stay abed in the morning, but this trip Hugh has me up long
before light every day, and I'm getting so I don't mind it a bit."
"Well," said Hugh, "if you are trapping, you want to get to your traps
just as early in the day as you can see. Many a man has saved a beaver
by doing that. You see, a beaver often gets caught when it's going
home just before daylight, and it takes him some little time to thresh
around and twist his feet off."
"Why, of course, rising in the morning is all a habit," said Mr.
Clifford. "It's just as easy to get up at one hour as it is at another.
In India, where, on account of the heat, we slept through the middle of
the day, we used to get up before light, always."
"Well, Henry," said Hugh, "Jack tells me that there are lots of bear
sign down at the pen, and I reckon we better do down and see what
happened there." They went down there, and even Hugh was surprised at
the amount of sign they found. Not the smallest vestige of the beaver
remained, and all about the stick which had been thrust through them
the ground was dug up and rooted over, as if the bears had suspected
that something was buried there.
"Well, son," said Hugh, "I don't know but we've got more of a contract
here than we reckoned on. We'll have to get a fresh bait for to-morrow
night, sure. For as many bears as there are here, we ought to be able
to catch two or three of them. You run down to the camp and bring up
those sticks for the trigger and spindle, that I took down last night,
and we'll fix them and set the trap now."
Jack brought the sticks, and some little time was devoted to arranging
the trap. The beaver carcass was put on the end of the spindle and
firmly tied there; a stake was driven into the ground just behind the
bait, to hold in place the point of the spindle. A branch an inch long,
standing out from the side of this stake at right angles to it, was
smoothed so that the spindle, if pulled on, might easily slip out from
under it. Then the other end of the spindle was rested on the bed-stick
projecting out six or eight inches toward the mouth of the pen.
"Now," said Hugh, "this fall-log is heavy, and we've got to handle it
pretty carefully. We don't want any of us to get caught in our own
bear trap." He drove a stout stake into the ground just outside of
the front one of the two stakes that were to guide the fall-log, and
then, getting a long pole for a lever, the fall-log was lifted, the
stake which had supported it was knocked away, and then the fall-log
lowered until it was about four feet above the bait-stick. Then leaving
Jones to hold the fall-log in position with the lever, Hugh went
inside, and, resting one end of the trigger-stick on the portion of
the spindle which projected beyond the bed-stick toward the mouth of
the pen, he told Jones to lower the fall-log very slowly. Jones obeyed
instructions, and after raising and lowering it several times, the
fall-log and the spindle were held apart by the trigger-stick, and so
delicately balanced that it looked to the boys almost as if a breath
would disarrange them and bring the heavy fall-log down.
"There," said Hugh. "Now let's get out of this as quick as we can. I'm
hungry and want something to eat." And indeed it was time that they
should eat, for in their earnestness to set the trap the noon hour had
long passed.