CHAPTER III.
WHAT WOODCRAFT MEANT.
"Wolves! Oh, my gracious! You don't say!" cried Bandy-legs, making a divefor the two sleeping bunks that Steve had built along one side of theinside wall of the cabin.
Of course there was an immediate scurrying around. All the other boyswere on their feet instantly, even tired Toby with the rest.
Max instinctively threw a glance toward the corner where his faithful gunstood. He did not jump to secure it, however, because something causedhim to first of all steal a quick look at Trapper Jim. When he discoveredthat worthy with a broad smile upon his face, Max decided that after allthe danger could hardly be as severe as indications pointed.
Meanwhile Steve had managed to slam the door shut, and was holding it sowith his whole weight while he tried to adjust the bar properly in itstwin sockets.
Steve was trembling all over with excitement. A thing like this was aptto stir him up tremendously.
"Why don't some of you lend a hand here?" he kept calling out. "Plaguetake that clumsy old bar, won't it ever take hold? Get my gun for me,can't you, Bandy-legs? Listen to the varmints a-tryin' to break in, wouldyou. Wow! Ain't they mad I fooled them, though? Say, I wonder now ifthey'd think to get on the roof and come down the chimbly. Hand me mygun, Bandy-legs! Get a move on you!"
By this time Jim was doubled up with laughter.
"Hold on you cannon-ball express boy," he remarked, as he stepped overand began to take away the bar which Steve had managed to get in placewith so much trouble; "I guess we'll have to let these critters come in.They look on Uncle Jim's cabin as their home."
"What, wolves!" gasped Steve.
"Well, hardly, but my two dogs, Ajax and Don," replied the trapper. "Yousee, I didn't want them along when I borrowed that buckboard and team tofetch you all here. So I left 'em with a neighbor three miles off, andtold him to set 'em loose to-night. So you thought they were wolves, didyou, Steve? Well, I guess they look somethin' that way, and the moonlightwas a little deceivin', too."
With that he threw open the door.
Immediately a couple of shaggy dogs bounded in and began barkingfuriously as they jumped up at their master, showing all the symptoms ofgreat joy.
"Sho, one'd think they hadn't seen me for a whole month, instead of onlya few hours," laughed Trapper Jim, as he fondled the dogs.
Then the five boys in turn were introduced, as gravely as though Ajax andDon might be human beings.
"They're quick to catch on," remarked Trapper Jim. "They know now you'reall friends of mine, and you can depend on 'em to stand by you throughthick and thin."
"What are they good for?" asked Bandy-legs.
"This smaller one is reckoned the best 'coon dog in the woods," repliedthe other, patting the head of Don. "If there's a striped-tail in thedistrict and I set him to working, he'll get him up a tree sooner orlater. And when the animal is knocked to the ground Don knows just how toget the right grip on his throat."
"But his ears are all slit, and his head looks like it had been scratchedand gouged a whole lot," remarked Steve.
"Well, old 'coons, they've got pretty sharp claws sometimes, ain't they,Don?" continued the old trapper. "And in the excitement a dog can'talways just defend himself, eh, old fellow! They will get a dig in oncein a while, spite of us."
Don barked three times, just as if he understood every single word hismaster was saying.
"And how about Ajax?" Bandy-legs continued.
"He's a general all-around dog, and ain't afraid of anything that walks.Why, boys, I've known him to tackle and kill the biggest lynx ever seenin these parts, and that's something few dogs could do."
"What's a lynx?" asked Bandy-legs.
"A species of wildcat that sometimes strays down this way across theCanada border," replied the trapper. "Generally speaking, he's bigger'nthe other and fierce as all get out. Fact is, I believe I'd sooner have apanther tackle me than a full-grown, ugly tempered lynx. Some people callit the 'woods devil,' and they hit it pretty near right, too."
"Hasn't a lynx got some sort of mark about him that makes him lookdifferent from the ordinary bobcat?" asked Owen.
"Why, yes," replied Trapper Jim, "there's some difference in the beasts;but I reckon the little tassels that kinder adorn the ears of the lynxmark him most of all."
"Looks like a full house, now," remarked Max, who had not hesitated tomake up with both the dogs, being very fond of their kind.
"Oh, while I have company Ajax and Don'll have to sleep in the shed orlean-to outside," remarked the master of the dogs. "Of course, when I'mhere all by myself they stay indoors with me. And I tell you, lads, theymake a fellow feel less lonely in the long winter days and nights. Dogsare men's best friends--that is, the right kind of dogs. They becomegreatly attached to you, too."
Toby just then seemed to become greatly excited. Finding it difficult toexpress himself as he wanted, he pointed straight at Steve, and was heardto say:
"A-a-attached to you! S-s-sure they do; S-s-steve knows! Saw one attachedto h-h-him once. Wouldn't h-h-hardly let go."
At that there were loud shouts, and even Steve himself could hardly keepfrom grinning at the recollection of the picture Toby's words recalled.
"'Spose you fellers never _will_ get over that affair," he remarked, ashe put his hand behind him, just as if after all these months he stillfelt a pain where the dog had bitten him. "Cost me a good pair oftrousers, too, in the bargain. It was a bulldog," he added, turningtoward Trapper Jim, "and he was so much attached to me that he followedme halfway 'over a seven-foot fence. Would have gone the whole thing onlythe cloth gave way and he lost his grip."
"Well, that showed a warm, generous nature," remarked Trapper Jim; "somedogs are marked that way."
"This one was," declared Steve. "But I got even with the critter."
"How was that?" asked the other, looking a little serious; for, himself alover of dogs, he never liked to hear of one being abused.
"I got me one of those little liquid pistols, you know, and laid for myold enemy," Steve continued; "he saw me passing by and came bouncing outto try my other leg. But he changed his mind in a big hurry. And, say,you just ought to 'a' heard him yelp when he turned around and faced theother way."
"You didn't blind the poor beast, I hope?" remarked Jim.
"Oh, nothin' to speak of," said Steve, gayly. "He was all right the nextday. Ammonia smarts like fun for awhile, but it goes off. But, listen,whenever I passed that house, if old Beauty was sitting on the steps likehe used to do, as soon as he glimpsed me, would you believe it, he'd turntail and run quick for the back yard and watch me around the comer of thehouse."
"You had him tamed, all right," said Max.
"We called it an even break, and let it go at that," said Steve.
When the boys began to yawn, and betrayed unmistakable evidences of beingsleepy, their host showed them how he had arranged it so that they couldall sleep comfortably.
There were only two wooden bunks, one above the other. Trapper Jim was tooccupy the lower one, and turn about, the five boys were to have theother.
This necessitated four of them sleeping on the floor each night. But asthere were plenty of soft furs handy, and the boys announced that theyalways enjoyed being able to stretch out on the ground, Jim knew he wouldhave no trouble on this score.
So the first night passed.
Perhaps none of them slept as well as usual. This nearly always turns outto be the case with those who go into the wilderness for a spell. Thechange from home comforts and soft beds to the hardships that attendroughing it can be set down as the principal cause.
However, nothing serious occurred during the night calculated to disturbthem. It is true Toby did fall out of the upper berth once, landing on acouple of the others with a thump, but then such a little matter washardly worth mentioning between friends.
And they could understand how Toby must be dreaming of his recenttrouble, as he hung over that terrible abyss by his hold on
a singleroot.
Perhaps the root gave way in his dreams, and Toby made a frantic effortto save himself.
Morning came at last.
Breakfast was cooked and eaten with considerable eagerness, forimmediately it was over the boys expected to accompany their host whilehe made his first tour of the season, intending to set a few traps inplaces that had been marked as favorable to the carrying out of hisbusiness.
They could hardly wait for Trapper Jim to get through his chores.
Presently Jim went over several lots of hanging traps and selected thosehe wished to use on the first day.
How he seemed to handle certain ones fondly, as though they carried withthem memories of stirring events in the dim past.
They all looked pretty much alike to the boys, but Jim undoubtedly hadcertain little familiar marks by means of which he recognized eachindividual trap. He mentioned some of their peculiar histories as hepicked out his "lucky" traps.
"This one held two mink at a pop twice now, something I never knew tohappen before," he remarked.
"And this old rusty one was lost a whole season. When I happened to findit, there was a piece of bone and some fur between the jaws, showing thatthe poor little critter had gnawed off its own foot rather than die ofstarvation. Made me fell bad, that did. A good trapper seldom allows sucha thing to happen."
"Do mink really set themselves free that way?" asked Owen.
"They will, if given half a chance," was Jim's reply. "That's one reasonwe always try to fix it so that mink, otter, muskrats, fisher, and allanimals that are trapped along the edge of streams manage to drownthemselves soon after they are caught. It saves the pelt from beinginjured, too, by their crazy efforts to break away."
"And what of that trap over there? You seem to be taking mighty good careof it," said Max, who was deeply interested in everything the trapper wasdoing.
"Well, I hadn't ought to complain about that trap," came the answer."Year before last it caught me a silver fox, as the black fox is called.And perhaps you know that a prime black fox pelt is worth as high asseveral thousand dollars."
"Hear that, will you!" exclaimed Steve.
"H-h-how much d-d-did you g-g-get for it?" asked Toby.
"Well," Jim went on to say, "it wasn't a Number One, but they allowed Iought to get eight-fifty for it; which check was enclosed in the letterI'll show you some day. I keep it to prove the truth of my story."
"A bully good day's work, eh?" remarked Steve.
"Best that ever came my way," admitted the other.
"Gee, wonder now if we'd be lucky enough to set eyes on a silver foxworth a cool thousand or more?" ventured Bandy-legs.
"It is barely possible you may, boys," remarked the trapper; "because Isaw a beauty two or three times during the summer. And I'm kind of hopingthere may be some sort of magic about this same trap to coax him to puthis foot in it."
"A single fox skin fetching thousands of dollars!" remarked Steve, as ifhardly able to grasp it as the truth. "Whew, that beats finding pearls inthe shells of mussels all hollow!"
"Yes," Owen broke in, "and even Ted Shafter and his crowd hunting wildginseng roots and selling it to the wholesale drug house at big moneydoesn't cut so much of a figure after all, does it?"
"One thing I want to ask you, boys, right in the start," the trapper tookoccasion to say; "while you're up with me you must promise never to shootat a fox, a mink, a marten, an otter, or in fact any small fur-bearinganimal."
"We give you our word, all right, Uncle Jim," said Steve, readily.
"Of course," continued the old trapper, "my one reason for asking this isto keep you from ruining good pelts. It would be pretty tough now ifafter I caught that black fox I found that his skin had been so badlytorn by birdshot that it wasn't worth handling."
"That's right, it would," admitted Owen.
"You can depend on us to hold back," Max added, sincerely.
"Well, this is about all the traps I care to put out to-day," and as hespoke Jim made them up in two bundles, one of which he gave to Toby andthe other to Bandy-legs.
He saw that, ordinarily, these two were the least important members ofthe club. And in the kindness of his heart he wished to make them feelthat he needed their especial help.
So Toby and the other chum slung the traps over their shoulders withill-concealed pleasure in that they had been singled out for suchattention by the old trapper.
"Then you don't mean to set Old Tom to-day," asked Owen, pointing to abig trap, whose weight and grim-looking jaws announced that it wasintended for large game.
Old Jim smiled and shook his head, as he replied:
"Hardly any use, unless we run across bear tracks. Such a thing mighthappen, you know; because it did snow last night, and there's a good inchon the ground right now."
"But, hold on," said Owen, "I understood that bears always went to sleepin the fall and stayed in some cave or a hollow tree till spring came."
"They do," answered the trapper, "but generally hang around till thefirst real hard blizzard comes along. This little snow don't count, andevery day a bear is able to be around hunting roots and such things, why,the less he has to live on his own fat, you know, But we're all readynow, so come along, boys."
The dogs were left at the cabin, which Jim did not even shut up. He knewAjax and Don would stay close at home; for the sight of the strings oftraps told the intelligent dogs they could not be allowed to accompanytheir master on this expedition.
An hour later, and Jim was showing the eager and curious boys whoremained at a little distance, so that their scent might not cause thecautious mink to abandon his usual trail, just how he set a trap in orderto catch the cunning little animal, and make him drown himself with theweight of the trap.
The snare was set at the mouth of a hole in the bank of a creek, andwhich, Jim informed them, was one of many visited by the male mink eachnight as they wandered up and down the stream.
He used some animal "scent" contained in a small bottle to help attracthis prey. Then, after destroying all evidences of his having been thereas much as he possibly could, Trapper Jim rejoined the boys.
"Now we'll head for the marsh where I put several traps day beforeyesterday and mean to add a few more to-day," he remarked. "As we go,I'll try to explain just why a man has to be so very careful whenever hematches his wits against those of a wily and timid little beast."
They hung upon every word Jim uttered, for these secrets of the woodswere things all of them had long wanted to know. What could musty oldschool books teach them that could equal the knowledge they imbibedstraight out of the fountain of experience.
It was while Jim was holding forth in his most effective manner, so as tothrill every one of his boy friends, that they saw him come to a suddenstop.
His eyes were fastened upon the white ground just in front of them, andas he pointed with his gun he electrified the boys by saying:
"Mebbe after all we might have use of Old Tom to-morrow, for there's thetracks of a big bear."
With Trapper Jim in the North Woods Page 3
