The Boy Scouts in A Trapper's Camp

by Thornton W. Burgess

  Produced by David Edwards, Mary Meehan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)

  The Boy Scouts in a Trapper's Camp

  By Thornton W. Burgess

  Author of "The Boy Scouts of Woodcraft Camp", "The Boy Scouts on SwiftRiver", "The Boy Scouts on Lost Trail"

  Illustrated by F. A. Anderson

  The Penn PublishingCompany Philadelphia

  COPYRIGHT1915BY THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY

  To W. H. T., A lover of the open, and his three boys, this book is affectionately dedicated

  HE SAW SOMETHING MOVE]

  Introduction

  To those who have read the preceding volumes in this series, "The BoyScouts of Woodcraft Camp," "The Boy Scouts on Swift River," and "The BoyScouts on Lost Trail," some of the characters in the present volume willbe familiar. To me they are old friends in whose struggles andadventures I have taken the keenest personal interest.

  In this, the fourth and concluding volume, I have endeavored to portrayin some small measure the life of the trapper who in solitude andloneliness pits his skill against the cunning of the fur-bearers, andhis courage and fortitude against the forces of Nature in her harshestand most relentless mood; to bring to my young readers a sense of themystery of the great life eternal that broods over the wilderness to aneven greater degree when its waters are fettered in ice, and its wasteplaces wrapped in snow than when it rejoices in its summer verdure; toshow that the standards a man or a boy sets for himself are as bindingupon him in remote places where none may see as in the midst of hisfellow men; and lastly to demonstrate what a powerful factor in thedevelopment of character and true manhood are the oath and law of theBoy Scouts of America when subscribed to in sincerity andconscientiously observed.

  Man or boy is never so true to himself as when in intimate contact withnature. Adventures such as herein described may not fall to your lot,oh, boy reader, but be assured that whenever you heed the call of theRed Gods and hit the long trail you will find adventure of a degreeawaiting you, and you will return stronger physically and mentally forhaving come in closer contact with the elemental forces which we termnature.

  THE AUTHOR.

  Contents

  I. AN INTERRUPTED DREAM

  II. PAT SEES WHITE MAGIC

  III. THE BLUE TORTOISE PATROL

  IV. "HELP!"

  V. OFF FOR WOODCRAFT

  VI. SNOW-SHOES AND FISH

  VII. ON THE TRAIL

  VIII. ALEC HINTS AT DARK THINGS

  IX. SNOWBOUND

  X. LIFE ON THE FUR TRAILS

  XI. CHRISTMAS IN SMUGGLERS' HOLLOW

  XII. A DEER YARD

  XIII. POACHERS

  XIV. THE SILVER FOX

  XV. SPARRER'S TEMPTATION

  XVI. THE CONFERENCE

  XVII. THE CAMP OF THE POACHERS

  XVIII. SMOKING OUT THE INDIAN

  XIX. SPARRER SAVES THE SKIN

  XX. THE BLACK FOX IS SOLD

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  HE SAW SOMETHING MOVE

  HE JOTTED DOWN THE NUMBER

  ONCE MORE THEY BUCKLED DOWN TO THE TASK

  NOT TEN FEET AWAY WAS A BIG BUCK

  FOR A FEW SECONDS HE STOOD MOTIONLESS

  The Boy Scouts in a Trapper's Camp