rm any duty devolving on him, no matter how disagreeable. And it was not to be thought of that they should pass on,

until he spied the right sort of stick with which he could dispatch the little

er fox more closely and admired the sheen of his coveted coat

here above the trap?"

Elmer went

you wouldn't want to make him die of heart failure, would you, by let

aughed

ng right here, and waiting for U

at!" chuckled Lil Artha; "I tell you it's a good thing for George, Toby, and m

nt to say that I think the idea is all to the good, and that I'm ready to camp right here, and keep on waiting fo

be surprised to see him any old time, because afte

his neck and lo

e anything of him

find it'll be from that direction over there. I see a good

tever would we want to be d

ll these signs around, the blood on the snow, the hair of a silver fox in the

heard t

red; "but then, we'll let him know who got t

bushy tail, and George was seen to

e runt? I don't believe there's a word of truth abo

re Elmer would have picked it out had he been given a chance. Here they proceed

now away, and made places where they could stretch their rubber ponchos out and w

re," Elmer told him. "The walking is tough enough for us, and yet we're young. He's a pretty old man, Toby says,

und, and now gave them the

o hang out here any length of time, why, we could ma

rised; "he seems never to get enough to eat. Time was when he had a lit

half rations kind of frightened me, and now I'm thinking something mig

r, George. And I don't know what your folks at home'll do when you get back again. You

was feeling splendidly now, since the dange

, and I guess they'll sing the other way now. Dad'll talk about going into bankruptcy when he watches me put away the food.

exclaimed

ed Elmer, after all of them had str

only a hoot owl after all; but I thought I he

because it's getting on toward time for him to sho

ugh. That was one reason he took to the woods, for he said it was going to add ten years

er, and also listened carefully to catch a repetiti

manage to dislodge its burden of snow, which was apt to rustle through other branches on its way to the ground. Away in the distance those crows were cawing again, as though disp

Elmer gave a

d again they began to believe that some one must be approaching from

g, shuffling noise mean, E

autious tone; "snow-shoes, and my uncle is wea

by; and there he comes!" wa

e free movements of one to whom the use of snow-shoes was an old story. To see the way he lifted his feet, still dragging the long shoe made of bent hickory, and stout gut that crossed and re

wilderness he too would be able to walk deftly, after he had been shown the secret of manipu

t he was getting more and more agitated. Evidently he must have already discovered certain suspicious si

he surface of the snow he would have fairly flown to the spot;

im steel jaws of the Newhouse trap. When he found several almost black hairs present he would also understand that he had caught the coveted silver black fox; and while that might add to hi

the way things looked. Many winters had Uncle Caleb spent in this vicinity, and never before had he ever k

d accordingly he gave the signal for which Toby was waiting. The latte

t last. And as you told me to bring a friend or two along, I've fetched our scout master, E

great difficulty in believing his eyes. It was as if they had s

with me. You're mighty welcome, my boy, let me tell you; and your comrades too. I shall be del

have had a grouch against all scouts; and so we got lost; and then that storm caught us; but we were hunting around for some sign of your cabin when we came on this fox caught in a trap, and with hi

rs, sir?" asked George, as though he could never rest aga

anywhere from a thousand dollars to twenty-five hundred, according to how it