ut she knew
that the finding of Tavia was the one and only thing to be thought of
just then.

"Are you sure that this is the direction in which the boys went?"
asked Nat, with something like a sigh.

Dorothy looked over the rough woodland. "No," she said, "there was a
swamp, for I distinctly remember that they picked their way through
tall grass, and about here the grass is actually dried up."

"Then to find a swamp," said Nat. "Seems to me there are more kinds of
trees in Maine, and more kinds of things to catch at a fellow's----"

A cry from Ned stopped the speech.

"Oh!" he yelled. "Something has my foot! Come quick!"

"Oh, maybe it is a rattlesnake!" gasped Cologne.

"Or maybe a big rat," added Jack, as they all ran back to where Ned
lay in the grass, trying to free himself from whatever it was that
held him.

"It hurts!" he said. "Get it off!"

Jack was the first to get down and look at the struggling boy.

"A trap!" he announced. "Easy! Don't pull it, Ned."

"More things than trees and lost girls in the Maine woods," exclaimed
Nat. "Gee whiz! I wonder what we'll strike next."

"Just take a strike at this trap," begged Ned. "Seems to me it
takes--oh! be careful, Jack, that hurts!"

"Let me!" suggested Dorothy. "I can open it, without hurting him," and
she stooped over her cousin. "Oh, you poor boy! It has cut right
through your shoe. Now, Jack, just hold the end of the chain so that
it cannot slip back," she ordered. "Cologne, dear, can you unlace this
shoe?"

"Oh, of course," growled Nat, "it takes a girl!"

"Any objections?" asked Ned, getting back to his good humor. "Now if
this were Nat it would take a whole boarding school of girls."

Dorothy and Cologne very gently helped the boys get the steel trap
free from the shoe. It took some time to do it without pressing the
jaws still farther in through the leather, but they succeeded.

"Now, you must go back in the boat," decided Dorothy. "We cannot run
the risk of having your foot poisoned."

"Never!" declared Ned. "I have often had worse than this, and have
gone on after the game."

He got to his feet, but limped as he walked The foot had been
lacerated.

"What foolish hunters ever put that trap there?" he asked.

"I would not be surprised if it were the man who shot the deer,"
replied Dorothy, as if the others knew of that happening.

"Shot a deer! At this season!" exclaimed Jack.

"Oh, I think he was an Indian. I saw him as I came a