ginning to feel the
discomforts of "standing on his head."

Several of them rushed off, and sure enough they found the secret of
the springing of the trap. Johnny's clever scheme was simple enough
when once its secret had been disclosed.

He had an old hogshead perched on the top of a steep little rise near
by. It was connected with the long rope that had a noose at the end.
When anyone pulled the rope, as with a foot caught in the loop, a
trigger was set free, and the heavy hogshead started to roll down the
little descent, jerking the entangled thief up by one or both ankles,
as happened to be the case.

Of course, by rolling the hogshead back to its initial position Johnny
was enabled to right himself, and get his foot free from the noose.

He started rubbing his shin as though it felt sore after such a rough
experience, but they could hear him laughing softly to himself all the
while.

"I jest reckoned the old thing'd work to beat the band," he told them;
"an' now I knows it. Wait till I set the trap agin, fellers, an' then
we'll go back tuh the barn. What d'ye spect's agoin' tuh happen if
them chicken thieves kim around tuhnight, Elmer, hey?"

"Well, somebody's liable to meet up with the surprise of their lives,
that's all," the scout patrol leader admitted.

The boys were pretty tired, and did not care to remain up too long.
Perhaps Mrs. Trotter might have liked to have these lively fellows in
to sing for her, and enliven her monotonous life a little; but
considering that they half expected to be hard pushed on the morrow,
Elmer advised that they try to get all the sleep possible while they
had the chance.

The horses had been well cared for, and arrangements made with the
farmer to keep them in his stable until the scouts were ready to return
to Hickory Ridge.

"This is what I call a soft snap," ventured Toby, who had burrowed into
the hay as far as he thought necessary, and lay there at full length.

"The farmer was mighty careful to ask whether any of us smoked, you
noticed," remarked Lil Artha.

"Can you blame him?" demanded Landy. "He must have twenty tons of fine
new hay in this big barn, and that's worth all of four hundred dollars."

"Jutht as like ath not, too, he didn't put a cent of inthurance on the
barn," Ted remarked; "farmers are careleth that way, you know."

"And so are boys who make out to be men because they smoke on the sly,"
Elmer went on to say. "More than one barn has be