spring
when bears begin to move again. Then I suspect Alec will build one or
two more, eh, Alec?"

"A couple, I guess. I've marked some likely places," was the reply.

"What about steel traps?" asked Upton. "I had an idea that most trappers
used those almost altogether these days."

By way of reply Alec dragged out from under one of the bunks a clanging
mass of steel. "Heft it," said he briefly, passing it to Walter.

"My, but that's heavy!" he exclaimed. "What does it weigh?"

"Nineteen pounds," replied Alec. "Tell me, how would ye like to pack
three or four of those in addition to a lot of smaller traps for ten or
fifteen miles?"

"Not for me!" declared Upton. "I begin to see the why of the deadfalls.
It's easier to build a few of those than to lug these heavy things
around. I didn't suppose they were as heavy as this. Are all of 'em like
this?"

"No, there are some that weigh only a little over eleven pounds, but
those are for small bars. I don't no ways favor 'em myself because, ye
ken, I never yet have found a way of being certain what size bar would
be stepping in one, leastways not until he was caught. A big feller will
sometimes get out of the smaller trap, but a little feller never gets
out of the big trap. So I sets only the big ones. This is a No. 5, and
big enough for any bars around these parts. There's a bigger one made
for grizzly bar and lions and tigers and such like critters, but that
weighs forty-two pounds. We've got two of these No. 5's to set in the
spring. If I was in good bar country, where the critters are plenty, I'd
use more of these, but as long as they ain't plenty and I'm after other
fur I'd rather use the deadfall. In the first place it kills the
critter, and if he's caught you know right where to find him. He's right
there. But if he gets caught in one of these things he may be a couple
of hundred yards away and he may be in the next county, which is mighty
inconvenient, 'specially if ye've got a lot of traps to tend to."

"How's that? I thought you fastened the traps." Hal was plainly puzzled.

"Sure we fasten 'em," returned Alec, "but do ye no see that if it was to
anything solid like a tree the critter would be breaking the trap or
the chain, maybe, or tearing himsel' loose? So we cut a log small enough
at one end for the ring on the end of the chain to just barely slip over
it and down to the middle where it is fastened with a spike. The clog is
six or seven feet long and o