rk a longer line than one
can, and cover it the way it ought to be covered. I've put in more'n one
winter alone, but ye ken it's michty satisfying to hae speech wi' some
one once in a while. When I'm alone it gets so that I talk to the
varmints just to hear a human voice, even though it be my own."

"I shouldn't think it would be safe for a man to be all alone for so
long," Upton interrupted.

"Tisn't altogether safe," replied Alec. "There was old Bill Bently.
Never was a better woodsman than old Bill. He used to trap way up north
of here. Used to go it alone mostly, but one winter he took a pardner.
Lucky thing for Bill he did. They had a long line that year and Bill
covered it one way and his pardner, Big Frank, covered it the other.
They would meet at the upper end and then again at the main camp. Well,
one time Big Frank was a day late getting to the upper camp. A big bar
had busted a swivel on a trap and gone off with the trap. Took Frank a
whole day to catch up with him. When he got to the camp he expected to
find Bill waiting for him, but nary a sign of Bill could he find.

"This wasn't su'prisin' considerin' his own luck, but somehow it made
Big Frank uneasy. He hit the trail 'fore daylight the next morning and
didna stop to look at traps, but just made tracks watching out for some
sign of Bill. Long about noon he found him by a deadfall alongside of a
bar. Of course the critter was dead, and Bill would have been if he had
to lay there much longer. Seems in resetting the deadfall the lever with
which he was raising the 'fall' log broke, and somehow Bill got one leg
under it and there he was caught in his own trap and with a broken leg
to boot. Lucky for Bill it was early in the season, or he would have
frozen to death long 'fore Frank got there. As it was he was in pretty
bad shape. If he'd been trapping alone it would have been the end of
him.

"But I'm getting off my story of how we catch fur. Of course we have to
have a number of sizes of traps. For muskrats we use No. 1; for mink No.
1 or No. 1-1/2. This is also big enough to hold fox, coon and fisher,
but No. 2 is better. For marten we use mostly No. 1, but if there are
signs of fisher or lynx we use No. 1-1/2 so if one happens to get into a
trap it will hold him. These critters are so strong that they would pull
out of the smaller trap."

"It's marten that you are after mostly, isn't it? I understood you to
say that," Upton interposed.

"We're after