oint to us. Those skunks didn't have
any traps, anyway. Thinkin' about that fox I'd clean forgotten about the
beaver. Poor little chap." Pat stroked the body of the beaver.

Alec was now called in, and his look of blank astonishment when he saw
the traps and the dead animal was all that was needed to convince the
warden that Pat was right in his surmise.

That evening Jim explained his visit by stating that he had all along
planned to get over to the Hollow before the boys left. When the warden
dropped into his camp early that morning and stated his intention of
going on to the Hollow Jim decided that he would accompany him.

"How are you boys going back?" he asked.

"The same way we came in, I suppose," replied Upton.

"What's the matter with putting in a day with me and seeing how a
logging camp is run? Then I'll send you out to the railroad on a lumber
wagon," suggested the big lumber boss.

The idea appealed to the boys, and it was finally agreed that they would
accompany him to his camp the next day. It would give them a new
experience for which they were eager, and at the same time eliminate the
long hike back to Lower Chain. So, not without sincere regret, it must
be admitted, they got their duffle together preparatory to an early
start the next morning for the fifteen mile hike to Jim's headquarters.
They turned in early, for now that the excitement was over they felt the
reaction from the long strain they had been under, and the loss of sleep
the night before. Jim and the warden bunked on the floor and the cabin
in Smugglers' Hollow was soon wrapped in silence save for the gentle
breathing of the sleepers. So ended a red letter day for at least three
of the occupants.

CHAPTER XX

THE BLACK FOX IS SOLD

The day in the lumber camp was all too short for all of the boys, but
especially for Sparrer, to whom the cutting of the great trees and the
hauling of the logs and piling of them on the rollways on the banks of
the river ready for breaking out on the high water of the spring was of
absorbing interest. Hal and Upton were familiar with logging operations,
having visited logging camps many times during their summers in the
woods. The only novelty to them lay in the changed setting of the scenes
produced by the snow.

Sparrer was of just the type to win immediate favor with the rough,
big-hearted lumber-jacks, and they made him feel at home at once. They
vied with one another in showing him thin