t off with his
shotgun to see if he could bag a few of the plump birds.

"Don't forget there are ten of us here, Jud!" called Spider Sexton,
"and that each one of us can get away with a bird."

"Have a heart, can't you?" remonstrated the Nimrod, laughingly. "Cut
it down to half all around, and I might try to oblige you. Think of
me, staggering along under such a load of game as that. Guess you
never hefted a fat partridge, Spider."

"I admit that I never _ate_ one, if that suits you, Jud," replied the
other, frankly.

Paul on his part had told Tolly Tip he would like to accompany him on
his round of the traps on that particular morning.

"Of course, I've got an object in view when I say that," he explained.
"It is to take a look at the beaver house you've been telling me
about. I want to take my camera along, and snap off a few views of it.
That will be better than nothing when we tell the story."

"Count me in on that trip, Paul," said Spider Sexton. "I always did
want to see a regular beaver colony, and learn how they make the dam
where their houses are built. I hope you don't object to my joining
you?"

"Not a bit. Only too glad to have you for company, Spider," answered
the scout-master. "Only both of us are under Tolly Tip's orders, you
understand. He has his rules when visiting the traps, which we mustn't
break, as that might ruin his chances of taking more pelts."

"How can that be, Paul?" demanded the other.

"Oh! you'll understand better as you go along," called out Bluff, who
was close by and heard this talk. "Sandy Griggs and I learned a heap
yesterday while helping him gather his harvest of skins. And for one,
I'll never forget what he explained to me, it was all so
interesting."

"The main thing is this," Paul went on to say, in order to relieve
Spider's intense curiosity to some extent. "You must know all these
wild animals are gifted with a marvelous sense of smell, and can
readily detect the fact that a human being has been near their
haunts."

"Why, I never thought about that before, Paul," admitted Spider; "but
I can see how it must be so. I've hunted with a good setter, and know
what a dog's scent is."

"Well, a mink or an otter or a fox is gifted even more than the best
dog you ever saw," Paul continued, "and on that account it's always up
to the trapper to conceal the fact that a human being has been around,
because these animals seem to know by instinct that man is their
mortal ene