aying.

"Sure and I'm tickled to death to hear ye say that same, Paul," he
replied. "By the powers I'm blissed wid the same kind av a barometer
in me bones. Yis, and the signs do be tilling me that inside of
forty-eight hours, mebbe a deal less nor that, we're due for a
screecher. It has been savin' up a long while now, and whin she breaks
loose--howly smoke, but we'll git it!"

"Meaning a big storm, eh, Tolly Tip?" asked Spider, looking a bit
incredulous.

"Take me worrd for the same, lads," the woodsman told them.

"Well, if your prediction comes true," said Spider, "I must try to
find out how to know what sort of weather is coming. I often watch the
predictions of the Weather Bureau tacked up at the post office, but
lots of times it's away off the track. Bobolink was saying only this
morning that he expected we'd skip all the bad weather on this trip."

At mention of Bobolink's name, the trapper chuckled.

"'Tis a quare chap that same Bobolink sames to be," he observed. "He
says such amusin' things at times. Only this same mornin' do ye know
he asks me whether I could till him if that short tramp's hand had
been hurted by a cut or a burrn. Just as if that mattered to us at
all, at all."

Paul did not say anything, but his eyebrows went up as though a sudden
thought had struck him. Whatever was in his mind he kept to himself.

When they arrived at the marsh where Tolly Tip had several of his
traps set he told his companions what he wanted them to do. Under
certain conditions they could approach with him and witness the
process of taking out the victim, if fortune had been kind to the
trapper. Afterwards they would see how he reset the trap, and then
backed away, removing every possible evidence of his presence.

Both scouts were deeply interested, though Spider rather pitied the
poor rats they took from the cruel jaws of the Newhouse traps, and
inwardly decided that after all he would never like to be a gatherer
of pelts.

Later on Tolly Tip led them to the frozen creek, where they picked up
a splendid mink and an otter as well. Shrewd and sly though these
little wearers of fur coats were, they had not been able to withstand
the temptation of the bait the trapper had placed in their haunts,
with the result that they paid the penalty of their greed with their
lives.

Finally the trio reached the pond where the beaver lived. It was, of
course, ice covered, but the conical mound in the middle interested
th