me a little help in setting my
flashlight trap before we go to bed to-night," remarked Will, when
they were sitting in front of the fire.

The evening air was nearly always cool, even after a warm day, and it
seemed so "jolly," as Jerry called it, to have a small fire crackling
on the hearth while they sat around engaged in various tasks and in
chatting.

"Then you must have settled on a place from tracks you have found?"
inquired Frank.

"Why, yes, and pretty close to the cabin in the bargain," answered the
other, whose one hobby had become this method of securing strange
pictures of small wild animals caught while in the act of taking the
bait in their native haunts.

"What species are you after this time?" asked Frank.

"Somehow I never get an absolutely perfect snapshot of a 'coon. It
seems as if every one has some kind of a blemish; and I told myself
that while we were up here at Cabin Point that fault must be remedied
if I tried a dozen times. And judging from the tracks of this fellow I
think he must be a dandy. I only hope his barred tail shows plainly in
his picture."

"That's so," spoke up Bluff, "because his shrewd face and his striped
tail make up the main part of any raccoon."

"Why, if the job has to be done, Will, I'd just as soon go with you
now. I'll carry my little hand torch, which ought to give us all the
light needed, since you say it's close at hand."

Accordingly Will jumped up eagerly to get the necessary things,
including the stout cord which was to be used to start the trigger of
the trap into action, and set the flashlight going.

"I'm ready Frank, if you are," he soon announced; and together they
went forth on their errand, Will just as excited as any hunter could
be when creeping up on some coveted game.

Frank immediately noticed one thing, which was that his companion led
him along in the direction he and Bluff had taken when coming from the
Dennison place. Indeed when the other finally decided that they had
arrived at the spot where he had discovered the marks made by the big
raccoon in passing to and from the water's edge, Frank saw evidences
of the identical path he and Bluff had followed all the way down. He
did not give the fact another thought just then; there was no reason
for doing so, since in his mind it was merely a little coincidence.

Having had considerable experience in arranging these clever little
traps by which roving night prowlers were made to be their own