say; "when the
animal is nosing around after the bait he gets a leg caught in this
loop, which pulls tighter and tighter the harder he jerks, till in the
end it draws the notched end of the bent sapling free, and of course the
same shoots up straight. That takes the animal up with it, if he happens
to be small; and holds his hind quarters elevated if he's bigger. That
the way, Toby?"

"T-t-thank you for explaining it for me, Bandy-legs," the other quickly
remarked.

"I think you deserve a lot of credit for doing such a good job, Toby,"
Max told the trapper, for he had taken note of the fact that everything
connected with the wild animal trap seemed exceeding well done.

"And that hickory sapling does look like it was the toughest bow ever,"
Bandy-legs affirmed. "Why, I wouldn't be surprised if it could jerk a
feller of even my heft up in the air, and hold him upside-down, so he'd
look like he was walkin' on his hands."

"W-w-want to t-t-try it?" demanded the constructor, eagerly.

"You'll have to excuse me this time," Bandy-legs answered,
apologetically; "you see I've been having all the exercise that's good
for me already to-day, what with the four mile walk, and that little
circus with Carlo. But I'm willing to take your word for it, Toby, that
it'll do the business O.K. And I only hope now some sneaker gets his
hind Trilby caught in that loop. It'd give me a whole lot of
satisfaction to see a wolf or a striped hyena handing up by his rear
kicker, and whooping like all get-out for help."

The sun no longer shone in the friendly way that had marked the earlier
hours of this, their first day in camp. Clouds had gathered and covered
the sky, so that the air seemed even chilly.

"Feels like we might get some rain before a great while," Max gave as
his opinion, and there was no dissenting voice, much though the rest
would have liked to argue the other way, for they had hoped to have a
spell of fine weather accompany their trip to the woods.

"I had that in mind," remarked Steve, "when I started to lay in a stock
of good dry firewood. You see, here's a splendid place to keep it in,
under the upturned roots of this fallen tree. If the rain does come
it'll hardly heat in there, and things are apt to keep fairly dry. How
about that, Max?"

"A good idea, Steve, and I say we had better get busy and gather all the
stuff lying around. When you strike a rainy day in camp it's wonderful
what a lot of wood you can use up.