ess you've got some p'ticlar reason fer blazin' that thar old tree,"
said Rube, as Kiddie strode towards the fire; "I ain't just able ter
make it out, unless you're figgerin' t' have the tree cut down for
timber. It's your own property, of course. You goin' ter have it
felled?"

"No, the tree's not comin' down," explained Kiddie, seating himself on
his rolled-up sleeping bag within easy reach of the food. "Go an' have
a squint at where I chalked the mark. Guess you'll soon understand."

Rube strode to the tree, walked round it, and then stood for a while,
with his thumbs in his belt, opposite the chalk mark.

"Yes," he nodded wisely, when he returned. "We oughter git a
considerable store of honey in the mornin' when we smoke them bees out.
Thar's a rare procession of 'em goin' in at that little hole. Tree's
hollow. Dunno why th' critters don't go in by the big doorway on the
far side. Takin' a short cut, I expect. Else they goes in one way an'
out th' other."

"That's it," said Kiddie. "Say, these trout are just top-notch.
You've cooked 'em to a turn. I haven't tasted better since I was in
Russia. They keep 'em alive in big tanks in the hotels in Moscow. You
c'n choose your breakfast while it's swimmin' round; so it's served
fresh. Keep the scraps all together. We'll bait the traps with 'em,
presently, soon's we've washed up an' covered the fire. I notice
you've made it in a good place--not too near the trees. But we've
still got to be some careful. This yer ground's thick with pine
needles and cones, that might easily catch alight if a breeze came
along. Best dig a trench round it an' fill it with water."

They washed their pans and plates in the creek, and then got out their
snares and traps.

Rube laid the snares in rabbit runs, and set some beaver traps in the
creek, while Kiddie, with his greater skill, laid spring traps for the
larger animals of prey in places where there were signs that large
animals had recently been hunting and killing.

He was particularly attentive to one special steel trap, which he
carefully baited with fish and set close beside the gnawed remains of a
rabbit, still fresh and blood-stained. He examined the surrounding
ground, and discovered the spot where the rabbit had been killed.
Light tufts of fur lay about, and in their midst were the deep
scratches of large claws, as far apart as a man's expanded finger-tips.

"Guess there's a lynx been prowlin' around her