l them both in. But Jake
understood that motive, too, and braced his feet against the stones in
their way.

A second volley of the ill-smelling spray from the skunk struck at
random, and then Jake gave her neck another sudden shake. This time it
was effective, and the head suddenly hung limp. Jake had broken her
neck, and was the victor!

He now took great pains to drag the trophy through the brush to present
to his friends in the roadway. The leash caught several times and almost
snapped his own neck, and the skunk was heavy, but he managed to drag it
along.

When Julie saw his intent she screamed and warned the girls to flee! And
in running up the trail they met Mr. Gilroy, who had been summoned by
half-crazed Betty's crying, "Jake and the beaver are killing each
other!"

Mr. Gilroy did not stop to hear what Julie tried to gasp, but he ran
down and saw Jake bringing the skunk out into the pathway.

"To heel! to heel, Jake!" shouted Mr. Gilroy, holding his nose when the
dog tried to jump upon him in the ecstasy of having achieved such a
great deed.

"What shall we do with him? He can't sleep at Dandelion camp to-night,"
wailed the girls, as they, too, held their noses.

"I'll have to take him back to the barn and have Hiram turn the hose on
him for twenty-four hours."

"Isn't there a reward for skunks in the country?" now asked the Captain.

"Not only a reward, but the pelts are valuable since they became so
fashionable," remarked Mr. Gilroy, complacently.

"Well, Jake's earned his keep to-day, then," declared Judith.

"But it will cost more than the skunk brings to pay for the nine hundred
and ninety-nine bottles of _fleur-de-lis_ toilet water Gilly will have
to use to change Jake's scent!" laughed Julie.

CHAPTER NINE

LESSONS IN TRACKING

"Well, scouts! That shows us how little we know about wild animal's
tracks," remarked Mrs. Vernon, after Jake had been made to go back to
the bungalow, and the Troop went on to camp.

"I could have sworn that skunk's footprints were a coon's or a
fox's,--or something big!" exclaimed Julie, trying to justify her
mistake.

"To me, the tracks in the soil looked like a lynx's, or something,"
added Joan, hoping to cover the ignominy of having unearthed a skunk
without knowing the animal.

"Isn't there some sort of book that will teach us how to recognize
tracks, girls?" asked Hester.

"Is there, Verny? Maybe we can get one at the bungalow," added Julie.