le in the drift cavern, the "priming," as the powder in the pan is
called, had been reduced to a paste by water. To fire the gun was out of
the question, and so clubbing it, Tom ran at the hog and dealt him a
blow on the head, hoping in that way to secure the game which he could
not shoot. The blow fell upon the nose of the animal, however, and while
it brought a squeal of pain from him, it produced no beneficial result.
The hog ran rapidly away, and Tom was left with nothing better than a
broken gun to carry back to the fortress.

Arriving there about three o'clock in the afternoon he told the doleful
story of his failure, and sitting down burst into tears.

"Come, come!" said Sam. "This will never do, old fellow. It's bad enough
as it is without crying about it. We'll come all right if you'll only
keep your courage up, and give me a chance to think. I'm getting better
every day now, and if we can only hold out a few days longer, I'll be on
my feet again, and then we'll go straight to Fort Glass. Just as soon as
I can walk at all, we'll start, meantime we must get something to eat,
and to do that I must think. Let me see. The gun is of no use now, but
there are other ways of getting game besides shooting it. We must set
some traps. This spoiled meat will do for bait. Get me a good piece of
poplar wood, Tom, or cypress, or some other sort, that I can whittle
easily, and I'll make some figure-four triggers. Then I'll tell you how
to make dead-falls, and you must set as many of them as you can to make
sure of getting something to eat by to-morrow morning."

Tom brought the wood and Sam soon whittled out several sets of triggers.

"Now do you know how to set a trap with these triggers, Tom?" he asked.

"Yes, I've set many a partridge trap with figure fours."

"Very well then. Now you must set dead-falls in the same way. That is,
instead of a trap you must set a log. You see I've made the triggers big
and strong, and you must put them under one end of as heavy a log as you
can lift. Then you must lay other logs on top to make it as heavy as
possible, and bait it with a piece of the spoilt meat. If anything
undertakes to eat the meat to-night, the dead-fall will break its neck
or back, sure. Here are six sets of triggers and you must set six
dead-falls. We can go hungry till to-morrow, can't we, little woman?"
chucking Judie under the chin.

"We can try, anyhow," answered the little woman as cheerfully as she
could, th