and hollow trees, in search of squirrels.

At last, at a certain turn of the road, the riders came suddenly upon
a pair of bars which appeared before them,--directly across the road.

"Well," said Wallace, "here we are, what shall we do now?"

"It is nothing but a pair of bars," said Phonny. "I can jump off and
take them down."

"No," said Wallace, "I think we may as well turn about here, and go
back. We have come far enough on this road."

Just then Phonny pointed off under the trees of the forest, upon one
side, and said in a very eager voice,

"See there!"

"What is it?" said Wallace.

"A trap," said Phonny. "It is a squirrel trap! and it is sprung!
There's a squirrel in it, I've no doubt. Let me get off and see."

"Well," said Wallace, "give me the bridle of your horse."

So Phonny threw the bridle over his horse's head and gave it to
Wallace. He then dismounted--sliding down the side of the horse safely
to the ground.

As soon as he found himself safely down, he threw his riding-stick
upon the grass, and ran off toward the trap.

The trap was placed upon a small stone by the side of a larger one. It
was in a very snug and sheltered place, almost out of view. In fact it
probably would not have been observed by any ordinary passer-by.

Phonny ran up to the trap, and took hold of it. He lifted it up very
cautiously. He shook it as well as he could, and then listened. He
thought that he could hear or feel some slight motion within. He
became very much excited.

He put the trap down upon the high rock, and began opening up the lid
a little, very gently.

[Illustration: THE TRAP.]

The trap was of the kind called by the boys a box-trap. It is in the
form of a box, and the back part runs up high, to a point. The lid of
the box has a string fastened to it, which string is carried up, over
the high point, and thence down, and is fastened to an apparatus
connected with the spindle.

The spindle is a slender rod of wood which passes through the end of
the box into the interior. About half of the spindle is within the box
and half without. There is a small notch in the outer part of the
spindle, and another in the end of the box, a short distance above the
spindle. There is a small bar of wood, with both ends sharpened, and
made of such a length as just to reach from the notch in the end of
the box, to the notch in the spindle. This bar is the apparatus to
which the end of the string is fastened, as befor