eeling far
from comfortable, because something told him these wideawake lads would
not be so easily hoodwinked as he had fancied.

He was watching the movements of Max Hastings, who had dropped to his
hands and knees, and seemed to be holding his little lantern so that the
light would show him the nature of the ground. Truth to tell, Max and
Obed, when last at the trap, had taken the pains to smooth the ground
over, thus obliterating all previous footprints. This was done from a
double object; it would conceal the fact that work had been carried on
in that particular spot, in case sharp eyes were on the alert; and also
gave a clear field for observation, as was happening just then.

Max quickly found what he was looking for.

"Come here, Obed," he remarked, quietly, and as the other eagerly bent
over, Max went on to say: "You can see that here's another footprint,
and quite different from the one made by his heavier boots. So he _did_
have at least one companion along, perhaps two, for all we know. And
that stamps his story a yarn made out of whole cloth. He came here, just
as you expected, to rob you of your foxes. Killing them wouldn't have
filled the bill so well, unless they made off with the pelts in the
bargain. How about it, Obed?"

"Every word you say is true, Max," breathed the other, indignantly.

"Then we'll certainly not let him go free, that's a dead sure
proposition," ventured Max, decidedly, and in a voice that he meant
should reach the prisoner.

"Glad to hear you settle it that way, boys," remarked Steve, who had
kept one eye on the prisoner and the other in the direction of his
mates. "Shall I march him over to the cabin right away?"

Max gave a look around. He wondered where that other man could be just
then, and whether he was watching them from some neighboring covert,
having by degrees recovered from the near panic into which he had been
thrown at the time his companion was snatched away from his side so
mysteriously, amidst a tremendous din, caused by the shouts of the
seized man, and the rattling of the stones inside the rolling barrel.

But he could see nothing. The little lantern only covered a certain
amount of space with its meagre illumination, and much that was evil
might lurk beyond the radius of its lighted circle.

"Yes, we'll change our base, and go back to the cabin," Max said aloud;
"keep the guns ready for business, and if an attack is made shoot
straight!"

Of course thi