of breeding foxes in captivity, with scores of things
against him, which had to be overcome.

An hour passed by in this manner. When Max saw their visitor showing
signs as if he meant to leave them, he took a hand in the conversation,
which up to then had been almost wholly monopolized by Bandy-legs, Steve
and the woods boy.

"It's very kind of you to invite us over to inspect this wonderful
little fur farm of yours, Obed," he went on to say; "but you'll have to
give us directions how we can get there, unless you mean to accept our
offer of a blanket by the fire here tonight, when we could go along with
you in the morning."

Obed looked sober.

"I'd like to stay longer with you, boys," he hastened to say, as though
he really meant it, "but I ought tuh be gettin' back home. Thar's some
duties waitin' for me to look after. And then I ain't quite easy in my
mind 'bout them two fellers that's up here in the woods. They ain't
meanin' to do any shootin', even if they have got Lem Scott along as a
guide, and he the meanest skunk in the hull county, lots o' folks do
say, and a poacher in the bargain that the wardens are layin' to grab
one o' these fine days. Now I'll jest up and tell yuh how to get to my
place. It's as easy as water runnin' down-hill."

He entered into explicit directions, and Max pinned them in his memory.
In fact, Obed simply told them to follow the stream up three miles until
they came to a bunch of seven birch trees on the right-hand bank. There
they were to pick up a trail they would find, follow it half a mile, and
at that they would see a cabin under the hemlocks and pines, which would
be his humble home woods.

"We've got it all down pat, Obed," said Steve, "and like as not you'll
see the bunch of us trailing along there some time tomorrow morning.
I've always been crazy to see a fur farm, after reading so much about
them, and you bet I don't mean to let this chance slip by me."

Max now thought it time to make a few inquiries himself. He wanted to
ask Obed whether he had ever run across a boy by the name of Roland
Chase, a sickly looking chap in the bargain. It might possible to pick
up a clue in this way; and they had reached a point where they could not
afford to let any opportunity for acquiring information get past them.

In order to pursue this course, however, Max realized that it would be
necessary to enter into some sort of explanation concerning the nature
of the peculiar errand that