ver to General
Gordon's house so regularly, David could tell him that he was doing
some work there, which would be the truth; and besides it would be
all Dan had any right to know.

As fast as the birds were caught, they could be locked up in one of
the empty negro cabins; and any one who found out that they were
there and tried to steal them, would run the risk of being caught by
Don's hounds. It was a splendid plan, taken altogether, and David's
eyes fairly glistened while it was unfolded to him. He thanked the
brothers over and over again for their kindness and the interest they
took in his success, and might have kept on thanking them if Don had
not interrupted him with--

"O, that's all understood. Now, before you begin work on those traps
we want you to help us one day. We've had a good deal of excitement
and some good luck since we last saw you. We have recovered my canoe,
which somebody stole from me, and we have found out that there is a
bear living on Bruin's Island."

"He must be a monster, too, for such growls I never heard before,"
said Bert.

"Didn't you see him?" asked David.

"No. We landed to explore the island, and while we were going through
the cane he growled at us, and we took the hint and left. We didn't
have a single load of heavy shot with us. We're going up there
to-morrow, and we want you to go with us. We'll go fixed for him,
too. We'll have a couple of good dogs with us; I'll take my rifle;
Bert will take father's heavy gun; and we'd like to have you take
your single-barrel. If he gets a bullet and three loads of buckshot
in his head, he'll not growl at us any more. If we don't get a chance
to shoot him, we'll build a trap and catch him alive the next time he
comes to the island. Will you go?"

Of course David would go. He would have gone anywhere that Don told
him to go. He promised to be at the barn at an early hour the next
morning, and then showed a desire to leave the shop; so Don unlocked
the door, and David hurried out and turned his face toward the
landing. He had money now, and that grocery bill should not trouble
him any longer.

"If there ever was a lucky boy in the world I am the one," thought
David, whose spirits were elevated in the same ratio in which they
had before been depressed. "I'll earn my hundred and fifty dollars
now, and mother shall have her nice things in spite of Dan and
Lester. It isn't every fellow who has such friends as Don and Bert
Gordon. But I sh