was on the shore
of the lake. It'll save us building one, you know, if it's in any kind
of a decent condition," the tall boy went on to say.

"Yes, that's a fact," Phil himself remarked; "I've been thinking so
right along. I only hope we won't find some fishermen camped in it. Kane
said that once in a long while some guide took a party over to Surprise;
but that the tramp was so hard few gentlemen cared to try for it. There
are lakes all around that offer just about as good fishing."

"I should think there'd be some pretty fine hunting around up here,"
remarked Ethan. "I've noticed quite a few signs of deer, and that was
certainly the track of a big moose we saw. I'd like to run across one of
that stripe. Never saw a wild moose in all my life."

"I wouldn't be surprised if some of us do meet one while we roam the
woods around the little lake," Phil told him. "If I'm that lucky I want
to take a picture of the beast, to add to my collection."

"And I reckon, now," suggested X-Ray, "that nearly every night you'll be
setting traps, not to catch wild animals, but to make them take their
own pictures. That's the main reason why you've come up here, isn't it,
Phil?"

"Well, you know it's a sort of hobby of mine, and I've got all the
apparatus for taking flashlight pictures along with me. I started in to
the business just to kill time; but let me tell you it grows on a
fellow like everything. I'm something of a hunter myself, but this
shooting with a camera beats anything else all hollow. Besides, you get
your game, and yet don't injure it, which is the best of all."

Ethan laughed, and shook his head.

"But your pelts don't bring you in the hard cash, Phil, like mine do,"
he went on to say, with a touch of genuine pride in his voice. "S'pose
now I'd just snapped off that black fox's picture instead of getting his
paw in my steel Newhouse trap--it might have been all very well, but I'd
be several hundred dollars shy right now."

X-Ray Tyson chuckled; but the other frowned and shook his head. It would
never do to get Ethan's suspicions aroused. He was terribly persistent,
and once on the scent would never give up until he had unearthed their
clever little plot. Then good-by to peace among the Mountain Boys, for
Ethan would never be apt to forgive them the deception.

"That's the main thing, after all, Ethan," Phil added. "One man's food
is another man's poison. You enjoy your way of doing things, and I
understand how t