er opened the trap.

Then he picked up the dead cat and led the way back to the tent. "I'll
show you how to skin this fellow," he said, and, taking out his knife,
began to remove the hide.

"Gee!" exclaimed Charley. "Wouldn't the fellows like to know about this?"
He looked at his watch. "Some of them will surely be listening in," he
said.

Then he sat down beside his key, and while he watched the forester skin
the wildcat, he kept his spark-gap snapping and cracking with the fat
sparks from the new battery. He was calling Lew. He got no answer and
flashed out the signal for the Wireless Patrol. Almost immediately Henry
answered. His workshop was the headquarters of the Wireless Patrol.

"Hello, Henry," rapped out Charley. "Do you know where Lew is?"

"He's right here," came the answer. "So are most of the other fellows."

"Tell them," replied Charley, "that we just caught the wildcat in the
traps you sent, and Mr. Marlin is skinning it. I'm going to get him to
show me how to tan it. When it's done, I'm going to send it to the
Wireless Patrol to help furnish our headquarters. I'm going to add the
eight dollars bounty money to the club fund for wireless equipment."

Then came a long pause. Finally this message came back to Charley. "The
Wireless Patrol thanks you, Charley, but we want you to sell the skin and
use the money and the bounty to pay for the field-glasses you need."

Charley turned away from his instrument with a suspicious moisture in his
eyes. It touched him deeply that his fellows were so solicitous concerning
his welfare and success. He did not realize that he was merely reaping the
reward of his own kindly good nature, that had made him a general favorite
with the boys of the Wireless Patrol.

There were no further alarms that night. Early in the morning the ranger
started back to his office, taking with him the letter to Lew. Charley
accompanied him part of the way. Then he continued on his patrol.

The next time Charley met the forester he received Lew's answer to his
letter. Lew had addressed the box, but several of the boys of the Wireless
Patrol had helped to pack it. The piece of green pasteboard proved to be
from a box in which Henry had gotten shoes by mail. The box came from
Carson and Derby, a big New York mail-order concern. Almost everybody in
the country around Central City bought articles from mail-order houses, so
Lew's letter threw no light on the problem. There might be a green
p