lost a fox in his life." The black
fox, which had held possession of Reynard's Island so long, was
captured by Frank and his cousin, with the assistance of Sport, after
a chase of three hours. Lightfoot--for that was the name of the
other--was an English grayhound. He stood full three feet high at the
shoulders, and his speed was tremendous. He was young, however, and
knew nothing about hunting; but he had been taught to "fetch and
carry," and, as he learned very readily, the boys expected plenty of
sport in training him.

After supper, Archie's trunk was carried into the "study," and the
boys busied themselves in taking out its contents. The clothing was
all packed away in the bureau; and then came Archie's "sporting
cabinet," as he called it--a fine double-barreled shot-gun, which was
hung upon the frame at the foot of the bed; a quantity of ammunition,
a small hatchet, powder-flasks, shot bags, and a number of other
things, which were stowed away in safe places.

At length Archie drew out two fish-poles, neatly stowed away in strong
bags, and one of them proved to be the one about which Archie had
written. This was placed away in one corner, and Frank promised to
mend it immediately.

"See here," said Archie, as he drew out two queer-looking implements;
"I have been acting on the suggestion of Uncle Joe Lewis."

"What are they?" inquired Frank.

One of them was a thin rod of steel, about three feet in length, very
pointed and sharp at the end the other looked very much like a
fish-spear, only the "tines" were smaller and sharper.

"They are spears," said Archie, in answer to Frank's question.

"So I see; but what use can you put them to?"

"This," said Archie, taking up the rod of steel, "is a mink-spear.
Last winter we lost a good many minks, when, if we had had an
instrument like this, we could have secured them easily enough. You
know that sometimes you get a mink into a place where you can see him,
but, if you go to work to chop a hole large enough to get a stick in
to kill him, he will jump out before you know what you are about. You
will remember a little incident of this kind that happened last
winter--that day we had such good luck. We were following a mink up
the creek on the ice, when Brave suddenly stopped before a hollow
stub, and stuck his nose into a hole, and acted as if there was a mink
in there; and, you know, we didn't believe there was, but we thought
we could stop and see. So we cut a h