stuff in his
pocket. I saw him get it out of the bag the circus man left with us. And
I just bet you he's thinking of tempting Link with it."

Steve jumped up and stepped into the tent; he came out again with a
broad grin on his face.

"I was mistaken, glad to say!" he remarked.

"About what?" Max asked him.

"Well, when Bandy-legs here said Toby was running around with a pocket
full of the nut meat, it struck me that perhaps he'd scooped that bottle
of hard stuff too, which Mr. Jenks said we might use to soak, first the
dry bread and then Link. But the country is safe, for he never touched
it."

"None of us have seen or heard anything of the monkey since he stole
Toby's basket of frog legs this morning," ventured Max; "and it may be
he's left us--cleared out in disgust because what he steals here doesn't
seem to touch the right spot with him."

"Don't mention that to Toby, or you'll give him the blind staggers,"
said Steve; "because he's set his mind on capturing the monk; and when
Toby gets a thing in that head of his he's a mighty unhappy fellow if he
can't carry it through."

"What d'ye think," Bandy-legs went on to say, "I heard him grumbling to
himself, and seems like he was wondering whether he couldn't keep the
old monkey and let the two hundred go glimmering. Actually thinks more
about an old rascal of a Simian than a handful of plunks. But we're
three to one, and we'll see to it that no such fool deal as that goes
through."

"No danger of it," chirped Steve, briskly; "that circus man thinks more
than two hundred of Link; and five times that wouldn't tempt him to let
the monkey slip through his fingers. Think of him coming away back here
in hopes of bagging the slippery old scamp! No, if we do get hold of
that Missing Link he's going to keep on amusing the circus public, and
not just Toby Jucklin."

When the afternoon came to an end they managed to get the restless Toby
to come in near the campfire; but it was impossible for him to talk, or
even think of any other subject than capturing the stray monkey.

Max had considered the subject, and arrived at a sensible conclusion.
They had really come out just to break the ice for the new season, and
without any definite object in view save to enjoy the open air, and
renew some of their pleasures of camp life.

It would be as well for them to spend some of their time in inventing
ingenious traps calculated to ensnare the trick monkey. This would be
pit