CHAPTER XII

SETTING THE TRAP

Already Amos was looking much better. The hope that Elmer dangled before his wondering eyes grew in proportion to his ability to grasp its possibilities.

If it turned out that his wandering father were really in the vicinity, surely some way could be found to get in touch with him, so that he might learn how the cloud on his name had been wiped out years ago, and that he might have come back to his dear ones, if only they had had any clue concerning his whereabouts.

The two boys sat there on the log for almost an hour, talking, and trying to form some plan whereby this could be effected. Elmer had found the best medicine in all the world for his chum’s uplifting; Amos no longer looked as discouraged as before, and even laughed a little at something humorous the loyal companion related for this very purpose.

Elmer, too, was greatly relieved. Why, after all, the situation was a whole lot better than he had dared hope. He became possessed of an overwhelming ambition to find the tramp, and bring him the joyous news. Already in imagination Amos was picturing the joy that would fill his mother’s heart if the wanderer could only be brought back home again, after doing penance so long for his delinquency.

Afterwards Amos took to making little excursions through the neighboring timber on one excuse or another, though it was not difficult for Elmer to understand that he indulged in a wild hope a voice might call to him from out of some copse, and his father appear in sight, unable to resist the longing to meet his boy once more.

But no such happy event came to pass, though Amos continued his walks, so as to scour the neighborhood in every direction.

During one of his absences from camp Perk and Wee Willie came in, bearing quite a noble string of perch and bass and catfish, which they had succeeded in catching through persistent efforts.

Elmer took advantage of the opportunity while Amos was away to tell the two others the whole story as related to him.

Of course, they were both intensely interested, and frequently interrupted the narrative to express their sympathy for the comrade in distress, as well as to vow that not a word of it all should pass their lips.

“But, say, it may not be so bad after all,” Wee Willie hastened to remark, when it had been told. “If the amount taken has been made good then there can be no charge against Mr. Codling, and he could walk down the street of the city where they used to live without being bothered anyway. But then, to be sure he doesn’t know about this, and still believes the Law is looking for him.”

“It cuts Amos to the quick to fancy his father as a common vagrant,” continued Elmer. “Never mention that part of it to him if you happen to be speaking about these things.”

“Huh!” mused Perk, pursing up his mouth thoughtfully, “I reckon the world has kept on treating Mr. Codling rough all these years. The prosperity he went off to find never came his way, and by degrees he’s given up all hope, as these hoboes nearly always do, trying to forget the past, so I’ve understood. Do you think he could be rounded up, Elmer?”

“I’m going to try to make it come out that way,” was the quick reply, “although I don’t know yet just what plan I’ll adopt. Once we got in touch with him it would be easy, I guess. He might try to hold out, ashamed to have the wrong wiped out through his wife, and not by his own efforts; but he couldn’t fight long against being towed into a safe harbor, after seven years of roving and up against hard times.”

“I hear Amos whistling as he comes along,” said Wee Willie just then; “and it’s really the first time he’s done such a thing since we started on this camping trip. Shows he must be feeling a heap better already.”

“He is,” said Elmer, as he broke away from the two who were cleaning their string of fish, with the intention of having some of them for the midday meal.

“Because,” explained Perk, sagaciously, “fish ought to almost jump from the water into the frying-pan; you can’t get them too fresh to please me. And, say, I do just love ’em to beat the band!”

During the balance of the day they found numerous things to claim their attention, as is always the case when fellows who know the game are in camp. For instance, Wee Willie claimed that he was tired of eating off the ground, and proposed making some sort of rude but serviceable table that would be much more homelike.

“And while you’re doing that job,” Amos told him, “perhaps Perk and myself could hatch up some kind of seats to use when we have to stay indoors, and can’t squat on these two logs.”

This idea pleased Perk very much, for if there was one thing he liked, and felt bound to have whenever possible, it was solid comfort.

“I never did see the sense of making a martyr out of yourself all the time you happened to be away from home, and in the woods,” he observed sagaciously when on the subject; “so some fellows might call me a sissy, or an old maid because I insist on fetching along certain things like my tooth brush, and a few more necessities.”

“Huh! like this, for instance, I suppose?” chuckled Wee Willie, appearing at the door of the cabin just then, and holding up an object which caused Elmer to laugh outright, and even Amos to smile indulgently.

“Oh! That’s my trousers’ creaser and stretcher,” blandly admitted Perk, with a grin; “but honest to goodness I never meant to fetch it along; and I don’t see how ever it got among my traps unless my sister Sue did it; she’s as full of mischief as an egg is of meat, and would think it a good joke on me to find what I’d gone and lugged all the way into the woods. Think of me creasing this horrible pair of pants, will you?”

So they acquitted honest Perk of any evil intention along the line of playing the dude when in camp. But of course Wee Willie would lose no opportunity to plague him about his “stretchers” while they were at Log Cabin Bend.

During the early afternoon Elmer disappeared.

He had told no one of his intention, and indeed they did not really miss him until he had been gone some time.

“Where do you think he’s off to?” Perk asked the tall chum, for he had left Amos to complete a rude chair upon which they were working, and strolled over to where Wee Willie was putting the finishing touches on their dining-table, an exceedingly rustic affair, but which promised to be fairly serviceable.

“Oh! that’s an easy one,” replied the other, in a low tone, and with a cautious look toward Amos. “You remember he said he meant to try to locate the man with the queer knife, if he chanced to be still hanging around in this neighborhood.”

“But why should he stay, now he’s got back his property, eh, Wee Willie?” persisted the stout boy.

“Huh! that’s harder to answer, I admit,” he was told; “unless he did chance to recognize Amos while we sat around by the blaze of the campfire, and has been unable to tear himself away. But I leave that to Elmer; if any one can unearth the tramp he will.”

“He nearly always does succeed in anything he undertakes,” assented Perk, with a charming display of blind confidence in the absent chum.

Elmer did not come back for nearly two hours, and even then he gave them no hint as to whether or not he had met with any sort of success in his scouring of the timber in search of the mysterious lurker. Perk was for asking him, but Wee Willie displayed his accustomed shrewdness when advising against such a course.

“If Elmer wants to share anything with us depend on it he will, Perk; and until he makes a move that way we’d better keep mum,” was what he told the other; and Perk, easily influenced, must have thought it good enough advice to follow, for he made no effort to “pump” Elmer.

They had their supper, and some time later Elmer, turning to Amos, remarked:

“How about that camera-trap business, Amos; feel like sauntering over to the bank where you glimpsed that cunning old mink, and setting things up for getting a snapshot of the timid hermit?”

Amos jumped to his feet instantly, his eyes glistening.

“I certainly would like to, Elmer, thank you; and so I’ll hustle and get my outfit, camera, flashlight pan, and all the apparatus necessary. Perhaps I startled the old chap when I looked in on him; but by now he’s had plenty of time to get over his scare.”

“How about you, Perk?” continued the leader; “you saved one of those fish-heads as I asked you to, didn’t you?”

“Three of ’em, Elmer; you’ll find them dangling by a string from that limb of the hickory sapling yonder.”

“We’ll toss the others as far away from camp as we can,” continued Elmer; “else we may be bothered with an army of ’coons fighting each other while trying to locate the prize their scent tells them is around here.”

He and Amos started off, and were soon at the spot. A creek, it seemed, ran into the Beaverkill at that point, and it was really under the bank of this the hermit mink lived in a hole that doubtless had many side passages.

Elmer examined the ground thoroughly, and then they decided just where it would be best to place the camera trap. The pan and flashlight cartridge could lie flat on the ground just alongside, and the cord that upon being jerked would cause the firing of the flashlight ran out to a certain point that Amos said would be in exact focus.

All these preparations were carried out with as little noise as possible, the boys seldom communicating while at work save in whispers; for they did not wish to frighten the timid game, doubtless at the time deep down in his burrow under the rocks and earth of the creek bank.

Finally everything necessary had been carried out. Amos went over it all for the last time, and concluded that he could not better the arrangements in any possible manner.

Accordingly they left the spot, Amos with the avowed intention of being out at first peep of dawn so as to make sure the shutter of the camera was closed before sunlight could destroy the result of their clever trick.