Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Deer -- Juvenile fiction; Mystery fiction
“Are you sure the trap will work?” asked Teddy.
“Oh, sure!” said the cobbler. “Just you try it.”
“Go on, Teddy, get in!” advised Dick with a laugh.
“And get caught!” cried Teddy. “I should say not!”
“But we’re here to let you out,” said Joe.
Under that promise Teddy consented to enter the box trap to see if it
would work.
“But no fooling!” he told his chums. “If I get caught in there you’ve
got to let me out.”
“I’ll see to that,” promised Mr. Crispen. “It will be a good way to
test the trap. Now, Teddy, here is what you do. The trap is big enough
for you to go in if you stoop a little. From what you told me, the deer
isn’t quite as tall as you boys, even counting his horns.”
“No, he’s about our size,” Dick said.
“A deer can bend his head backward and sort of lay his horns along
his back,” explained the cobbler. “That’s what they do when they run
through the woods so their horns won’t get caught. So I think I have
made the trap plenty high enough for the deer.
“When you go in, Teddy, just pretend you are a deer and take hold of
the bait with your hand. The bait is tied to the trigger that will slip
the catch and let the door fall back of you. You will be a captive for
a little while. But we’ll soon let you out.
“Then, if we find the trap works all right, and I’m sure it will, I’ll
set it again and we’ll go away. In the morning we shall have another
captive, I’m sure.”
“You mean the deer?” asked Joe.
“I mean the deer,” said the cobbler.
When all was ready, and the bundle of carrots, cabbage, lettuce and
salt tied to the trigger, Teddy stooped and walked into the trap. It
was just about large enough for him.
“All ready fellows!” he called in a muffled voice. “Here she goes!”
A moment later, with a thud, the door dropped down back of the boy and
he was caught in the trap.
“It worked!” cried Joe.
“Swell!” exclaimed Dick.
“I knew it would,” chuckled the cobbler. He walked all around the trap
to make sure it was tight. The moon was beginning to rise now and the
party of deer-trappers could see quite well.
“I say!” called Teddy. “When are you going to let me out of here?”
“Oh, that’s so,” said Joe, pretending to have forgotten his chum.
“Teddy is in the trap, isn’t he?”
“I was wondering what had become of him,” Dick remarked with pretended
innocence.
“Open that door!” cried Teddy.
A man passing in the road, which was not far from where the trap was
being set in Mrs. Traddle’s garden, suddenly stopped and called:
“What’s going on there?”
At the same time Teddy called again in loud tones:
“Let me out! Let me out of this trap!”
“Oh, so you’re putting boys in traps, are you!” cried the man in angry
tones. “I’ll stop that!” He leaped over the fence. Joe, Dick and Mr.
Crispen saw it was Policeman Robbin.
“What’s going on here?” demanded the officer, his ruddy face darkened
by anger.
“We’re just setting a deer trap, and Teddy went in to test it,”
explained Joe as Dick and Mr. Crispen raised the door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account