Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories
The work being thus divided rapid progress was made. By the time Don
had unloaded the boat and cut a path leading from Godfrey's camp to
the upper end of the island, Bert and David had selected and notched
all the logs that were needed for the trap. Then a stout rope, which
Don had been thoughtful enough to put into the boat, was brought into
requisition, and the work of hauling in the logs began. As fast as
they were placed in position, Don fastened them down with the pins he
and his brother had made the night before, and when lunch time came,
a neat log cabin about six feet square was standing in front of
Godfrey's lean-to. With a little "chinking" and the addition of a
door and perhaps a window, it would have made a much more comfortable
place of abode than the miserable bark structure which Godfrey had so
long occupied.
Their hard work had given the boys glorious appetites, and they did
full justice to the good things Mrs. Gordon had put up for them. Don
said their lunch might have been much improved by the addition of one
of the ducks Bert had shot that morning, but their time was much too
precious to be wasted in cooking. The hardest part of their task was
yet to be done, and that was to build a movable roof for their cabin.
Don, who had received explicit instructions from his father the night
before, superintended this work, and by the middle of the afternoon
the trap was completed and set, ready for the bear's reception.
It looked, as we have said, like a little log cabin with a flat roof.
One end of the roof rested on the rear wall of the trap, while the
other was raised in the air, leaving an opening sufficiently large to
admit of the entrance of any bear that was likely to come that way.
The roof was held in this position by a stout lever, which rested
across the limb of a convenient tree. A rope led from the other end
of the lever, down through a hole in the roof, to the trigger, to
which the bait--an ear of corn--was attached. The bear was expected
to crawl through the opening and seize the ear of corn; and in so
doing, he would spring the trigger, release the lever and the roof
would fall down and fasten him in the pen. When all the finishing
touches had been put on, the boys leaned on their axes and admired
their work.
CHAPTER XI.
TRAPPING QUAILS.
"Now, I call that a pretty good job for a first attempt," said Don;
"and considering the work we have had to do, it hasn't taken us a
great while either. I wish I dare crawl in there and set it off, just
to be sure that it will work all right."
"But that wouldn't be a very bright proceeding," replied Bert. "We
could never get you out. You would be as securely confined as you
were when you were tied up in the potato-cellar."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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