Skookie took it all as a matter of course, but the others were much excited over this discovery. They put the silky, handsome animal upon the ground and began to smooth out its fur. The fangs of the _klipsie_ had struck it in the back of the neck and killed it instantly, so that the coat remained quite smooth and undisturbed by any struggles. It was long and silky--dark, with white-tipped tail, and gray extremities on all the hairs of the back. "This skin ought to be worth anyhow one hundred dollars," said Rob, critically. "At least that would be my guess at it. The natives don't often get that much, but sometimes a trader will buy a skin for fifty dollars and sell it for five or six hundred. That all depends on the sort of market he finds." "Anyhow," said Jesse, "it proves that Skookie can trap foxes all right." The young Aleut was not disturbed by this praise, and proceeded to further prove his ability as a trapper. Having again set his _klipsie_ at a point a few yards farther down the trail, he took up the dead fox and led the way back to the barabbara, where he undertook to carry the carcass in for his skinning operations. At this Rob demurred, for he had already seen proof of the custom of the native trappers, who nearly always skin out their game at the fireside of the barabbara, and who are very careless where they leave the carcasses. "No, you don't!" said Rob. "We've just cleaned out that house, and we don't want it mussed up again so soon. Let's go over to the beach and skin our fox." Skookie, always docile and willing to obey, once more led the way, carrying the fox under his arm. At last he seated himself on the ground, sharpened his knife-blade on a stone, and began to skin out the fox, much as an old trapper would. He made a cut from one hind leg to the other, cut off the tail bone, pulled the tail off clean by the use of two sticks clamped against the bone, and proceeded to remove the skin from the body without splitting it along the belly--"casing" it, as trappers call it. So carefully did he do his work that he did not make the slightest cut around the eyes or ears or nostrils, and even brought off the whiskers of the muzzle without disfiguring the skin in the least. Next he found a spreader, or tapering board, under the eaves of the barabbara, and over this he stretched his fox-skin, inside out, setting it away in the back part of the barabbara, where it would slowly dry without being exposed to the fire. "Well, he certainly is a trapper, all right," said John, admiringly. "Now I believe we could do that sort of thing ourselves. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't get a lot of foxes here, and maybe make some money out of the skins some day."