enclosure, where the parent foxes were confined behind the wire fencing,
"I've just been adding a few finishing touches tuh this here trap
scheme. I got a little idea while I was alookin' the ground over, and
reckoned I could fix it up so there'd be a heap right good chance that a
feller creeping around here o' a night would step into the contraption.
I'll show yuh how I 'ranged it."

With that he led the way along a plain trail that seemed to be the
easiest route up to the enclosure. Three times out of four a stranger,
prowling around with meagre light to guide him, would be apt to follow
that beaten track; and this was evidently what the shrewd Obed was
counting on.

"Well, it's this way my little scheme is agoin' to work," he explained,
after reaching a certain point. "See this rope--I throw it across a limb
o' this tree. Yuh notice that it's got an easy runnin' slip-noose at the
end, don't yuh? That I'm fixing right here, where there's a good chance
the thief will put his foot in it as he takes this step I'm showing
you."

He proved that he was right, and indeed it was really a difficult
thing, after Obed had placed the noose just as he wanted it, close to
the ground, and on little wooden crotches he had arranged there for the
purpose, for any one to step across without getting his foot entangled
in the rope.

"Well, let's reckon, then, he does get caught in the noose, and jerks it
tight around his ankle," continued Obed, very much interested himself in
what he was saying, and as Max quickly noticed, even neglecting to speak
as he usually did, although he had shown this odd trait before. "What