happens? I'll show you how it's going to work out, if everything runs as
I've planned."

Accordingly, he picked up a heavy piece of wood that chanced to be lying
close by, and which doubtless Obed had used before in order to test the
accuracy of his figuring. This he inserted in the noose, and then gave
it a hunch that not only tightened the rope but carried out the further
purpose of the inventor.

Instantly things began to happen. The boys heard a queer rattling sound
near by, and immediately the wooden "dummy" was jerked out of Obed's
hands, to be drawn up until it struck against the limb of the tree fully
ten feet above. Steve gave a whoop.

"My stars! but that worked like a charm, Obed, let me tell you. Greased
lightning could hardly be quicker than the way you've arranged your
trap. And what was all that rattling sound about? What's holding on to
the other end of the rope, which pulled the log up on the run? I want to
know, even if I ain't from Missouri."

The woods boy laughed as though quite pleased because his trap had
worked well enough to call forth such words of praise from these new
friends.

"Come over and see," he simply said.

They followed the line of rope, now taut, and resembling a huge "fiddle
string," as Bandy-legs remarked, testing it as he passed along. It led
them to the brow of an abrupt little descent, a sheer drop of perhaps
twenty feet. Down this slope they followed the rope with their eyes and