whispered these words in his ear, naturally enough the said Owen could
not help but awaken.

"What ails you?" he asked sleepily; and even Steve stirred as though the
sound of their voices had aroused him.

"My trap's sprung!" was the rather surprising information Bandy-legs
vouchsafed in return.

"The dickens you say!" exclaimed Owen, suddenly sitting up in the
darkness. "Now, how d'ye know that fact? Did anything give a yelp?"

"No," continued the other, eagerly; "but you see, Owen, before I went to
sleep I had Max tie a string to my leg and the other end to that loop.
It was fixed under the root of a tree; and if the trap went off, why,
don't you see, the string'd give me just a sweet little yank, like it
wanted to tell me to come around and take my game out."

"And did you feel that same yank?" demanded Steve, sitting up suddenly.

"Right now, before I woke Owen up. Oh, it was a sure enough jerk, all
right! What'll we do about it?" demanded Bandy-legs.

"Let's crawl out and see what happened," remarked Owen, setting his
actions to correspond with his words, and being followed by his two
companions.

"What is it?"

That was Max speaking, and they could see his head poked out from the