Jim showed them how he had to employ entirely new tactics when dealing
with the muskrats than in connection with the mink. The former were
banded together in colonies, and the trapper had to be constantly on the
alert lest in capturing one prize he frighten the whole family away.

"But I learned my business many years ago," the old trapper declared,
with considerable pride, "when beaver lived in the North Woods. There
never were more wary little animals than those same beaver, and the man
who could circumvent 'em had a right to call himself smart."

After setting three traps he led the way to a place where he had left one
baited on the occasion of his previous visit to the marsh.

"You see, here's where I set it on the bank," he remarked, "and the chain
ran down there to a stake in deep water."

"But it ain't here now, Uncle Jim," said Steve.

"Because a curious and hungry musquash, anxious to reach the bait I stuck
on a splinter of wood just above the trap, set it off."

"And then sprang back into the water, because that was his natural way of
doing when alarmed, and soon drowned there. Was that the way it worked,
Uncle Jim?" asked Max.

The old trapper looked fondly at him and answered:

"Exactly as you say, son. Men who trap these cunning small fur-bearing
animals never get tired of studying their habits; and the one who enters
most fully into the life and instincts of mink, 'coon, marten, otter,