THE BATTLE OF WITS
After that Toby seemed to have but one object in life, which was to hatch up a clever scheme whereby the educated monkey could be trapped. He wandered around in the near vicinity of the camp, with his eyes constantly searching the branches of the trees in the vague hope that he might discover the runaway snugly squatted in some crotch and fast asleep.
"I believe Toby's got an idea he's able to jabber monkey talk," said Steve, after the day was fairly well spent, and they could hardly coax Toby to come in to his midday meal, much less do his share of cooking; "and that he expects, if only he, might find where that slick old Link holds out, he could pan-handle him, and get him to come into camp with us."
"Now you're hewing pretty close to the line," commented Bandy-legs, "and I'll let you know why. Toby's got a handful of the nut stuff in his pocket. I saw him get it out of the bag the circus man left with us. And I just bet you he's thinking of tempting Link with it."
Steve jumped up and stepped into the tent; he came out again with a broad grin on his face.
"I was mistaken, glad to say!" he remarked.
"About what?" Max asked him.
"Well, when Bandy-legs here said Toby was running around with a pocket full of the nut meat, it struck me that perhaps he'd scooped that bottle of hard stuff too, which Mr. Jenks said we might use to soak, first the dry bread and then Link. But the country is safe, for he never touched it."
"None of us have seen or heard anything of the monkey since he stole Toby's basket of frog legs this morning," ventured Max; "and it may be he's left us—cleared out in disgust because what he steals here doesn't seem to touch the right spot with him."
"Don't mention that to Toby, or you'll give him the blind staggers," said Steve; "because he's set his mind on capturing the monk; and when Toby gets a thing in that head of his he's a mighty unhappy fellow if he can't carry it through."
"What d'ye think," Bandy-legs went on to say, "I heard him grumbling to himself, and seems like he was wondering whether he couldn't keep the old monkey and let the two hundred go glimmering. Actually thinks more about an old rascal of a Simian than a handful of plunks. But we're three to one, and we'll see to it that no such fool deal as that goes through."
"No danger of it," chirped Steve, briskly; "that circus man thinks more than two hundred of Link; and five times that wouldn't tempt him to let the monkey slip through his fingers. Think of him coming away back here in hopes of bagging the slippery old scamp! No, if we do get hold of that Missing Link he's going to keep on amusing the circus public, and not just Toby Jucklin."
When the afternoon came to an end they managed to get the restless Toby to come in near the campfire; but it was impossible for him to talk, or even think of any other subject than capturing the stray monkey.
Max had considered the subject, and arrived at a sensible conclusion. They had really come out just to break the ice for the new season, and without any definite object in view save to enjoy the open air, and renew some of their pleasures of camp life.
It would be as well for them to spend some of their time in inventing ingenious traps calculated to ensnare the trick monkey. This would be pitting their smartness against that of a suspicious and clever animal; and if they won out why it would be reckoned not only a glorious triumph but at the same time put a nice little sum of good money in their pockets.
He announced this policy as they were finishing their supper, and the others had to smile to see the look of ecstatic joy that spread all over Toby's face.
"Oh! that's just fine of you boys to stand by me like that!" he burst out with, and not tripping even once, strange to say. "I'll never forget it, give you my word I won't. And some time I'll find a chance to pay you back, see if I don't."
"Hear! hear!" cried Steve.
"Bravo!" exclaimed Max.
"Good stuff, Toby," remarked Bandy-legs, "and he never fell all over himself once, you notice, fellers."
"Of course," Max continued, "we don't know whether we'll have another chance to see Link. He may have kicked the dust of these parts off his feet, and started out to find easier picking among the farmers' houses, where he could sneak in and loot the kitchens while the missus was out gathering eggs, or hanging up the wash. But if we can coax him to stay around our camp we'll keep on hoping to get him in the end."
"But, Max," ventured Steve, "if all our smart traps go begging, and he gives us the merry ha! ha! every time, wouldn't you try that monkey-catcher trick the circus man told us about?"
"I've been thinking it over," said Max, "and while I'd much prefer to take Link by some fairer scheme, if he is too sharp for us, why I reckon we'll have to turn to that way. If he isn't captured he could live by stealing through the summer, but when the cold weather came the poor beast would freeze to death, because he's a native of a hot climate, you know."
"G-g-good for you, Max!" exclaimed Toby, beaming with joy; "oh! I know now we'll g-g-get Link in the end. And to coax him to hang out around here r-r-right along I've g-g-gone and b-b-baited the place."
"How?" questioned Bandy-legs.
"I h-h-hunted up some likely p-p-places where I just thought he'd be apt to come and I p-p-put a few kernels of nuts in the crotch, each one closer to the camp. You k-k-know that's the way they ketch wild t-t-turkeys, make a t-t-trap of lathes, and have a road leading into the same, comin' up in the m-m-middle, covered over just inside. Then they strew corn all along and up onto the t-t-trap. Mister T-t-turk he starts pickin' up the g-g-grains, and is so busy that he f-f-follows on till he comes up inside the slats. Then he g-g-gets so excited that he just runs around and around, tryin' to p-p-poke his old head through the bars, and never once rememberin' that he came up in the m-m-middle!"
"Well, now, that wasn't a halfway bad idea of yours, Toby, to bait a line with the nut meat, so's to coax Link to come closer," Steve ventured to say, after listening patiently to Toby's staggering explanation; "but tell us how you expect to trap the monk after you've got him close in? I take it that's goin' to be the job that'll make us think we're up against a stone wall."
"I saw Toby practicing with a piece of old rope this afternoon, throwing a lariat, and I bet you now he's meaning to try and drop a loop over the head of that Link," Bandy-legs asserted.
Max shook his head as though the idea did not find much favor with him.
"A regular cow-puncher might manage to do it," he remarked, "but no bungler like any one of us would be. That trick monkey is too quick and smart to let a noose fall over his head while he's awake. You'd see him duck every time, and slip off, chattering like a parrot. You'll have to try something better than a lariat, Toby, if you hope to trap a wideawake monkey."
"Oh! well, I've been, h-h-hammering my h-h-head all the while," Toby explained, "and I've fixed up a lot of g-g-good schemes that I'd like to try out. Once we g-g-get him to understand that there are n-n-nuts around here, and he ain't goin' to desert us in a h-h-hurry; so I'll have a c-c-chance to sample 'em all."
"How about to-night; think it'll pay to rig that rope snare again, and bait it with some of the nuts?" asked Steve, who was rapidly becoming quite interested in the game, which appealed to his sporting instincts more and more the deeper he allowed himself to be drawn into it.
"I expected to," admitted Toby.
"We might set a number of the rope snares," suggested Bandy-legs, "so that if he missed connections with one he'd get stuck in another. They could all be connected with that stout hickory stick; or mebbe we might find others just as full of spring."
Max agreed that at least it would do no harm.
"All the same," he went on to tell Toby, "if I was you I wouldn't expect too much from that spring trap, no matter how many snares you set. If that smart monkey really put that stick in the noose, and set it off for fun, or in spite, chances are you'll never trap him that way. He knows too much about tricks and all that. But we'll give the thing another try-out to-night, and if it doesn't work we'd better change off to something else."
Accordingly all of them became very busy for some time. It was found that they could fasten two other cords to the same bent sapling, making a regular network of nooses, among which they scattered some of the nut meat which the circus man had brought along with him, knowing the weakness of the missing animal for the same.
"Whew! if he eats up all that and doesn't get caught, I'll believe he's sure a close relation of the Old Nick," Steve gave as his opinion, after this labor had been completed, and they surveyed the trap with complacency.
Toby was very enthusiastic. He declared that he felt it in his bones they would be awakened by a screaming and scolding, to find poor old Link dangling in mid-air, gripped by the hind leg in one of those entangling nooses. He even went so far as to arrange the stout collar, with its padlock and chain, which Mr. Jenks had left with them before going back, so as to have it handy in case of sudden need.
None of them slept very soundly, even Toby, who as a rule could be depended on to get his full share of rest. Not that there was any wild alarm, for the night crept on and everything remained peaceful enough; but all of the boys felt more or less excitement; and upon being awakened by some dream would lie there listening, and occasionally peeping out from the upturned flap of the tent.
The fire smouldered, and went out, for no one ventured to replenish the exhausted fuel; and during the last section of the night there was not even a spark remaining; only the cold moon above to dispel the darkness.
Then came morning, and as Bandy-legs aroused them all with his kicking to get free from his blanket, which seemed to be twisted around his neck, while his feet were chilled, they thought it best to start another day.
Toby of course was out as soon as he could get some clothes on. He had expressed himself as keenly disappointed because there had been no sign of the trap being sprung; but shortly after he went out to investigate, the others heard him coming back on the jump.
"Sounds like he's found signs to tell that Link did pay us a call," suggested Steve, rightly guessing why Toby should manifest so much excitement.
He proved to be a true prophet, for Toby, as soon as he reached them, burst out with his lament.
"What d'ye think, he's been and d-d-done it, fellers? Say, there isn't a c-c-crumb of all that nut meat left; but he stepped over every n-n-noose as neat as you p-p-please. My stars! but he's a c-c-corker. G-g-guess they make him walk on the tops of a h-h-hundred bottles in the c-c-circus. He c'n do it easy, g-g-give you my word for it. He's a w-w-wonder, that's what he is. Whew! means I've g-g-got to do some more high thinkin' if I expect to g-g-grab that Link. But I will, if I have to p-p-play hookey from school, and s-s-stay up here right along!"
Upon investigation it was found that the clever simian had indeed managed to pass in and out amidst that network of waiting loops without displacing even one of the same. Every crumb of the nut meat had vanished, too, showing how careful the sly rascal had been, and cleaned up as he went.
Bandy-legs suggested that perhaps woods rats might have done the trick, or even chipmunks or red squirrels; whereupon a close examination disclosed the plain imprints of the monkey's feet in numerous places, which proved the identity of the culprit beyond any dispute.
Max was highly amused at the outcome, for he always liked to find himself pitted against a worthy antagonist. He seldom felt like exerting himself when the game was not worth the candle. He liked to cast a fly for bass, and having deceived them with a feathery lure, play them with a slender rod and fine line, giving them the sportsman's chance to get free if only they knew how to jump out of the water and throw themselves across the taut line.
It began to look as though the boys had found a foeman worthy of their steel in this sly trick monkey; and they would possibly have all the fun they could want during the balance of their little Easter outing, in trying to outwit him.
From time to time during that day they talked matters over. Toby was not left alone in the endeavor to invent some scheme whereby Link might be caught. Steve hatched up one that they determined to try that same night. It was to dig a pit, cover it skillfully with a delicate mattress that, when sprinkled with earth would seem to be perfectly sound; but which was calculated to give way, once a weight of thirty pounds or more had embarked on the covering.
With high hopes, then, they carefully baited this trap just before retiring to the interior of the tent. Toby, always sanguine, was confident that it was going to work. He had told long stories as they sat around the camp fire, about how hunters of big game, sent out by those who dealt in wild animals, always used this trap in the shape of a pit in order to secure various species that could not be caught in their lion and tiger nets.
They had slept so poorly of late that once they did manage to forget things the entire four boys slumbered heavily for several hours. Any ordinary noise would not have awakened Toby when at home; indeed, his folks had threatened to get a patent bed that, connected with clock-work machinery, would throw him out on the floor at a certain hour arranged for. But he had something on his mind now, and hence when there suddenly arose a tremendous squealing and crashing, Toby was up on his feet as quickly as any of his three chums.
"Whoop! hurrah! we've g-g-got him at last, fellers! Quick, let's hurry and k-k-keep the beggar from c-c-climbing out again! Oh! joy! D-d-didn't he make an awful r-r-row, though? Listen to him, would you? P-p-please hurry, Bandy-legs; you're as s-s-slow as molasses in winter!"
Not stopping to even pull on their shoes they all hastened to reach the outer air, and rush toward the spot where the pit had been dug.