“Well! what d’ye think about that?” exclaimed Giraffe.
They were now close to where Allan could be seen standing up.
“Are you hurt much, Allan?” demanded Thad, horrified at the idea of the other having a badly-mangled leg.
“Oh! it hurts some, but I guess the old trap must have a pretty weak set of springs, and that’s why they purposely left it behind. But if it didn’t get a bear, it caught me by the leg, all right.”
“Which leg?” demanded Step Hen, quickly; but Thad spoke up before the question could be answered.
“Hadn’t we better have some light here to work by, Allan?” he asked.
“I should say it wouldn’t be a bad idea, because there are two springs, and they ought to be held down at the same time,” the victim of the trap answered.
“How about it, Giraffe?” asked the patrol leader.
“Do you want a torch?” exclaimed the fire builder, eagerly. “Oh! just give me a minute or so, and I’ll fix you out quick.”
With that he whirled around in his tracks, and started to go back toward the fire, with great bounds, that would have done credit to a leaping deer. When those long “spindle” legs of Giraffe got to working properly, they were capable of covering ground at a tremendous rate. And if he had a few stitches of pain, because of that bad stone bruise, Giraffe paid little attention to it, so engrossed was he in carrying out the order to get a torch.