"I've been trying to get a picture of that cat so long," Uncle Caleb told them, "that I'd really be very much disappointed now if he met with his fate, and I had to go without a snapshot, even though a distant one, to remember him by."
"It might be arranged," suggested Elmer, quietly.
"Put your trust in our scout master, sir, and you won't be disappointed," Lil Artha went on to say, meanwhile looking curiously toward Elmer, as though wondering what sort of plan he could have conceived on the spur of the moment.
"Tell us how, Elmer?" George demanded, at the same time eying the cabin with a dubious manner, as though he half believed the boys who said they had seen something through the small window must have deceived themselves.
"Why, if the beast came down through the chimney, it strikes me he ought to know enough to go out the same way if alarmed enough," was what Elmer told them.
"A good idea, my boy!" declared Uncle Caleb, "and if I had everything ready, with my little pocket camera focussed on the chimney, I suppose I could snap him off as he climbed out. Now I'll fix that up right away, and when I'm ready I'll sing out. After that some of you can bang on the door, and start shouting, which should be enough to alarm the cat and make it think of scampering out the way it came in."
He was as good as his word. Pushing forward until he was within thirty feet of the cabin, with a good view of the rude chimney-top, and the light in the right quarter to promise a good picture, Uncle Caleb waved his hand to the others.
"All ready here, boys!" he exclaimed after he had fixed himself.
Elmer had spoken to Lil Artha and Toby, who were delegated to be the attacking squad. George and the scout master accompanied Uncle Caleb, the latter holding his gun in readiness.
"Remember," said Elmer, in a tone that every one could easily hear, "there is to be no shooting unless it becomes necessary. If the cat attacks us we'll have to defend ourselves. If it chooses to go about its business we don't expect to bother it any. Get that, Lil Artha?"