“Looks pretty certain to me that Barrows was the instigator of the matter,” answered Garry.
When Barrows appeared, the boys explained the matter to him, and asked him for the necessary lumber with which to construct a door, also some screening for the window. Barrows told them they could go to the saw mill and select whatever they wanted in the way of boards.
As they were getting the boards, an old grizzled lumberman chatted with them. He asked why they wanted a door in that kind of weather, and Garry told him the story.
“They do leave a reg’lar trail behind them, don’t they?” laughed the old man. “I’ll tell you what you can do, though, and it will fix things up pretty well. I always keep some sulphur on hand when I’m in the woods. Occasionally you get a rash from the browntail moths in the woods, and the best thing for a cure is a poultice made with a little sulphur. When you put your door on, take a few extra boards and board up your window. Then take the sulphur that I give you and put it in a pan and set it on fire with a hot coal from the kitchen range. Then you hop out and let the shack get thoroughly filled with the fumes o’ the sulphur, and you’ll find after a couple or three hours that you’ll have your place fumigated as pretty as if you had ten boards of health do the job for you.”
The boys thanked the old timer, and left with their lumber. A few minutes later he appeared on the scene with his sulphur, and the work of boarding the window and making a door being completed, they did as he had directed and went on a tour of the camp.
As they were wandering about, with Sandy at their heels, they were again approached by the man who had wanted to go on a coon hunt. This time they accepted his invitation, and arranged to go that night.
The day passed quickly, for there were many things about the camp to attract their attention, and they asked numerous questions of such of the lumberjacks as seemed inclined to spend a moment or two to answer them.
As soon as it got dark, the coon hunter appeared and asked if they were ready to go. He was accompanied by one or two of his friends, and Garry noticed that one of them carried a burlap bag.
The boys secured their rifles, and were about to join the party, when one of the men, noticing the guns, said:
“You don’t need your rifles, although you can carry ’em if you want. We were aiming to catch the coon alive and see if we couldn’t tame him for a sort of pet around the camp. That’s what we brought the bag for.”