The trapper fixed the stove for the night, and Moze stretched out behind it and was soon snoring loudly. Bill said they would have a hard trip on the morrow, and advised them to go to bed. He promised to awaken them at daylight.
True to his promise, Bill had them up and out with the first ray of light. Much against his wishes, Moze was left behind securely locked in the cabin. The boys carried their rifles, and Bill carried a stout hickory club.
They traveled through the fragrant evergreen forest for about an hour. Then they came to the head of the trap line in a shallow ravine. Bill had two traps set there about a spring-hole. He hoped to capture a mink whose tracks he had seen in the mud earlier in the season, and more recently in the first fall of snow.
The traps were unsprung and the bait undisturbed, and Bill thought the mink had wandered off to other hunting-grounds for a few days. He said it would probably return, and left some fresh bait. Then he started for his next trap.
Before they came to it, the trapper called attention to the trail of a large lynx. Bill explained the difference between its tracks and those of the fox and the dog.
“The lynx’s tracks differ from both the others’ by showing broader, more rounded impressions in the snow. Its trail is wider and indicates a shorter stride than that of the fox, when both animals are walking. The fox and the dog tracks are quite similar in form, especially when the animals are of the same size. But the tracks of both are more pointed than those of the lynx. The dog trail, more particularly when the animal is walking, can always be distinguished by noting the position of the paw-marks. At such a time they are seen one behind the other in an oblique line. Neither of the other trails shows such an angle.”
Bill thought the lynx, whose trail crossed their path, was hunting through a neighboring swamp in search of the large hare, or “snowshoe rabbit.” The boys were surprised to learn that this hare could jump ten or more feet when going at top speed, and that while running before hounds it would travel almost as fast and as far as a deer. They learned, too, that, like the weasel, its fur was brown in summer and white in winter. The lads were anxious to get one of these hares, and Bill promised some day to take them into its haunts.
As they drew near the place where he had his next trap, the boys saw some kind of an animal plunging about among the bushes.
“Hurrah! We’ve got something!” cried Ed.
“What is it?” inquired George, running ahead to obtain a better view.