On the fourth day after his arrival Rat suggested to Reuben that they should visit their traps together. Unwilling though he was, Reuben nevertheless quietly assented, and not long afterward the two men set forth on their rounds.
The season had been wonderfully successful. Never in their experience had so many skins been secured as the trappers had taken within the preceding few weeks. The noisy Rat was loud in his declaration that Kit Carson knew better than any one the streams where the beaver lived. Whether his statement was true or not, beaver, otter, mink, and other animals were caught in great numbers, and many of the skins, as has been said, had been cached.
It was when Reuben and his companion had halted in the middle of the day for luncheon that Rat quietly said to the lad: “Where have you made your caches this time?”
Reuben laughed as he replied: “There’s one within ten feet of you now.”
“What!” exclaimed Rat, glancing keenly about him as he spoke.
“That’s right,” replied Reuben, “there’s one within ten feet of you. I don’t know what Kit Carson would say, but I’m so sure you can’t find it that I would almost be willing to say you can have half the skins there if you dig out the place.”
“That’s all very well,” replied Rat; “of course I can’t find it.” At the same time he glanced all about him, and if Reuben had been more experienced he would have discovered that the trapper was protesting too much. Again and again he begged of Reuben to show him the place where the skins were concealed, declaring that he was unable to discover any trace that had been left. Reuben, however, refused to disclose the location of the cache, and when at last they proceeded on their rounds he was convinced that Rat had no suspicion as to its exact location.
“I’m wondering,” suggested Rat as they moved down the stream, “if Kit Carson would have any objection to letting me bring some of my furs and putting them in the cache along with his.”
“You’ll have to ask him.”
“I will just as soon as I go back to the camp,” declared Rat.