"So we can," said Jack. In fact, whether by accident or by Hugh's choosing, the position was a strategic one. A ravine led from the upper prairie to the stream bottom, and just above it was a high, rounded knoll, only a short rifle shot from where they were sitting.
"Have you any idea, Hugh, about what time the bears come here?"
"No," Hugh responded, "I haven't; but judging from the way all game here acts, they ought to be right tame, and to be about any time of the day, except about midday when the sun is hot."
"Well," asked Jack, "what's the matter with trying them to-morrow morning before we got to the traps?"
"No harm in it at all," said Hugh; "but if we should get one or two bears and four or five beaver, it would give us a whole day's hard work, but then if we get too tired we can rest the next day."
"Well," Jack suggested, "we might try the bears to-morrow, and then go to the traps, and let whatever luck we have determine what we'll do next day."
"All right," said Hugh; "say we do."
After a pause, he went on, "As we were saying the other night, son, we don't want to make a labor of this trip. We've got sixteen beaver now in three days; they ought to be worth fifty dollars, and I don't know but that we've stayed here about long enough. If we should make another good catch to-morrow, we might pack up as soon as our fur is dry enough and go along further. Of course, I reckon that by staying here and working hard, we should get three or four hundred dollars' worth of fur out of this stream. You can see we haven't half gone over it yet; we haven't touched that big pond down below where there must be plenty of beaver. But as I said before, we are not out here to make a grub stake for winter."
"I think with you," said Jack, "that perhaps it would be just as well to move camp to some other place."
"Well," said Hugh, "we'll see what happens to-morrow."