"Good morning!" said Owen and Martin almost simultaneously.
When Jerry had gone some distance down the river he turned and yelled to the boys: "If you meet my friend Stayford, tell him he'll find me near old Bowman's shipping place!"
"Why didn't I ask him about that dead-fall?" said Owen, looking down the narrow path where Jerry had disappeared.
"What dead-fall?" inquired Martin.
"One that will catch weasels and foxes. A weasel has been stealing our chickens every night."
"And can't you trap him in the ordinary dead-fall?" asked Martin.
"No! he is too sharp for them. The common dead-fall is good enough for wildcats and wolves. All that you need then is a heavy beam of wood, supported by a smaller piece, to which the bait is fastened; but this is too clumsy for a weasel, for he can make his escape before the trap falls."
"If we meet Stayford we'll ask him how Jerry fixes his small traps. I have caught foxes, but always used the long box-trap."
"I captured a weasel about two weeks ago," said Owen, "and what do you think he did? Gnawed his foot off and escaped."
While the boys were conversing about the sly little marauder of the chicken-coop and planning its destruction, they were hailed by Walter Stayford. He affected surprise to find them out in the woods so early, then questioned them as Jerry did, and received the same answer. The boys on their part had no suspicion of his being the man whom they had met in the cave, as it was too dark for them to see his features when he first appeared there. At Owen's request, Stayford explained how Jerry constructed his dead-falls for minks, weasels and other small rodents, whose skins possessed a market value. Instead of the one large log used for crushing the animal to death, he substituted four smaller ones, arranged parallel to each other, and about two inches apart. The trigger which supported these logs did not consist of a single strip of wood, but of three thin pieces shaped like the figure four, the bait being at the end of the horizontal piece and directly under the center of the dead-fall. The trigger thus set was very delicate, and fell if it was but slightly touched.