“When do you expect to realize something from the sale of skins?” asked Tubby.
“This winter,” he was told. “I think I shall put over half a dozen black pelts by that time, some of which ought to fetch nearly top prices, because the animals are beauts. Then I’ve got a lot of skunks to get rid of, for they’ve increased rapidly. Needn’t turn pale, Tubby, because I won’t be raiding their den while you’re within hundreds of miles of here, so you’re safe. The mink and otter have yet to prove their value as producers of their species. If all turns out well there, in another year or so I’ll be on the high-road to success, and a big one in the bargain.”
All this was very interesting to the other boys. And from time to time that evening as they sat around they asked additional questions connected with the unique enterprise that Ralph was engineering, surely one of the most remarkable that any wideawake American lad had ever engaged in.
Ralph and Rob had been up again to see that the trap for the wildcat was properly set. They also had a short chat with Pete, who did not seem to be at all discouraged because of the failure to secure a victim on the first trial.
“I’m banking on gettin’ the critter tonight, though,” he announced, and they knew that he must have some good reason for his belief.
Sure enough, in the morning, when they once more paid a visit to the fur farm, with Tubby, Sim and Andy tagging along, Pete took them out to where the trap had been set. He did not say anything, but Rob could see from the look on his face that he had a surprise in store for them.
The big cat had been caught, and Pete, coming along at peep of day, had killed it with a single shot, not wishing the wretched thing to suffer any more than was necessary. If anything, it was larger than its mate.
Ralph was feeling quite contented as they came back again to the house.
“Now there’s only one more thing on my mind,” he remarked to Rob, and the latter did not have to ask him what that was, for he knew.
He imagined that the invitation to visit Wyoming would be forthcoming around the lunch hour, for undoubtedly Ralph was growing tired of waiting for Peleg to show up, and meant to put the whole thing to a deciding test in the office of that curio dealer.