“Guess we might as well get them now as later,” Bob said. “As long as we’ve got to tell them about it it won’t do any harm if they do see us.”
As Jacques had said, in the loft of the shed just behind the kitchen they found a large number of traps of all sorts and sizes, from the small ones used to catch musk rats to those large enough to hold a full grown bear.
“Going to use these big ones?” Jack asked.
“Not the largest. These number threes are about right, I reckon. They’ll hold a man without breaking his leg.”
“How many do we want?”
“Let’s see. We want to plant one under that window and about three out near the edge of the woods. Whoever handles the light that makes that spot must stand somewhere near there. Then, if we can find anything that looks like a path near there we’ll put a couple in it. That makes six altogether. You take three and I’ll take three.”
The traps together with the chains were heavy and three made a full sized load. They found a spade in the shed and were soon out back of their cabin by the window where they had seen the ‘ghost’ the night before.
“Now, we’ve got to do a mighty good job at this,” Bob declared as he started to dig in the hard ground. “Whoever is at the bottom of this is nobody’s fool and, even if he does come around only when it’s dark, he’ll smell a mouse if he’s given half a chance.”
“Well, I don’t like to throw bouquets at myself,” Jack grinned, “but we ought to know how to set a trap. We’ve done it times enough.”
Fortunately there was a large pine tree only a few feet from the cabin on that side and the ground was thickly coated with the long pine needles, making it easy to cover the trap so that not the slightest indication of its presence was to be seen.