"Of course," Max continued, "we don't know whether we'll have another chance to see Link. He may have kicked the dust of these parts off his feet, and started out to find easier picking among the farmers' houses, where he could sneak in and loot the kitchens while the missus was out gathering eggs, or hanging up the wash. But if we can coax him to stay around our camp we'll keep on hoping to get him in the end."
"But, Max," ventured Steve, "if all our smart traps go begging, and he gives us the merry ha! ha! every time, wouldn't you try that monkey-catcher trick the circus man told us about?"
"I've been thinking it over," said Max, "and while I'd much prefer to take Link by some fairer scheme, if he is too sharp for us, why I reckon we'll have to turn to that way. If he isn't captured he could live by stealing through the summer, but when the cold weather came the poor beast would freeze to death, because he's a native of a hot climate, you know."
"G-g-good for you, Max!" exclaimed Toby, beaming with joy; "oh! I know now we'll g-g-get Link in the end. And to coax him to hang out around here r-r-right along I've g-g-gone and b-b-baited the place."
"How?" questioned Bandy-legs.
"I h-h-hunted up some likely p-p-places where I just thought he'd be apt to come and I p-p-put a few kernels of nuts in the crotch, each one closer to the camp. You k-k-know that's the way they ketch wild t-t-turkeys, make a t-t-trap of lathes, and have a road leading into the same, comin' up in the m-m-middle, covered over just inside. Then they strew corn all along and up onto the t-t-trap. Mister T-t-turk he starts pickin' up the g-g-grains, and is so busy that he f-f-follows on till he comes up inside the slats. Then he g-g-gets so excited that he just runs around and around, tryin' to p-p-poke his old head through the bars, and never once rememberin' that he came up in the m-m-middle!"
"Well, now, that wasn't a halfway bad idea of yours, Toby, to bait a line with the nut meat, so's to coax Link to come closer," Steve ventured to say, after listening patiently to Toby's staggering explanation; "but tell us how you expect to trap the monk after you've got him close in? I take it that's goin' to be the job that'll make us think we're up against a stone wall."
"I saw Toby practicing with a piece of old rope this afternoon, throwing a lariat, and I bet you now he's meaning to try and drop a loop over the head of that Link," Bandy-legs asserted.
Max shook his head as though the idea did not find much favor with him.
"A regular cow-puncher might manage to do it," he remarked, "but no bungler like any one of us would be. That trick monkey is too quick and smart to let a noose fall over his head while he's awake. You'd see him duck every time, and slip off, chattering like a parrot. You'll have to try something better than a lariat, Toby, if you hope to trap a wideawake monkey."