PROVING HIS CLAIM
"Jerusalem! I surely believes he's gone an' done it!" exclaimed old
Jesse Wilcox.
Frank and Will burst out into a laugh.
"Do you recognize these tails then, trapper?" asked the former; "because we even accused Jerry of trying to palm off some substitute on us for the originals?"
"Oh! them there is original tails all right. How did ye do it, youngster? An' if they ever was fierce dogs, that pack filled the bill. I'd kinder hated to be up agin 'em myself; an' you on'y a boy!"
"A boy armed with a double-barreled shotgun loaded with buck is able to do just as much as a man, I suppose. I got my deer, too, Jesse, thanks to the directions you gave me. It was a bully old time all around," said Jerry, contentedly.
"Well, I should smile to mention it. Ye take the cake, Jerry. An' now ye want me to lead ye thar, I s'pose. Can ye describe the place well enough for me to recognize it?" asked the trapper.
"Possibly I can. Let's see, I remember that there was a queer-looking oak standing close by—three trees in one, as though sprouts had grown up when the parent trunk was smashed by lightning long ago. Remember having seen anything like that in your trips through the big timber, Jesse?" asked the other, seriously.
The trapper smiled.
"Why, it's right easy. I know that place as well as I do my own dooryard.
Shot a stag down by them three oaks myself ten years ago come Christmas.
So that's whar ye met up with the dog pack, was it? All right, if so be
ye are ready, we kin start right off," he remarked eagerly.