“Number four,” answered Jabe. “Jaw’s got a spread of six and one-half inches or thereabouts. But it’s all in the where an’ the how ye set yer trap!”
“And that’s what I want to know about!” said the Boy. “But why don’t you shoot the poor little beggars? That’s quicker for both, and just as easy for you, ain’t it?”
“T’ain’t no use shootin’ a beaver, leastways not in the water! He just sinks like a stone. No, ye’ve got to trap him, to git him. Now, supposin’ you was goin’ to trap, where would ye set the traps?”
“I’d anchor them just in the entrances to their houses,” answered the Boy promptly. “Or along their canals, when they’ve got canals. Or round their brush piles an’ storage heaps. And when I found a tree they’d just partly cut down, I’d set a couple of traps, covered up in leaves, each side of the trunk, where they’d have to step on the pan when they stood up to gnaw.”
“Good for you!” said Jabe, with cordial approbation. “Ye’d make a first-class trapper, ’cause 89 ye’ve got the right notion. Every one of them things is done, one time or another, by the old trapper. But here’s one or two wrinkles more killin’ yet. An’ moreover, if ye trap a beaver on land ye’re like to lose him one way or another. He’s got so much purchase, on land, with things to git hold on to; he’s jest as like as not to twist his leg clean off, an’ git away. If it’s one of his fore legs, which is small an’ slight, ye know, he’s most sure to twist it off. An’ sometimes he’ll do the trick even with a hind leg. I’ve caught lots of beaver as had lost a fore leg, an’ didn’t seem none the worse. The fur’d growed over it, an’ they was slick an’ hearty. An’ I’ve caught them as had lost a hind leg, an’ they was in good condition. A beaver’ll stand a lot, I tell you. But then, supposin’ you git yer beaver, caught so fast he ain’t no chance whatever to git clear. Then, like as not, some lynx, or wildcat, or fisher, or fox, or even maybe a bear, ’ll come along an’ help himself to Mr. Beaver without so much as a by yer leave. No, ye want to git him in the water; an’ as he’s just as anxious to git thar as you are to git him thar, that suits all parties to a T.”
“‘OR EVEN MAYBE A BEAR.’”