“Better still,” added Elmer, intent on rubbing it in while about the job, “the marks led straight to that little window. You remember it’s got a sort of shutter secured with a hasp inside; though air can come in because of the slits between the slats. Now I purposely pried an end of one slat loose.”
“What for, Elmer?” queried the wondering but admiring Perk.
“So any one who felt like it could thrust an arm through the gap, and feel around inside,” Elmer told him.
“Jingo! what a bully scheme!” exclaimed Perk, grinning broadly; “for of course the knife was within reach from the opening. Now I can see why you feel so dead sure the persistent old tramp got his knife at last. Say, it does pay to keep everlastingly at it, eh?”
“But why go to all that trouble just to please a Wandering George?” exploded Wee Willie. “For one, I’d have been glad to keep that queer contraption just as a curiosity, and so as to remember some of the things that have happened to us up here at Log Cabin Bend.”
“Just what I didn’t want to have happen,” Elmer told him, sternly. “I knew that as long as that thing was around, every time it bobbed up poor Amos was bound to have a bad inning. Now it’s gone, he may forget more or less about what it brought up in his mind.”
“Gee! what a mixup we’ve struck, all around,” muttered the tall chum, rubbing his pointed chin after a habit he had when reflecting; and then suddenly brightening up, he continued: “but we mustn’t let such little things spoil our camping trip. Amos will get over it after a bit. We must all try to keep him interested in things—oh! what about that camera-trap business you two laid out to carry through last night?”
“Why to be sure,” Perk chimed in, “there’s that cunning Mr. Mink who lost a good supper last night just because you forgot. And I went and laid a nice fish-head aside for him.”
“You’re wrong there, Perk,” Elmer assured him, quietly. “It wasn’t forgetfulness on my part; but Amos had gone to his blanket with a sick headache, and I just couldn’t find the heart to disturb him. The trap game will keep just as well for to-night. In fact, if it should happen to be cloudy all the better, because it is on black nights such things can be made a success. You see the camera must be left with the lens exposed, so that when the flashlight is fired the exposure will be complete.”
“Then how about daylight coming on, and finding it in that way, to spoil the exposed plate or film?” queried Perk.