“He nearly always does succeed in anything he undertakes,” assented Perk, with a charming display of blind confidence in the absent chum.
Elmer did not come back for nearly two hours, and even then he gave them no hint as to whether or not he had met with any sort of success in his scouring of the timber in search of the mysterious lurker. Perk was for asking him, but Wee Willie displayed his accustomed shrewdness when advising against such a course.
“If Elmer wants to share anything with us depend on it he will, Perk; and until he makes a move that way we’d better keep mum,” was what he told the other; and Perk, easily influenced, must have thought it good enough advice to follow, for he made no effort to “pump” Elmer.
They had their supper, and some time later Elmer, turning to Amos, remarked:
“How about that camera-trap business, Amos; feel like sauntering over to the bank where you glimpsed that cunning old mink, and setting things up for getting a snapshot of the timid hermit?”
Amos jumped to his feet instantly, his eyes glistening.
“I certainly would like to, Elmer, thank you; and so I’ll hustle and get my outfit, camera, flashlight pan, and all the apparatus necessary. Perhaps I startled the old chap when I looked in on him; but by now he’s had plenty of time to get over his scare.”
“How about you, Perk?” continued the leader; “you saved one of those fish-heads as I asked you to, didn’t you?”
“Three of ’em, Elmer; you’ll find them dangling by a string from that limb of the hickory sapling yonder.”
“We’ll toss the others as far away from camp as we can,” continued Elmer; “else we may be bothered with an army of ’coons fighting each other while trying to locate the prize their scent tells them is around here.”