CHAPTER IX.
TRAPPER LORE.
While the other two boys were finishing the packing of their stores Owen had wandered up the bed of a creek that joined the river at a point just above the site of their late camp.
He had evidently noted something that aroused his interest, for the others noticed him peering closely at the banks and examining a number of things.
"Now what in the world do you imagine he sees ?" asked Eli, who was possessed of a good lively streak of curiosity in his composition, and could not observe these things without commenting on the same.
"I was wondering somewhat along that vein, myself, and had come to the conclusion that Owen's trapping instinct has been aroused by certain signs of the furry game for which every man in this region is always on the alert.

Nothing else I can think of would interest him so," returned Cuthbert.
"Well, here he comes back again, and from the smile on his face I imagine he wants us to take a look, too." "I'd just like to, for I've heard so much about the fur business since striking this wild country that it seems a shame not to be better posted.

I know a lynx from a common everyday bobcat, and can tell an otter when I see it; but there are a thousand or two little things connected with the trade of a trapper that are just so much Greek to me.
You notice I've been pumping him every chance I got, and perhaps he sees an opening to make a demonstration.

We're in no big hurry today, and I'd be only too willing to hold over a bit if I could add to my pump of practical knowledge." "Me, too," echoed Eli, who, although a woods dweller all his life, had never made a practice of taking furs; and unless one goes into this business at first hand the result is always disappointing.
One week with an everyday trapper along the lines of his traps will do more toward giving a novice a fair insight into the strange business of outwitting the cunning bearers of fur coats than all the guides ever written.
For once Cuthbert had made a bullseye guess.
When Owen reached them he was holding some little object up for observation.
"Do you know what that is, boys ?" he asked.
Both of them took a good look.
"Looks like a bunny's paw," said Eli, dubiously.
At this Cuthbert laughed.
"Down in my section of Old Virginny the coons like to get rabbit's foot for a charm; it is said to keep the evil spirits away, especially if taken from a graveyard rabbit.

Can it be possible there are fellows up in this benighted region of the same mind?
But that is not a rabbit's foot, I think, Owen," he said.
"What then ?" asked the Canadian.
"I don't know for certain, but if I made a guess I should say mink." "Good enough for a hap-hazard guess.