Elmer may not have exactly fancied the job, but he was one of those fellows who can always be depended upon to perform any duty devolving on him, no matter how disagreeable. And it was not to be thought of that they should pass on, to let the poor little animal gnaw its foot off; as well as disappoint the trapper when he had made such a rare catch.

So handing his pack and gun over to the care of the others Elmer looked about until he spied the right sort of stick with which he could dispatch the little beast by a clip on the head, so as not to spoil the valuable skin in any way.

When this had been done in great shape they examined the silver fox more closely and admired the sheen of his coveted coat, for which wealthy people are ready to pay almost any price.

"Shall we hang it up here above the trap?" asked Toby, presently.

"What for?" Elmer went on to say.

"Why, so Uncle Caleb can get it when he comes along," replied Toby; "you wouldn't want to make him die of heart failure, would you, by letting him see he'd made a catch of a silver fox, and that it was gone?"

Elmer laughed at him.

"Why, what's to hinder our camping right here, and waiting for Uncle Caleb to show up?" he asked.

"Well, I declare, what a lot of ninnies the rest of us were not to think of that!" chuckled Lil Artha; "I tell you it's a good thing for George, Toby, and me that we've got you along, Elmer. We'd be losing our heads next, I'm afraid."

"It wouldn't be the first time you'd lost your head, Lil Artha," George hastened to assure his comrade. "But I want to say that I think the idea is all to the good, and that I'm ready to camp right here, and keep on waiting for Uncle Caleb to show up, whether it takes an hour, a day or a week; so long as our supply of venison holds out."

"So far as that goes," Elmer continued, "I wouldn't be surprised to see him any old time, because after the storm he'll be anxious to look into this trap."

Toby stretched his neck and looked all around.

"Don't seem to see anything of him yet," he remarked.

"When he comes," resumed the scout master, "I think you'll find it'll be from that direction over there. I see a good place where we can drop down and hide; so come on, fellows."

"Hide?" echoed George; "whatever would we want to be doing that same for, Elmer?"

"Just to see how disappointed Uncle Caleb looks when he gets here, and finds all these signs around, the blood on the snow, the hair of a silver fox in the closed jaws of the trap, and footprints everywhere," the scout master told him.

Toby was heard to laugh.

"I can just imagine how he'll act," he ventured; "but then, we'll let him know who got the pelt before he's had much time to growl."

Elmer held the dead fox up by his bushy tail, and George was seen to look keenly at it as he muttered:

"Fifteen hundred dollars, and for that measly little runt? I don't believe there's a word of truth about the story. Somebody's been stuffing you, Elmer."

There happened to be a pretty good hiding-place close by. It lay just about where Elmer would have picked it out had he been given a chance. Here they proceeded to settle down, and make themselves as comfortable as the conditions allowed.

"Wonder how long we'll have to wait?" Toby remarked, after they had scraped the snow away, and made places where they could stretch their rubber ponchos out and with blankets on top form comfortable seats upon which to rest their tired bodies.

"That depends a whole lot on how soon Uncle Caleb would think to start out, and how far he has to come to get here," Elmer told him. "The walking is tough enough for us, and yet we're young. He's a pretty old man, Toby says, and might have a harder time of it than we would. But then by noon there ought to be something doing, I'd think."

George had been looking around, and now gave them the benefit of his observations.

"Plenty of wood handy, notice, fellows; if we have to hang out here any length of time, why, we could make a fire, and do our little cooking stunt all right."

"Why, what's getting into George," remarked Toby, pretending to be surprised; "he seems never to get enough to eat. Time was when he had a little bird appetite, but these days he's like a hungry bear all the time."

"I don't know what ails me," George replied, "but it must be going on half rations kind of frightened me, and now I'm thinking something might happen again; so I'm bent on laying in a good supply while it lasts."

"We'll have to look around for a whole herd of deer if you keep on that way much longer, George. And I don't know what your folks at home'll do when you get back again. You'll eat 'em out of house and home, that's right," Lil Artha expressed himself by saying.

George took this chaffing in good part. He was feeling splendidly now, since the danger of their facing real want was of the past.

"Oh! that's all right, boys," he told them. "It was only a little while ago my folks were worried about me eating so little, and I guess they'll sing the other way now. Dad'll talk about going into bankruptcy when he watches me put away the food. Seems like I never could get enough again. I want to eat six times a day, and then complain because meals are so far apart."

"Listen!" exclaimed Lil Artha.

"What did you think you heard?" asked Elmer, after all of them had strained their ears without any result.

"Guess I must have been away off, and it was only a hoot owl after all; but I thought I heard some one cough!" the tall scout declared.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that way, because it's getting on toward time for him to show up, if he means to come along to-day," said Elmer.

"And now that you mention it," added Toby, "I remember Uncle Caleb does have a sort of cough. That was one reason he took to the woods, for he said it was going to add ten years to his life, living in the open, winter and summer, and eating the plainest kind of food."

After that they began to watch more closely than ever, and also listened carefully to catch a repetition of the sound that Lil Artha believed he had heard.

The great woods in their white snow mantle seemed to be deathly quiet. The air had become far less bitter, and in the sun it was thawing slightly. Occasionally some branch would manage to dislodge its burden of snow, which was apt to rustle through other branches on its way to the ground. Away in the distance those crows were cawing again, as though disputing some lucky find, or holding a council of war concerning some contemplated movement in search of new feeding grounds. Beyond these little breaks the silence remained profound.

All at once Elmer gave a low "hist!"

The others had caught the same sound, and as it was repeated again and again they began to believe that some one must be approaching from the very quarter in which Elmer had said Uncle Caleb was apt to come.

"What's that queer scraping, shuffling noise mean, Elmer?" whispered Lil Artha.

"I bet you I know," spoke up Toby, also in a cautious tone; "snow-shoes, and my uncle is wearing the same. How's that for a guess, Elmer?"

"You're right that time, Toby; and there he comes!" was the scout master's reply.

Looking again they could all see the figure of an elderly man, dressed in khaki-colored hunting garments, but warmly clad. He was advancing over the surface of the heaped-up snow, and with the free movements of one to whom the use of snow-shoes was an old story. To see the way he lifted his feet, still dragging the long shoe made of bent hickory, and stout gut that crossed and re-crossed diagonally from side to side, it was evident that Uncle Caleb had spent many days and weeks in the woods when it was impossible for him to get anywhere without the use of snow-shoes.

Toby watched him eagerly. He was evidently thinking that before he left this section of the wilderness he too would be able to walk deftly, after he had been shown the secret of manipulating the clumsy contrivances that served to keep the pedestrian from sinking into the drift.

As the hunter and naturalist drew closer to the spot where he had placed his fox trap they could see that he was getting more and more agitated. Evidently he must have already discovered certain suspicious signs around that gave warning to the effect that he was about to receive a shock of an unpleasant nature.

Uncle Caleb was almost running now. Had there been a glaze on the surface of the snow he would have fairly flown to the spot; but as it was he floundered more or less in advancing hurriedly.

Now they saw him bend down to examine his trap. The presence of the stains on the trampled surface of the snow would be enough to tell him that there had been a victim held between those grim steel jaws of the Newhouse trap. When he found several almost black hairs present he would also understand that he had caught the coveted silver black fox; and while that might add to his joy under ordinary conditions it was only apt to provoke his additional wrath just then; for those telltale footprints all around gave him to understand he had been robbed of his treasure.

He presently got up from his knees. They could see that he was shaking his head as though he did not like the way things looked. Many winters had Uncle Caleb spent in this vicinity, and never before had he ever known of a case of thievery; that it should come when he had made such a fortunate haul was doubly provoking.

It was hardly wise to carry on the joke any further, Elmer thought; and accordingly he gave the signal for which Toby was waiting. The latter immediately jumped to his feet, and shouted at the top of his voice:

"Hello! Uncle Caleb! how d'ye do? You see, I've kept my word, and dropped in to visit you at last. And as you told me to bring a friend or two along, I've fetched our scout master, Elmer Chenowith, also two other bully good fellows, George Robbins and Lil Artha Stansbury!"

The elderly recluse stared at the four boys as though he found great difficulty in believing his eyes. It was as if they had suddenly bobbed up out of the snow-covered earth to surprise him.

"Why, hello! is that you, Nephew Toby?" he presently called back. "Come along and shake hands with me. You're mighty welcome, my boy, let me tell you; and your comrades too. I shall be delighted to meet the Elmer I've heard so much about in your newsy letters; also your other chums."

"But, uncle, we've got a little surprise for you, see?" and as he spoke Toby suddenly held up the silver fox, which act caused the other to smile broadly; "we were directed wrong by a boy, who must have had a grouch against all scouts; and so we got lost; and then that storm caught us; but we were hunting around for some sign of your cabin when we came on this fox caught in a trap, and with his leg nearly cut off. Elmer said he'd soon be gone, leaving only a paw behind; so he knocked him on the head, and then said we'd better wait here till you came. Is it a real silver black fox, Uncle?"

"And are the skins worth as much as fifteen hundred dollars, sir?" asked George, as though he could never rest again until he had settled that bothersome matter in his mind.

"Yes to both questions, boys," replied the scientist; "this skin may be worth anywhere from a thousand dollars to twenty-five hundred, according to how it is graded; and I'm delighted that you had the good sense to save it for me."