Max quickly found what he was looking for.

“Come here, Obed,” he remarked, quietly, and as the other eagerly bent over, Max went on to say:  “You can see that here’s another footprint, and quite different from the one made by his heavier boots.  So he did have at least one companion along, perhaps two, for all we know.  And that stamps his story a yarn made out of whole cloth.  He came here, just as you expected, to rob you of your foxes.  Killing them wouldn’t have filled the bill so well, unless they made off with the pelts in the bargain.  How about it, Obed?”

“Every word you say is true, Max,” breathed the other, indignantly.

“Then we’ll certainly not let him go free, that’s a dead sure proposition,” ventured Max, decidedly, and in a voice that he meant should reach the prisoner.

“Glad to hear you settle it that way, boys,” remarked Steve, who had kept one eye on the prisoner and the other in the direction of his mates.  “Shall I march him over to the cabin right away?”

Max gave a look around.  He wondered where that other man could be just then, and whether he was watching them from some neighboring covert, having by degrees recovered from the near panic into which he had been thrown at the time his companion was snatched away from his side so mysteriously, amidst a tremendous din, caused by the shouts of the seized man, and the rattling of the stones inside the rolling barrel.

But he could see nothing.  The little lantern only covered a certain amount of space with its meagre illumination, and much that was evil might lurk beyond the radius of its lighted circle.

“Yes, we’ll change our base, and go back to the cabin,” Max said aloud; “keep the guns ready for business, and if an attack is made shoot straight!”

Of course this admonition was delivered in a loud tone, mostly to warn the unseen party, who might be hovering near; but both gun-bearers gave evidence of meaning to profit by the advice.

CHAPTER XII

THE TAPS ON THE CABIN WALL

Once more they were inside the cabin.  Obed was looking at the man again as though he believed the other was possessed of certain information which he hoped to obtain in turn.  Max, too, was observing all these things with considerable interest, if the smile that appeared on his face from time to time signified anything.  But he was studying Obed even more than he seemed to pay attention to the man they had found turned upside down in the tree.

“Well, one of your clever traps worked like a charm, Obed,” Steve was saying, and doubtless meaning to compliment the fur farmer.  “But now that they know we’re on to their being around, it’s hardly likely we’ll catch another victim tonight.  All the same something ought to be done to protect the fox pack.”

“That’s easily arranged,” remarked Max, “we’ll follow out the plan we talked over.  Two had better stand guard at a time, and for several hours.  They can be relieved by another couple, and in this way the balance of the night will be passed over.  Those on duty are to carry the guns; and with orders to challenge any moving thing that comes along.”