“You are right,” answered Whopper.  “But the fur will he thicker yet later in the season.”

With the mink in their game-bags, they pushed on up the tiny watercourse and not long after roused up some partridge, the game going up with a rush that at first scared them.  But they shot as quickly as they could, and each had a partridge to his credit.

“This day is opening finely,” declared Whopper.  “We are bound to get about a hundred birds and animals, I’ll wager.”

“That’s right, pile it on,” answered Shep, with a grin.  “I thought you had been keeping down lately.”

“Oh, a hundred is nothing,” said Whopper, airily.  “Maybe I’ll get that many myself.  I once heard of a man who shot two hundred wild turkeys in a day.”

“I don’t call that sport,” put in Giant.  “I call that butchery.”

“So do I,” answered Snap.  “Even as it is, I sometimes think we are shooting too much.”

“Well, if we don’t bring the game down somebody else will,” said Whopper.

“Some day they’ll have to pass some more laws, protecting game,” was Shep’s comment.  “If they don’t, there won’t be anything to shoot inside of the next fifteen or twenty years.”

“My father said that some folks were advocating a law to stop all deer-shooting for two years or longer,” said Shep.  “That would give them a chance to multiply.”

“Well, I am going to shoot what I can—–­now I am out here,” said Whopper.

CHAPTER XXIV

HAM SPINK AND THE SKUNK

But the boys’ streak of luck came to an end as quickly as it began.  Try their best, they could locate no more large game, and had to content themselves with a squirrel and a few fair-sized birds.

“I am getting tired of this,” remarked Shep, after they had tramped across several hills.  “Let us call it off and get back to camp.”

The others were willing, and they turned their footsteps in the direction of the cabin.  Half of the distance was covered when Snap stopped his companions.

“Look over on yonder hill,” he said.  “Isn’t that Ham Spink’s crowd?”

“It is; and there is Ham in advance,” answered Whopper.

“Let us go over and see what they have got,” put in Giant, curiously.

The curiosity of the others was also excited, and they turned in the direction Snap had pointed out, and soon came up to one of the rival hunters.

“Hullo!” cried Snap, good-naturedly.  “How are you getting along?”

The boy addressed was Dick Bush, and he answered with a scowl.

“Shot any deer lately?” asked Whopper.

“No,” was the surly response.

“Got anything at all?” asked Giant.

“One rabbit.  Have you anything?” went on Dick Bush, also curious.

“Oh, a few things,” was Snap’s careless answer, and he winked at his chums.