“What will you take for what you have?” he called out.

“What have you got?”

The rival campers looked over such provisions as they had left, and enumerated the articles—–­sugar, cocoa, flour, some canned goods, and some preserves.  Snap and his chums went ashore and investigated.

“We’ll trade even,” said Snap at last, after talking with his chums.  “But on one condition.”

“What is that?”

“That you take some letters home for us and deliver them as soon as you arrive.”

“All right, we’ll do that,” said Carl Dudder.

The trade was made on the spot, and the letters written; and on the following morning Ham Spink and his cronies left the vicinity of Firefly Lake.  It was the last our friends saw of the dudish youth and his friends for some time to come.

“I think he feels sick all over,” remarked Shep, after the other crowd had departed.

“He certainly isn’t in high spirits,” commented Snap.

“I’ll wager a new cap against a balloon that they tell everybody in town they shot those partridge and the rabbits,” came from Giant.

“Sure thing!” exclaimed Whopper.  “And they’ll say they shot about a thousand other things besides.  I know ’em.  They can all blow to beat the band when they want to.”

On the following Monday it was clear and cool, and the boys set out to look at their beaver traps, of which three had been placed in position.  To their delight, two of the traps held beavers; and to their astonishment, the third trap held a muskrat.

“Hullo! here is something I wasn’t looking for!” cried Snap.  “He’s a fine haul,” he added, looking the muskrat over.

“And the beavers are fine, too,” added Shep.  “Boys, I think we can count ourselves lucky and no mistake.”

“Let us set the traps again,” said Whopper, who was excited over the haul.  This was done, and the boy hunters returned to their camp well pleased at what they had caught.

“I wish we’d get something in the bear trap,” said Giant.  The small youth had set his heart on getting a bear before it should be time to return home.

On the day following, Shep and Giant went out after nuts and were gone the best part of the day.  When they returned to the camp they were both excited and wanted to see Snap without delay.

“What’s it all about?” asked the leader of the gun club.

“We may be mistaken,” answered Shep, “but we think we have made a discovery of importance.”

“What kind of a discovery?”

“We think we have located the man who set fire to the sawmill and ran away with those documents!” answered Giant.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE DESERTED COTTAGE

Giant’s announcement filled Snap with keen interest, and he wanted to know at once all Shep and the small youth could tell.