“You and I want to earn this money, don’t we?” said he.  “That’s what we’re working for, isn’t it?  Well, now, if we put a stop to trapping, how are we going to do it?”

“This is the way we’re going to do it:  we’ll drive Dave Evans off the track first.  When that is done, we’ll tell that man up North that we are the only one’s here who can fill his order.  Then we’ll go quietly to work and catch our birds, saying nothing to nobody about it, and when we have trapped all we want, we’ll ship them off.”

“But somebody will see us when we are putting them on the boat.”

“No matter for that.  The mischief will be done, and we’ll see how Don and Dave will help themselves.  We can afford to be indifferent to them when we have seventy-five dollars apiece in our pockets, can’t we?”

“Lester, you’re a brick!” exclaimed Bob.  “I never could have thought up such a plot.  I’ll have my gun after all.”

“Of course you will.”

“And what will become of the club?”

“We don’t care what becomes of it.  Having served our purpose, it can go to smash and welcome.  Now will you vote for Don and Bert?”

“I’ll be only too glad to get the chance.  But you’ll have to manage the thing, Lester.”

“I’ll do that.  All I ask of you is to talk the matter up among the boys, that is, if Don and Bert agree to join us, and put in your vote when the time comes.”

The two friends spent the best part of the day in Bob’s room, drawing up the constitution that was to govern their society.  Lester, who did all the writing, had never seen a document of the kind, and having nothing to guide him he made rather poor work of it.  He had read a few extracts from game laws, and remembered that Greek and Latin names were used therein.  He could recall some of these names, and he put them in as they occurred to him, and talked about them so glibly, and appeared to be so thoroughly posted in natural history that Bob was greatly astonished.  Of course there was a clause in the instrument prohibiting pot-hunting and the snaring of birds, and that was as strong as language could make it.  The work being done at last to the satisfaction of both the boys, Lester mounted his horse and galloped away in the direction of Don Gordon’s home.

CHAPTER IX.

Natural history.

Lester Brigham was not at all intimate with Don and Bert.  The brothers, as in duty bound, called upon him when he first arrived in the settlement, and a few days afterward Lester rode over and took dinner with them; and that was the last of their visiting.  The boys could see nothing to admire in one another.  Don and Bert were a little too “high-toned;” in other words, they were young gentlemen, and such fellows did not suit Lester, who preferred to associate with Bob Owens and a few others like him.  Lester had been a leader among his city schoolmates, and