It looked, as we have said, like a little log cabin with a flat roof.  One end of the roof rested on the rear wall of the trap, while the other was raised in the air, leaving an opening sufficiently large to admit of the entrance of any bear that was likely to come that way.  The roof was held in this position by a stout lever, which rested across the limb of a convenient tree.  A rope led from the other end of the lever, down through a hole in the roof, to the trigger, to which the bait—­an ear of corn—­was attached.  The bear was expected to crawl through the opening and seize the ear of corn; and in so doing, he would spring the trigger, release the lever and the roof would fall down and fasten him in the pen.  When all the finishing touches had been put on, the boys leaned on their axes and admired their work.

CHAPTER XI.

TRAPPING QUAILS.

“Now, I call that a pretty good job for a first attempt,” said Don; “and considering the work we have had to do, it hasn’t taken us a great while either.  I wish I dare crawl in there and set it off, just to be sure that it will work all right.”

“But that wouldn’t be a very bright proceeding,” replied Bert.  “We could never get you out.  You would be as securely confined as you were when you were tied up in the potato-cellar.”

Don was well aware of that fact.  The roof was made of logs as heavy as they could manage with their united strength, and there were other logs placed upon it in such a position that when the roof fell, their weight would assist in holding it down.  All these precautions were necessary, for a bear can exert tremendous strength if he once makes up his mind to do it; and David had repeatedly declared that if they should chance to capture an animal as large as the one that had been killed on that very island years before, the pen would not prove half strong enough to hold him.  But it was quite strong enough to hold Don if he got into it, and the only way his companions could have released him would have been by cutting the roof in pieces with their axes.

The work was all done now, and the boys were ready to start for home.  While Bert and David were gathering up the tools and stowing them away in the canoe, Don scattered a few ears of corn around, so that the bear would be sure to find them the next time he visited the island, and threw a dozen or so more into the trap close about the trigger.  The rest of the corn he hung up out of reach on a sapling which he knew was too small for the bear to climb.

Assisted by the current the canoe made good time down the bayou.  Bert and David lay back in the stern-sheets and said they were tired, while Don, who was seated at the oars, declared that his day’s work had relieved his stiff joints, and that he began to feel like himself again.  He was fresh enough to assist in building another trap without an hour’s rest; and in order to work off a little of his surplus energy, he thought when he reached home he would take a turn through the fields in company with his pointer, and see if he could bag quails enough for his next morning’s breakfast.  Bert said he would go with him, for he wanted to see the pointer work.