With Trapper Jim in the North Woods Part 12

"S-s-sure t-t-thing," added Toby, seriously.

"Max, haven't you got a plan?" asked the owner of the cabin, turning toward the other eagerly, as though he guessed that if they found help at all it would be in this quarter.

"I was just thinking of something," replied the boy, smiling.

"Yes, go on," Trapper Jim continued.

"We couldn't coax him out, and if we tried to frighten the little rascal it'd be all day with our staying in that cabin again while we boys are up here. But perhaps he might be made to feel so unpleasant in there that he'd be glad to move off."

"Good for you, Max; I can see you've got an idea," cried out Jim, approvingly.

"I don't think skunks like smoke any more than any other wild animals!"

Max ventured.

"Smoke!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Steve. "Hallelujah! Max has caught on to a bully good idea. Let's smoke the little beggar out. Everyone get busy now."

"Hold on," said Trapper Jim, catching Steve by the sleeve again; "go slow."

"Yes, go mighty slow," complained Bandy-legs. "You know well enough, Steve Dowdy, that I can't smoke at all. There's no use of my trying, because it makes me awful sick every time."

"Listen to that, would you!" laughed Steve. "The simple believes we're all going to get pipes and blow the smoke through some c.h.i.n.ks in the cabin walls. Cheer up, old fellow, it ain't quite as bad as that."

"When we've got some stuff that will burn," continued Max, "I'll climb up on the roof, set fire to it, and drop it down the chimney. Then after it gets a good start I'll follow it with some weeds Uncle Jim will gather, and which he knows must send out a dense smoke after I've clapped a board over the top of the chimney flue."

"Bravo!" cried Owen, so loud that the chained dogs near by started barking.

"A very original scheme," said Trapper Jim, patting Max on the back. "And the sooner we start in to try how it works, the better."

"I've got only one objection," Steve spoke up.

"Well, let's hear it," demanded Owen, frowning.

"I think Max ought to let Bandy-legs run that part of the business,"

Steve went on to say, "he knows more about chimneys than all the rest of the push put together. He's examined 'em from top to bottom inside."

"Oh, rats!" mocked the one upon whose unwilling head all these high honors were being heaped.

"I object," spoke up Toby, bound to have his say. "B-b-bandy-legs never c-c-could resist the t-t-temp-tation to d-d-drop in himself. And think what'd h-h-happen if the s-s-skunk saw him comin' out of the f-f-fireplace a-whoopin'."

"Let's get the stuff to burn, lads," said Trapper Jim, who certainly enjoyed hearing the boys chaff each other in this way. "And everybody keep away from that side of the house where the window stands open."

They were not long in finding what they wanted.

"Make this up in a little bundle, boys, so I can drop it down quick after I've set a match to it," and Max gathered the dry stuff together as he spoke, waiting for one of the rest to tie it with a cord.

"And this other I'd drop down loose like," said Trapper Jim, as he held up the bunch of half-dead weeds he had collected. "These give out the blackest smoke you ever saw, and if you shut off the draft after they get going good and hard, nothing living could stay long in that cabin."

"That's the ticket!" remarked Steve, enthusiastically.

He certainly did enjoy action more than any one of the chums. Steve was happy only when there was "something doing," even though the source of excitement lay in a miserable little highly scented skunk that had taken a liking to Jim's cozy cabin and seemed ready to remain there indefinitely.

So they adjourned to the rear of the little squatty structure. Everybody took great care to keep away from the one open window. Some of the boys had had little or no experience with the species of friendly animal now occupying their quarters. Still, it was strange how great a respect for his feelings they entertained. Why, no fellow seemed to want to even be _seen_ looking rudely in.

Max readily climbed upon the roof.

He purposely made considerable noise while so doing, and for good reasons. It was just as well that the inmate of Jim's cabin knew they were around and objected to his remaining there.

And then, again, Max had a little fear lest the skunk make a sudden appearance, popping out of the chimney before he could really get busy.

That event, should it take place, would likely enough upset all his well-planned calculations.

Max under such conditions would wisely seek safety in flight. Indeed, he had already picked out the very place where he could jump from the roof of the cabin and make sure of landing in a soft spot.

As soon as he reached the roof he hurried over to the chimney, intending to start operations by dropping something down.

"I ought to notify the little rascal that the flue is marked dangerous,"

Max was saying to himself, "so that if he's started up he can just back down again."

Fortunately nothing happened, and Max was not compelled to take that sudden flying leap.

The chimney, as is the case with all log cabins, was built on the outside. It was composed of slabs of wood, secured with a mortar made princ.i.p.ally of certain mud.

In process of time this became thoroughly baked, and the heat a.s.sisted in this transformation. It was now as hard as flint rock.

That the flue was a generous one we already know. Had that not been the case Bandy-legs could never have fallen down through it to land in the fireplace below.

Max had counted on this fact.

Having notified the intruder to keep away from the fireplace under penalty of getting hurt, and feeling that the way was now open to undertake the carrying out of his little scheme, Max returned to the point where he had reached the roof.

The others had seen to it that the balance of his dry stuff was placed where he could lay hands on the same. So Max by degrees dumped all this down after the first lot.

"Now to set it going," he remarked.

"You seem to be having a bully old time up there all by your lonely," said Steve, half enviously.

"Oh, I'm a cheerful worker," Max replied.

He had arranged some of the best of the stuff so that after applying a match he could send it down upon the top of all that had gone before.

"How is it?" asked Trapper Jim, who was standing on something or other, so that his head came above the low, almost flat roof.

"It's burning all right; I can see it taking hold," came the reply from Max, who had been cautiously peering down the gaping chimney.

"Then take this stuff and follow suit," remarked the other, handing up the armful of weeds he had himself gathered.

"Hurry up about it, too, Max," sang out Steve. "We want the show to begin. It's cold down here, believe me."

"Oh, it'll be warm enough," declared the owner of the cabin, "if that onary little beast turns this way after he crawls out of the window. And I'll advise you all to give him plenty of room."