The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp Part 23

"It seems to have been propped up with a stick," went on Amy. "When I walked in, so foolishly, I must have knocked the stick down, and the door fell. The prop is here. Oh, I'll never be so curious again!"

The two girls talked to each other to keep up their spirits, and wondered how long Betty and Grace would be.

Meanwhile the two latter were having no easy time. They got into deep drifts, and stumbled out again, tiring themselves greatly in the process. Then they got off the trail, and wandered into the back country. It was not until they got on a high bluff, and saw the river below them, that they realized their mistake.

Then came a hard scramble down a snowy hill, but at length they were on the frozen river, and headed for the place where the fis.h.i.+ng was going on.

"We are surely living up to our reputation as outdoor girls," panted Betty as she walked along beside Grace.

"Yes--all but Amy. She is strictly in-doors now."

"Poor child! She does seem to have the most trouble!"

"Well, maybe it will soon be happily over."

"I hope so!"

Neither of them realized how soon the fates were to be kind to Amy in a most peculiar manner.

"There are the fishermen!" exclaimed Betty a little later, as they made a turn in the river, and saw several men on the ice.

"Yes, and the boys are with them. Oh, let's hurry!"

"I can't go a bit faster," said Betty. "You're a better walker than I, Grace."

"Oh, no, only I'm not quite so stout--that's all."

"Stout is very kind of you to say. I'm afraid I'm getting positively--fleshy, Grace."

"Nonsense! You're fine!"

"What's the trouble?" cried Will, running forward as he saw his sister and Betty approaching. "Has anything happened?"

"Yes--yes," faltered Grace. "Poor Amy----"

"Is--is she----" began Allen, as he joined his chum.

"It's nothing at all!" said Betty, quickly, seeing that Grace, in her nervousness, might give them a scare. "She is caught in a bear trap, that's all, and we want you to help get her out."

"A bear trap!" cried Will. "One of those spring ones--with heavy jaws?"

"No, a sort of box trap," explained Betty. "We can't raise the door."

"By hemlock!" exclaimed one of the lumbermen who overheard the talk. "It must be the trap I set for that young fellow over at the Jallow cabin."

"Did you set one for him?" asked Will, quickly.

"Yes, and I told him at the time it was a piece of foolishness. There's no bears around now, anyhow, and I said some one might get in it by mistake and be caught. I only rigged it up temporary. The two young fellows wanted to see how it worked. They sprung it after I set it, but they must have set it again, after I left, to see how it worked."

"Well, it's worked all right--now," said Will, grimly. "Come on, we must get Amy out."

"That's what!" cried the lumberman. "Come on, Bill and Tom. Bring your axes."

The little party was soon under way, led by the lumberman who recalled the location of the old bear trap.

Betty and Grace, with the three boys, brought up in the rear.

"To think of poor Amy being in that trap!" mused Frank.

"Yes, and it was set by Jake Rossmore and Sam Batty," added Will. "I'll give 'em a piece of my mind when I see 'em!"

"Oh, please don't have trouble!" begged his sister.

"Trouble! The trouble will all be on their side," announced Will, grimly.

It was the matter of but a few moments for the lumbermen, expert as they were with the axes, to release Amy, and she fell sobbing into the arms of her friends.

"Oh, take me home! Take me home!" she begged.

"There, there!" soothed Betty, with her arms about the shrinking figure, "you'll be all right soon."

"I told those fellows it was foolish to set that bear trap," a.s.serted the lumberman, "but they would have it."

"Well, there's one satisfaction," grimly spoke one of his companions, "it will need a lot of repairin' before it's fit for use again," for they had chopped the front away to more quickly release Amy.

Will was peering about, and, as the party made ready to start for the cabins, the lumbermen going back to their fis.h.i.+ng, Grace's brother said:

"Unless I'm mistaken this trap is on dad's land, which means that that Jallow crowd must have trespa.s.sed here to set it. Take a look, Allen, and see if the boundary line doesn't bring the trap on this side."

"It certainly does," declared the young lawyer. "They were trespa.s.sers, all right."

"And I'll let 'em know it, too," said Will.

"Oh, please don't quarrel!" begged Grace.

Amy was fast recovering her composure, and she and her girl chums went on ahead, the boys coming more leisurely. Soon the girls were out of sight in a little valley.

The boys were talking about the recent happening, when, as they came from a little clump of trees, they saw Alice and Kittie, with the two boys who, according to the lumberman, had set the trap.

"Here's where I tackle 'em," said Will.

"Go easy, old man," advised Allen.

"Say, what do you fellows mean by setting that bear trap on our land?"

cried Will, hotly, as he advanced toward the two lads. Alice and Kittie shrank back.

"What do you mean?" challenged Jake. "We had a right to set that trap!"