It was more the horrible surprise than
the pain, but he did howl.
The hunters came quickly to the rescue and at once he was freed,
none the worse, for the traps have no teeth; they merely hold.
It is the long struggle and the starvation chiefly that are
cruel, and these every trapper should cut short by going often
around his line.
Now Quonab took part. "That is a good setting for some things.
It would catch a coon, a mink, or a marten, -- or a dog -- but
not a fox or a wolf. They are very clever. You shall see."
The Indian got out a pair of thick leather gloves, smoked them in
cedar, also the traps. Next he rubbed his moccasin soles with
raw meat and selecting a little bay in the shore he threw a long
pole on the sand, from the line of high, dry shingle across to
the water's edge. In his hand he carried a rough stake. Walking
carefully on the pole and standing on it, he drove the stake in
at about four feet from the shore; then split it, and stuffed
some soft moss into the split. On this he poured three or four
drops of the "smell-charm." Now he put a lump of spruce gum on
the pan of the trap, holding a torch under it till the gum was
fused, and into this he pressed a small, flat stone.
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