CHAPTER XXIV 



Catching Wild Animals 



The young trappers first built a large pen of heavy 

 logs in the forest and made a gate for it that would 

 close by stepping on a trigger after entering the pen, 

 reminding one of the door that closed on Ben Hur 

 in the mysterious palace. At firsts, wild pigs went in 

 and ate up the bait but were too light to spring the 

 trigger, so the bait had to be placed up high out of 

 their reach. 



Then a doe was trapped, and the gate closed on a 

 little fawn and left it outside the pen. The fawn 

 was too shy to be captured, but it followed its moth- 

 er at a safe distance to her new quarters, and that 

 night the boys left a little crack in the fence just big 

 enough for it to get through. About a week later, 

 a buck with four prongs was caught, thus complet- 

 ing the family. The deer soon became very tame 

 and seemed to enjoy their captivity. 



The next trap used was a pitfall; just a hole with 

 steep sides, covered over the top with palm leaves 

 and some tempting bait scattered about. The only 



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