just as teddy benson leaped over the fence and landed in mrs. traddle’s garden, to run toward the deer trap, the candy-store lady darted out of her back door and headed for the same place.
teddy was followed by his chums and mr. crispen.
mrs. traddle was all alone. she was the first to reach the box trap out of which came many strange sounds.
there were sounds of tramping, beating feet and banging horns. also sounds of grunts and heavy breathing.
“you’ve caught some sort of animal in your trap!” called mrs. traddle to teddy and the others.
“it’s a deer, mrs. traddle,” said the old137 cobbler. “i knew when i made that trap it would catch the mystery deer.”
“i can’t make out if it’s a deer or not,” said mrs. traddle.
“have you been out here before, looking?” asked joe as they all hurried nearer the trap.
“oh, land sakes, yes,” mrs. traddle replied. “i was out here as soon as it was daylight.”
“what time was the deer caught?” asked teddy.
“i’m not sure it is a deer,” mrs. traddle said. “i can’t get a good look at it through the cracks. you made that trap of yours good and tight, mr. crispen.”
“i sure did, mrs. traddle,” said the cobbler. “when you make a deer trap, make it good and tight, i say. deer are pesky critters for getting out of a place once they get in.”
“but as i said,” went on mrs. traddle, “i can’t be sure it is a deer.”
138 “oh, it’s a deer, all right,” said mr. crispen.
“what time was it caught?” asked teddy.
“oh, along about midnight, i should say,” replied the candy-store lady. “i heard a noise in my garden then and i looked out. but i couldn’t see anything. i expect what i heard was the sliding door falling shut after the critter in the trap had pulled on the bait. i didn’t come down to look, but i expect that’s what it was.”
“that was it,” said the cobbler a bit proudly. “the deer nibbled the bait and the door fell, catching him.”
“as i said,” went on mrs. traddle who seemed to be hearing very well now, “as i said, i’m not sure it is a deer you’ve caught. i came out here as soon as it was daylight and peeked through the cracks as best i could.”
“what did you see?” asked joe.
“i saw a critter with sort of brown and139 white fur and horns,” replied mrs. traddle. “might be a cow for all i know.”
“a cow would be too big to get in my trap,” said the cobbler.
“well, yes, maybe so,” admitted mrs. traddle. “anyhow it’s a raging and plunging sort of a critter, whatever it is. two or three times, when i came out to look before you arrived, i thought it would break out of the trap.”
“it can’t get out of the trap!” declared the cobbler. “i made it too strong.”
“well, it’s cutting up something terrible,” went on the old lady. “i’m sure it will get free.”
as teddy, his chums and mr. crispen stood near the trap, the animal inside appeared to be making strong efforts to escape. it plunged about and struck the sides and ends of the trap with its horns and feet.
“that’s the way it’s been going on since daylight,” explained mrs. traddle. “if you140 hadn’t come when you did i was going to telephone you. i was getting sort of scared.”
“there is no danger,” said mr. crispen. he peered through a crack in the trap at the animal inside. so did the boys. they could not get a very good view. though there were many cracks in the box trap, none of them was large enough to give a good view. but the boys and the cobbler had glimpses of an animal with brown and white hair and also with horns.
“that’s a deer, all right,” asserted the cobbler. “we’ve caught him just as i said we would.”
“the next thing,” said teddy, “is to get him out of this trap and tie him up some place. he seems wild.”
“he is wild!” declared mrs. traddle. “he’s been wild ever since he was in that trap. i tried to quiet him but i couldn’t.”
“what did you do to quiet him?” asked teddy.
141 “well, i tried to whistle and make noises as i would to a dog. i don’t expect,” said mrs. traddle slowly, “they were the right sort of noises to make to a deer in a trap.”
“no,” said mr. crispen with a short laugh, “they weren’t. not to a deer in a trap or out of a trap.”
“what kind of noises should you make to quiet a deer?” asked mrs. traddle.
“i don’t know,” the cobbler had to admit.
“why, i thought you said you had caught lots of deer.”
“so i have. but i never made any soothing noises to ’em,” chuckled mr. crispen. “they didn’t seem to need such attention. but now this is a wild and tearing sort of critter and it isn’t going to be easy to get him quiet and out of this trap.”
“if that man with the lasso was here, he could help,” said joe.
“yes, but he isn’t here,” spoke mr. crispen.
142 “i’ve got that lasso home,” teddy said. “shall i go get it and lasso the deer after you open the trap and let him out?”
“can you lasso?” asked mr. crispen.
“not very good,” teddy had to admit.
“then i guess we’d better not try that,” said the cobbler. “if i open that door and let the deer back out, he’s going to run loose and cut up something fierce! he’s scared like. then he’ll do a lot more damage to mrs. traddle’s garden—maybe more than the reward money would cover.”
“if there is any reward money,” teddy pointed out.
“oh, there’ll surely be some!” declared the cobbler. “but i don’t want to open this trap out here in mrs. traddle’s garden. what we ought to do is let the deer stay in the trap. then if we could load him, trap and all, on a sort of truck and take it to a barn, we could let the deer loose in the barn and catch him. of course, we’d have to be sure143 the barn doors were shut. if we could do that—”
“there’s no reason why we can’t,” teddy exclaimed. “mr. lanter, the butcher, has a truck. he often loads heavy boxes and barrels on it and he has a sort of windlass up under the front seat. we could fasten a rope to the trap and haul it up on mr. lanter’s truck with the rope and windlass. then we could take the deer in the trap to our garage. a garage would be just as good as a barn, wouldn’t it, mr. crispen?”
“sure, just as good. that’s a fine idea, teddy. if i can use your telephone, mrs. traddle, i’ll ask mr. lanter to come here with his truck.”
“what’s that?” asked the old lady, who seemed to have gone deaf again. “you say you haven’t any luck? why, i think you were very lucky to catch the deer on your first try.”
“no, i didn’t say luck!” shouted mr.144 crispen. “i said i want to telephone for mr. lanter’s truck. i suppose i can?”
“of course you can. but why didn’t you say so at first, instead of talking about your luck. the telephone is in the store.”
the cobbler went there with mrs. traddle. he got the butcher on the wire but was having a little hard work making mr. lanter understand what was wanted. the butcher could not be made to believe that a deer had been caught in mrs. traddle’s garden.
but finally mr. lanter said:
“all right, i’ll be right over with the truck.”
mr. crispen went out to the garden to tell the boys about the coming of the truck. teddy, joe and dick were standing near the trap. the animal inside was plunging about more vigorously than before.
suddenly there was an extra loud bang, a rending crash of wood and the front end of the trap splintered outward.
“he’s breaking loose!” yelled joe.
145 “he’s out!” shouted teddy as the whole end of the trap gave way and the captive leaped out.
“catch him! catch that deer!” yelled mr. crispen.
there was a flash of heels, a shaking of horns in the sunlight and the animal leaped over the garden fence and galloped down the road. at the same time teddy yelled:
“that wasn’t a deer at all!”
