This arrangement enabled the two conspirators to be together day and night.

They intended to pass the most of their time in riding about through the woods, and if a deer or turkey happened to come in their way and they should be fortunate enough to shoot it, so much the better; but if the game kept out of their sight they would not spend any precious moments in looking for it.

Their object was to devote themselves exclusively to destroying all David's chances for earning the hundred and fifty dollars.

They would watch him closely, and when they found out where his traps were set, they would visit them daily, and steal every quail they found in them.
During the first few days the boys spent together they found out two things: one was that there was a pile of traps in the yard behind Godfrey Evans's cabin, and that they were never touched except when the family happened to be in want of kindling wood.

The other was, that David left home bright and early every morning and went straight to General Gordon's.