But the next moment he found in John, alone, about as much of a task as he cared to undertake. For two minutes they heaved and tugged, John's wiry frame seeming to be all around the woodsman, who was by no means clumsy, though he could not put him down. Then they broke apart and for a minute made feints at one another, each hoping to secure an advantage. At last the hunter's arms shot out, his hands seized John's arms so quickly, and he lifted the boy off his feet and keeled him over with such dexterity, that the lad lay sprawling on his back almost before he knew what was happening. The glee of Tom Fish was quite ridiculous. He danced about and almost screamed with laughter. "It is your turn, Ree," said John good-naturedly. "Whenever our friend is ready," Ree responded. "Come on! Come on!" Tom cried. "Oh, what frisky kittens ye be!" Peter Piper, the half-breed, had taught Return Kingdom a trick or two at wrestling. And now he allowed the hunter to lift him off the ground, then he let his muscles relax, his dead weight falling in his opponent's arms. Suddenly getting his feet to the ground in this way, he sprang against the hunter's muscular frame with such rapidity of thought and motion that he was able by a tremendous lightning-like effort to jerk one of the man's legs from under him, sending him down, while he, himself, came uppermost. "Ye're pretty fair," Tom Fish muttered; but it was plain to be seen that something he very little expected had happened to him. CHAPTER VIII. Friends or Foes? Tom Fish had a profound respect for Return Kingdom from the moment the latter threw him; but he was no less pleasant and agreeable than before, and he proved himself a valuable friend then and in days long afterward. When night came, as the wind was blowing cold, Tom very deftly built a shelter of branches and small saplings. His way of bending two little trees down and fastening them together with their own branches, making of them the support of the "shack," was a method Ree and John had never seen used and was the secret of his being able to "build a house" in very little time. It was very comfortable sitting before the fire, thus sheltered from the wind. Tom especially enjoyed it for his tongue ran on at a tremendous rate as he told stories of extraordinary adventures. John urged him to tell more and more, and he might have gone on talking all night had not Ree admonished him and John that they must turn in promptly in order to make an early start in the morning. Wolves were howling not far away, and the plaintive but terrorizing cry of a panther could be heard in the distance, as the little party lay down to sleep. No doubt the young emigrants thought many times before dreams came to them, of what the depths of the wilderness must be, if the foreboding sounds which reached them were a fair example of what the outer edge of the forest fastnesses afforded; but they rested well and were early astir.