The High School Boys' Canoe ClubHancock, H. Irving (Harrie Irving)
General
The High School Boys' Canoe Club
Hancock, H. Irving (Harrie Irving)
Canoes and canoeing -- Juvenile fiction
"Who's going to eat, and when?" asked Dan. That started the crowd
to making preparations for the camp supper. It was prepared in
good time, and six healthy boys sat down to enjoy it. After that
came a period of blissful idleness. Then, more or less reluctantly,
the youngsters set about washing the dishes and setting the camp
straight in general.
"Better throw some wood on the fire; it's getting pretty dark,"
suggested Dick. "I'll get the lantern and light it."
Gr-r-r-r-r! came the voice of Towser, in the near distance.
It was followed by barks and yelps, all in the voice of Hazelton's
bull-dog.
"What trouble has the pup gotten into?" demanded Harry, throwing
an armful of wood on the campfire, then wheeling sharply.
Gr-r-r-r! Wow-wow! Woof! sounded closer at hand, accompanied
by considerable noise in the underbrush.
"That pup's in trouble," declared Tom sagely. "Come along, fellows!
Bring the lantern, Dick!"
Six boys, headed by Dick with the lantern, went to meet the bull-dog.
They came upon Towser, growling in a most excited manner, threshing
something about him in the bushes as he came toward them.
"Hold still, boy!" commanded Harry. "What is it, old chap?"
Then he came upon the dog. In the darkness it was not easy to
make out what ailed Towser. But Prescott came closer to the dog
with the lantern.
"Towser has his foot caught in a steel trap. I'm afraid his leg
is broken," quivered Hazelton, as he threw himself on the ground
beside his pet. "Hold still, boy! Let me take it off of you."
The dog permitted himself to be held while Tom Reade pried open
the jaws of the steel fox trap, the chain to which the pup had
dragged over the ground.
"That's a queer accident," commented Greg Holmes.
"Accident?" flamed Harry. "This thing is no accident. It was
done on purpose, and I wouldn't need but one guess to name the
two-legged cur that did this!"
All of the boys understood at once that Hazelton was accusing
Fred Ripley of setting the trap.
Towser, as soon as released, limped a little, but proved that
his leg was not broken, though it had been cut in the trap.
"Woof!" he exploded angrily, as soon as he found that he could
run about on his injured leg. Then, showing his teeth, he growled
menacingly and bounded through the woods, Dick & Co. following
pell-mell.
"Towser knows that his enemy is still near!" called Harry exultantly.
"Come on, fellows! We'll catch that sneak!"
A bull-dog's strong point is not his scent. He led the boys to
the roadway, then halted, growling, plainly at fault.
Perched up in a tree not fifty yards away, well hidden by the
foliage, were Fred Ripley and another youth. For a few moments
they listened breathlessly to the pursuit, then appeared to feel
more at their ease.
"You didn't work the trap trick quite right," whispered Fred to
the youth in overalls beside him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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