"Now that we have our clubs," suggested Dick, "let's get back to the road and discuss what we're going to do." "Surely," hinted Dave, "we can find some other road and keep on our way." "Undoubtedly," Greg nodded. "But the mad dog might cross through the woods and be found waiting for us on that other road. Or, he may now be headed for the second lake, or even be there now." "Let's vote on what we're going to do," urged Hazelton. "Dick, what do you say?" "I don't know what to say," their young leader answered. "I don't like to see our party cheated out of our vacation. Neither do I care to take too many chances of having our vacation changed into a tragedy. I've never had hydrophobia, but I've a strong notion that it wouldn't be pleasant. I know just how you fellows feel. You hate to lose your fun." "We do hate to lose our fun," agreed Darry. "And yet you don't want to have an encounter with a dog that has hydrophobia." "We don't," approved Tom Reade. "Dick, you have a truly wonderful intellect when it comes to successful guessing." "There's a cloud of dust up the road to the west," discovered Greg Holmes. In an instant all eyes were turned that way. "Can that be the dog?" asked Darry. "Something is traveling this way and stirring up a lot of dust." Whatever the moving object was, it appeared to be half a mile away up the straight, dust-covered road. "Until we find out what it is," Dick suggested, "I believe that tree climbing will prove healthful exercise." Quickly they moved the push cart a little to one side of the road. Then they ran for trees, but every member of Dick & Co. retained his hold on his bludgeon. The dust cloud was coming nearer. From the elevation of his perch in a tree Dick soon discovered and announced: "It's a horse and wagon coming this way." "Maybe it's the officers returning from the hunt," suggested Reade, who was on a lower limb of the next tree. "There's only one man in the wagon, and he's whipping up the horse," Dick announced. "There are good enough reasons for the man wanting his horse to hurry," chuckled Danny. "Maybe the dog is in pursuit now," hinted Darrin. Dick, who had the best view of the road to the westward, peered carefully. "I don't see anything to suggest a pursuing dog," Prescott made answer. "If the dog is near, he must be running under the trees along the side of the road." Greg climbed up beside his leader. "Why, that man has stopped whipping the horse," young Holmes declared. "And is lighting his pipe. That doesn't look as though he were very much scared about anything." "We'll stay where we are until we've talked with the man," Dick decided. Just before reaching the other end of the covered bridge the driver, a farmer, and with what looked like a light load of farm produce in the body of the wagon, slowed his horse down to a walk, at which gait he drove over the bridge. Then, sighting the boys up in the trees, and each with a club, he reined up.