Apparently Maurice was in some sort of trouble, and as near as the boy on the shanty-boat could understand he had been attacked by some roving animal that had taken a fancy to try and assault the strange woodchopper. Thad jumped into the cabin and came out with the little Marlin in his hands; but then he realized how utterly impotent he was to give his beleaguered chum a helping hand just then. The boiling water lay between him and that shore for a distance of perhaps thirty feet or more; nor was it possible for even his sanguine spirit to bridge it. True, there was the dinghy on the little beach, and the cable attached to its stern ran all the way to the larger boat, so that it was possible for him to tug away, and eventually bring it alongside. Should he try it? The sounds had grown even more furious, as though Maurice and the unseen dog might be engaged in something resembling a regular circus. Suppose he pulled the dinghy away from the shore, and just then his chum appeared, eager to throw himself into it, his disappointment would be terrible. But all the same Thad could not stand there helpless and listen to that terrible racket going on. Why, for all he knew, poor old Maurice might be in hard luck, with the teeth of a savage hound threatening his very life. And so Thad made up his mind in a hurry, for he was not the one to hesitate when an emergency called for speedy action. He had laid the Marlin down on the deck, and applied both hands to the task of getting the small boat across that intervening stretch of water as quickly as human means could accomplish the job. If anything was needed to urge him on to unusual haste it might have easily been found in the continual confusion of shouts, laughter, barks, and general confusion existing ashore. Swiftly the tender of the shanty-boat came spinning through the water, until in a short time it bumped against the side. Thad waited only long enough to deposit his precious gun in the bottom, and then crawling over the side himself, he seized upon the paddle, and dipped deeply. No doubt he made the shore in much less time than it took Maurice; for there was need that he should. The noise continued, from which Thad drew new hope; at least his beloved chum could not have been seriously injured, for just then he could almost positively declare that he heard him laugh again. So there was a comical side to the adventure, it would seem. Thad was in such a hurry to reach the spot that he must needs make an unfortunate miscalculation when attempting to climb up the steep bank, or else a root upon which he depended proved false to his trust. However that might be the boy fell back again, landing in a heap at the base of the little bluff. Taking warning from his mishap that speed is not always an indication of ultimate success, Thad became a little more careful; and as a consequence he soon had the satisfaction of finding himself on the top of the river bank.