The dog was used to obeying his master's voice, and so he released his hold just in time to avoid the knife of the maddened Barkswell.
"Here, Tige."
The dog came bounding up the bank.
The single eye of the peddler glanced down at the man who struggled to his feet at the water's edge, and sprang into a canoe.
"So, you, Tige. Why was you going for our friend in that way?"
The peddler patted his dog and talked scoldingly until the escaping villain was well out in the stream, paddling away.
Quickly Hiram Shanks strode down to the water.
"Hey, you, man—August, what you leaving for? You'll surely get caught."
It will thus be seen that the peddler, who was hidden from the fisherman's shanty by a line of bushes, had mistaken the fleeing man for his patient.
The man in the boat made no response to the call of Shanks, and soon was lost to view behind an abrupt bend.