“If he’s been brought up in this parish he must know Alligator Swamp is a pretty big affair, and that if he wants to comb it all over, he’s got to have a little army of helpers,” Thad went on to say.
“I wonder now, how they work them dogs?” Bumpus was heard to say, half to himself.
“Oh! sometimes they keep the animals fast in the leash,” Allan told him, knowing what was still worrying the fat scout; “though there are occasions when they have to let them run free. They are trained to make a coon take to a tree; and there they keep him until the posse comes along.”
“But if he just won’t get up in a tree, or happens to be too heavy to jump?” inquired Bumpus.
“Why, then he has to fight for it, because the hounds will surely attack him, as they are pretty savage,” Giraffe hastened to say.
“Well, there are only two of ’em anyhow; an’ I shot a great big grizzly onct, maybe you remember, Giraffe,” the other remarked, grimly. “I’ve got a gun that can be depended on every time. All you’ve got to do is to aim straight, and pull the trigger, and it does the rest,” and Bumpus was seen to be gripping his weapon while making these truly ferocious remarks.
“Look here,” spoke up Thad, severely, “none of that, Bumpus. These dogs are on land, and they’ll not be apt to bother us one whit. No matter what happens, don’t you dare to think of firing a single shot without I give the order. It would be rank mutiny, and you know the penalty of that. If a scout is alone, and has to act on his own initiative, it’s all very well; but when the scout-master is along, every member of the patrol must look to him for orders. Understand that?”
“Sure I do, Thad; and I wasn’t thinking of doing anything to get us in a peck of trouble with this old sheriff; only, if I saw a dog trying to grab Giraffe here, or Davy, by the neck, I’d feel like shooing him off, wouldn’t I? Well, after he’d give ’em a little scare I would, that’s all.”
Bumpus relapsed into silence after that, though it could be seen that he was very nervous, for he kept bobbing up and down every little while.
Closer came the loud calls, until it became evident that the sheriff’s posse must be almost upon them; for the hounds were now giving tongue just beyond that fringe of scrub ashore, and they could hear both the crackling of bushes and the splash of several paddles.