“What happened?” demanded Jud Elderkin, curiously. “Did they run across that old bear after all, and get scratched or bitten?” 212
“Or was it the other bobcat that came around to smell the pelt of his mate, and gave you something of a tussle?” asked Bobolink.
“Both away off your base,” said Bluff, with a fresh grin. “It was dogs, that’s all.”
“Dogs!” echoed Jud, unbelievingly. “You must mean wolves, don’t you? They look a heap like some kinds of mongrel dogs.”
“’Tis the lad as knows what he is talkin’ about, I guess,” remarked Tolly Tip just then. “Sure, for these many moons now there’s been a pack av thim wild dogs a-runnin’ through the woods. Many a night have I listened to the same bayin’ and yappin’ as they trailed after a deer.”
A flash of understanding came into Jud’s face.
“Oh! now I see what you mean,” he went on to say. “Wild dogs they were, that for some reason have abandoned their homes with people, and gone back to the old free hunting ways of their ancestors. I’ve heard about such things. But say! how did it happen they tackled you two?”
Bluff and his guilty companion exchanged looks, and as he scratched his head the former went on to confess.
“Why, you see, it was this way,” he began. “Sandy and I began to get awful tired of staying indoors after you fellows went away. Three days of it was just too much for our active natures to 213 stand. So we made up a plan to take a little walk around, and see if we could run across any game.”
At that Sandy held up a couple of partridges.