“Think they’ll do it?” said Pete, panting like one of the hounds.
“I’m sure they will.”
“Be worse than the flogging,” cried Pete excitedly; “they’ll tear all the skin off my back. But I don’t care; I’m ready. They’ll leave the bones.”
“Ready, then?” cried Nic. “The moment there’s room make a back for the dogs.”
The eager talking excited the great animals, and they began to sniff at the speakers and growl; but Nic’s blood was up, and he was ready to risk an attack on the chance of his scheme succeeding.
“A dog is a dog, whether it’s here or at home, and I know their nature pretty well.”
The next moment he was proving it by leaping to his feet.
“Hey, boys, then!” he cried loudly; “the woods—a run in the woods!”
The dogs sprang round him, and began leaping up, barking excitedly.
“Come on, then,” he shouted, though his heart leaped with a choking sensation at his mouth; and, scrambling up to the opening by means of the pegs, he was the next minute squeezing himself through, the dogs bounding up at him as he went, and nearly causing him to fall. For one moment he felt he was being dragged back, and shuddered at the thought of what might happen if the excited animals got him down.