Towser, as soon as released, limped a little, but proved that his leg was not broken, though it had been cut in the trap.
"Woof!" he exploded angrily, as soon as he found that he could run about on his injured leg. Then, showing his teeth, he growled menacingly and bounded through the woods, Dick & Co. following pell-mell.
"Towser knows that his enemy is still near!" called Harry exultantly.
"Come on, fellows! We'll catch that sneak!"
A bull-dog's strong point is not his scent. He led the boys to the roadway, then halted, growling, plainly at fault.
Perched up in a tree not fifty yards away, well hidden by the foliage, were Fred Ripley and another youth. For a few moments they listened breathlessly to the pursuit, then appeared to feel more at their ease.
"You didn't work the trap trick quite right," whispered Fred to the youth in overalls beside him.
"Better luck next time," whispered back the stranger. "But no matter. I see how we can fix the canoe so that it couldn't win a race against a mudscow!"
CHAPTER XIX
WHAT AILED GRIDLEY?
"There's an automobile full of Gridley folks coming up to the lake to-day!" cried Susie Sharp excitedly as she ran to meet her girl friends at the landing stage.