“I shouldn’t wonder if the varmint war up here,” said the trapper, walking around the tree and peering upward into the darkness. “No he ain’t, neither,” he continued. “Useless, ye’re fooled for onct in your life. You see, youngsters, where that big limb stretches out? Wal, the painter ran out on that, an’ has got out of our way.”
“I wonder where Brave is?” said Frank, anxiously.
“That ar is a hard thing to tell,” answered the trapper. “The varmint may have chawed him up too, as well as the white buck.”
“If he has,” said Frank, bitterly, “I won’t do any thing all the rest of my life but shoot panthers. Hold on! what’s that?” he added, pointing through the trees.
“It looks mighty like somethin’ comin’ this way,” said Dick. “Turn me into a mullen-stalk if I don’t believe it’s the painter! He’s creepin’ along a’most on his belly.”
In an instant four guns were leveled at the approaching object, and the boys were about to fire, when the trapper, who had thrown himself almost flat on the snow, to obtain a better view of the animal, heard a suppressed whine. Springing to his feet, he knocked up the weapons, and quietly said,
“I guess I wouldn’t shoot, boys. That’s the dog comin back. I shouldn’t wonder if he had been follerin’ the painter all alone by himself.”
The boys lowered their guns, and, in a few moments, to the infinite joy of Frank, Brave came up. He crawled slowly and with difficulty toward his master, and the hunters could see that he had been severely handled. He had several long, ugly wounds on his body, which were bleeding profusely.
“Wal, I’ll be shot!” exclaimed the trapper, “if that ar fool of a dog didn’t tackle the painter! He ought to knowed better. The varmint could chaw him up in two minits. Useless here wouldn’t have thought o’ doin’ sich a thing. But it’ll do no good for us to stay here, so we might as well travel back to the shantee. Ye’re minus a white buck, Frank,” he continued, as he led the way through the woods.
The young naturalist made no reply, for it was a severe blow to him. He had anticipated a great deal of pleasure in taming the white buck, and in showing him to his friends, and relating the circumstances of his capture. But the panther had put an end to these anticipations; and Frank determined, as long as he remained in the woods, to wage a merciless war against all his tribe.