Leon had a good many hard things to say about Oscar while he was engaged in repairing damages, and when he found how completely all his care and patient labor had been undone by the despised market-shooter, he grew angrier than ever.
"All the foxes he catches with that hound this winter he can carry in one of his vest pockets!" declared Leon, as he trimmed the branches off a sapling with his knife. "The very first time I get within range of him, I'll fill him so full of holes that he will answer for a window! I don't care if Oscar sees me when I do it, either."
At length the repairs were all completed, and the snares were set in readiness to snatch up anything in the way of small game that might chance to come within their reach.
The work had given Frank an appetite, and he proposed that they should go further back in the woods, shoot a couple of squirrels, if they could not find any birds, roast them over a fire, and eat them with their lunch.
His cousin readily falling in with the idea, they shouldered their guns, and before setting out, turned to take a survey of their work and make sure that nothing had been left undone.
At that moment the bugle-like notes of a hound rang through the woods.
"There he is now!" exclaimed Leon, in great excitement. "Isn't it lucky? Keep perfectly quiet until we find out which way he is going."
"Are you sure that is the dog you want to see?" asked Frank.
"Of course I am! There's not another hound about the village. If he comes in sight of us, you will see that he is a large, tan-colored animal, with ears like an elephant's. Everybody says he is just splendid. He has brought his owner many a dollar to go toward paying off that mortgage, but I'll bet he'll not bring him many more if I get a fair chance at him!"
Again the deep-toned bay rang out on the frosty air, awakening a thousand echoes among the hills: and this time it sounded nearer than before. The hound had evidently struck a warm trail, and Leon told his cousin, in a suppressed whisper, that the trail led directly toward them.