“Where are Case and Gran?” asked Clay, after they had chopped for an hour at the blackened wood. “I hope they aren’t thinking of leaving the boat alone. That will hardly be safe, in this wild place.”
“Why,” replied the other, “they were talking of going up on the mountain after game for dinner when I left. They think they can shoot.”
“One, at least, ought to remain in the boat,” Clay suggested. “When we return they may go hunting together if they want to, only I wouldn’t advise a long stop in this valley. We’d better be on our way, I think.”
“I reckon that’s right,” Alex agreed, “for, come to think about it, Gran was going alone, but I’ll go and tell them both to stay on the boat. Have you noticed Captain Joe?” the boy continued, pointing to the dog, now snarling at a thicket farther up the canyon. “He seems to have found something. I’ll go and see what it is.”
Before Clay could offer objections, the boy was away, chasing along through the brush on the heels of the dog. Presently Clay heard a roar of laughter.
“He’s got a rabbit!” Alex shouted, “and he’s making as much fuss as if he had another bear. I guess we’ll have some fresh game for dinner now,” the boy continued, making his appearance with an animal which looked something like a rabbit, but was larger and evidently more ferocious, for the dog had torn it not a little in making the capture.
“I wonder if it is good to eat?” Clay asked, thankful that it was nothing more than a rabbit, or something akin to the rabbit which Captain Joe had scented out.
He had, as will be understood, feared that the intruder with the long arms had returned to that vicinity. Besides, the capture of the rabbit if such it was, would make a hunting trip, such as Case and Gran had planned, unnecessary at that time. The boy was overjoyed at the outcome of the incident, and asked Alex to carry the capture to the boat and talk with the others about eating it, also to warn them against leaving the boat alone, even for a minute.
“I’ve got a book on natural history,” the boy exclaimed, “and I’ll look up the pedigree of this beastie. When I get back to the South Branch, I’m going to write a book entitled: ‘Wild Animals I Have Never Met Because I Could Run Faster Than They Could.’ Don’t you think a volume of that character would make a hit in the literary world?”
“Bound in calf, or sheep?” asked Clay, with a broad grin.