"But we farmers will get together and drive those fellows out!" declared Mr. Brown. "If they'll take dogs they'll take other things, especially now with winter coming on. We must clear them out!"
Then Rick, with Ruddy following joyously, the dog now and then running back and sniffing at the legs of the boys, started for home.
"We did what we set out to do," said Mr. Taylor, "and that is generally the way with Boy Scouts. But we didn't do it in just the way we planned."
"But we got Ruddy back!" exclaimed Rick, "and I'm going to be a Boy Scout!"
"That's the way to talk!" cried Chot.
Mr. and Mrs. Dalton and Mazie listened eagerly to the story Rick told—of the night spent in the log cabin, and how Ruddy came back.
"But who cut him loose?" asked Rick's father.
"That's what we don't know," said the boy. "It must have been somebody who liked dogs."
And it was not until some time later that they heard about the sailor, who, with his knife, slashed the rope that kept Ruddy a prisoner.
For several days after this adventure Rick kept close watch over Ruddy, as, indeed, Mrs. Dalton did when Rick was at school. The whole Dalton family, as well as the boys and girls in the neighborhood of Rick's house, had come to know and care for the brown setter. The setter is a very lovable sort of dog, not perhaps as strong in character as a bull, a collie or Airedale, but of a disposition that makes you love him in spite of the tricks he sometimes plays.