“Let’s cut him off!” shouted Joe. “Get between him and the woods and keep him out in the open. Then we can chase him down. Come on!”
Eagerly the three boys rushed forward, spreading out so as to place themselves between the deer and the forest. They were in a good position to do this as the animal was well out in the field.
For a short time, neither hearing, seeing nor scenting the boys, the deer continued to feed. Then his alert ears, eyes or nose told him something was wrong and, raising his head, shaking his horns and giving a defiant snort, he turned toward the woods.
But the boys were between him and this hiding place. With shouts they turned the deer back and he fled across the fields, out into the open.
“Now we’ll get him!” cried Teddy. “We’ll run him down if we have to keep up the chase all night.”
“We can’t stay out all night,” said Joe.
“Why not?” asked Teddy.
“We haven’t any blankets, not even a flashlight, and we have nothing to eat.”
“That last is important,” said Dick. “We have to eat.”
“I’ll tell you what we can do,” Teddy said. “Two of us will take the trail after the deer, Joe and I. Dick, you get to the nearest telephone and ask my mother to put up some food, some blankets and flashlights, and meet us with the car at Bailey’s Corners. That’s the little town about three miles from here. The deer is headed that way. We can keep on after him all night if we get some supplies. My mother will fix that for us. Hurry now, Dick!”