Without thinking twice, and only too willing to blindly obey, Lub galloped straight to the shore of the lake. He happened to strike a little bank, where the water was quite deep.
"Here I go!" they heard him shout, and then came a tremendous splash.
"Oh! my!" gasped X-Ray, "that settles our fishing for this morning! He'll scare every trout in the lake with his threshing around!"
Ethan was bubbling over with laughter, and even Phil had hard work to keep from giving a shout when upon reaching the shore they saw what was going on.
Lub stood in water up to his chin. He kept bobbing his head in an anxious effort to locate any determined insect that still hovered near by. Occasionally he would duck entirely out of sight, and move along a dozen feet, as though in hopes of eluding the enemy in this way.
Taking pity on the poor fellow Phil assured him the coast was clear, and that he was safe in coming out.
Such a woe begone figure he presented.
It seemed like a shame to laugh, but the boys could not have helped it had their lives depended on keeping sober faces.
Besides looking like a drowned rat, poor Lub found that his face was already swelling up. His jaws looked as they may have done when he had the mumps. One eye threatened to be lost altogether, on account of the puffiness all around it. His nose had received due attention, and even his hands had failed to come through the scorching fire unscathed.
Despite all this Lub tried to grin, although the effort was, as X-Ray said pretty much of a "ghastly failure."