What the buck thought about it, no one seemed to care. Teddy put on a little extra spurt of speed, and circled around the deer. Then he headed directly at the swimmer. The buck swerved a little, and Teddy, now crouched in the bow of his canoe, leaned forward.
“All ready for a shot, Dolph?” he shouted. The buck was swimming gallantly, and desperately, too.
“Now, snap away!” whooped Teddy, reaching down, and clutching the short tail of the deer.
What happened just then was never very clear to Teddy. The buck must have turned upon him, when insult was added to injury. He heard the “click” of the kodak; then something rammed the frail canoe so furiously that Teddy went headlong into the lake.
Being a good swimmer, the boy instantly struck out. It happened fortunately that at the time he was only wearing a sleeveless tunic, also a pair of trousers and tennis shoes, for the day had turned out quite warm.
When Teddy arose to the surface, after his hasty dive, he shook his head in his accustomed way, to get the wet hair away from his eyes.
The first thing he heard was Dolph roaring:
“Look out! He’s coming after you! He’s a fighter, all right! Dive, Teddy, dive!”
And then, sure enough, Teddy saw the buck. For the time being the animal seemed to have forgotten how anxious he had been to reach the shore. Revenge was what he appeared to be after now. Teddy had placed an indignity upon him when pulling his tail, that no self-respecting buck could stand.
Teddy saw it was useless attempting to get into the canoe again, with that angry beast in full chase. The tables had turned, and it was now Teddy who was being pursued.