Felix was troubled a little, and for a very good reason. In talking about those lawless guides who had been expelled from Yellowstone Park by the Government authorities, Tom Tucker had incidentally informed him that one of their favorite tricks was to keep several deer dogs, with which they were accustomed to having regular old fashioned chases, such as used to be frequent in the Adirondacks in his native State before the anti-hounding law was passed and enforced, making it a crime to use dogs for such a purpose.
He hoped that the chase would lead away from him, as he certainly did not want to make the acquaintance of these rough men, against whom Tom Tucker had warned him more than a few times.
Listening carefully as the snapping and baying sounded constantly louder, Felix presently concluded that the animals were certainly heading his way, and approaching rapidly. He gritted his teeth with a grim determination to defend himself if beset by the hound pack; and picked up his rifle from the ground, where he had laid it when resting.
At least he was not kept long in suspense. Inside of three minutes he discovered something moving rapidly through the bushes, and almost immediately saw that it was a noble buck, with its tongue lolling from its mouth, and giving other evidences of having been chased hither and thither for hours by the hounds, that doubtless had been educated, just like a rabbit dog Felix owned, to bring the tired animal back to where the hunters waited.
Somehow the sight of that tortured buck gave Felix a wave of disgust. He seemed to feel an immediate hope that it would escape from the game butchers who used so unfair a mode for securing their quarry. Yes, Felix, in the heat of his anger, even went so far as to mentally express a hope that one of the owners of the pack—who must be near by, because he had plainly heard a shout, as of exultation over the possible ending of the chase—would fall into the clutches of the keepers of the great Government game reservation, said to be on the lookout for them as transgressors of the law.
To his astonishment the pursued buck suddenly changed its course a little, and headed almost directly toward the spot where Felix was standing, watching the affair with considerable interest. It actually seemed to the excited boy as though the despairing deer had turned toward him, in a last frantic hope that he might be merciful, and stretch out a hand to give the help that was elsewhere denied; though in all probability the deer never noticed his motionless figure standing there, as it sprang past, and vanished in the thick scrub beyond.
The pack of hounds was now in full sight, racing eagerly along, yapping, and giving tongue after the manner of their kind when they are close on the fleeing quarry. They looked about as fierce and ugly as so many wolves might have been, since the old instinct had been aroused in them by the chase. For the time being they had gone back once more to the state of the primal beast in pursuit of the prey so necessary to continued existence, as a survival of the fittest. Felix shuddered as he saw their foam-flecked mouths, from which the red tongues lolled.
There were just three of the dogs, all told, and Felix drew back the hammer of his Marlin, not liking the looks of the aroused beasts, and suspecting that in their present condition they might not hesitate to attack a boy, under the impression that as the trail led almost directly toward him, he must have spirited away their intended prey, which they had chased so long.
In that event there was just one thing Felix could do, which was to defend himself against the pack, no matter at what cost.