The peccaries were now pouring into view in great numbers, pushing through and scrambling over obstructions with an apparent ease that the lad for the moment heartily envied.
“Ugh! what ugly looking customers!” he exclaimed, casting a quick glance over his shoulder. “And they actually have the nerve to follow us. Can you beat it?”
“I’m doing my best!” grinned Sam.
By this time the peccaries, probably emboldened by the precipitous flight of the boys, were pursuing them, and with an earnestness that caused Don to experience feelings of great uneasiness.
In a few minutes the three found themselves separated, and the New Orleans boy, to his great disgust and alarm, made the unpleasant discovery that the leader and several others had singled him out for special attention. Paying not the slightest heed to the branches and twigs which continually lashed his face and shoulders with stinging force he made progress at a rate of speed which a short time before he would have considered impossible. And every glance that the lad gave toward the solid, stocky wild Mexican hogs, and their eyes, which seemed to express a most disturbing degree of savageness, acted as an incentive for him to make still greater efforts.
“Gee whiz!” he breathed. “Maybe I won’t be jolly glad to get out of this!” He shuddered at the thought of coming in closer contact with the animals, though the revolver at his Belt served to bolster up his courage.
Meanwhile both Dave and Sam were having a similar experience. The Ramblers, however, more accustomed to situations in which courage and resourcefulness played a most important part, did not feel any of the thrills of alarm which assailed their companion. To them there was an element of grim humor in this retreat before the advancing horde of wild hogs.
“We might lead ’em right over to the Ranger encampment,” chuckled Sam, “and—— Great Scott!”
A loud shout coming from Don Stratton abruptly brought his sentence to a close. The lad had been succeeding admirably in keeping his lead, when a projecting root unfortunately caught his foot and sent him sprawling into the midst of a mass of bushes. It began to look as though the foremost of the peccaries would be upon the lad before he could extricate himself from his unpleasant position.
“Keep cool, old chap!” yelled Dave. “We’ll be over there in another moment!”