r to him by the owner of
the abandoned cabin, he felt much better able to cope with a monster
Dane or a huge mastiff than any of those who simply carried sticks
might have been.

Max did not fancy the job before him. He had always confessed to a
great liking for dogs of almost all kinds, and the thought of being
compelled to shoot one, even in self-defense, did not appeal to him;
though it was a grim necessity that forced him to contemplate such a
massacre.

These animals having been shut off from their regular food supply
because of the flood that had driven their masters from home, were only
following out the dictates of their natures, in seeking to satisfy the
demands of hunger. Under ordinary conditions they may have been the
most desirable of companions, and valued highly by those who owned them.

There was no other way to meet the emergency save by dispersing the
savage pack. And Max knew that the animal of the heavy bark must be a
powerful brute, capable of inflicting serious damage to any one upon
whom he descended; hence he must in some way manage to dispose of the
beast before he could leap on his intended prey.

"I see 'em!" suddenly almost shrieked Bandy-legs; and all of the boys
might have echoed his announcement, for they caught sight of a confused
scrambling mass approaching at a furious pace.

This almost immediately developed into separate units, as the dogs
rushed directly into the camp. Max could see that there were no two
alike, and in the lead was a mastiff as large as any wolf that ever
followed in the wake of a wounded stag, a tawny colored animal, with
wide-open jaws that must have filled the watching girls with a sense of
abject horror, even though they were apparently safe from attack up
among the branches of the tree.

Max had eyes for no other after that. Let his chums and Shack Beggs
take care of the New Foundland, the Irish setter, the beagle, the
rabbit hound, and several more, even to a sturdy looking squatty
bulldog that must have used his short bowlegs to some advantage to keep
pace with the rest of the pack; his duty was to meet the oncoming of
that natural leader, and wind up his career.

The five boys had stationed themselves partly in front of the shelter
where all of their food supplies had been placed, though at the same
time they stood between the tree and the rushing dogs.

Straight at them the pack went, helter-skelter. It may not have been
so much a desire to a