ning his best to pull the same out of the hands of the
owner. Steve was for turning on him, and belaboring the beast with his
own cudgel; but Max, who knew the nature of the beast better than any
of the others, felt sure that this sort of treatment would only result
in a general fight, and that in the end the animal would either have to
be shot, or else he must bite one of them seriously.

"Wait!" he called out; "keep back, the rest of you, and leave him to
me!"

Thinking of course that he meant to advance, and use his firearm in
order to finish the stubborn bulldog, the three other boys backed away,
leaving only Toby standing there, holding one end of his club, while
the canine enemy maintained that savage grip on the other, and sought
to wrest it away.

But Max had had enough of dog killing for one night, and meant to try
other tactics in this case. He dodged into the shelter, and almost
immediately reappeared bearing with him some food that had been left
over, scraps of bread and fragments from their supper.

These he tossed close to the nose of the stubborn bulldog, while the
rest of the party watched to see the result. Would hunger prevail, or
the disposition to continue fighting cause the animal to keep on
chewing the end of Toby's club?

Presently they saw the unwelcome visitor begin to sniff eagerly. Then
he suddenly released those terrible teeth of his, the iron jaw relaxed,
and the next thing they knew the ferocious bulldog was devouring the
food Max had thrown down, with every symptom of satisfaction.

Max went back and secured more of the same kind.

"We can get plenty, once we leave here in the morning," he told
Bandy-legs when the latter showed a disposition to murmur against the
seeming extravagance; "and I'd hate to kill that dog. I'm sure from
his looks he must be of fine stock, and worth a heap to his owner.
Besides, I've knocked one over, and that's one too many to please me.
Now watch what I'll do."

With that he approached, and offered the dog the rest of the food. In
another minute he could have patted the heretofore savage beast on the
back, only that Max was too wise to trouble a feeding dog.

"Nothing more to be feared from him, I guess," remarked Steve, who had
watched all this with distended eyes; "you know dogs from the ground
up, Max. But do you think it's safe to have that terror around? The
girls won't want to come down out of the tree while he's in camp."

"You're mist