, Greg and Hazelton took the cart, Greg at the handles, Hazelton
pulling ahead on the rope.

Thus they went along, for some five minutes, when Dick, who was
in the lead, reached a small covered bridge over a noisy, rushing
creek.

Just as Dick gained the entrance to the bridge his gaze fell upon
a large white sheet of paper tacked there. The word "Notice,"
written in printing characters, stared him in the face.

Dick read, then called back quietly:

"Halt! Here's something we've got to look into at once."

The cart handlers willingly enough dropped their burden. All
hands crowded forward to read what was written underneath on the
sheet of paper. It ran thus:

"All passers-by are cautioned that a mad dog, frothing at the
mouth, has passed this way, going west. Officers have gone in
pursuit of the animal, but passers-by may encounter the dog before
the officers do. The dog is a huge English mastiff, without collar.
Turn back unless armed!"

"Fine and cheery!" exclaimed Tom Reade, looking rather startled
despite his light comment.

"And, just as it happens, this is the only road in the country
that we want to use just at present," commented Dick Prescott.

"Shall we go ahead, keeping a sharp lookout?" asked Dave.

"I don't know," Dick muttered. "We'll have to think that over
a bit."

"There are six of us, and we can cut good, stout clubs before
we proceed farther," suggested Greg Holmes.

"Yes, and probably, if attacked, we could finish the dog," Dick
went on. "Yet, most likely, before we did kill the brute, he'd
have bitten at least one of us."

"I'll go on, if the rest of you fellows want to," observed Danny
Grin. "At the same time, it looks like taking a big chance, doesn't
it?"

"It's taking a chance, of course," Dick admitted. "The dog may
be running yet, and we might never get within ten, or even twenty,
miles of him. Or, the officers may have caught and killed the
brute by this time. Or, the mastiff might bound at us from the
woods at any moment now."

"Whether we go back or keep on, we're fairly likely to meet the
mad dog," suggested Tom. "Mr. Chairman, I rise to move, sir,
that we cut clubs at once, and do the rest of our talking afterwards!"

"The motion is seconded and carried," called Dick, darting into
the woods. "Come on and find the clubs."

Less than forty seconds afterwards each of the six boys was cutting
a stout sapling, which he forthwith trimmed.

"I believe I co