was the short answer.

They hurried from the woods and had scarcely reached the edge of the
field when suddenly old Boney's cry stopped short and in a moment the
others were silent.

"Good Lord, they've lost it!" Dennis groaned.

And then came the quick, sharp, fierce bark of the leader announcing
that the quarry had been located.

Tom gave a yell of triumph and started on a run for the spot.

"Up one o' them big sycamores in the edge o' that water I'll bet!"
Dennis wailed.

"You'll need no axe," was the older man's short comment.

They pushed their way rapidly through the cane to the banks of the creek
and found the dogs scratching with might and main straight down into the
sand about ten feet from the water's edge.

"Well, I'll be doggoned," Dennis cried, "if I ever seed anything like
that afore! They've gone plum crazy. They ain't no hole here. A coon
can't jist drap inter the ground without a hole."

The old hunter laughed:

"No, but a coon mought learn somethin' from a beaver now an' then an'
locate the door to his house under the water line an' climb up here ter
find a safe place, couldn't he?"

"I don't believe it!" Dennis sneered.

"You'll have ter go to the house an' git a spade," Tom said finally.
"It'll take one ter dig a hole big enough ter ever persuade one er these
dogs ter put his nose in that den. Hit ain't more'n a mile ter the
house--hurry back."

Dennis started on a run.

"Don't yer let 'em out an' start that fight afore I git here!" he
called.

"You'll see it all," Tom reassured him.

He made the dogs stop scratching and lie down to rest.

"Jest save yer strenk, boys," Tom cried. "Yer'll need it presently."

They sat down, the father lit his pipe and told the Boy the story of a
great fight he had witnessed on such a creek bank once before in his
life.

Day was dawning and the eastern sky reddening.

The Boy stamped on the solid ground and couldn't believe it possible
that any dog could smell game through six feet of earth.

He lifted Boney's long nose and looked at it curiously. His wonderful
nostrils were widely distended and though he lay quite still in the sand
on the edge of the hole his muscles were quivering with excitement and
his wistful hound eyes had in them now the red glare of coming battle.

It was quick work when Dennis arrived to throw the sand and soft earth
away and open a hole five feet in depth and of sufficient width to allow
all the dogs to get footh