nt as both slowly
sank to the bottom.

Eyes wide with anguish he heard his father cry:

"By the Lord, he'll kill that dog shore--he's a goner!"

"No, he won't neither!" the Boy shouted, leaping into the water where he
saw them go down.

Before his father could warn him of the danger his head disappeared in
the deep still eddy.

"Look out for us, Dennis, with a pole I'm goin' ter dive fer 'em!"

In a moment they came to the surface, the man holding the Boy, the Boy
grasping his dog, the coon fastened to the dog's head.

"Well, don't that beat the devil!" Tom laughed, as he carried them to a
little rocky island in the middle of the creek.

The Boy intent on saving his dog had held his breath and was not even
strangled. The dog had buried his nose in the coon's throat and was
chewing and choking with savage determination.

Tom stood over them now on the little island with its smooth stone-paved
battle arena ringed with the music of laughing waters. He threw both
hands above his shaggy head and yelled himself hoarse--the wild cry of
the hunter's soul in delirious joy.

"_Yaaaiih! Yaaaiiih!_"

A moment's pause, and then the low snarl and growl and clash of tooth
and claw! Again the hunter's gnarled hands flew over his head.

"_Yaaaiih! Yaaaaiiih! Yaaiih! Yaaaaiiiihhh!!_"

On the shore Dennis stood first over one group of swirling, rolling,
snarling brutes, and then over the other, yelling and cheering.

The coon on the island suddenly broke his assailant's death-like grip,
and, with a quick leap, reached the water. Boney was on him in a moment
and down they went beneath the surface again.

The Boy sprang to the rescue.

His father brushed him roughly aside:

"Keep out! I'll git 'em!"

Three times the coon made the dash for deep water and three times Tom
carried both dog and coon back to the little island yelling his battle
cry anew.

The smooth stones began to show red. Fur and dog hair flew in little
tufts and struck the ground, sometimes with the flat splash of red
flesh.

The Boy frowned and his lips quivered. At last he could hold in no
longer. Through chattering teeth he moaned:

"He'll kill Boney, Pa!"

"Let him alone!" was the sharp command. "I never see sich a dog in my
life. He'll kill that coon by hisself, I tell ye!"

Again his enemy broke Boney's grim hold on his throat, sprang back four
feet and, to the dog's surprise, made no effort to reach the water.
Instead he stood straight an