ow all broke out into a continuous barking, and Archie
exclaimed, in an excited voice,

"Shoot him! shoot him!"

"He is too far off," answered Frank. "You must remember that our guns
are loaded with small shot. Give way lively!"

The boys very soon discovered that they had no easy task before them.
The light skiff, propelled by Archie's powerful strokes, danced
rapidly over the little waves; but the buck was a fast swimmer and
made headway through the water astonishingly.

"Don't we gain on him any?" inquired Archie, panting hard from his
exertions.

"Yes, a very little," answered Frank. "But he swims like a streak."

At length they reached the middle of the lake, and Frank, to his
delight, discovered that they were gaining rapidly. Archie redoubled
his efforts, and a few more strokes brought them close alongside of
the buck, which snorted aloud in his terror, and leaped half-way out
of the water, then settled down nobly to his work.

Had Frank been an experienced deer-hunter, he would have been very
careful not to approach the game in that manner; for a deer, when he
finds himself unable to escape, will fight most desperately, and his
sharp antlers and hoofs, which will cut like a knife, are weapons not
to be despised. But Frank, in his excitement, did not step to think of
this, and, letting go the tiller, he seized his gun, and fired both
barrels in quick succession. But the shot was not fatal; and the buck,
maddened with pain, leaped almost entirely out of the water.

Frank now saw their danger, and, seizing the oars, attempted to turn
the boat out of the reach of the wounded animal; but it was too late,
for the buck, in his struggles, placed his fore-feet in the bow of the
skiff, and overturned it in an instant, and boys, dogs, ducks, and
all, were emptied into the cold waters of the lake. When they rose to
the surface, they found the skiff right side up, and dancing over the
waves they had made, and the ducks and oars were floating in the water
around them.

Their first thought was to discover what had become of the buck; he
and Brave were engaged in a most desperate fight, in which the dog was
evidently getting the better of it. The hounds, probably not relishing
their ducking, were making for the nearest shore, as if their lives
depended upon the issue.

Frank swam up to the skiff, and took hold of it, to keep himself
afloat; but Archie picked up an oar, and struck out toward the buck,
exclaiming,