e side of the mountain, which caused Josh to exclaim:

"That's a pack of dogs yapping, and they're hot on the track of some
sort of game, too! It may be only a poor little cottontail, but we'll
soon know, for they're heading straight in our direction. Whew! listen
to the yelps they give!"

"There's something in the lake over yonder, and coming this way, too!"
exclaimed Felix "Can it be a muskrat, Tom, do you think, swimming on
top of the water?"

"Not much it isn't!" cried Josh from the bow of the novel craft; "it's
a deer I tell you, a stag with half-grown antlers, taking to the water
to escape from the hounds."

CHAPTER XIX

FRIENDS OF THE DEER

"Yes, its a buck," announced Tom, as a shout from the camp told that
one of the other scouts had also discovered the swimming animal.

"Whew! there come the dogs along the shore!" cried Felix, pointing as
he spoke to where a number of swiftly-moving objects could be seen.

"They've taken to the water after the deer!" exclaimed Josh.

"It'll be a shame if they manage to catch up with the poor thing in the
pond!" Felix declared; "we ought to break that game up somehow. Isn't
there a way?"

"If we had a canoe instead of a log we might get between, and keep the
dogs back," he was told by the patrol leader; "but I'm afraid we'll
never be able to make it at this rate."

Felix had started paddling furiously even while the other was speaking.
The novel craft began to move through the water much faster than at any
previous time. It was really surprising how much speed it could show,
when driven by that stout, if homely, paddle, held in the hands of a
muscular and excited scout.

Tom gave directions as though he were the pilot, and while the swimming
buck certainly saw them approaching he must have considered that these
human enemies were not to be feared one-half as much as those merciless
hounds following after him, for he swerved very little.

"We're going to cut in between the deer and the dogs after all, boys!"
cried the delighted Josh, who was bending his body with every movement
of the paddler, as though he hoped to be able in that fashion to assist
the drive.

"It's a pity we didn't think to bring another paddle along!" was Tom's
comment, "for that would have added considerably to our progress."

As it was, however, they managed to intervene between the hounds and
the frightened buck. Josh waved both arms, and shouted threateningly at
the eager dogs. T