I was starving, and had to save my life that
way."

"But whether we go hunting or not," ventured Steve, "we're all glad we
thought to fetch our guns along."

They exchanged quick glances at that.

"Which is to say," remarked Mas, smiling, "that you haven't settled it
in your mind yet, Steve, that what we saw disappearing was some barred
dog belonging to a farmer, and not a striped hyena."

"Well, you never can tell," Steve stubbornly contended, with a wise
shake of his head; "we know there must have been some beasts got away
that they never did find again. Just what they were nobody seems able to
agree. I've heard all sorts of guesses made; and a hyena might be one of
the same, as well as anything."

"They come from India, don't they?" asked Bandy-legs, smoothly.

"Found in both Asia and Africa," Max explained. "I'm not sure of any
being met with in Europe, though there are plenty of wolves. They feed
on carrion mostly, and are cowardly by nature; but all the same, they're
nasty looking brutes, and always snarling the worst you ever heard. It
makes your flesh creep just to hear them growl, worse than the ugly
tempered wildcat Toby owns."

"Well, me to carry my Marlin wherever I go up here," announced Steve;
"and if it happens that I run foul of a striped beast, that I don't like
the looks of, you'll see me knocking the spots out of him first, and
then finding afterwards what his breed is. If he turns out to be a plain
dog, then he's paid the penalty for looking like one of these hyenas,
that's all."

"D-d-don't you hear 'em?" asked Toby just then.

Steve and Bandy-legs made as though ready to reach out for their guns,
placed conveniently near; but hesitated when they saw that Toby was
grinning, and showed no signs of being worried.

"F-f-frogs, and heaps of the same over there in that p-p-pond you was
telling us about, Max. Yum! Yum! reckon now I'm in f-f-for some g-g-good
feasts."

All of them could now catch a distant croaking that announced the fact
as stated by the observant Toby; and they knew that with that pond so
close by they would be apt to take all the bullfrogs they wanted during
their stay.

"But we didn't fetch that little target gun along," remarked Bandy-legs,
regretfully.

"Don't need it," Steve told him; "do we, Max?"

"Not that I can see," answered the one appealed to; "I've got a piece of
red flannel with me, and some hooks. All you have to do is to cut a long
pole, tie a stout li