"Poor fellow!" murmured the young Southerner, and there were tears in his eyes. "First the bob cats and now a pistol bullet! Oh, if I can only catch the rascal who fired that shot I'll make him suffer for this!"
"The fellow killed the dog, so the animal could not trail him," said Dick. "It was certainly a dirty trick."
"It shows that the man is a criminal," put in Tom. "He would not be afraid of us if he was honest."
"And therefore it must have been Gasper Pold or Solly Jackson," said Sam.
"What will you do with the dog?" asked Dick, after an awkward pause.
"Take him back to the boat and bury him," answered the young Southerner. "I don't want the wild beasts to feed on him."
"Hadn't we better follow up that man first?"
"We can do so, if you wish."
They passed on and looked around that vicinity with care. It must be confessed that they were afraid of being shot at, but nothing of the sort occurred. At one point they saw some footsteps, but these came to an end in a creek flowing into the lake.
As the ground in that vicinity was very treacherous there was nothing to do but to return to the
