Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/142

 chine in which men travelled so fast over their smooth trails, and looking up the road, which crossed the trail of the thunderer very close to where Redcoat struggled, the distracted and fear crazed animal discovered his enemy Bud Holcome coming rapidly towards him. Bud saw Redcoat almost as soon as he saw the boy, and stopping his Ford sprang hastily out, and advanced toward the prisoner and Redcoat saw that he was carrying the thunder stick on his arm. So it was a conspiracy of all his enemies to destroy him. Bud had noted, almost as soon as he discovered the fox, that he was held fast in some way, otherwise he would have run away as fast as his legs could have carried him. Perhaps it was a trap which he had dragged for a distance and finally caught the chain between the ties. But even Bud, trained woodsman that he was, was not prepared for the terrible dilemma of this coveted red fox. When he discovered that the fox was held by his tongue in the desperate frost grip of the rail, his surprise was beyond words. But he also had heard the