Page:Redcoat (1927).djvu/169

 through an open spot in the woods and gave chase. The whole pack at once abandoned the old track for the new and poor Redcoat lost more than half of the distance which he had held upon the pack. This put him in a desperate plight. He was being rapidly run back towards the roadway, and with the pack only about a hundred yards behind. Something must be done at once. He must shake the pack off immediately, or he would run into one of the hunters, or the pack would catch him. Either happening would be fatal.

This time Redcoat approached the road farther south than he had before, under a little cover of brush. Perhaps he might find a place where there was no hunter in sight. He must depend upon his good nose to warn him in advance. As he neared the roadway, with the pack so close behind in full cry, he heard a squeaking and a tinkling which he knew the teams that men drove sometimes made. It was almost at the point where he had planned to reconnoitre the road. Cautiously Redcoat advanced and