Page:The Way of the Wild (1923).pdf/273

 and did what he could in other ways to muddle up his trail for the Renegade Pack. When he at last felt free he put in half an hour browsing and then lay down to rest, this time in an opening in the woods where he could watch from all sides. To his great disgust, at the end of the fourth hour he heard the hounds baying in the distance and in another half-hour the entire pack were up with him. They did not approach too close, but circled about baying or yelping. With an angry snort Red Buck sprang up and charged them. First at this dog and then at that one, but the wary canines always kept close to cover and dodged behind trees and turned sharp corners.

After several futile charges he gave up this mode of attack and made for the Great Bear Swamp. That thick cover had always been his stronghold and he thought it would save him now. He did not think the pack would follow him there. Men never had.

The Great Bear Swamp was the most hopeless morass in western Massachusetts. It was rather densely timbered for a swamp with