After tying them up in their caps, Frank pulled leisurely along out of the bay, and was just entering the lake, when Archie, who was steering, suddenly turned the boat toward the shore, and said, in a scarcely audible whisper,

“A deer—­a deer! sure as I live!”

Frank looked in the direction his cousin indicated, and saw a large buck standing in the edge of the water, not twenty rods from them.  Luckily he had not heard their approach, and Frank drew the boat closer under the point, to watch his motions.

They were a good deal excited, and Archie’s hand trembled like a leaf, as he reached for his gun.

Another lucky circumstance was, that the dogs had not discovered him.  Brave and Hunter could have been kept quiet, but Lightfoot was not sufficiently trained to be trusted.

The boys determined to make an effort to capture him; he would make a splendid addition to their museum.  Besides, they had never killed a deer, and now the opportunity was fairly before them.  But the question was how to proceed.  The buck was out of range of their shot-guns, and they knew it would be worse than useless to fire at him; so they concluded to lie still in the boat, and await the movements of the game.

The buck was standing in the water, up to his knees, deliberately cropping the leaves of the lilies, and now and then gazing toward the opposite shore, as if he were meditating upon something.  At length he appeared to have decided upon his course, for he waded deeper into the water, and swam boldly out into the lake.

This was exactly what the boys had wished for; and, when the buck had made about ten rods from the shore, Archie took his seat at the oars, and pulled the boat silently out from behind the point.  The moment they entered the lake, Lightfoot discovered the game, and uttered a loud bark.  The buck heard it, and his first impulse was to turn and regain the shore he had just left.  But Archie gave way on the oars manfully, and succeeded in intercepting him; and the buck, finding himself fairly cut off, uttered a loud snort, and, seeming to understand that his only chance for escape was straight ahead, he settled himself down in the water, and struck out again for the opposite shore.

The dogs now all broke out into a continuous barking, and Archie exclaimed, in an excited voice,

“Shoot him! shoot him!”

“He is too far off,” answered Frank.  “You must remember that our guns are loaded with small shot.  Give way lively!”

The boys very soon discovered that they had no easy task before them.  The light skiff, propelled by Archie’s powerful strokes, danced rapidly over the little waves; but the buck was a fast swimmer and made headway through the water astonishingly.

“Don’t we gain on him any?” inquired Archie, panting hard from his exertions.

“Yes, a very little,” answered Frank.  “But he swims like a streak.”