He first thought of ascending the tree, but, after taking a hasty survey of it, he abandoned the idea.  The tree was partially decayed; in fact, there was but one sound limb in it that Archie could discover, and that was about four feet above the one on which the ’coon was seated, and stretched out directly over it.

Archie did not like the idea of trusting himself among the unsound limbs, and, besides, the cunning animal had crawled out to the extreme end of one of the decayed branches, which bent beneath his weight, and the young hunter, of course, could not follow him.

There was only one way that Archie could discover to bring him down; and he straightway opened upon the devoted ’coon a tremendous shower of clubs and sticks.  He was a very accurate thrower, and, for some time, had hopes of being able to bring down the ’coon; but, although the missiles frequently hit him, Archie could not throw them with sufficient force; and he again turned his attention to the tree.  Throwing his arms around it, he commenced working his way up.  The bark was very smooth and slippery, and the lowest limb was the one on which the ’coon had taken refuge; but he kept steadily at work, and his progress, though slow, was sure, and he reached the limb; and, bearing as little of his weight as possible upon it, he drew himself up to the sound limb above.

After testing it thoroughly, to make sure that it would sustain his weight, he commenced walking out on the branch on which the ’coon was seated, keeping a firm hold of the limb above his head.  He had made scarcely a dozen steps, when there was a loud crack, and the branch on which he was standing broke into fragments, and fell to the ground with a crash, carrying the ’coon with it, and leaving Archie hanging in the air, fifty feet from the ground.

Not in the least terrified at his dangerous situation, the young hunter coolly swung himself up on the limb, and, crawling carefully back to the tree, slid rapidly down the trunk, and, as if nothing had happened, ran to the place where the ’coon had fallen, hoping that at last he was secured.

But he was again disappointed.  Nothing was to be seen of the animal, and only a few drops of blood on the leaves indicated the direction in which he had gone.  This quickly caught Archie’s eye, and he began to follow up the trail, which led toward a creek that flowed close by.  But when he arrived upon its bank he was again at fault—­the trail was lost; and, while he was running up and down the bank, searching for it, he happened to cast his eye toward the opposite side of the creek, and there was his ’coon, slowly ascending a tall stump that stood at the water’s edge.