Gr-r-r-r!  Wow-wow!  Woof! sounded closer at hand, accompanied by considerable noise in the underbrush.

“That pup’s in trouble,” declared Tom sagely.  “Come along, fellows!  Bring the lantern, Dick!”

Six boys, headed by Dick with the lantern, went to meet the bull-dog.  They came upon Towser, growling in a most excited manner, threshing something about him in the bushes as he came toward them.

“Hold still, boy!” commanded Harry.  “What is it, old chap?”

Then he came upon the dog.  In the darkness it was not easy to make out what ailed Towser.  But Prescott came closer to the dog with the lantern.

“Towser has his foot caught in a steel trap.  I’m afraid his leg is broken,” quivered Hazelton, as he threw himself on the ground beside his pet.  “Hold still, boy!  Let me take it off of you.”

The dog permitted himself to be held while Tom Reade pried open the jaws of the steel fox trap, the chain to which the pup had dragged over the ground.

“That’s a queer accident,” commented Greg Holmes.

“Accident?” flamed Harry.  “This thing is no accident.  It was done on purpose, and I wouldn’t need but one guess to name the two-legged cur that did this!”

All of the boys understood at once that Hazelton was accusing Fred Ripley of setting the trap.

Towser, as soon as released, limped a little, but proved that his leg was not broken, though it had been cut in the trap.

“Woof!” he exploded angrily, as soon as he found that he could run about on his injured leg.  Then, showing his teeth, he growled menacingly and bounded through the woods, Dick & Co. following pell-mell.

“Towser knows that his enemy is still near!” called Harry exultantly.  “Come on, fellows!  We’ll catch that sneak!”

A bull-dog’s strong point is not his scent.  He led the boys to the roadway, then halted, growling, plainly at fault.

Perched up in a tree not fifty yards away, well hidden by the foliage, were Fred Ripley and another youth.  For a few moments they listened breathlessly to the pursuit, then appeared to feel more at their ease.

“You didn’t work the trap trick quite right,” whispered Fred to the youth in overalls beside him.

“Better luck next time,” whispered back the stranger.  “But no matter.  I see how we can fix the canoe so that it couldn’t win a race against a mudscow!”

CHAPTER XIX

WHAT AILED GRIDLEY?

“There’s an automobile full of Gridley folks coming up to the lake to-day!” cried Susie Sharp excitedly as she ran to meet her girl friends at the landing stage.

“How do you know?” asked Laura eagerly.

“Mr. Wright has just received a telephone message, asking that arrangements be made to give them supper here.  They’re going back in the evening.”

“Dick will be so pleased!” cried Laura.  “All of our boys will be delighted, I imagine,” replied Susie dryly.