Making no noise, they went forward again.  They had to pass some bushes and rocks, and then came to a point where a spur of land jutted far out into Firefly Lake.  It was a rocky and sandy spur, with scarcely any brushwood on it.

“There you are!” said Snap, and pointed to the extreme end of the spur.  There, on the rocks, were two large foxes, their noses well in the air, gazing down the lake attentively.

“We’ve got them,” murmured the doctor’s son.  “Come on, we’ll take pictures first and then shoot them!”

He brought around his camera and the others did likewise.  They had just snapped the shutters when the foxes turned, saw them, and set up a loud and angry barking and showed their teeth.

“They are coming for us!” yelled Giant, and he was right.  Without hesitation, the foxes made several big leaps and came directly for the young hunters!

CHAPTER XXV

THE TWO FOXES

Ordinarily the foxes would have turned and run away, but, with the lake behind them, this was impossible, consequently they showed fight.  They came on snapping and snarling viciously and with their teeth gleaming in a manner that made the boys shudder.

Fortunately for the young hunters the distance from the spur of rocks to where the lads stood was over fifty yards, so, as the foxes came rushing on, they had just time enough to shove aside their cameras and bring their shotguns to the front.  Snap was the first of the three to bring his weapon into play, and he pulled the trigger when the fox was less than a dozen feet away.

The shot was a fairly good one, for it took the beast just under the breast.  The fox gave a yelp of intense pain and dropped back.

The other fox came rushing at the doctor’s son.  The strap of Shep’s gun had become entangled with that of his camera and consequently it was next to impossible for him to bring the weapon into proper play.  He fired, but the charge went too high, and the beast continued to come on, until it crouched at his feet, snapping viciously and getting ready to leap at his throat.

It was now that Giant showed his mettle.  He, too, had had a little trouble in getting at his gun, but now the weapon was pointed at the fox at Shep’s feet.  Giant ran closer and pulled the trigger.  Bang! went the gun, and the fox received the full charge directly in the left ear.  It keeled over, and Giant sent the second charge of his double-barreled weapon into the second fox, and that, too, went down and lay quivering in its death agonies.

It took the young hunters some time to recover from the excitement of the occurrence.  The attack of the foxes had come so quickly that it had startled them greatly.

“This ought to be a warning to us—–­this and that fight with the wildcats,” said Snap.  “We ought to be on our guard every minute.  We’ve been lucky so far—–­maybe some other time we’ll not do so well.”