At length the dog comprehended me.  He trotted to the cart, walked around it once or twice, with his nose close to the ground, and when he had got track of the thief he uttered a low bay of satisfaction, and looked up into my face as much as to say, “shall I go on?”

We caught up our rifles, and leaving the sleeping stockman to continue his nap, we motioned the dog to start, and followed close at his heels.

He led the way along the path until he came to the spot where I imagined I had seen a man disappear, and after snuffing for a moment, the hound trotted on, sometimes leaping over bushes four feet high, a feat which we found not easy of accomplishment, tired as we were, and the heat up to over a hundred in the shade of a forest.

If the animal got two rods in advance of us, a word was sufficient to check him until we came up, when, receiving our praise with an acknowledgment in the shape of a wag of his tail, he would trot on with renewed watchfulness.

We observed that our course led us towards the spot where we had been digging a few minutes before, and as we neared the clearing our watchfulness increased.  Not a tree was passed without anxious glances being cast among the branches to see if an enemy lurked there, but nothing in the shape of a man was to be seen.

At length we were within a few steps of the bushes from whence we supposed the gun to have been discharged.  Immediately in front of us was a low tree of the balsam species, with branches and leaves so close together that it was impossible to see through the top.  The foliage was most dense, and the thought suddenly occurred to me that if a man wished to secrete himself that tree would be the one which he would choose from amongst the thousands within sight.  I was not, therefore, greatly surprised when Rover suddenly stopped and exhibited signs of having treed his game.

“The thief is lodged in that tree,” shouted Fred, eagerly.

“It is singular that we did not think of examining it before,” I remarked, as we sheltered ourselves behind trees, for we had evidence that, whoever he was, he possessed a gun and know how to use it, and therefore we did not wish to needlessly expose our lives to his aim.

Rover acted in a frantic manner.  He stood upon his hind legs and sought to get at his enemy, and when finding that he could not, he appealed to us for assistance; and for fear that he should get injured I called him away,—­an order which he obeyed most reluctantly.

“Come down from the tree,” shouted Fred, “and we will give you quarter and kind treatment.”

There was no answer; we listened, but not a movement was to be heard.  An old parrot, that was perched high upon a blasted tree, attempted to imitate our cry, but he got no further than the first word, and that appeared to puzzle him so much that he gave up in despair and remained mute with disgust.

“Do you surrender?” he yelled.