“Here they be!  Take ’em, fellers!  Take ’em down!”

Another impatient yelp and the rush of feet on the hard road told the boys that Don Gordon’s hounds were coming.  This aroused them, and showed them the necessity of making an effort to escape.  It was useless to run; the only place of safety was the roof of the cabin, and they made the most frantic efforts to reach it.  They darted quickly around the corner of the building, sprang upon the porch and squirmed up the posts with the agility of monkeys.  But with all their haste they did not have a second to spare.  They had scarcely left the porch before the hounds bounded up the steps and a pair of gleaming jaws came together with a snap close to Lester’s foot, which he drew out of the way just in time to escape being caught.  Panting and almost breathless with terror the two boys crept cautiously up the roof—­the moss-covered shingles were so slippery that it was all they could do to keep from sliding off among the hounds—­and seating themselves on the ridge-pole looked at each other and at the savage brutes from which they had so narrowly escaped.  Then they looked all around to find the person who had set the dogs upon them, but could see nothing of him.

[Illustration:  Treed by Don Gordon’s Hounds.]

“Where has he gone, I wonder?” said Lester, who was the first to speak.

“Haven’t the least idea,” replied Bob.

“Who was it?”

“Don’t know that, either.  It didn’t sound to me like Don’s voice, but it sounded like his whistle, and if it was him, I wish he’d come and call the dogs off.  I am willing to give up now, Lester.  Luck is always on his side, and if he will let us go home without making any fuss about it, I’ll promise to leave him alone in future.”

Lester could not find fault with his companion for losing his courage and talking in this strain, for he was frightened half to death himself, and he would have made all sorts of promises if he could only have climbed down from that roof and sneaked off to bed without being seen by anybody.  Don did not show himself, although they called his name as loudly as they dared, and neither did the hounds grow tired and go away, as Lester hoped they would.  They were much too well trained for that.  It not unfrequently happened while Don and Bert were hunting ’coons and ’possums at night, that the game took refuge in a tree much too large to be cut down in any reasonable time by such choppers as they were.  In that case Don would order the hounds to watch the tree, and he and Bert would go home, knowing that when daylight came they would find the dogs still on duty and the game closely guarded.  The animals seemed to be perfectly satisfied when they found that Lester and Bob had taken refuge on the top of the cabin.  They walked around the building two or three times, as if to make sure that there was no way of escape, and then laid down on the ground and prepared to take matters very easily until their master should come out to them in the morning.  When Bob saw that, he lost all heart.