ning the rifle-muzzle into a crevice between a couple of
fallen logs, and sighting along the barrel. I could see nothing, but,
with my finger on the trigger, I was prepared to fire whether I
sighted the enemy or not. Guard drew back, silent, now, but trembling
with excitement.

[Illustration: "HOLD ON, I AIN'T NO WILDCAT!" (Page 306)]

"Hold on!" cried a voice from the rubbish heap, "I ain't no wildcat!"
The voice was shrill and sharp with terror, but I knew it instantly
for that of Jacob Horton. The rifle slipped unheeded from my nerveless
hand, while Guard, since there was evidently to be no shooting,
resumed his former post and growled menacingly.

"Why--why," I stammered, "if you are not a wildcat--if you are a
man--I thought you had gone to town!"

"Gone to town!" the voice, losing its tone of terror, degenerated into
a snarl. "I've been here all night. I've met up with an accident. I'm
pinned down under a log, and that infernal dog of yours has stood and
growled at me all night; I ain't dared to say my soul was my own."

"I don't believe that any one else would care to claim it."

The words broke from me involuntarily. I had the grace to feel ashamed
the minute they were spoken. Guard's prisoner answered my unfeeling
observation with a groan, and I looked reproachfully at Guard, who
returned the look with a hopeful glance of his bright eye and wagged
his tail cheerfully. I think that he quite expected to receive orders
to go in and drag his fallen enemy out to the light of day. Realizing
that as a general thing Guard understood his own business I forbore to
reproach him, at the moment, for having treed or grounded Mr. Horton.

"Are you badly hurt?" I inquired, falling on my knees before the
crevice, and trying to catch a glimpse of the victim of an accident.

"I do' no's I'm hurt in none of my limbs," was the cautious reply,
"but I'm covered with bruises, and I'm pinned fast. I couldn't 'a' got
away if I hadn't been, for that brute was determined to have my life.
Turn about's fair play; we'll see how he comes out after this!"

Clearly, the victim's temper had not been improved by the night's
adventures, and it was easy to see that he had made almost no
effort at all to escape from a position which, although certainly
uncomfortable, had the great advantage of keeping the dog at bay. I
thought of the Land Office in Fairplay and of the business that was
probably being transacted there at that moment, and res