ing boat; but Rex refusing absolutely to be pulled
aboard. He only splashed and shook himself, scattering a very geyser of
salt water on the tugging boys, and barked louder and sharper still as if
he were doing his best to talk.

"Jing!" exclaimed Dan, giving up all efforts to manage him. "I never saw
such a durned chump of a dog! I'm wet to the skin."

"Oh, he wants something!" said softer-hearted Freddy. "He is trying to
tell us something, Dan."

Rex barked again, as if he had heard the words; and, leaping on the edge
of the boat, he caught Freddy's khaki sleeve.

"Lookout there, or he'll pull you overboard!" shouted Dan in fierce alarm,
as Rex pulled still harder. "Golly! I believe he wants us to come ashore
with him."

"Oh, he does,--he does!" said Freddy, eagerly. "He has hunted something
down and wants us to get it, Dan. Let us see what it is."

It was a temptation that two live boys could not resist. Mooring Neb's old
fishing boat to a sharp projecting rock, they proceeded to wade where it
would have been impossible to navigate; Rex leaping before them, barking
jubilantly now, as if he had won his point.

"You stand back, kid!" (Through all the excitement of a discoverer, Dan
did not lose sight of his responsibilities.) "Let me go ahead, so if there
is anything to hurt I'll strike it first. Straight behind in my steps, and
lookout for suck-holes!"

And, with Rex leading, they proceeded Indian file over the narrow strip of
sand that shelved to the sea, and then on through thicket and branches
that hedged the shore in wild, luxuriant growth, until suddenly the ruins
of the old lighthouse rose out of the tangle before them. The shaft that
had upheld the beacon light was all gone save the iron framework, which
rose bare and rusted above the little stone cabin that had sheltered the
keeper of long ago, and that still stood amid crumbling stones and fallen
timbers.

"Back, Freddy,--back!" shouted Dan, as something big and fierce bolted out
of the ruins. "Why, it's the other dog!" he added in relief. "Mr. Wirt
_must_ be somewhere around."

And, peering into the open door of the cabin, he stood dumb with dismay;
for there indeed, stretched upon the rotten floor under the broken roof,
was his friend of the steamboat. His gun was beside him, his head pillowed
on his knapsack, his eyes closed, all his pride and strength and manly
bearing gone; only the short, hard breathing showed that he was still
alive.

"Go