ty; but after another half
mile he stopped--then he laughed. Up to this point a puppy could have
followed him to every crossing and picked his trail up readily on the
other side. So he laughed, and now began the second phase of his
cunning.

He doubled back upon that last half mile, entering the water where he
had come out, then laid down and began to float with its swift current;
touching the bottom with his hands or sometimes swimming the deeper
places. Progress was restful and rapid now, and he felt thoroughly
elated. Continuing past all his former fording places, past the natural
tunnel where he first came in, he went on for another mile and then
began watching for a branch that might be low enough for him to reach.
This was not difficult to find in a forest so thickly wooded, and soon
he had climbed into a tree without once having put his foot to shore.
From branch to branch, from tree to tree, he went, feeling his way
warily like a 'coon, reaching, swinging, risking much but never
slipping, till at last he let himself off on a cliff several hundred
feet back from the swirling water. He could indeed laugh now. At no
place between the point where he began doubling back upon his trail
three miles away, and this very spot on the cliff where he now stood,
had he so much as touched dry land. That the sheriff's hound would be
hopelessly baffled was indisputable. The men, of course, might wait for
daylight, and by examining each low hanging branch, from the stream's
source to the point where it disappeared into the cave, discover the one
by which he had climbed out. But this would require time; moreover they
would have to possess a knowledge of his trick--and Tusk flattered
himself that no one knew his trick. He was immeasurably pleased, and
would have tarried here in an enjoyable contemplation of his triumph,
but there was another link of safety to be added: a stiff, heartbreaking
climb still higher to a spur of rock where he had often before "laid
out." Here, too, was his stock of food, whiskey and tobacco.

When he finally dragged himself up and rolled over on its flat surface,
he did not think of these refreshments. He was exhausted and very
sleepy. The long contact with cold water had numbed and soothed the
wounds in his legs, and, since they had stopped smarting, his sluggish
sensibilities caught no message of their existence--gave him no warning
that the deeper gash had been partially opened by his climbing in the