"I guess I'd better take a hand in this fight."

"No, no," said Frank, quickly, "you had better keep away from him; he
has too much strength left. He would beat you down under the water in
less than a minute. Brave can manage him alone."

The next moment Frank happened to think of his gun. Where was it? He
drew himself up and looked into the canoe. It was not there; it was at
the bottom of the lake.

"Archie," he exclaimed, "we've lost our guns."

"Just my luck," answered his cousin, bitterly. "Now, I'll have revenge
for that."

And, swimming around behind the buck, out of reach of his dangerous
hoofs, he raised himself in the water, and struck him a powerful blow,
that shivered the blade of the oar into fragments. It was a fatal
blow; and the buck ceased his struggles, and lay motionless on the
water. It was a lucky circumstance for Brave that Archie had taken
part in the fight, for the poor dog had experienced some pretty rough
handling. He had received several wounds from the sharp hoofs of the
buck, and there was a severe cut in his neck, from which the blood was
flowing profusely; but the way he continued to shake the buck after
Archie had dealt the fatal blow showed that there was plenty of fight
left in him. Frank carefully lifted him into the boat, and, by their
united efforts, after a good deal of hard work, the buck was thrown
in after him. The boys then climbed in themselves, and Frank said,

"Well, we have captured our first deer, haven't we?"

"I wish we had never seen him," answered Archie. "We've lost our guns
by the operation."

"I am afraid so; but we will, at least, make an attempt to recover
them."

"How will we go to work?"

"We will dive for them."

Archie shrugged his shoulders, but made no reply.

Frank's first care was to bandage Brave's neck with his handkerchief.
He then divested himself of his clothes, and, after wringing the water
out of them, he spread them out in the bow of the boat to dry.

"I don't much like the idea of going down in there," said Archie,
looking dubiously at the dark, muddy water; "there may be snakes in
it, or it may be full of logs, or the bottom may be covered with weeds
that will catch hold of a fellow's leg and keep him down."

"I can't help it," said Frank; "we must have the guns; I'd rather risk
any thing than lose them. The only thing I am afraid of is that the
water is too deep. I'll be a little careful at first"

So saying, he lowered himself