"Towser has his foot caught in a steel trap. I'm afraid his leg
is broken," quivered Hazelton, as he threw himself on the ground
beside his pet. "Hold still, boy! Let me take it off of you."

The dog permitted himself to be held while Tom Reade pried open
the jaws of the steel fox trap, the chain to which the pup had
dragged over the ground.

"That's a queer accident," commented Greg Holmes.

"Accident?" flamed Harry. "This thing is no accident. It was
done on purpose, and I wouldn't need but one guess to name the
two-legged cur that did this!"

All of the boys understood at once that Hazelton was accusing
Fred Ripley of setting the trap.

Towser, as soon as released, limped a little, but proved that
his leg was not broken, though it had been cut in the trap.

"Woof!" he exploded angrily, as soon as he found that he could
run about on his injured leg. Then, showing his teeth, he growled
menacingly and bounded through the woods, Dick & Co. following
pell-mell.

"Towser knows that his enemy is still near!" called Harry exultantly.
"Come on, fellows! We'll catch that sneak!"

A bull-dog's strong point is not his scent. He led the boys to
the roadway, then halted, growling, plainly at fault.

Perched up in a tree not fifty yards away, well hidden by the
foliage, were Fred Ripley and another youth. For a few moments
they listened breathlessly to the pursuit, then appeared to feel
more at their ease.

"You didn't work the trap trick quite right," whispered Fred to
the youth in overalls beside him.

"Better luck next time," whispered back the stranger. "But no
matter. I see how we can fix the canoe so that it couldn't win
a race against a mudscow!"

CHAPTER XIX

WHAT AILED GRIDLEY?

"There's an automobile full of Gridley folks coming up to the lake
to-day!" cried Susie Sharp excitedly as she ran to meet her girl
friends at the landing stage.

"How do you know?" asked Laura eagerly.

"Mr. Wright has just received a telephone message, asking that
arrangements be made to give them supper here. They're going
back in the evening."

"Dick will be so pleased!" cried Laura. "All of our boys will
be delighted, I imagine," replied Susie dryly.

"Of course; that is what I meant," explained Laura, flushing slightly.

"I know. You think that Dick Prescott is the only boy at Lake
Pleasant," teased Miss Sharp.

"Stop that!" begged Clara Marshall. "Don't talk nonsense."

At one end of the