We rolled the sleeve
in a ball and threw it down, then took a turn, made a zigzag or two
to puzzle the brute, and then went on our line again. For another
ten minutes we could hear the barking get nearer and nearer, and
then it stopped all of a sudden. On we went, and it was half an
hour again before we heard it, and then it was a long way off.
'I expect we're all right now, Seth,' Rube said.
'I guess we are,' I said; 'but the sooner we strike water the
better I shall be pleased.'
It was nigh another half-hour, and we were both pretty nigh done,
when we came upon the stream, and the dog couldn't have been more
than a mile off. It was a bit of a thing five or six yards wide,
and a foot or two deep in the middle.
'Which way?' says Rube. 'Up's our nearest way, so we had better go
down.'
'No, no,' says I; 'they're sure to suspect that we shall try the
wrong course to throw them off, so let's take the right.'
Without another word up stream we went, as hard as we could run. In
a few minutes we heard the dog stop barking, when we might have
been half a mile up stream.
'We must get out of this, Rube,' I said. 'Whichever way they try
with the dog, they are safe to send horsemen both ways.'
'Which side shall we get out, Seth?'
'It don't matter,' I said; 'it's all a chance which side they take
the dog.
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