"I don't know what to say," their young leader answered. "I don't
like to see our party cheated out of our vacation. Neither do
I care to take too many chances of having our vacation changed
into a tragedy. I've never had hydrophobia, but I've a strong
notion that it wouldn't be pleasant. I know just how you fellows
feel. You hate to lose your fun."

"We do hate to lose our fun," agreed Darry.

"And yet you don't want to have an encounter with a dog that has
hydrophobia."

"We don't," approved Tom Reade. "Dick, you have a truly wonderful
intellect when it comes to successful guessing."

"There's a cloud of dust up the road to the west," discovered
Greg Holmes.

In an instant all eyes were turned that way.

"Can that be the dog?" asked Darry. "Something is traveling this
way and stirring up a lot of dust."

Whatever the moving object was, it appeared to be half a mile
away up the straight, dust-covered road.

"Until we find out what it is," Dick suggested, "I believe that
tree climbing will prove healthful exercise."