After that fully five minutes passed and Snap had about made up
his mind that the fox had gotten scared and turned tail, when he
heard a cracking of brushwood directly in front of him.

With eyes on the alert he watched in the direction from whence
the sound had proceeded, and at last caught the gleam of two small
eyes as they looked suspiciously at the campfire.

"Now is my chance," thought the young hunter, and raising his
shotgun he took hasty aim and pulled the trigger.

Only a sharp click followed, and all in a flash Snap remembered
that in the evening he had cleaned the firearm, but had not loaded
it. The fox heard the click, caught sight of Snap, and whirling
around made a leap for the woods and was out of sight in a twinkling.




CHAPTER XI

A SEARCH FOR A ROWBOAT


"Well, of all the chumps in this world, I'm the worst!"

Thus it was that Snap upbraided himself for having forgotten to load
the firearm. He knew it would be useless to dash back to the tent
for ammunition---the fox was gone and would take good care to keep