The lads listened attentively for some sound from him, but all remained
still. At the end of ten minutes he came trotting to view again, and
walked straight up to his master, looked up in his face, wagging his
tail, and whined again.

"You can depend on it," said Sam, "he has made some discovery, though I
have no idea what it is."

"Let's follow him and find out."

It was Nick Ribsam who made the proposal; the others were inclined to
hold back, but the plucky little fellow insisted, and it was agreed that
Bowser's secret should be learned by keeping him company to the spot
which he visited.




CHAPTER XXVI.

AN UNEXPECTED ATTACK.


The three boys had scarcely agreed to the proposition to follow the
hound, when Bowser, as if he understood their intention, rose from the
ground where he had been lying, close to the camp fire, looked sharply
out in the gloom of the surrounding woods, and then moved along the same
course he had taken several times before.