leave his work at the tunnel and run straight for the bone, leaving
the hole waiting for Reddy.

Straight into it Reddy ran, just as Marmaduke and the big dogs reached
the fence and the blackberry bushes, all at the same time. Now
Marmaduke could have cried because the hunter dogs would reach the
hole before he could get there and cover it up, and they would reach
down into that hole and drag Reddy out by his pretty red coat and eat
him all up.

But when he stuck his head through the rail he saw help coming.
Jehosophat was there and he had heard those bad dogs and seen them,
too, coming on with their big mouths open and their tongues hanging
out as if they wanted to swallow Reddy down in one gulp. And
Jehosophat could see the redcoats on the horses not far away. They had
reached the big oak in the field and were coming on very fast.

He looked around. There was the very thing. A nice, broad cover of an
egg-crate. It would fit exactly. So, quick as a wink, Jehosophat
picked it up and clapped it over the hole. Then he looked around
again. It wasn't quite safe yet. But there was the big rock which they
used for "Duck-on-the-rock." The very thing! It was almost more than
he could manage, that rock, but he pulled and he tugged, and he tugged
and he pulled, 'til he had it safe on the crate-cover over the
hole--and Reddy was saved!

It was just in time, too, for the dogs had come barking and yelping
and bellowing, and now all they could do was to sniff, sniff, sniff
around that hole.