"Why, hello, boys, glad to see ye," he said, shaking hands all around,
gravely. "And I'll be hanged, if thar ain't Jerry, big as life. I was
gettin' uneasy about ye, lad, an' just startin' to follow up your route
through the big timber. Ye see, I kinder thought ye might a-fallen foul
o' them fierce wild dogs I told ye about."
Both Frank and Will laughed.
"Well, he did all right, just that same thing. And we're on our way now
to see where he left the critters," declared Will.
"Left 'em--looky here, ye don't mean to tell me--it can't be possible now
he fit that hull pack, an' got out o' it alive?" exclaimed the trapper.
Then Jerry, with a laugh, dangled the four tails before his
startled eyes.
CHAPTER XX
PROVING HIS CLAIM
"Jerusalem! I surely believes he's gone an' done it!" exclaimed old
Jesse Wilcox.
Frank and Will burst out into a laugh.
"Do you recognize these tails then, trapper?" asked the former; "because
we even accused Jerry of trying to palm off some substitute on us for the
originals?"
"Oh! them there is original tails all right. How did ye do it, youngster?
An' if they ever was fierce dogs, that pack filled the bill. I'd kinder
hated to be up agin 'em myself; an' you on'y a boy!"
"A boy armed with a double-barreled shotgun loaded with buck is able to
do just as much as a man, I suppose.
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