"H---- compressed his lips, and added, 'I can tell you, my dear boy, that was something like an Indian devil, that fellow, and came mighty near settling my claims for me. He measured six feet from tip of nose to tip of tail, and you know what a poor sort of thing they all have for a tail. It was Dan saved my life that night.'
"Pete and I settled ourselves more comfortably against our log cushions. Dan, having heard no more yells from the hilltop, and having perceived that the conversation concerned himself, curled himself up with a gratified air, and thrust his great head into his master's lap.
"'You remember,' resumed H----, 'last year I went to the Tobique all by myself, except for Dan's company. I was gone six weeks and more. When I got back to Fredericton you were off up Quebec way, and so I never happened to tell you about the trip.
"'Well, I had the best fishing you can conceive of. It was far better than any we've ever had together in those streams. But as for the panthers, I never heard anything like them. They used to howl round the woods at night in a frightful way.
"'Dan used to keep awake all night, watching for them. But they never ventured near the camp. They didn't disturb me; but if I had not had Dan with me I might have felt a little shaky, perhaps, at night. I had rather a contempt for the brutes at that time, but they were not much help to a fellow when he was feeling lonely.
"'You know that pretty cove on the right shore of the Little Tobique, about a hundred yards from where the brook flows in? On that patch of open just on top of the bank I pitched my tent. By the time the camp was fixed, and the fish fried for supper, it was getting pretty well past sundown. It was a gorgeous moonlight night, as bright as day. There wasn't a mosquito about. I tell you I felt pretty nice as I lifted the pink flakes of fried trout onto my plate, and fixed a dish for Dan.
"'I was getting out the hardtack, when I saw a whopping big trout jump, just by the mouth of the brook. It was bigger than any I had caught so far, and I could not bear to lose the chance of taking him while he was feeding.
"'I set down my plate, telling Dan to watch it, seized my rod, tied on a cast of white and gray millers, and struck hurriedly through the bushes toward the other side of the cove, where I thought I could get a fair cast.