“Oh!” exclaimed Joe, letting his gun fall, and falling down himself, bereft alike of the power of escape and the ability to resist.

“Be quiet!” said Glenn, endeavouring to raise his gun, which had become entangled in the bushes; but before he could execute his purpose Sneak fired, and the ferocious animal came tumbling down through the branches and fell at his feet.

“Ugh!  Goodness!” exclaimed Joe, his hat striken down over his eyes by the descending panther, and, leaping over the frail barrier of bushes into the water, he plunged forward and executed a series of diving evolutions, as if still endeavouring to elude the clutches of the carnivorous beast, which he imagined was after him.

“Dod—­come out of the pond!  Its dead—­didn’t you hear me shoot?” said Sneak, who had by this time paddled a little canoe in which he had been seated to the shore.  But Joe continued his exercises, his crushed hat not only depriving him of sight, but rendering him deaf to the laughter that burst from Glenn and Sneak.  Sneak ran round to the opposite side of the lake to a point that Joe was approaching, (though all unconscious of his destination,) and remained there till the poor fellow pushed his half-submerged head against the grass, when he seized him furiously and bore him a few paces from the water, in spite of his cries and struggles.

“I ain’t the painter!” said Sneak, at length weary of the illusion, and dragging Joe’s hat from his head.

“Ha! hang it! ha!” cried Joe, staring at Sneak and Glenn in bewilderment.  “Where is it?” he cried, when in some degree recovered from his great perturbation.

“Didn’t you hear me shoot?  Of course its dead!” replied Sneak.

“Which do you prefer, Joe, ducking or fishing?” asked Glenn.

“I never saw a feller duck his head so,” said Sneak.

“Ha! ha! ha! you thought I was frightened, and trying to get away from the panther!  But you were much mistaken.  I was chasing a muskrat—­I got wet in the river, and was determined to see—­”

“You couldn’t see your own nose!” interrupted Sneak.

[Illustration:  He plunged forward, and executed a series of diving evolutions.—­P. 240]

“If I couldn’t see, I suppose I could hear him run!” replied Joe.

“You couldn’t ’ave heard thunder!” said Sneak.

“Did you ever try it?” asked Joe.

“No,” replied Sneak.

“Then you don’t know,” replied Joe; “and now I’m ready to kill a duck,” he continued, looking up at a number of water-fowl sailing round and awaiting their departure to dip into the water.

“I will leave you here, Joe.  When you hear me fire at the other lake, you may expect the ducks that escape me to visit you,” observed Glenn, and immediately after disappeared in the bushes.

“And I’ll take the painter’s hide off,” said Sneak, going with Joe to the blind, where he quietly commenced his labour, that Joe’s sport might not be interrupted.