Give way lively!" The boys very soon discovered that they had no easy task before them.
The light skiff, propelled by Archie's powerful strokes, danced rapidly over the little waves; but the buck was a fast swimmer and made headway through the water astonishingly.
"Don't we gain on him any ?" inquired Archie, panting hard from his exertions.
"Yes, a very little," answered Frank.

"But he swims like a streak." At length they reached the middle of the lake, and Frank, to his delight, discovered that they were gaining rapidly.

Archie redoubled his efforts, and a few more strokes brought them close alongside of the buck, which snorted aloud in his terror, and leaped half-way out of the water, then settled down nobly to his work.
Had Frank been an experienced deer-hunter, he would have been very careful not to approach the game in that manner; for a deer, when he finds himself unable to escape, will fight most desperately, and his sharp antlers and hoofs, which will cut like a knife, are weapons not to be despised.

But Frank, in his excitement, did not step to think of this, and, letting go the tiller, he seized his gun, and fired both barrels in quick succession.

But the shot was not fatal; and the buck, maddened with pain, leaped almost entirely out of the water.
Frank now saw their danger, and, seizing the oars, attempted to turn the boat out of the reach of the wounded animal; but it was too late, for the buck, in his struggles, placed his fore-feet in the bow of the skiff, and overturned it in an instant, and boys, dogs, ducks, and all, were emptied into the cold waters of the lake.