It was useless to run; the only place of safety was the roof of the cabin, and they made the most frantic efforts to reach it.

They darted quickly around the corner of the building, sprang upon the porch and squirmed up the posts with the agility of monkeys.

But with all their haste they did not have a second to spare.

They had scarcely left the porch before the hounds bounded up the steps and a pair of gleaming jaws came together with a snap close to Lester's foot, which he drew out of the way just in time to escape being caught.

Panting and almost breathless with terror the two boys crept cautiously up the roof--the moss-covered shingles were so slippery that it was all they could do to keep from sliding off among the hounds--and seating themselves on the ridge-pole looked at each other and at the savage brutes from which they had so narrowly escaped.