Still farther and the concentrated interest showed in its outstretched neck and quivering tail.

Bounding into a thicket it went, when out of the other side there leaped a snowshoe rabbit, away and away for dear life.
Jump, jump, jump; twelve feet at every stride, and faster than the eye could follow, with the marten close behind.

What a race it was, and how they twinkled through the brush! The rabbit is, indeed, faster, but courage counts for much, and his was low; but luck and his good stars urged him round to the deer trail crossing of the stream; once there he could not turn.

There was only one course.

He sprang into the open river and swam for his life.