RASTUS EARNS HIS SLEEP 277 
After that, Wolf’s master, who was the best 
kind of a hunter because he had a great deal more 
curiosity to find out how animals behave and how 
they defend themselves than he had lust to kill 
them, determined to keep on giving the ’coons a 
fair chance and see what they could make of it, 
while Wolf did the killing, if any was done. Be- 
cause he knew that Rastus and others fished along 
the shore of the swamp pond he put a canoe on 
the water, and with a powerful flashlight in his 
pocket and Wolf in the bow, he would go out at 
night and paddle as quietly as an Indian (for he 
knew how to feather under the surface) along the 
shore, till he felt, if it was too dark to see, the 
dog’s nostrils quiver, and the tip of the canoe as 
Wolf, in excitement, leaned to one side. Then 
he would drive the bow sharp in shore and sud- 
denly turn on his flash, as the dog sprang for the 
beach. Sometimes the flashlight would catch the 
’coon actually sitting by the water and staring 
with eyes that shone red into the beam of light— 
to vanish as its body vanished when Wolf sprang. 
Wolf ran down two or three young ’coons and 
one older one before they could tree; but two 
