As he tried to calm his frightened mount, Tam came into view. He had positioned himself, head thrust low and forward, hackles raised and teeth bared, at the edge of the path about fifty paces further on, his attention focused on whatever was thrashing about in the thicket. Deep growls reverberated at the back of the dog’s throat.

Swallowing his fear, he called out, “Here, Tam! Here, boy!”

Tam’s ears pricked up, showing that he’d heard, but he stayed put. Unable to persuade Jonah to move any closer, the boy called again, sharply this time.

“Tam, you get back here! You get back here RIGHT NOW!”

This time Tam responded, albeit with reluctance. There was none of his customary tail-wagging and no grin. If there was a message in his brown eyes it was relief that reinforcements had finally arrived.

All eyes turned back to the undergrowth as the grunting grew louder, then came a humphing sound and a breaking of branches followed by a flash of dark matted fur as something large and ponderous crashed through the far side of the thicket and headed for an even deeper part of the wood.

The boy and his companions stood transfixed, afraid to move. A strong, musty odour lingered in the air, confirming that the interloper had indeed been a bear, and a large one too. Bears weren’t prone to attack, being more likely to back away in the face of danger – unless they felt cornered. Had that been the case, a boy and dog would have been no match for it.

He climbed down from his horse and called the dog to him.

And that was when Tam padded back to where he’d faced off the bear and retrieved the dead rabbit, which he then deposited with great aplomb at his master’s feet.

He knew he’d been too quick to scold Tam. He knew that although the hound was bright, he wouldn’t have understood the worry his master had felt at his disappearance. In any case, it was always better to reward a dog for doing something right than to chastise it for doing something wrong. So he ruffled Tam’s fur and hoped the animal had learned a lesson which would make him less likely to run off in future.

“It’s all right, boy. I didn’t really mean it.”

His eyes moved to the rabbit’s corpse.