en
leave this place we'll leave it in a hurry, and the man who is nearest
town is likely to get there first. You won't be a-following of no hearse
when you make your return trip."

Gallegher tied the horse to the very gate-post itself, leaving the gate
open and allowing a clear road and a flying start for the prospective
race to Newspaper Row.

The driver disappeared under the shelter of the porch, and Gallegher and
the detective moved off cautiously to the rear of the barn. "This must
be the window," said Hefflefinger, pointing to a broad wooden shutter
some feet from the ground.

"Just you give me a boost once, and I'll get that open in a jiffy," said
Gallegher.

The detective placed his hands on his knees, and Gallegher stood upon
his shoulders, and with the blade of his knife lifted the wooden button
that fastened the window on the inside, and pulled the shutter open.

Then he put one leg inside over the sill, and leaning down helped to
draw his fellow-conspirator up to a level with the window. "I feel just
like I was burglarizing a house," chuckled Gallegher, as he dropped
noiselessly to the floor below and refastened the shutter. The barn was
a large one, with a row of stalls on either side in which horses and
cows were dozing. There was a haymow over each row of stalls, and at one
end of the barn a number of fence-rails had been thrown across from one
mow to the other. These rails were covered with hay.

In the middle of the floor was the ring. It was not really a ring, but a
square, with wooden posts at its four corners through which ran a heavy
rope. The space enclosed by the rope was covered with sawdust.

Gallegher could not resist stepping into the ring, and after stamping
the sawdust once or twice, as if to assure himself that he was really
there, began dancing around it, and indulging in such a remarkable
series of fistic manoeuvres with an imaginary adversary that the
unimaginative detective precipitately backed into a corner of the barn.

"Now, then," said Gallegher, having apparently vanquished his foe, "you
come with me." His companion followed quickly as Gallegher climbed to
one of the hay-mows, and, crawling carefully out on the fence-rail,
stretched himself at full length, face downward. In this position, by
moving the straw a little, he could look down, without being himself
seen, upon the heads of whomsoever stood below. "This is better'n a
private box, ain't it?" said Gallegher.

The b