ink you're going to escape, do you?" cried Morse, as he
started toward Tom, his eyes blazing. "I'll show you who you're dealing
with!"

"Yes, an' I reckon I'll show yo' suffin yo' ain't lookin' fer!"
suddenly cried Eradicate.

With a quick motion he picked up a pail of white-wash from his wagon,
and, with sure aim, emptied the contents of the bucket over Morse, who
was rushing at Tom. The white fluid spread over the man from head to
foot, enveloping him as in a white shroud, and his advance was
instantly checked.

"Dar! I reckon dat's de quickest white-washin' job I done in some
time!" chuckled Eradicate, as he grasped his long handled brush, and
clambered down from the wagon, ready for a renewal of the hostilities
on the part of Morse. "De bestest white-washin' job I done in some
time; yais, sah!"

Chapter 4

A Trial Trip

There was no fear that Anson Morse would return to the attack. Blinded
by the whitewash which ran in his eyes, but which, being slaked, did
not burn him, he grouped blindly about, pawing the air with his
outstretched hands.

"You wait! You wait! You'll suffer for this!" he spluttered, as soon as
he could free his mouth from the trickling fluid. Then, wiping it from
his face, with his hands, as best he could, he shook his fist at Tom.
"I'll pay you and that black rascal back!" he cried. "You wait!"

"I hopes yo' pays me soon," answered Eradicate, "'case as how dat
whitewash was wuff twenty-five cents, an' I got t' go git mo' to finish
doin' a chicken coop I'm wurkin' on. Whoa, oar Boomerang. Dere ain't
goin' t' be no mo' trouble I reckon."

Morse did not reply. He had been most unexpectedly repulsed, and, with
the white-wash dripping from his garments, he turned and fairly ran
toward a strip of woodland that bordered the highway at that place.

Tom approached the colored man, and held out a welcoming hand.

"I don't know what I'd done if you hadn't come along, Rad," the lad
said. "That fellow was desperate, and this was a lonely spot to be
attacked. Your whitewash came in mighty handy."

"Yais, sah, Mistah Swift, dat's what it done. I knowed I could use it
on him, ef he got too obstreperous, an' dat's what he done. But I were
goin' to fight him wif mah bresh, ef he'd made any more trouble."

"Oh, I fancy we have seen the last of him for some time," said Tom, but
he looked worried. It was evident that the Happy Harry gang was still
hanging around the neighborhood of Shopton, an