our_ guns out, too!--Jap Kemp gave me
one to carry--" Bud tried not to swagger as he told this, but it was
almost too much for him. "Two of our men held the horses, and all the
rest of us got down and went into the cabin. Jap Kemp, sounded his
whistle and all our men done the same just as they went in the
door--some kind of signals they have for the Lone Fox Camp! The two men
in the doorway aimed straight at Jap Kemp and fired, but Jap was onto
'em and jumped one side and our men fired, too, and we soon had 'em tied
up and went in--that is, Jap and me and Long Bill went in, the rest
stayed by the door--and it wasn't long 'fore their other men came riding
back hot haste; they'd heard the shots, you know--and some more of _our_
men--why, most twenty or thirty there was, I guess, altogether; some
from Lone Fox Camp that was watching off in the woods came and when we
got outside again there they all were, like a big army. Most of the men
belonging to the cabin was tied and harmless by that time, for our men
took 'em one at a time as they came riding in. Two of 'em got away, but
Jap Kemp said they couldn't go far without being caught, 'cause there
was a watch out for 'em--they'd been stealing cattle long back something
terrible. Well, so Jap Kemp and Long Bill and I went into the cabin
after the two men that shot was tied with ropes we'd brung along, and
handcuffs, and we went hunting for the Kid. At first we couldn't find
him at all. Gee! It was something fierce! And the old woman kep'
a-crying and saying we'd kill her sick son, and she didn't know nothing
about the man we was hunting for. But pretty soon I spied the Kid's foot
stickin' out from under the cot where the sick man was, and when I told
Jap Kemp that sick man pulled out a gun he had under the blanket and
aimed it right at me!"

"Oh, mother's little Buddie!" whimpered Mrs. Tanner, with her apron to
her eyes.

"_Aw, Ma_, cut it out! _he_ didn't _hurt_ me! The gun just went off
crooked, and grazed Jap Kemp's hand a little, not much. Jap knocked it
out of the sick man's hand just as he was pullin' the trigger. Say, Ma,
ain't you got any more of those cucumber pickles? It makes a man mighty
hungry to do all that riding and shooting. Well, it certainly was
something fierce--Say, Miss Earle, you take that last piece o' pie. Oh,
g'wan! _Take_ it! _You_ worked hard. No, I don't want it, really! Well,
if you won't take it _anyway_, I might eat it just to save it. Got any