le, or
spear--"

"Cut in now, Shawn," said the sergeant anxiously.

Shawn began to gabble with amazing speed and in a mighty voice:

"Cats sometimes eat their kittens, and sometimes they don't. A cat that
eats its kittens is a heartless brute. I knew a cat used to eat its
kittens--it had four legs and a long tail, and it used to get the
head-staggers every time it had eaten its kittens. I killed it myself
one day with a hammer for I couldn't stand the smell it made, so I
couldn't--"

"Shawn," said the sergeant, "can't you talk about something else besides
cats and dogs?"

"Sure, I don't know what to talk about," said Shawn. "I'm sweating this
minute trying to please you, so I arm. If you'll tell me what to talk
about I'll do my endeavours."

"You're a fool," said the sergeant sorrowfully; "you'll never make a
constable. I'm thinking that I would sooner listen to the man himself
than to you. Have you got a good hold of him now?"

"I have so," said Shawn.

"Well, step out and maybe we'll reach the barracks this night, unless
this is a road that there isn't any end to at all. What was that? Did
you hear a noise?"

"I didn't hear a thing," said Shawn.

"I thought," said another man, "that I heard something moving in the
hedge at the side of the road."

"That's what I heard," said the sergeant. "Maybe it was a weasel. I wish
to the devil that we were out of this place where you can't see as much
as your own nose. Now did you hear it, Shawn?"

"I did so," said Shawn; "there's some one in the hedge, for a weasel
would make a different kind of a noise if it made any at all."

"Keep together, men," said the sergeant, "and march on; if there's
anybody about they've no business with us."

He had scarcely spoken when there came a sudden pattering of feet, and
immediately the four men were surrounded and were being struck at on
every side with sticks and hands and feet.

"Draw your batons," the sergeant roared; "keep a good grip of that man,
Shawn."

"I will so," said Shawn.

"Stand round him, you other men, and hit anything that comes near you."

There was no sound of voices from the assailants, only a rapid scuffle
of feet, the whistle of sticks as they swung through the air or slapped
smartly against a body or clashed upon each other, and the quick
breathing of many people; but from the four policemen there came noise
and to spare as they struck wildly on every side, cursing the darkness
and their opposer