Excited, Ham Spink ran close, took hasty aim and let fire.

The skunk was hit but not badly wounded. It swished around, and
an instant later the dudish young hunter received a stream of
liquid over his cheek and shoulder that almost paralyzed him.

"Oh! oh! Take it away!" screamed poor Ham. "Oh, dear me!"

"Phw! what a stench!" gasped Dick Bush, falling back a step or two.

"That's a skunk!" yelled Giant. "Get out of the way---unless you
want your clothing ruined!"

The offensive odor was now so powerful in that vicinity that nearly
all of the young hunters fell hack to another position some distance
away. In the meantime the skunk ran for the bushes and disappeared
from view.

"Oh, dear! Oh, this is---is fearful!" gasped Ham Spink, putting
his thumb and forefinger to his nose. "Wha-what am I to do?"

"Ham has caught it and no mistake!" whispered Snap.

"He'll be as sweet as a bag of bone fertilizer after this," was
Shep's comment.

"You'll be able to smell him ten miles off," vouchsafed Whopper.
"You'll recognize him in the dark with your eyes closed."

"Hi, you! Don't you make fun of me!" bawled the dudish youth,
turning wrathfully on our friends.

"I hope the shooting was good, Ham," said Snap, drily.

"Don't be afraid to bury yourself, Ham, if you feel like it!"
added Shep.

"I---I'll bury you!" stormed the unfortunate youth. "Oh, what
a mess!" he groaned. "Dick, what shall I do?"

"I don't know," was the answer. "Only please keep away from me.
The---er---the odor makes me sick, really it does."

"Huh! I'm sick myself. I didn't know it was a skunk. Why didn't
somebody warn me?"

"Take off your clothes and bury them," suggested Giant. "That
sometimes takes the smell away."

"Oh, hang the clothes! I'll burn them up!" growled Ham. "What
shall I do for myself?"

"Wash yourself with carbolic soap," suggested Shep.

"I haven't any."

"Then take a mud bath," came from Whopper. "After that use common
soap, and you'll be rid of the worst of it."

"I suppose you think you've got the laugh on me," grunted Ham Spink.
He was about as angry and helpless as he could be.

"Oh, we are weeping for you, Ham!" said Shep. "Come on, fellows!"
and he started off and soon his friends followed him.

"Oh, but he does smell prime!" said Whopper, when they were out
of bearing. "He'd down a cologne factory in one round!"

"It is certainly awful!" answered Snap. "It was too bad to spoil
that n