s, an' turned the machine out on pasture for
a while. We went to the barn, an' there, sure enough, was the print of
a man's body. Then we adjourned to the shade to hatch up a sub-tile
plot. We smoked an' hatched until it was time for me to go in an' help
with dinner. We was both thinkin' hard, an' finally I sez, "Now, Ches,
the craftiest thing for us to do, is for me to cover up in the straw,
an' when he lays down, explode my gun against his ribs." He had
pestered me a mighty sight, an' I never was partial to 'em nohow. Ches
never made any reply; he was what you call engrossed. All of a sudden
he leaps to his feet an' slaps me on the shoulder.

"Happy," sez he, "are ya game?"

I looked at him a while, an' then I sez gently, "Now look here, Mister,
I ain't no hero, an' if you happen to have any more college festivities
to introduce, why I'll own up to a yellow streak a foot wide; but I
don't recollect just what day it was that any livin' man accused me of
bein' down-right pale-blooded. If you got any hair-raisin' projec' in
your head, don't bother to break it gentle. Just tell it right out, an'
I'll lean up against this tree, so as not to hurt myself should I
faint."

"Well," sez he, chucklin' like a prairie-dog. "I propose we paint up
the goat with phosphorus, put him in the barn, an' me an' you get up in
the trees to watch."

"What's the goat done?" sez I.

"The goat ain't done nothin'," sez he, "but he'll scare the Chink to
death, an' when he comes out we can shoot him in the leg or something."

"No," sez I, "it won't work. The Chink knows the goat better'n we do;
an' it'll be the goat that'll come out an' get shot in the leg, while
the Chink'll get away."

"Oh, rats!" sez Ches. "He won't even know it's a goat. Can't you see
that?"

"Why won't he know it's a goat?" I sez, gettin' impatient. "A
Chinaman's got just as much sense as a human being, an' you'll find it
out sometime too."

"Yes, but didn't I tell you I was goin' to paint him with phosphorus?"
sez Ches, all het up.

"I don't know what phosphorus is," sez I, "but you'll have to do a
master job of painting to make that William goat look like a
pinchin'-bug. Still, this is your projec' an' if you want to play the
wheel one whirl, why I'll help stick up the stake."

I was busy about the house all afternoon, an' Ches kept himself penned
up in his labatory. He had brought out a lot of stuff in cans an'
bottles, had turned the woodshed into what he ca