said Tootsie, settling down.
"But I pity you when Dad gets hold of you--thief!"

Skippy deliberated, resolved on anything short of murder to stifle the
threatening exposure. Sterner methods were necessary. All at once his
eye spied a coil of rope in the corner and he sprang to it with a shout.

"What are you going to do?" said Tootsie wrathfully.

"I am going to tie and gag and leave you to starve," said Skippy,
swinging a lasso.

There was a short and painful tussle in which his necktie was torn to
shreds and he surrendered a certain amount of hair, but at the end of
which, Miss Tootsie, tied hand and foot to a chair, was propped up
against a pillar, while her conqueror proceeded to roll up his
handkerchief with the evident intention of applying a gag.

"You'll like it when the rats come around," he said gloomily.

"Fiddlesticks! You can't scare me," said Tootsie with alarming calm.

"And there are bats too, don't forget the bats that get their claws in
your hair," said Skippy, approaching with the gag, "and not a soul to
hear your cries, you tattle-tale!"

"You'll get the licking of your life," said Tootsie, looking at him
steadily. "Thief!"

"So you won't name your price!" said Skippy, passing behind her and
holding the gag before her eyes.

"Not if you murder me--you thief!"

Skippy again considered.

"She doesn't scare worth a darn," he acknowledged to himself. Instead of
applying the gag he departed to the opposite side, sat down and began to
think. At the end of a long moment he rose and approached her with a
brisk set manner.

"So you're going to tell, are you?"

"You just bet I'm going to tell, you coward!"

"All right, tell then!" He stooped, freed her legs and arms and rose.
"Tell if you've made up your mind to--but God help you if you do.
That's all I have to say."

"You can't scare me," said Tootsie, but already intrigued by the new
plan of action which she divined behind her brother's silence.

"No, but there's some one I can scare!" said Skippy, unlocking the door.
"All right! War to the knife, Miss Tootsie! Remember, though, I warned
you!"

"Who are you threatening now?" said Tootsie, trying to conceal her
anxiety; for long association had engendered a lively respect for the
Skippy imagination.

"I never threaten," said Skippy disdainfully, "but if that red-haired,
knock-kneed, overfed beau of yours ever sets foot on this place again,
he comes in a hearse! And what goes for him,