s intended prisoner was
standing.

As Phil was watching him, suddenly he heard steps, and Bridget McGuire
entered the chamber. She bore in her hand the same tin dipper before
noticed, filled with steaming hot water. Phil regarded her with some
surprise.

"Would you like to see some fun now?" she asked, her face covered by a
broad smile.

"Yes," said Phil.

"Open the windy, aisy, so he won't hear."

Phil obeyed directions, and managed not to attract the attention of his
besieger below, who chanced at the moment to be looking toward the door
in the rear.

"Now," said Bridget, "take this dipper and give him the binifit of it."

"Don't let him see you do it," cautioned his protector.

Phil took the idea and the dipper at once.

Phil, holding the dipper carefully, discharged the contents with such
good aim that they drenched the watching Pietro. The water being pretty
hot, a howl of pain and rage rose from below, and Pietro danced about
frantically. Looking up, he saw no one, for Phil had followed directions
and drawn his head in immediately. But Mrs. McGuire, less cautious,
looked out directly afterward.

"Will ye go now, or will ye stand jist where I throw the hot water?"

In reply, Pietro indulged in some rather emphatic language, but being
in the Italian language, in which he was more fluent, it fell unregarded
upon the ears of Mrs. McGuire.

"I told you to go," she said. "I've got some more wather inside."

Pietro stepped back in alarm. He had no disposition to take another warm
shower bath, and he had found out to his cost that Bridget McGuire was
not a timid woman, or easily frightened.

But he had not yet abandoned the siege. He shifted his ground to the
front of the house, and took a position commanding a view of the front
door.

CHAPTER XXII

THE SIEGE IS RAISED

Though Phil was the besieged party, his position was decidedly
preferable to that of Pietro. The afternoon was passing, and he was
earning nothing. He finally uncovered his organ and began to play. A few
gathered around him, but they were of that class with whom money is not
plenty. So after a while, finding no pennies forthcoming, he stopped
suddenly, but did not move on, as his auditors expected him to. He still
kept his eyes fixed on Mrs. McGuire's dwelling. He did this so long as
to attract observation.

"You'll know the house next time, mister," said a sharp boy.

Pietro was about to answer angrily, when a thought struck