the wagon and
placed one foot upon the shaft step.

"Hi! what are you going to do?" cried the man, in surprise.

"I guess I won't stop," returned the boy. "That storm does not seem to
be quite over, and I do not wish to catch a second dose."

"But you will stop, sonny!" exclaimed the man, with a sudden change of
manner. "Hi, Jake! Baldy! Come out here and help me manage this young
fellow!" he went on, in a louder tone.

The other men at once rushed from the shanty, and in a trice Matt was
surrounded.

CHAPTER XIX.

OUT OF A BAD SCRAPE.

It did not take the young auctioneer long to understand the true
nature of the situation in which he now found himself. The three men
who had surrounded him were nothing more or less than tramps who had
undoubtedly sought shelter in the shanty from the storm. That they
were thoroughly unscrupulous men went without saying, and it must be
confessed that Matt's heart sank within him as he realized the danger
in which he was placed.

"Let go of me!" he said sternly to the first man, who had presumed to
catch him by the arm. "Let go, I say!"

"Don't you do it, Crabs!" put in the tramp called Jake. "Hold tight to
him while I tie up the hoss."

"What do you mean to do?" demanded Matt, as he struggled to free
himself, but in vain.

"You'll learn fast enough, sonny," returned Crabs, with a wicked grin.
"Just keep quiet now, will you?"

"I certainly shall not!" retorted the young auctioneer hotly. "Do you
suppose I am going to submit tamely to being robbed?"

"Who said anything about robbin' you?" demanded the third tramp, he
called Baldy, although his head was covered with a shock of hair twice
as thick as either of his companions. "You had better act civil-like,
sonny, if you want to get off without a licking."

"You let me go!" went on Matt, paying no attention to the last remark.
"Let go, I say--or take the consequences!"

"The consequences?" sneered him called Crabs.

"Yes--there!"

And without further warning, Matt drew back with his clinched fist and
gave the tramp a stinging blow between the eyes, which caused the much
surprised individual to let go his hold and stagger back to the
shanty's side.

"Ho--what--what do you mean by hitting me?" he howled.

"I told you to let go," retorted Matt; and free from his tormentor, he
essayed to leap to the wagon seat and gain possession of the heavy
whip, with which he might keep the tramps at bay.

But hardly had h