end on my heels
altogether, to escape being bitten by his fangs. There chanced to be
another way out of the hole."

"Say, I guess _she_ had a hand in it!" suggested Giraffe.

"Go up to the head, suh," remarked Bob, with a smile; "because that is
just what did come about. Old Reuben, he must have managed to catch
sight of some one, even if he wasn't nigh enough to tell that I was
dressed in the uniform of a scout. He up and sicked the dog on me; and I
reckon it wouldn't have mattered one bit to that cold-blooded old man if
the ugly beast had torn me badly."

"And was you arunnin' like fun all the while?" asked Step Hen.

"I believe I was making pretty fast time, suh, considerin' that the
bushes in the garden interfered with my sprinting. But that dog would
have caught up with me befo' I ever could have climbed the high fence,
only for a thing that happened. First thing I knew I heard Bertha
calling at the top of her little voice to the mastiff. And I reckon now
that Ajax, he must have been more used to mindin' the crook of her
little finger than he was the orders of Old Reuben. Fo', believe me,
suh, he just gave over chasin' after me, and went, and began to fawnin'
on her hand."

"Great stuff!" declared Bumpus. "Say, I c'n just think I see that Old
Rube prancin' around there, orderin' Ajex on to grab you, an' gettin'
madder'n madder when the wise dog just utterly declined to obey. I
always heard that the sun c'd force a feller to take his coat off, when
the wind made a dead fizzle out of the job. Kindness goes further with
some animals than fear does."

"Hear! hear! words of wisdom dropping like pearls of great price from
the lips of our comrade, Bumpus!" cried Giraffe.

"But they're true, every word, all right," affirmed the stout scout,
firmly.

"I kept on running for two reasons," Bob went on to explain. "In the
first place, I didn't know but what the dog might be forced to alter his
ways, and start out after me. Then again, p'raps that man with Old
Reuben might be coming, licketty-split after me; and I want you to
believe I didn't mean to be caught, with that valuable paper in my
pocket at that."

"So you made pretty warm time of it over here, eh?" remarked Davy Jones,
who had remained quiet for some time, being deeply impressed by this
story which the other was giving them.

"I never let up for two minutes at a time all the way across," admitted
Bob, in a satisfied tone. "Of course I had a few tumbles,