ew now that he had the right on his side. In
a sudden burst of impulsive resolution he stepped around and in a spirit
of utter recklessness spoke up. His own voice sounded strange to him.

"I--I know what you are--you're thieves," he said. "I can--I can tell by
the way you talk--and--and you--you can't take the car--even an inch you
can't--because all the gasoline is gone out of it and I did it and I
don't care--and you--you can _kill_ me if you want to only you can't
take the car. And--and--pretty soon Ham Sanders will be along with the
milk cans and he's not afraid of you--"

"What did you say about ham?" Pee-wee shouted down at him.

"Ham Sanders," Peter called back defiantly.

"I though you said ham sandwich," Pee-wee retorted.

"He can--he's even--he can even handle a bull," shouted Peter, carried
away by excitement. "All the--the--gasoline is gone--it is--because now
I can hear it stop dripping--so--now--_now_ what are you going to do?
So?"

CHAPTER XXIV

DESERTED

Mr. Swiper lost no time upon hearing Peter's startling announcement.
Rushing to the back of the car he confirmed the information by a
frantically hurried inspection, keeping up a running fire of curses the
while. For a manual training teacher he was singularly profane.

Nor did he tarry to administer any corporeal rebukes, more than to send
poor Peter reeling as he brushed him aside with imprecations in his
flight. Since the auto had been so generously handed to him by a kind
boy scout, perhaps the loss of it was not such a shock as it might
otherwise have been. There were other autos.

Mr. Swiper saved himself and that was his chief concern. He was not
going to take any chances with Ham Sanders. In the last few miles of
their inglorious journey, Pee-wee had been trouble enough to him and how
to get rid of that redoubtable youngster had been a question. So Mr.
Swiper paused not to make an issue of Peter Piper's audacious act. He
withdrew into the shelter of the woods and in the fullness of time to
the more secure shelter of an Illinois penitentiary where he was entered
under the name of Chick Swiper, alias Chick the Speeder, alias Chick the
Gent, alias the Car King, alias Jack Skidder--perhaps because he was so
slippery.

In his official pedigree there was nothing about his being a manual
training teacher, though he must have had some knowledge of the use of
tools for he removed the bars from his cell window with praiseworthy
skill