row. Some escort! You'd think Westy and Hunt were
General Pershing getting home from France. I should think they would have
been afraid someone would steal the village while they were gone. Because
you know yourself that there are lots of robberies and hold-ups and thefts
and things since the war.

CHAPTER XII

MARSHAL FOCH

I was sitting up on a branch of a tree when they came along and I heard the
postmaster saying that Cy Berry had lost his heifer and he guessed maybe
now it was found.

I shouted, "You have one more guess. I think the leopard ate his heifer; he
was terribly hungry."

Well, you should have heard them as soon as they had a look at the animal.
One of them said, "I haint seed no leo-pods around these parts--_neverrr_.
And I been livin' here nigh on to forty year."

Harry Donnelle said, "Well, the animal is a leopard just the same. Either
you've been staying home most of the time or else he has." I had to laugh,
it was so funny the way he said it. Another one said, "There be'nt no
leopards in the Catskills, that's sartin."

"Well, maybe he was just spending the summer here then," Harry said; "but
here he is, anyway, and I'd like to get him away from here."

"Yer be'nt goin' ter try to keep him, be yer?" the man asked.

Harry said, "Yes, I'm just that reckless. I think he's worth more alive
than dead, if I can spruce him up a bit."

"Ye'll get yer hand bit off," one of the men said.

Then Harry said that all he wanted was a place to put the animal till
morning, and he'd see if he couldn't get some kind of medicine to dope him
with, while he tried to get the fly paper off. I guess they didn't like the
idea very much, but one of the men whose name was Hasbrook, said we could
put the leopard in his barn till morning if we wanted to. So they got him
into the wheelbarrow and it wasn't hard doing it on account of his legs
being tied. Then we all started back to the village.

While we were going along Harry said, "I've often heard of a man having an
elephant on his hands, but never a leopard. Maybe we'll have to shoot him,
but I just hate to do it. I have an idea that gasoline will melt that
stuff, only we'll have to be careful about his eyes. I'd try it to-night,
only I'm afraid to use the gasoline near a lamp. I'm going to send a line
to the Historical Museum people though, tonight, and one of you kids can
drop it at the office. I daresay there's a train out of this burg in a
few days."

I j