ust couldn't help saying to him, "I'll be glad if you don't shoot him-I
will."

He laughed and gave me a rap on the head and said, "You see I know what it
is to be shot, Kiddo. I was shot twice in France. Maybe I'm not much use,
but I'd be less use if I was shot, wouldn't I? Nobody's much good after
they're shot. Ever think of that?"

"Maybe I didn't," I said, "but anyway, I know you're right. I guess you're
always right. Anyway, I think the same as you do."

"Shooting is no fun," he said; "don't shoot till you have to. What do you
say?"

I said, "You're right, that's one sure thing and I'm glad I met you, you
bet." And you bet I was glad, because he was one fine fellow. Maybe he was
kind of wild sort of, but he was one fine fellow. Mr. Ellsworth said so,
and he ought to know.

When we came into the village, there was a
Fraud car standing in front of a house and a man just getting out of it.

"Whatcher got thar, Cy?" he called.

"A leo-pod," Cy called back, "an honest ter goodness leo-pod."

"Who's them fellers? The posse?" the man asked.

"What posse?" Cy called.

"I thought mebbe you'd caught up with that beast from Costello's. That you,
Hiram? Taint no reg'lar leo-pod is it?"

"Reg'lar as church goin'; look on 'em yourself."

Harry Donnelle just stood there smiling. Then he said, "Have a look; it
won't cost you a cent."

After the man had looked and Harry had told him all about it, he hauled out
of his overalls a newspaper and said, "Lookee here."

We all crowded around him and Harry held the lantern so we could see the
paper.

"Jest fetched it from Kingston," the man said.

Then Harry began reading out loud. This is what he read, because I pasted
that article in our hike record book:

WILD ANIMAL AT LARGE

INFURIATED LEOPARD ESCAPES FROM VISITING

CIRCUS-ARMED POSSE SEARCHING WOODS

While transferring one of the leopards from a cage to a parade
wagon at Costello's Circus yesterday, the animal becoming
frightened at the sudden striking up of the brass band, forced
his way between the two barred enclosures and made its escape
from the circus grounds.

An attempt to shoot it as it crouched beneath a Roman chariot
in panic fright was unsuccessful, and before its keeper was
joined by others with revolvers, the animal had sped through
the adjacent fields, frightening some boys who were playing