grinning face of his friend, Hon. Gizzard Tobin.

"Thought you'd scare me, didn't you?" Sube growled.

"_Thought_ so!" cried Gizzard. "Say! You jumped a mile!"

"Well, I guess I didn't jump! I knew it was you all the time."

"Yes, you didn't! What'd you jump for, then?"

"Didn't jump. Jus' moved a little."

"I should say you _did_ move! You thought ol' Uncle George was right
after you!"

"That shows how much you know about it," Sube sneered as he bent over to
examine the hole at closer range.

Gizzard vaulted the fence and came up beside him. "What you lookin' at
that ol' chicken-hole for?" he asked disdainfully.

Sube cocked his head over on one side as if to view the problem from
another angle and replied: "I was jus' wonderin'."

"What about?"

"Jus' wonderin' if a feller could crawl through there," said Sube
pointing a stubby finger at the hole.

"You couldn't, and I wouldn't want to," replied Gizzard with
unaccustomed promptness.

"Why couldn't I?" asked Sube deliberately.

"'Cause that there slide's hooked on the inside!"

Sube muttered something unintelligible as he bent over and inserted his
finger under the sliding-door. He raised it far enough to demonstrate
that it was not fastened, and dropped it as he asked:

"Now why wouldn't you want to?"

"S'pose I want ol' Uncle George to kick the liver out of _me_! Why, I
jus' looked in the door one day when he was in there, and he swore at me
till I was out of sight; and he said if he ever caught me on his
premises again, he'd kick the liver out of me! And I bet he would, too!"

Relatively speaking, ol' Uncle George Bond was nobody's uncle; but as a
matter of nomenclature he was everybody's. He was death on boys, to be
sure. However, his unfriendly attitude was of very little importance at
this particular time because he was out of town.

"Gone to Sodus for a month," was the information Sube presently
imparted.

"What makes you think so?" asked the skeptical Gizzard, still intent on
the preservation of his liver.

"Saw him buy his ticket and get on the train this mornin'. That's what
makes me think so! And I heard him tell the agent he was goin' for a
month's vacation!"

"All right," said Gizzard. "I'll go in there if you will--if we can get
in."

Sube squeezed through without a great deal of difficulty; but Gizzard
stuck fast somewhere about amidships. He kicked and wriggled while Sube
pulled, but it was all in vain. It was necessary for