arrows in his ramparts and Uncle Peter behind, prodding his citadel
with a carving knife.

I began to get a hunch that our plan of campaign was threatened
with an attack of busy Uncle Peter, and I had just about decided to
remove his door key and lock the old man up in his room when Clara
J. came in to announce dinner.

Aunt Martha and Clara J. had collaborated on the dinner and it was
a success. Uncle Peter said so, and his appetite is one of those
brave fighting machines that never says die till every plate is
clean.

I was so nervous I couldn't eat a bite, but I pleaded a toothache,
so they all gave me the sympathetic stare and passed me up.

We went to bed early and I rehearsed mentally the stage business
for the drama about to be enacted when Bunch crept through the
picket lines.

About midnight a dog in the neighborhood began to hurl forth a
series of the most distressing bow-bows I ever heard. I arose, put
up the window and looked out.

I saw a tall man with a bunch of whiskers on his face flying across
the lot pursued by a black-and-tan pup, which snapped eagerly at
the man's heels and seemed determined to eat him up if ever the
runner stopped long enough.

I felt in my bones that the one in the lead was Bunch, and I sighed
deeply and went back to bed.

I must have dropped into an uneasy sleep for Clara J. was tapping
me on the arm when I started up and asked the answer.

"There's somebody in the house," she whispered, not a bit
frightened, to my surprise and dismay, "Maybe it's only the ghost
you told us about--what a lark!"

"Somebody in the house," I muttered, going on the stage blindly to
play my part; "and there isn't a gun in the castle."

"Yes there is," she answered, joyfully, I fancied; "mother brought
father's revolver over yesterday and made me put it in my satchel.
She said we would feel safer at night with it in the house. Do let
me shoot him; I can aim straight, indeed I can! Why, John, what
makes you tremble so?"

"I'm not trembling, you goose!" I snarled; "I can't find my shoes,
that's all. Doggone if I'm going to live in a joint like this with
ghosts and burglars all over the place."

Just then an alarming yell ascended from the regions below,
followed by a crash and a series of the most picturesque,
sulphur-lined oaths that mortal man ever gave vent to.

It was Bunch. His trademark was on every word. I could recognize
his brimstone vocabulary with my eyes shut.

Bu