gie. "You've been shot."

The spy, _alias_ the governor, showed his usual firmness, and continued to
stand.

"Drop!" besought Sid, in a suppressed voice. "Shoot him again, Juggie!"

But the spy did not care to be riddled again and he prudently fell.

"Drag him out, Juggie!" was the prompting of an unknown voice. Juggie
seized one of the spy's fat legs, but pulled in vain. It was an impossible
_feet_. Sid and Charlie now appeared as continentals, supposed to be armed
with guns, and were helping Juggie, when the cry was raised, "The British
army is coming!" At the head of the stairs appeared Wort Wentworth, his
head decorated with a red paper helmet, and carrying on his body various
insignia of war. He now made a fierce charge across the floor.

"Into the fort!" shouted Sid, rushing toward the closet, and, as usual,
striving after the first chance to retreat. "Into the fort, my men!"

After him scrambled Charlie and Juggie, the dead "spy" manifesting an
unusual energy and scrambling after them, forgetting that his friends were
in his rear and not in the closet. The next moment all heard an ominous
descent from the second to the first story.

"Massy!" shouted Aunt Stanshy. "Somebody has gone down that fodder-box
agin!"

She rushed down stairs, followed by the "British army," and all the
members of the Up-the Ladder Club that could move one leg before the
other.

"I know those legs! I guess they will stand it," said Aunt Stanshy, as she
reached the lower floor and caught a glimpse of the fodder-box. It was the
British spy, whose stout pedestals were sticking out, and he only needed
to be once more seized and dragged forward by Juggie and the other
"continentals" to give proof of his vigorous, embalmed condition.

"Sakes, boy!" said Aunt Stanshy. "I thought you were shot, but you
manifest an immense amount of vitality for a dead man."

"I came down rather sudden," said the governor.

"Yes, and it's the last time," exclaimed Aunt Stanshy, "that thing is
going to happen. I will go up myself and fix that floor, and do it
thoroughly."

In a few moments her hammer was heard vigorously pounding in the closet
and securing the club against future harm.

"We didn't do all we intended," said Charlie. "We were going to have a
reconciliation, aunty."

"Between whom?"

"The British and Americans. We were going to have the President of the
United States and Queen Victoria walk arm in arm up and down the floor,
and neve