this he kicked Ozzie B. soundly and sent him, still sobbing, up
the road.

Then he ran across the wood to head off Jud Carpenter, who he knew
had to go around a bend in the road.

There was no bird that Archie B. could not mimic. He knew every
creature of the wood. Every wild thing of the field and forest was
his friend. Slipping into the underbrush, a hundred yards from the
road down which he knew Jud Carpenter had to ride, he prepared
himself for action.

Drawing a turkey-call from his pocket, he gave the call of the wild
turkey going to roost, as softly as a violinist tries his instrument
to see if it is in tune.

Prut--prut--prut--it rang out clear and distinctly.

"All right,"--he said--"she'll do."

He had not long to wait. Up the road he soon saw the Whipper-in,
riding leisurely along.

Archie B. swelled with anger at sight of the complacent and
satisfactory way he rode along. He even thought he saw a smile--a
kind of even-up smile--light his face.

When opposite his hiding place, Archie B. put his call to his mouth:
_Prut--Prut--P-R-U-T_--it rang out. Then _Prut--prut!_

Jud Carpenter stopped his horse instantly.

"Turkeys goin' to roost."--he muttered. He listened for the
direction.

_Prut--Prut_--it came out of the bushes on the right--a hundred yards
away under a beech tree.

Jud listened: "Eatin' beech-mast,"--he said, and he slipped off his
pony, tied him quietly to the limb of a sweet-gum tree, and cocking
his long gun, slipped into the wood.

Five minutes later he heard the sound still farther off. "They're
walkin'," muttered Jud--"I mus' head 'em off." Then he pushed on
rapidly into the forest.

Archie B. let him go--then, making a short circuit, slipped like an
Indian through the wood, and came up to the pony hitched on the road
side.

Quietly removing the saddle and blanket, he took two tough prickly
burrs of the sweet-gum and placed one on each side of the pony's
spine, where the saddle would rest. Then he put the blanket and
saddle back, taking care to place them on very gently and tighten the
girth but lightly.

He shook all over with suppressed mirth as he went farther into the
wood, and lay down on the mossy bank behind a clay-root to watch the
performance.

It was a quarter of an hour before Jud, thoroughly tired and
disgusted, gave up the useless search and came back.

Untying the pony, he threw the bridle rein over its head and vaulted
lightly into the saddle.

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