ncealed all objects in the interior of the smoke-house, and Lester
received a glancing blow on the shoulder that floored him on the
instant. While the latter was calling upon the robber to surrender,
Bob heard a slight rustling in the smoke-house, and knowing very well
what it meant, he jumped back out of the door-way, and raised his
club in readiness to strike; but the thief was out and gone before he
could think twice. The instant the robber landed on his feet outside
the door, he turned toward the place where he had left his bag of
meal and happened to come into collision with Lester, who went down
with a jar that made him think every bone in his body was broken. It
was a minute or two before he could collect his scattered wits and
raise himself to his feet, and then he found that he was alone. Bob
was scudding across the field in pursuit of the robber, who carried
a side of bacon on one shoulder and the bag of meal on the other;
but burdened as he was he ran quite fast enough to distance Bob, who
presently came back to the smoke-house, panting and almost exhausted.

"Is he gone?" asked Lester, who was groping about on the ground in
search of his club.

"I should say he was," Bob managed to reply. "He ran like a deer. He
knocked you flatter than a pancake, didn't he?"

"He didn't hurt me as badly as I hurt him," said Lester. "Did you
hear my club ring on his head?"

"No, but I heard you yell. You didn't strike him."

"What's the reason I didn't? I did, too, but it must have been a
glancing blow, for if I had hit him fairly, I should have knocked him
flatter than he knocked me. I yelled just to frighten him."

"I guess you succeeded, for I never saw a man run as he did. He got
away, and he took the meal and bacon with him. They'll not do him any
good, however, for he'll be in the calaboose by this time to-morrow,
if there are men enough in the settlement to find him. I know him."

"You do? Who was he?"

"Godfrey Evans. He's been hiding in the cane ever since he and
Clarence Gordon got into that scrape, and no one has ever troubled
him. But somebody will trouble him now. I'll tell my father of it
the first thing. I wonder how Dave will feel when he sees his father
arrested and packed off to jail?"

"I wouldn't do anything of the kind, if I were you," said Lester.

"You wouldn't?" cried Bob, greatly astonished. "Well, I won't let
this chance to be revenged on Dave slip by unimproved, now I tell
you."

"We