ble to glance back without appearing to do
so; and he was just in time to see a stout, freckle-faced, bullet-headed
youth shoot out of the store and come hurrying after him, with an eager
crowd of small fry trailing behind.

Still feigning unconsciousness of the approaching peril, Percy
proceeded, whistling blithely. Through a gap between two buildings he
had caught sight of a barn standing alone, some distance ahead and well
to one side of the main street; its door was open, revealing a broad
stretch of empty floor. He quickened his pace, and presently turned down
the short street leading to the structure. Jabe and his retinue were
less than fifty yards behind, and gaining rapidly. As Percy turned the
corner they broke into a run.

At that same instant young Whittington also began to sprint at top
speed; and he kept up this pace as long as he felt sure the building on
the corner concealed him from his pursuers. The second the sound of
their approaching feet became audible he dropped into his former gait.
He was now almost opposite the open door of the barn.

His ears told him that Jabe and his crew had also swung into the
cross-street.

"Hey, there!" shouted a voice, roughly.

Percy halted at once and wheeled about with affected surprise. A side
glance into the barn told that its mows were well filled and that its
floor was strewn with hayseed. Standing at ease, he awaited the approach
of his foes.

Jabe dashed up on the run. Five feet from Percy he came to a sudden stop
and pushed his bulldog jaw out belligerently.

"Well," he growled, scowling darkly, "I've got you at last just where I
want you. You can't cry baby now and run to that big, black-haired
fellow. I'm going to lick you good!"

Percy stared at his enemy in mild wonder.

"What for?" he queried, innocently.

But the outward calm of his tones and manner did not betray, even
remotely, what was going on beneath. His heart was pumping like an
engine, the blood coursed hotly through his arteries, and all over his
body his wiry muscles had tensed and knotted. Nine weeks of vigorous
life in the open, combined with systematic exercise, taken with the
possibility in view of some time squaring his account with Jabe, had
made of him an antagonist that even an older, heavier boy might well
hesitate to tackle.

Of all this Jabe was ignorant. He saw before him the same fellow he had
mastered on the evening of the Fourth, a little browner and
clearer-eyed, p