you are; that's the rule, Verman. I touched your hat
with my sword, and your hat's just the same as you."

"Imm mop!" Verman insisted.

"Yes, it is," said Sam, already warmly convinced (by his own statement)
that he was in the right. "Listen here! If I hit you on the shoe, it
would be the same as hitting YOU, wouldn't it? I guess it'd count if I
hit you on the shoe, wouldn't it? Well, a hat's just the same as shoes.
Honest, that's the rule, Verman, and you're a pris'ner."

Now, in the arguing part of the game, Verman's impediment cooperated
with a native amiability to render him far less effective than in the
actual combat. He chuckled, and ceded the point.

"Aw wi," he said, and cheerfully followed his captor to a hidden place
among some bushes in the front yard, where Penrod lurked.

"Looky what _I_ got!" Sam said importantly, pushing his captive into
this retreat. "NOW, I guess you won't say I'm not so much use any more!
Squat down, Verman, so's they can't see you if they're huntin' for us.
That's one o' the rules--honest. You got to squat when we tell you to."

Verman was agreeable. He squatted, and then began to laugh uproariously.

"Stop that noise!" Penrod commanded. "You want to betray us? What you
laughin' at?"

"Ep mack im mimmup," Verman giggled.

"What's he mean?" Sam asked.

Penrod was more familiar with Verman's utterance, and he interpreted.

"He says they'll get him back in a minute."

"No, they won't. I'd just like to see--"

"Yes, they will, too," Penrod said. "They'll get him back for the main
and simple reason we can't stay here all day, can we? And they'd find us
anyhow, if we tried to. There's so many of 'em against just us two, they
can run in and touch him soon as they get up to us--and then HE'LL be
after us again and--"

"Listen here!" Sam interrupted. "Why can't we put some REAL bonds on
him? We could put bonds on his wrists and around his legs--we could put
'em all over him, easy as nothin'. Then we could gag him--"

"No, we can't," said Penrod. "We can't, for the main and simple reason
we haven't got any rope or anything to make the bonds with, have we? I
wish we had some o' that stuff they give sick people. THEN, I bet they
wouldn't get him back so soon!"

"Sick people?" Sam repeated, not comprehending.

"It makes 'em go to sleep, no matter what you do to 'em," Penrod
explained. "That's the main and simple reason they can't wake up, and
you can cut off their ole legs--or