t Rubber Collar and some of the others
got acrost our bows.

"'Cut it out,' says one of 'em. 'You can't get away so easy. Hi, Frank!
Frank! Who let these turnip pullers in here, anyhow? Who are they?'

"The chap who was tendin' door comes out of his coop. 'You've got me,'
he says. 'They come in with Big Mike, and he was loaded and scrappy and
jammed 'em through. Said they was pals of his. Where is he?'

"There was a hunt for Mike, and, when they got his bearin's, there
he was keeled over on a bench, breathin' like an escape valve. And an
admiral's salute wouldn't have woke him up. The whole crew was round us
by this time, some ugly, and the rest laffin' and carryin' on.

"'It's the Barkwurst gang,' says one.

"'It's old Bark himself,' says another. 'Look at them lace curtains.'
And he points to Jonadab's whiskers.

"'This one's Jacobs in disguise,' sings out somebody else. 'You can tell
him by the Rube get-up. Haw! haw!'

"'Soak 'em! Do 'em up! Don't let 'em out!' hollers a ha'f dozen more.

"Jonadab was game; I'll say that for him. And I hadn't been second mate
in my time for nothin'.

"'Take your hands off me!' yells the Cap'n. 'I come in here to find
a man I'm lookin' for, James Kelly it was, and--You would, would you!
Stand by, Barzilla!'

"I stood by. Rubber Collar got one from me that made him remember home
and mother, I'll bet. Anyhow, my knuckles ached for two days afterwards.
And Jonadab was just as busy. But I cal'late we'd have been ready for
the oven in another five minutes if the door hadn't bu'st open with a
bang, and a loud dressed chap, with the sweat pourin' down his face,
come tearin' in.

"'Beat it, fellers!' he yells. 'The place is goin' to be pinched. I've
just had the tip, and they're right on top of me.'

"THEN there was times. Everybody was shoutin' and swearin' and fallin'
over each other to get out. I was kind of lost in the shuffle, and
the next thing I remember for sartin is settin' up on Rubber Collar's
stomach and lookin' foggy at the door, where the loud dressed man was
wrestlin' with a policeman. And there was police at the windows and all
around.

"Well, don't talk! I got up, resurrects Jonadab from under a heap of
gamblers and furniture, and makes for harbor in our old corner. The
police was mighty busy, especially a fat, round-faced, red-mustached
man, with gold bands on his cap and arms, that the rest called 'Cap'n.'
Him and the loud dressed chap who'd give the alarm w