you can't stay so long. Tra-la-la!"

Bandy-legs was evidently in a good humor, and felt like shaking hands
with himself. To get out of a bad scrape, and without the least bit of
assistance from anybody was a feather in his cap; and he believed that
he had good reason to feel tickled over it.

"You got rid of the dog all right, old fellow," Max told him; "but look
what's bearing down on us now, full sail!"

"My stars! it's the dog's mistress, all right; and say, don't she look
like she means business from the word go, though? Hadn't we better run
for it, Max? Sure I have enough stuff left for five more shots; but gee!
whiz! you wouldn't want me to treat a lady to that sort of thing, would
you? She's getting closer all the while, Max."

"Yes, I can see she is," returned the other, calmly.

"Say, you may be all right, because you didn't have anything to do with
the shooting up of her pet; but what about me? I'm going to clear out,
Max."

"No, don't do it, Bandy-legs," urged the other; "stay where you are, and
leave it to me. I think I can fix it up, all right."

And really, such confidence did Bandy-legs seem to have in the powers of
his companion that, although he shivered as he saw the approach of the
farmer's wife, still he manfully stood his ground.

CHAPTER X

THE WILD ANIMAL TRAP

The woman who rapidly bore down on the two boys had fire in her eye. She
evidently believed she had cause for feeling angry, since it was her dog
that had gone howling toward the house.

Somehow she seemed to guess which one of the two lads had been the cause
of the wretched animal's misery. Bandy-legs had perhaps been seen in
close connection with the raging beast just before the change in the
latter's tune came, and the vicious snappy bark became a frightened
yelp.

"What do you mean, you young scamp, hurting my watchdog on his own
ground? Don't you know I could have the law on you for that? And what's
that you've got in your hand there? Looks like a pistol to me. Why, the
impudence of you coming in here and actually _shooting_ my poor Carlo!"

The farmer's wife said all this as she continued to advance toward
Bandy-legs. She was large, and looked as though she might almost take a
chap of his size across her knee, if she felt like it.

Bandy-legs wanted to turn and melt away, but he hated to show the white
feather the worst kind. As this was an antagonist against whom he was
debarred from using force he therefore