Part 22 (1/2)

”That rean dick, who had now joined the others

”That it is ti,” broke in Pepper

”Good-by, fellows,” starting off again

”Good luck,” called the boys after hih the woods along the top of the mountain and was co the lower road which, although longer, was not near so rough or hilly

Pepper one ratherthe slope of a s down the opposite slope a horse and wagon, about which there was so that Monkey Rae was driving the other day,”

he thought, as he looked at it again ”If he is in it, I think I had better do the disappearance act until he goes by”

Stepping froon ca driven by the man who had been with Monkey when they had taken the boat, and that, following the wagon was a big, ugly-looking,from one side of the road to the other, interspersed with little excursions into the woods

”Gee!” thought Pepper, ”I wouldn't want to fall into their hands

I think it's to the woods forhis way as quickly as possible deeper into the underbrush

”I didn't get out of the way any too soon,” he continued to hi to the place where Pepper had left the road the dog stopped, sniffed at the ground and gave vent to a gruff bark

”What is it, Tige, old boy?” called the rowl the dog started on the boy's trail Pepper could hear hih the underbrush and ran as fast as he could, looking about him, as he ran, for a stick or a stone hich to defend hi closer and closer, his growl beco It was nearly upon hiined that he could feel its hot breath and expected every moment to feel the snap of its jahen he saw, a little way ahead of hiround ”Gee! that's lucky,”

thought Pepper, running to where the stick lay and, stooping to pick it up when, to his astonishlided frorasp a large-sized snake Springing to his feet he ht at the branch of a tree above his head, and, getting a fir, with its teeth snapping, sprang at him

”Crickets!” said the boy to hi up into the tree to a more comfortable perch

”I don't knohich of the to be so in its pursuit of Pepper that he did not see the snake until he had run onto it as it lay coiled upon the ground when, with a cry of alar the snake by half a dozen feet Apparently forgetting the quarry which it had been so eagerly pursuing, the dog now turned its attention to the snake, which was the largest that Pepper had ever seen

For a few moments Pepper was too fascinated to est co on beneath him A combat in which neither of the co in a close coil, with its head rising fro in and out, and e its head from side to side, closely followed in itsfuriously, and apparently watching for an opportunity to seize it back of the head, but which the snake was too wary to perest combat that he had ever seen”]

”This beats the circus,” thought Pepper, after he had watched the fight for a little tihpoint I don't believe I have tiet out of this If I drop down there they will be et over into that next tree I'll try it, anyhow”

The trees here had grown so close together that , and it seeet from the one tree into the other

”It looks kind of thin,” thought Pepper, when he had picked out a li tree, ”but, perhaps, it will do”

Crawling out upon the branch until it bent and swayed dangerously under his weight, he caught a branch of the other tree and swung hiood,” soliloquized Pepper, working his way toward the trunk ”I rather like this way of going Now for the next one”