Part 7 (1/2)
That's the way they kept on Soht she's threatenin' hiht they hushed up whisperin' And then I heard soo out I s'ze to myself, 'Nows the time to be up and ready' So I was puttin' on the clothes I'd took off, and right there on the bed, like it had been there all the tireen to red, and flame comin' out of them like it does out of coals when the wind blows”
”Was it a cat?” whispered Robert Day, hoping since Zene was safe, that it was not
Zene passed the insinuation with a derisive puff He would not stoop to parley about cats in a peril so extreme
”'How do _I_ knohat it was?” he replied ”I left one of un or anything o'
that kind I had I left et out of the ,” objected Bobaday eagerly
”They always have a hole dug, you know, right under the , to catch folks in”
”Yes, I did,” responded Zene, leaping a possible hole in his account ”I guess I cleared forty rod, and I coht in the stable-lot”
”Did the thing follow you?”
”Before I could turn around and look, I see that rove where I'd tied 'em to the feed-box”
”What for?” inquired Robert Day
Zene cast a colance at his small companion
”What do folks ever lead critters away in the night for?” he hinted
”Sometimes to water and feed the this absurd supposition, ”'now, if they puts the horses in their stable, they on too, and make ith me so no one will ever know it But,' I s'ze, 'if they tries to lead the horses off somewhere for to hide 'em, then _that's_ all they want, and they'll pretend in theto have lost stock theed Robert after a thrilling pause
”They ht for their stable”
The encounter was now to take place Robert Day braced hiue
”Then what did _you_ do?”
”I rises up,” Zene recounted in a cautious whisper, ”draws back the boot, and throith all ed Bobaday
”I wanted to break her first,” apologized Zene ”She orse than the lad Zene aimed as he did
”Then the man juray he rears up and breaks loose He run right past the straw pile, and before you could say Jack Robinson, I had hiainst the straw, I jumped on him”
”Jack Robinson,” Zene's hearer tried half-audibly ”Then what? Did the man and woman run?”