United States or Chad ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The case was sent to a referee for hearing, and on the morning of the day set Gottlieb called me into his office and said: "Harkee, Quib! I've a plan that will put our little friend Bunce's nose out of joint for good. It is nearly seven years now since he has seen Hawkins and it was then only for a moment." "Well," said I, "what is your game?"
One minute, two, three minutes, it was a dreadfully long time, and then it was the voice of Abe Selover mixed with a long yelp from Quib. "Come on, boys! I've shoved him through. I'm going right up after him. Nothing to pull away but some sods." "Dat's de tog!" exclaimed Mr. Hamburger. "Keep shtill, black poy! De rest of dose vootshucks is coming. Keep shtill."
His bright black face was turned a little anxiously toward the front fence. Over in the road beyond that there stood a white boy, of about his own size, and he was calling: "Quib! Quib! Come here!" "Dar he goes!" said Julius. "Dey'e got him agin. He's de bes' dog for woodchucks, he is! An' I can't go 'long.
Abe was prying at that hole with a dead branch of a tree, and, almost while he was speaking, a great piece of the loose pudding-stone fell off and came thumping down at his feet. "A cave, boys, a cave! Just look in!" Quib did not wait for anybody to look in, but bounded through the opening with a shrill yelp, and Abe Selover squeezed after him.
That night he sent for me to come to his office, and after offering me a very large and exceedingly good Havana cigar delivered himself as follows: "Harkee, Quib, you are more of a fellow than I took you for. You have more cleverness than any man of your years in my acquaintance at the bar. This scheme of yours, now, it's a veritable gold mine. Not but that anybody could make use of it.
"Dey's into de lot!" he exclaimed, when he came to the bars. "Dar's Pete Corry's ole straw hat lyin' by de stone-heap. Mus' hab been somefin' won'erful, or he'd nebber forgot his hat." That was an old woodchuck, of course, or he would not have been so large, and it may be he knew those boys as well as Quib did.
It was a sad thing for Julius that his mother had set him at the potato-patch, and that Quib had broken his contract with the bone. Quib was not usually so treacherous, but he happened to be on friendly terms with every boy of that hunting-party.
They had all helped him chase woodchucks at one time or another, and he had great confidence in them, but that was nothing at all to their confidence in him. The pasture bars did not stop a single one of the woodchuck-hunters. All the boys went over while Quib was wriggling under, through a hole he knew, and there, almost right before them was the stone-heap.
"Don't you think we're running entirely too close to the wind?" I asked, pacing up and down the office. "My dear Quib," answered Gottlieb soothingly, "don't agitate yourself over so trifling a matter. The only living man who can prove that Hawkins was served is Bunce and Bunce is a fool. At best it would simply be one swearing against the other.
On went Quib, and even Abe Selover could not see him more than half the time, for he had an immense deal of dodging to do, in and out among the rocks and trees, and it was dreadfully shady at the bottom of that ravine. The walls of rock, where Abe was, rose more than sixty feet high on either side, and the glen was only a few rods wide at the widest place. "He's holed him! He's holed him!
Word Of The Day