The Dozen from Lakerim

e and an open door; and even one who was so well versed in detective stories as B.J., had to admit that this was very little for what he called a "slouch-hound

umbo

ack after dark; and it wouldn't do you any

to look and listen hard for any sign or sound of the captives. But each man heard nothing except the pou

crashing through some thick underbrush, B.J. stopped suddenly short. Sawed-Off bumped into him, and Jumbo tripped over

tance to the right of their course a lit

ence between this far-off hubbub and

as the wild hullabaloo the foolish Crows had set up to drown o

ds just how puzzled they were, B.J. was striking off in a new direction at the top of his speed, and was well over the stone wall before they could get up steam to follow him. Across the road and through the barbed-wire fence he led

Roden's Knol

ighest point of land in the State, though it was approached very g

s; and there was many a stumble and jolt, and many a short stop at the edge of a sudden embankment. One of these pauses that brought the who

eary Lakerimmers were discouraged to find nothing bu

, thinking sadly of the mud and the rips and t

d Sleepy, seconding his own mo

ded B.J.; "d'

in, for they heard the noise of many

. They gave him a glance, and then shoved him to one side with little gentleness, and ran o

approaching the edge of the woods, they heard a cry that made their weary blood gallop.

to tear them off and fling them back upon the ground with fierce rudeness. Man after man they

to argue with. The Dozen had made up in impetus and vim what it lacked in numbers, and the Crows had fled as if from an army. A few blac

ll. It sounded more like a chorus of bullfrogs than of young men, but it was gladsome enough to atone for its lack of music, and

izing the red-hot pokers there would have been a different story to tell; so they hugged him instead of laughing at h

cademy, and B.J. began to plot a dire re

for they have certainly had the worst of it. It'll be just as well to keep a

ined in straightening up and rearranging Tug's

*

Crows. Their wit was not always of the finest, but they enjoyed it themselves, tho

clination to "mulp"-a portmanteau word t