"You should have been waiting for me on the stairs," he argued,unreasonably, rubbing one of the bruises inside his choice collection,"Didn't you catch me early in the evening being chased from pillarto post by everything in the neighborhood that had legs long enoughto run? When I tried to hide in the corner of a farm over there, abull dog came up on rubber shoes and bit his initials on some of mypersonal property before I could crawl through the fence. Everytime I showed up on the pike that human accident that breathes likea man and talks like a rabbit chased me eight miles there and back.The first time I tried to approach the infernal home I fell over agrindstone and signed checks in the gravel with my nose.Hereafter, when you want a burglar, pick somebody your own size.I'm going to hunt a hospital and get sewed together again."

I put on all steam and tried to square myself, but Bunch only shookhis head and exclaimed I always was outlawed.

"You can't run on my race track," he exclaimed as he started forthe depot; "that last race was crooked and you stood in with thedope mixer."