"You stay up in that tree, you young blackguard!" he roared. "I've got you dead to rights. You will sneak up on my roof, will you! You will bounce a football on my head, will you!" "It was an accident," began Garry. "Don't talk to me!" roared the furious man. "I'll have none of your insolence, you young upstart. Stay where you are," he commanded, as Garry again started to descend the tree. "I'm not a monkey. I can't hang on to the branch of a tree all the rest of my life," responded Garry, whose own temper was beginning to be ruffled by the old man's unreason. "None of your impudence!" shouted Fish. "You try to come down out of that tree, young man, before I'm ready you should and you'll be sorry." "I'm coming just the same," declared Garry, at the same time coming down another foot or two. He hesitated, however, as a roar came from the enraged man. The latter was running with surprising agility for one of his age toward a large doghouse that stood a little way back in the yard. Fish's police dog was the terror of the neighborhood, and more than one anxious parent of small children had threatened to do away with so vicious an animal. Jacob Fish whistled to the dog, who came out from the kennel and stretched himself in leisurely, graceful fashion. He was a beautiful animal, but as fierce with strangers or those he hated as his master was. In fact, there were many who said that the venom of old Jacob Fish had entered into the dog and made him far fiercer than nature had originally intended. Now the old man released the dog from the chain that held him to the kennel and pointed to the tree. "Watch him, Roy! Don't let him get down! Hold him there!" Garry looked down at the snarling dog and its snarling master. Slowly a smile crept over his face. He was about to play a joke on old Jacob Fish and the prospect pleased him immensely. For, as it happened, the police dog and Garry were firm friends. Garry had been attracted by the beauty of the animal when Fish had first bought him. And as the lad had a great love for dogs, he determined to get on good terms with Roy. So, frequently when he had passed the Fish house he had spoken wheedlingly to the dog behind the fence, until the brute came to know him and even thumped his tail once or twice in acknowledgment of a friendly feeling. Thus encouraged, Garry had gone further, sometimes tossing Roy special tidbits that he had brought from his own table until the dog had been completely won over and permitted Garry to caress his head through the pickets of the fence. Naturally, Garry had been careful to keep these advances from the steely eye of Mr. Fish, so that the latter had not the slightest inkling of the friendship that existed between his savage dog and the hated "Grayson boy." Jacob Fish rubbed his skinny hands together with satisfaction as he viewed the situation.