"Ah'll arrest the whole pack of ye. Officer, eh? Ah reckoned as ye was that. Ah did, an' seein' as ye admit it, ain't nothin' more to be said 'bout that, but Ah'll take ye in and clap ye in the calaboose jest the same. Yer under arrest! All of ye is under arrest onless ye'll agree t' git out o' the mountings t'-night." Hippy shrugged his shoulders, and the Overlanders, with the exception of Grace, looked serious. Grace was trying hard not to laugh out loud. "See here, Mister Man!" demanded Lieutenant Wingate gruffly. "My great grandfather was from Missouri. You have got to show me. How do I know you are a constable? Where is your authority?" "This 'ere's mah authority," replied the mountaineer, patting his revolver holster. Hippy stepped a little closer to the constable. "And 'this 'ere's my authority' for saying that you are no more a constable than I am!" retorted the Overlander. _Whack!_ Hippy's fist landed on the point of the mountaineer's jaw, and the mountaineer went over backwards, landing heavily on the ground unconscious from the blow. "Hippy! Oh, Hippy darlin'! What have you done?" wailed Nora. "Hit him! Hit him again before he can get up!" cried Emma excitedly. "Be quiet, you little savage," admonished Anne. "You surely have done it this time, Hippy Wingate. Now we _are_ in for trouble," rebuked Grace Harlowe. "Brown Eyes, this fellow is a rank fraud. He isn't a constable, and I will wager that, were he to think there were such an animal within a mile of him, he would hit out for the bushes right smart." "I agree with you. But, Hippy, you shouldn't have done that. The man was only bluffing. I saw that, or thought I did." "So was I bluffing. The difference is that he and I do not bluff in the same way. Wait!" Hippy snatched the mountaineer's revolver from its holster, removed the cartridges and tossed them away, after which he returned the weapon to its holster. He then unbuckled the man's ammunition belt, shook all the cartridges out of that and rebuckled the belt about the fellow's waist. "Laundry!" called Lieutenant Wingate. "Yassuh! Yassuh!" "Fetch me a pail of water. On the run!" "I reckon this will wake him up," chuckled Hippy as he dashed the pailful of water that Washington brought, full into the face of the unconscious "constable." It did. The man gasped and choked and struggled, and sat up, brushing the water out of his eyes with a sleeve. His blinking eyes slowly swept the camp, finally coming to rest on Hippy Wingate's face. "Question him," suggested Grace. "Who sent you here to try to bluff us?" asked Hippy sternly. "Ah'll show ye." The mountain man's revolver was out of its holster in a flash as he leaped to his feet, and aimed it at Hippy. He pulled the trigger, but there was no report, only the click of the hammer as it struck the rim of an empty chamber of the revolver.