Wampus made one jump and grabbed his cap and slashed at the air and in a minute a dozen yellow-jackets were on the war-path. The next one to sting went at Rover’s nose like a shot out of a rifle. We heard poor Rover give one wild “Yeowp!” and he jumped about six feet in the air and when he came down he was already running. He went out of sight down the path, making about twenty feet at each jump and “yeowping” at the top of his voice, and his “yeowps” grew fainter and fainter. Mr. Edwin Skreever laughed, but I stood still, just holding my hat ready to swat any yellow-jacket that came too near me. “Come on!” I said to Wampus, “let’s get away from here. It’s stinging time.” So we gathered up the rest of our muskmelons and got away from there as quietly as we could. We went up to his cottage, which was all boarded up, and sat on the step. Well, about six o’clock Orpheus Cadwallader came down from his shack to get our supper for us. He brought a spring chicken and fried it and we had a good supper, and then Wampus and I went out front. We fooled around awhile and Mr. Edwin Skreever lighted the lamp and wrote some letters or his will or something. It was none of our business what he wrote. Orpheus Cadwallader washed the dishes and then came out and said he was going to row down to town, and he went off in his skiff. Then, presently, Wampus said: “Where’s Rover?” “Gosh!” I said, “I bet he’s wandering!” “We’d better find him,” Wampus said, and I knew that was so. I thought I knew where he would be, over back by the slough where there were some dogfish on the shore that would never swim again. Mr. Edwin Skreever came out on the porch. “Where are you going?” he asked. “Rover ran away,” I said. “We’ve got to find him.” “Oh, drat you and your Rover!” he said. “Didn’t May tell you not to let that dog run away? You certainly do aggravate me! For two cents I would go down to town now and be quit of your foolishness.” I did not say anything but Wampus did. “Why don’t you go, then?” he asked. “We wouldn’t care.” So we went to find Rover. We worked back to the slough, calling him all the while--“Here, Rover! Here, Rover! Here, Rover!”--but not a yip nor bark from him. We went up the slough and down the slough calling him, and it began to get dark. Then, suddenly, Wampus stopped short. “Say!” he said. “What?” “I know! That fellow got him--that red-headed fellow on the barge!” “I bet he did!” I said. Well, it seemed likely that that was what had happened. So Wampus and I stood there in the dark a minute. “Well, we’ve got to get him,” I said. “I’m not going to have anybody steal my dog. Come on!” We worked through the weeds and bushes, across toward the chute and down toward the two willow barges. We came out not far from them as we saw the red light the man had put on the barges as a signal. Then we crept along Indian fashion, bent over, toward the barges.