Mrs. Badger pushed open the door, saw dimly the outline of the tramp and struck at it with the stick. But alas! the stick was wrenched from her hand, a pistol, loaded only with powder, was discharged, and the intrepid lady, in a panic, flew out of the room and downstairs, tumbling into her husband’s arms. Nathan Badger was delighted at his wife’s discomfiture. She couldn’t taunt him any longer. “I told you so!” he chuckled. “How do you like tacklin’ him yourself, my dear? Wouldn’t you like to try it again? Ho! ho!” “Mr. Badger, you’re a fool!” exclaimed his wife sharply. “It strikes me you’re a little in that way yourself, Mrs. Badger. Did you give him a floggin’? Ho, ho! you were in a great hurry to come away!” “Mr. Badger, he fired at me with a pistol. I tell you he’s a dangerous boy to have in the house.” “Oh, no, Mrs. Badger, you can manage him just as easy!” “Shut up, Mr. Badger! How did I know he had a pistol? I tell you it’s a serious thing! Before morning, you, and Andrew Jackson, and me may be dead corpses!” At this awful statement Andrew Jackson burst into a terrified howl. “I’ll tell you what we’d better do, Mr. Badger. We’ll go into our room and lock ourselves in.” “Let me come in, too,” said Andrew. “He’ll kill me! He hates me!” “Yes, my darling, you may come, too!” said his mother. So the valiant three locked themselves up in a chamber and listened nervously. But Tom Tapley was already out of the house. He made his escape over the roof, fearing that the neighborhood would be roused and his safety endangered. So passed a night of unparalleled excitement in the Badger homestead. CHAPTER XXX ATTACKED IN THE REAR Early the next morning the three Badgers held a council of war. It was unanimously decided that something must be done, but what that something should be it was not easy to determine. Mr. Badger suggested that the town constable should be summoned. “The boy has committed assault and battery upon our persons, Mrs. Badger,” he said, “and it is proper that he should be arrested.” “Shall I go for the constable?” asked Andrew Jackson. “I should like to have him put in jail. Then we should be safe.” “The constable would not be up so early, Andrew.” “Besides,” said Mrs. Badger, “we shall be laughed at for not being able to take care of a single small-sized boy.” “You know what he is capable of, Mrs. Badger. At least you did when you came flyin’ down the attic stairs into my arms!” “Shut up, Mr. Badger,” said his wife, who was ashamed when she remembered her panic. “You’d better not say anything. He got you on the floor and pounded you--you a full-grown man!” “I’d like to pound him!” said Badger, setting his teeth hard. “It’s a pity if three of us can’t manage him without calling in a constable,” continued Mrs. Badger, who, on the whole, had more courage than her husband. “What do you propose, wife?” asked Nathan.