"You kids go up an' tell them fellers I want to see 'em," he commanded.
The boys fell back and prepared to whimper.
"I don't want to," protested Bud.
"Why don't you go an' tell 'em yourself, Anderson?" demanded Isaac
Porter, the pump repairer.
"Thunderation, Ike, who's runnin' this thing?" retorted Anderson Crow.
"I got a right to deputise anybody to do anything at any time. Don't you
s'pose I know how to handle a job like this? I got my own idees how to
waylay them raskils, an' I reckon I been in the detectin' business long
enough to know how to manage a gol-derned tramp, ain't I? How's that?
Who says I ain't?"
"Nobody said a word, Anderson," meekly observed Jim Borum.
"Well, I _thought_ somebody did. An' I don't want nobody interferin'
with an officer, either. Bud, you an' them two Heffner boys go up an'
tell them loafers to step down here right spry er I'll come up there an'
see about it."
"Gosh, Mr. Crow, I'm a-skeered to!" whimpered Bud. The Heffner boys
started for home on a dead run.
"Askeered to?" sniffed Anderson. "An' your great-grand-dad was in the
Revolution, too. Geminy crickets, ef you was my boy I'd give you
somethin' to be askeered of! Now, Bud, nothin' kin happen to you. Ain't
I here?"
"But suppose they won't come when I tell 'em?"
"Yes, 'n' supposin' 'tain't tramps, but ghosts?" volunteered Mr.
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