"I am not so foolish as to want you to believe that sort of stuff, suh," replied the Southern boy, stiffly. "I doubt very much if there is a man living, even the winner of the great world Marathon, who could have outrun that hound. Fortunately I didn't have to depend on my heels altogether, to escape being bitten by his fangs. There chanced to be another way out of the hole."
"Say, I guess she had a hand in it!" suggested Giraffe.
"Go up to the head, suh," remarked Bob, with a smile; "because that is just what did come about. Old Reuben, he must have managed to catch sight of some one, even if he wasn't nigh enough to tell that I was dressed in the uniform of a scout. He up and sicked the dog on me; and I reckon it wouldn't have mattered one bit to that cold-blooded old man if the ugly beast had torn me badly."
"And was you arunnin' like fun all the while?" asked Step Hen.
"I believe I was making pretty fast time, suh, considerin' that the bushes in the garden interfered with my sprinting. But that dog would have caught up with me befo' I ever could have climbed the high fence, only for a thing that happened. First thing I knew I heard Bertha calling at the top of her little voice to the mastiff. And I reckon now that Ajax, he must have been more used to mindin' the crook of her little finger than he was the orders of Old Reuben. Fo', believe me, suh, he just gave over chasin' after me, and went, and began to fawnin' on her hand."
"Great stuff!" declared Bumpus. "Say, I c'n just think I see that Old Rube prancin' around there, orderin' Ajex on to grab you, an' gettin' madder'n madder when the wise dog just utterly declined to obey. I always heard that the sun c'd force a feller to take his coat off, when the wind made a dead fizzle out of the job. Kindness goes further with some animals than fear does."
"Hear! hear! words of wisdom dropping like pearls of great price from the lips of our comrade, Bumpus!" cried Giraffe.
"But they're true, every word, all right," affirmed the stout scout, firmly.
"I kept on running for two reasons," Bob went on to explain. "In the first place, I didn't know but what the dog might be forced to alter his ways, and start out after me. Then again, p'raps that man with Old Reuben might be coming, licketty-split after me; and I want you to believe I didn't mean to be caught, with that valuable paper in my pocket at that."
"So you made pretty warm time of it over here, eh?" remarked Davy Jones, who had remained quiet for some time, being deeply impressed by this story which the other was giving them.