And even then Johnnie Green was not satisfied. Though his friend Red insisted that their captive could do them no harm (saying, "How can he bite when he can't move his head?") Johnnie Green replied that he would "fix him" so there couldn't possibly be any accident. And taking the old grain-sack he had brought back with him, he wrapped it carefully around Timothy's[p. 76] head, till he looked for all the world as if he had the earache.
"There!" Johnnie Green said, when he had finished. "He'll have to bite through that bag before he bites us; and I guess he'll find he has a pretty big mouthful."
Then he pulled out his jackknife and felt its sharp edge with his thumb.
"Lemme do it for you!" Red begged him, holding out his hand for the knife.
But Johnnie Green had no such idea.
"No!" he said firmly. "I've got to cut my initials myself."
"He might get loose and grab you," the red-haired boy remarked hopefully.
But Johnnie Green told him that he would risk that.
"Which way are you going to cut them?" Red asked him.
"What do you mean?" Johnnie inquired.[p. 77]