The skunk was hit but not badly wounded. It swished around, and an instant later the dudish young hunter received a stream of liquid over his cheek and shoulder that almost paralyzed him.
"Oh! oh! Take it away!" screamed poor Ham. "Oh, dear me!"
"Phw! what a stench!" gasped Dick Bush, falling back a step or two.
"That's a skunk!" yelled Giant. "Get out of the way—-unless you want your clothing ruined!"
The offensive odor was now so powerful in that vicinity that nearly all of the young hunters fell hack to another position some distance away. In the meantime the skunk ran for the bushes and disappeared from view.
"Oh, dear! Oh, this is—-is fearful!" gasped Ham Spink, putting his thumb and forefinger to his nose. "Wha-what am I to do?"
"Ham has caught it and no mistake!" whispered Snap.
"He'll be as sweet as a bag of bone fertilizer after this," was
Shep's comment.
"You'll be able to smell him ten miles off," vouchsafed Whopper.
"You'll recognize him in the dark with your eyes closed."
"Hi, you! Don't you make fun of me!" bawled the dudish youth, turning wrathfully on our friends.