“You didn’t, eh?” cried the colonel. “I’ve some witnesses on hand that’ll say something about that.”
Then, turning to the dining-room window, he shouted, “Come out here!” and immediately Adam and the three boys appeared.
“Now, then,” said the colonel, “will you say before these persons that you did not steal a boat from them?”
At first the two young men seemed utterly dismayed at the sight of the three boys and the man from whom they had stolen the boat, and whom they supposed were now far away. But as one of them fixed his eyes on Chap his dismay seemed to change into anger. His face grew very red, and he shook his fist at our long-legged young friend.
“There’s the feller,” he cried, “who tried to kill me! He fired a gun straight at me, and not a dozen feet away, and I a-doin’ nothin’. It’s all very well to talk about a little trick we played on ’em about the boat, but here’s a feller who tried to murder me. If there’s any law in this land I’ll have it on him!”
The colonel turned to Chap.
“Is that so?” he said.
Chap admitted that the main facts were true, and then explained how it had all happened, but the colonel interrupted him, and leaning forward in his chair, as if he would jump out of it, he shouted at him,—
“I wouldn’t have believed it of you! If there was a court sitting in this town, I’d have you brought before it this very day. I’m ashamed to have you in my house. If ever there was a boy who deserved being clapped into jail, it would be the one who fired at that fellow and didn’t hit him! If I had my way I’d put you into prison till you learned to shoot.”
At this there was a great roar of laughter from everybody except the two young men, and to these the colonel now addressed himself.