"Ged oudt oof my vay!" yelled the fat Dutch boy. "Oof you don'd, py shiminy, somet'ing is going to take blace vat is nod on der pills."
Charley, grimly determined, whirled the wash-board and let drive with it. The strength he put into the blow caused the board to leave his hands. The Dutchman dropped, the wash-board flew over his head and hit Hop Loo, who had up-ended himself and was just returning to the attack, in the pit of the stomach.
"Wow!" gurgled Hop Loo, catching his middle with both hands and doing a wild dance in his straw sandals.
Charley Sing was now thoroughly aroused. Jabbering in frantic "pidgin," he proceeded to make front on the Dutchman.
The latter, continuing to display his surprising agility, ducked sideways between Hop Loo and Charley Sing, and rushed in the direction of the cottonwood. Charley followed him with such speed that his pigtail stood straight out behind him, and the sandals flew right and left from his rapidly moving feet.
The German boy circled around the wash-tub. Charley would have circled, too, only his toes caught in a wringer that was lying on the ground, and he pitched heavily against the chairs that held the tub.
A catastrophe followed.
The tub went down, and Charlie turned a handspring in the hot suds and came up covered with foam and wet clothes.
"Whoosh!" he spluttered; "killee Dutchee boy! Allee same debble! Makee go topside!"
Falling over against the tree, he began clearing the soap-suds out of his eyes and throat. He looked like an animated drying-post, and the Dutch boy, in spite of his troubles, began to haw-haw wildly.