a flower bed in the yard, and Davy stood near these stones--and now,
quick as a flash, he stooped down and picked one up.

"You stop!" he panted, his face very white.

His mother cried out and came running toward him, but Thornycroft had
stopped. No man in his right mind wants to advance on a country boy with
a rock. Goliath tried it once.

"All right!" screamed the old man. "You steal first--then you try to
assault an old man! I didn't come here to raise no row. I just came hear
to warn you, Mrs. Allen. I'll have the law on that boy--I'll have the
law on him before another sun sets!"

He turned and hurried toward the buggy. Davy dropped the rock. Mrs.
Allen stood looking at the old miser, who was clambering into his
buggy, with a sort of horror. Then she ran toward the boy.

"Oh, Davy! run after him. Take the dog to him. He's terrible, Davy,
terrible! Run after him--anything--anything!"

But the boy looked up at her with grim mouth and hard eyes.

"I ain't a-goin' to do it, Ma!" he said.

It was after supper that very night that the summons came. Bob Kelley,
rural policeman, brought it.

"Me an' Squire Kirby went to town this mornin'," he said, "to look up
some things about court in the mornin.' This evenin' we run into Old Man