many hours should elapse, there could be no certainty about it. They might
do so within an hour after the departure of the man and boy.

It was this reflection that caused Mickey to act with something of his
natural rashness. He felt that he could not afford to wait to fight the
thing out on scientific principles, so he determined, since he was so
close, to force it to an issue without delay. Accordingly, he prepared
himself to charge.

"I've been too kind already in giving ye warnings," he added, gathering
himself for the effort, "and if your indifference causes your ruin, it's
your own fault, as the bull remarked when he come down on a butt agin the
engine."

Compressing his lips, Mickey made his start, forcing out a few words, as
he would shoot bullets on the way.

"Nobody but a spalpeen of a coward would keep out of sight when he saw a
head coming down on him in such tempting style as mine. I can't understand
how he could."

In his furious hunt for antagonists, the belligerent fellow did not think
of looking upon the ground. He made the blunder of Captain John Smith, of
the Jamestown Colony, who, in retreating from Powhatan's warriors, became
mired, with the eventual result of making Pocahontas famous, and securing
an infinite number of namesakes of the captain himself.

Mickey O'Rooney had scarcely begun his charge when his feet came into
violent collision with a body upon the ground, and he turned a complete
somersault over it.