billy with a flowing beard came to the rescue. He drove at Cann from the
rear with masterly strategy and uncommon force, and brought him down;
then in a flash boy and bag were hidden under a climbing, butting,
burrowing army of goats, from the centre of which came the muffled yells
of poor Parrot clipped in a hundred places by the sharp hoofs of the
hungry animals.

Moonlighter promptly led a desperate charge to the rescue, and after a
hard struggle Cann was dragged out, tattered and bleeding; but the bag
was abandoned to the enemy.

In about twenty minutes Jacker Mack and a couple of subordinates brought
up a herd gathered from the hill on the left bank of the creek; Peterson
came soon after with a good mob from the right, and Dolf Belman and
another followed with a score or so from about the houses. But still
Butts had not been captured.

'You fellers take 'em on slowly,' said Moonlighter. Me an' Gardiner'll go
back an' have a try after Butts.' Ted McKnight represented Gardiner in
this enterprise.

The hunt for Butts had to be conducted with great circumspection. The
boys crept from place to place; Dick called the goat's name softly at all
outhouses and enclosures, and won a response after a search of over a
quarter of an hour, Butts's familiar 'baa' answering from the interior of
a stable in a back yard. Ted was stationed to keep 'nit,' and Dick stole
into the yard, broke his way into the stable, and was leading the huge
billy out of captivity when the savage barking of a dog broke the
silence; and then an adjacent window was thrown up and a woman's voice
called 'Thieves!' and 'Fire!