uproar.

"It's the Sewer Rat in disguise!" shouted the big leader of the Bats. "Now
we'll punish him! Drive him out of the sewer! Peck out his eyes!"

Bumper stopped just long enough to realize that he had no chance in a
fight against all those whirring wings and little gnashing teeth. If he
was to escape at all, he had to get a start on the bats. Even though
flight seemed to confirm the suspicions of the Bats, he turned and fled as
fast as his four legs would carry him.

There was plenty of room in the sewer, and Bumper made such tremendous
strides that he outdistanced all but a few of the leaders. They tried to
land on his back and claw him, but he shook them off, and dodged this way
and that, until the light ahead suddenly became so strong and blinding
that the bats gave up the chase.

When Bumper finally came to the mouth of the sewer, he was all out of
breath, but the view ahead compensated for a lot of his troubles. He could
see the blue sky; green fields and waving trees, and near-by the rippling
surface of a lake or river. It looked like Paradise after the darkness of
the sewer; but all things that glitter, he found out, are not gold, and
every earthly Paradise seems to have its serpent lurking somewhere around
in the grass.

[Illustration: They tried to land on his back and claw him]