and brandished it. Then he sat down on a rock and started to remove his
shoes, with the idea of wading across the stream.

Frank felt that it was time for him to do something. He was not a bit
afraid of a coward, but he realized that he and the boy in the tree
together were no match for the big, vicious fellow just beyond him. The boy
in the tree looked honest and decent; the man after him looked just what he
was--a tramp and perhaps worse. Frank thought of hurrying toward the
village for help. Then a sudden idea came to his mind, and he acted upon
it.

The man who was preparing to go after the boy who would not come to him,
sat directly under a big bush. Right over his head among the branches Frank
noticed a double hornets' nest. He knew all about hornets and their ways,
as did he of all the interesting things in the woods. Frank drew his
fishing-pole around and upward, until its willowy end rested against the
straw-like strands by which the hornets' nest was attached to the limb.

Very gently he got a hold on the connecting strands of the double nest and
detached it from the limb. Then he lowered it, carefully poising it with a
swaying motion over the head of the stooping figure of the man.

"Now!" said Frank breathlessly.

Already the disturbed hornets were coming out of the cells in the nest,
angrily fluttering about to learn what the matter was. Frank gave the
fishing-pole a swing. He slammed its end and the hornets' nest right down
on the head of the tramp.

Instantly a swarming myriad of the little insects made the air black about