matters stood.

"Hurrah! Kaiser cleared the decks! The last of the pirate horde
has fled!" cried Amiel Tucker, whose reading was always along the
old-time romances.

"And there's our friend Bones, all to the good, fondling that
bristly terror! I say, three Bones for cheers!" shouted Red
Huggins, known among his mates also as "Sorreltop," and who, when
greatly excited, often became twisted in his mode of speech.

They clustered around, while Kaiser growled deeply, and licked the
face of his young master. Jones was soaked to the skin, and
already shivering, though possibly more from the nervous strain
than the cold.

Frank immediately took off his own coat, and threw it over the
shoulders of the boy who had been ducked again and again.

"What happened to you, Bones?" asked Lanky, who always wanted to
know the full particulars, for he expected some day to branch out
as a shining light in the legal profession, and believed he ought
to practice while young.

"They jumped me, that's all," chattered the other, trying to
laugh.

"When you went out to quiet your dog?"

"Yep. I hadn't gone half way when they pounced on me. Couldn't let