released their prisoners.

“Take them yourself, Silas Bratton!” called out one of these. “Since when have we been in your employ?”

“Drat the pigs!” said one woman, with an expression of disgust on her face. “When I first heard it was Bratton’s place that had caught fire I began to hope I’d smell roast pork. But it seems the whole nest of ’em must have come through scot-free. They’ll be chasing all over town.”

“Glad of it,” said another neighbor, smiling broadly. “I wish some bad spirit would enter into the drove, just as it did long years ago in Palestine, and cause the beasts to run down into the river to be drowned. It’d be a good riddance of rubbish, say I!”

The excitement was gradually dying out. Some of the escaped pigs had been recovered, but many of them had vanished. Perhaps strays would be picked up here and there around Cliffwood for some time to come, especially if the crusty owner thought fit to offer a reward for their return.

[Pg 17]

[Pg 17]

“I guess our game is all knocked to flinders by this riot,” remarked Leslie, as he stood and watched the firemen finish the last stroke of their business by turning the stream of water into a hole that had been cut in the side of the barn.

“Oh! we couldn’t get the boys together again after this!” declared Peg, who was one of the group. “Three of the other side have disappeared—Nat, Dit and Alonzo Crane. And say, let me tell you, every one of them had a pig in his arms the last I saw of them.”

“That’s right,” added Dan; “and running off with the same in the bargain. I wonder what’s in the wind? If they were meaning to camp out soon I’d guess you’d get the smell of roast pork if you happened to stroll near their hideout. But anyway, when it comes to playing all sorts of practical jokes, Nat takes the cake.”

“There’s something up, you can depend on it,” asserted Leslie, firmly. “We know Nat too well to believe he just wanted to save those porkers for Mr. Bratton. Keep your eye on Nat, and you’ll hear something drop before long.”

“Oh! bother Nat anyway,” said Peg; “he’s always doing something to keep himself in the limelight. What interests me more than any of his capers just now is trying to guess where we’ll land about that summer camp we’re thinking of starting next week.”

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