Only for a second did the young auctioneer hesitate. Then something warned him to beware of danger, and he turned again to the wagon and placed one foot upon the shaft step.
"Hi! what are you going to do?" cried the man, in surprise.
"I guess I won't stop," returned the boy. "That storm does not seem to be quite over, and I do not wish to catch a second dose."
"But you will stop, sonny!" exclaimed the man, with a sudden change of manner. "Hi, Jake! Baldy! Come out here and help me manage this young fellow!" he went on, in a louder tone.
The other men at once rushed from the shanty, and in a trice Matt was surrounded.
It did not take the young auctioneer long to understand the true nature of the situation in which he now found himself. The three men who had surrounded him were nothing more or less than tramps who had undoubtedly sought shelter in the shanty from the storm. That they were thoroughly unscrupulous men went without saying, and it must be confessed that Matt's heart sank within him as he realized the danger in which he was placed.
"Let go of me!" he said sternly to the first man, who had presumed to catch him by the arm. "Let go, I say!"
"Don't you do it, Crabs!" put in the tramp called Jake. "Hold tight to him while I tie up the hoss."
"What do you mean to do?" demanded Matt, as he struggled to free himself, but in vain.
"You'll learn fast enough, sonny," returned Crabs, with a wicked grin. "Just keep quiet now, will you?"
"I certainly shall not!" retorted the young auctioneer hotly. "Do you suppose I am going to submit tamely to being robbed?"
"Who said anything about robbin' you?" demanded the third tramp, he called Baldy, although his head was covered with a shock of hair twice as thick as either of his companions. "You had better act civil-like, sonny, if you want to get off without a licking."
"You let me go!" went on Matt, paying no attention to the last remark. "Let go, I say--or take the consequences!"
"The consequences?" sneered him called Crabs.
And without further warning, Matt drew back with his clinched fist and gave the tramp a stinging blow between the eyes, which caused the much surprised individual to let go his hold and stagger back to the shanty's side.