"Ye’ve forgot somethin’," Abner shouted. "Come back an’ git the change."
The bull kept on with his headlong flight, dashed into the woods, and disappeared from view. They could hear him crashing his way among the trees as he sped onward. Farther and farther he went, the sounds of his flight growing fainter and fainter, until at last they could no longer be heard.
"Guess he’s gone fer good," and Abner breathed a deep sigh. "He’ll have somethin’ to think over fer a while. Mebbe he’ll let folks alone after this. But, jiminey! He nearly fixed me, all right."
"It was a close call," Royden replied. "He was almost upon you."
"I wonder where I’d been now," Abner mused, "if you hadn’t brought him to his knees. I expect to sprout me final wings some day, but, hang it all, I didn’t think I’d come so close to doin’ it so soon, an’ on this island at that. But, then, one never knows what to expect next, as Tom Bentley said when his big ram butted him clean through the barn-door. I’m mighty obliged to ye, young man, fer gittin’ me out of that scrap, an’ I shan’t fergit it soon, either."
Seeing that the danger was past, Billy climbed down from the tree and came over to where the two men were standing. He was angry, and he did not mince matters.
"Look here," he began, "what did you mean by sending me to that barn when you knew that devil was there? That’s the reason you wouldn’t go yourselves. A pretty mess you got me into, didn’t you?"
"Keep cool, young man," Abner advised. "Don’t blame anyone, fer I didn’t know that critter was here. But seems to me you was the best one to go, even if we had known."
"’Cause that face of yours would stop anythin’, even a bull."
"But it didn’t, you fool," was the angry retort.
"No, sartinly not, fer ye never gave the critter a chance to look at it. If ye had, it would have busted itself runnin’ the other way."
"Well, I’m done with this whole shooting match," Billy declared. "I’ve had enough to do me the rest of my life. I shall report you to your boss, for I’m d—— sure that was a put-up job, and nothing else."
"All right, me hearty, report all ye like, an’ the sooner ye go the better. When I was a kid we ginerally handed out somethin’ interestin’ to the chap that told tales on others. He was put down as a baby an’ the fellers didn’t have much use fer him, let me tell ya that."