Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/133

 an' the houses'll burn if there's a match sot to 'em, I reckon. Good-by till you hear from me agin.' He hasn't got a very handsome face at any time, Matt hasn't, and his intense rage, and the black and blue lump as big as a hen's egg, which had been raised on one of his cheeks by a whack from a guide's fist, made him look like a savage in his war-paint. He was in dead earnest when he uttered the words, and if the Mount Airy boys, and men too, who have incurred his enmity don't hear from him again, I shall be surprised."

"And disappointed as well," added Prime.

"I didn't say that," replied Noble.

"Of course you didn't. Nobody said it, but I think we understand one another."

Ralph and Loren looked frightened, while Tom drew admiring applause from the boys and gave expression to his feelings at the same time by dancing a few steps of a hornpipe.

"Well, we must be off," said he, suddenly. "Another engagement, you know."

"What's your hurry," exclaimed Prime. "Stay and smoke another cigar."

"Can't," replied Tom, turning a significant