and their shoes and ran downstairs. Dick took with him a pistol and each of the others a baseball bat.
"Boys! boys! be careful!" shouted their uncle after them.
"All right," returned Dick, readily.
He was the first outside, but Sam and Tom were close upon his heels. He heard Jack Ness running to the edge of a cornfield, shouting lust ily. Then came another report of the shotgun.
"What is it, Jack?" shouted Dick. "Who are you shooting at?"
"I'm after two men," was the hired man's reply. "They jest run into the cornfield."
"Chicken thieves?" queried Tom.
"I guess so—anyway they was prowlin' around the hen house an' the barn. I called an' asked 'em what they wanted and they ran for dear life—so I knew they was up to no good."
"They certainly must have been chicken thieves, or worse," was Sam's comment. "Really, this is getting to be too much," he added. "We ought to catch them and have them locked up."
"I'm willing to go after them," answered Tom, readily.
"Did you get a good look at the rascals?" asked Dick.
"Not very good," answered Jack Ness.
