"Just as you say, captain, just as you say."

"Say, young fellow, will you hand over the swag?"

"He! he! he! really, gentleman, what jokers you are! I know you are very funny, but I don't understand your jokes; indeed, I don't."

"You don't, eh?"

"No, no; he! he! he!"

"Is it a joke to go to jail?"

"He! he! he! how funny! now I see you want to scare us; but see here, I don't scare. I can prove that to you, and if you do not go away I shall be compelled to thrash you."

"What!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the three men, giving utterance to real laughter. It really did sound comical for that apparently slender dude to threaten to thrash three burly men.

"So you'll thrash us, eh?"

"He! he! he! yes, you will compel me to thrash you if you don't go away.

Why, this lady is very much annoyed. I cannot see her annoyed; certainly not, so go away and I'll not harm you."

"Hear him--hear him!" cried one of the rogues, and he added: "We'll have to duck him for insultin' us."

"Yes, we'll have to duck him."

"Let's do it."

The men leaped forward when one of the most extraordinary scenes that ever occurred followed. As the men leaped forward both Oscar and Cad drew short billies--drew them so quickly that the men did not observe them until they _felt_ them. A complete change had come over the appearance and actions of Oscar and Cad. The former with an ease and quickness that was wonderful to behold dealt the leader of the rogues a smart tap on the head that caused him to lie down in the sand as though stricken with a pain where his digestive organs reside. Cad meantime played a single-note tattoo on the head of number two, and Oscar, after dropping the first man, paid his compliments to number three, who also concluded to lie down without any premeditation whatever. It was, as We have intimated, a most singular, startling and extraordinary scene, and before the men could rise each received to turn a second rap, when Oscar inquired:

"What shall we do with them, sis?"

"Drown them," came the answer.

"No, no, it would be too bad to toss such mean carca.s.ses into pure water."

"But they'll become salted," said the girl.

"I reckon we've salted them pretty well; let's stroll."

Oscar and Cad walked away, resuming the same smart girl and dude role they had played ere they fell to and downed the burly ruffians.

It was a sight for a comic paper, after Oscar and Cad had wandered away, to behold the three ruffians rise and look at each other. For a moment none of them spoke. They just looked, until one of the party, who evidently was a sort of humorist, said:

"Cap, I don't think we'll go shopping with their wad to-day."

The other man fell to the spirit of the occasion and said:

"Well, cap, it was _easy_, yes, very easy _for them_."

The leader looked, yes, looked very _blue_.

"Well, did you ever!" he murmured.

"No, I never," came the response.

"What was it we struck?"

"I feel as though something had _struck me_," was the answer.

"My covies, we got it good."

"Did you? Well, I got it _bad_. Oh, how my head aches!"

"Who are they?"

"I'll never tell you, but it was the gal gave me my rap and she came down on me with the force of a Goliah, and I went down--see? I'm down yet."

"I don't understand," said the leader as he mopped the blood trickling from the wound in his head with his handkerchief.

"I'll never explain it to you," said the humorist.

"Hang me, but I can't think."

"Neither can I. My thoughts are wool-gathering, and no wonder, eh? By jiminy! what a settler I got, and I settled."

"They were playing us."

"Yes, they were playing us, and they had lots of fun rattling on my poor conk."

"But who are they?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Giant, I reckon, and it came so quick that for a moment I thought I was in a ship and a squall had blown the mast over on me. But see here, pards, we'd better get up and git, or mebbe some of our misdeeds may rise up in judgment against us. Instead of our putting the dude in jail he may jug us."

"Right you are; let's scatter."

"Where will we meet?"

"In the city, and we'd better lay low. There is more in this little experience than a crack on the head. We're lucky if we get away."

The three men rose to their feet, held a few moments' talk and then scattered. Each man determined to make his way to the city on his own hook, and they considered it was possibly by hook or by crook that they would get there.

Oscar and Cad had disappeared. Indeed, the rogues had hardly dared look at each other or speak until the "singulars" had gotten out of sight.

Once well away Oscar said:

"All right, Cad, I must leave you now to shift for yourself awhile. I am going to finish up this business. We know where to meet."

"Yes."

They were standing in a hollow between two sandbanks and it was dark.