Addison's surmise that Alfred and his crony would begin operations that
very night proved a shrewd one. Shortly after eleven o'clock he heard a
noise at the entrance of the old pound. Asa and Jim were asleep. Addison
lay still, and a few minutes later heard the rogues put up their poles
with the hooks on them, and begin gently to shake the high limbs.
The sound of the pears dropping on the ground waked Asa and Jim, and at
a whispered word from Addison all three bounded over the orchard wall
and rushed to the gateway, shouting, "We've got ye! We've got ye now!
Surrender! Surrender and go to jail!"
Surprised though they were, Alfred and Harvey had no intention of
surrendering. Dropping their poles, they sprang for the pound wall. In a
moment they had scrambled to the top. Then they jumped for the ground on
the other side; but the yielding meshes of the skunk fence brought them
up short. It was too dark for them to see what the obstruction was, and
they bounced and jumped against the wire meshes like fish in a net.
"Cut it with your jackknife!" Harvey whispered to Alfred; and then both
boys got out their knives and sawed away at the meshes--with no success
whatever!
By that time Jim and Asa had entered the pound, and shouting with
laughter, each grabbed a boy by the ankle and hauled him down from the
wall.
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