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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders Among the
+Kentucky Mountaineers, by Jessie Graham Flower
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders Among the Kentucky Mountaineers
+
+
+Author: Jessie Graham Flower
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 20, 2007  [eBook #20405]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S OVERLAND RIDERS
+AMONG THE KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEERS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Mark C. Orton, Linda McKeown, Emmy, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/c/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 20405-h.htm or 20405-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/4/0/20405/20405-h/20405-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/4/0/20405/20405-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+GRACE HARLOWE'S OVERLAND RIDERS AMONG THE KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEERS
+
+by
+
+JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Saalfield Publishing Company
+Akron, Ohio          New York
+Made in U. S. A.
+Copyright MCMXXI
+by The Saalfield Publishing Company
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "It's Grace!"
+_Frontispiece._]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                                            PAGE
+
+       CHAPTER I--EXCITEMENT IN THE FOOTHILLS                11
+
+      Washington Washington's music is rudely interrupted.
+      The revenge of an outraged mule. "Why dat fool mule
+      kick me?" Hippy airs his knowledge of woodcraft.
+      "Laundry" puts the Overland camp in an uproar.
+
+
+       CHAPTER II--THE MYSTERY MAN                           25
+
+      "Dis am de sebbenth yeah." The Spectacle Man
+      introduces himself. The voice from the wilderness.
+      The visitor gives the Overland Riders a word of
+      advice. Mystified by an appearance and a
+      disappearance.
+
+
+       CHAPTER III--HIPPY BOUNCES THE "SHEREEF"              32
+
+       Overlanders ordered to leave the mountains at once.
+       Hippy Wingate's smile grows into a frown. A bullet
+       that missed its mark. Grace Harlowe steps on Washington's
+       neck and starts an uproar. A mysterious
+       shot wings the mountaineer.
+
+
+       CHAPTER IV--FOOTPRINTS IN THE MOSS                    42
+
+       The Mystery Man slips away unobserved. The Overlanders
+       led to wonder. Tom Gray utters a warning.
+       Washington gets another scare. The prowler leaves a
+       trail. Revolver shots stir the Overland Riders to
+       action. "That's Grace's weapon!" cries Lieutenant
+       Wingate.
+
+
+       CHAPTER V--THE WAY IS BARRED                          52
+
+       "Halt! Who comes?" Grace Harlowe slightly
+       wounded. Hippy, in search of her, loses himself.
+       Grace tells of her duel in the bush. The Overlanders
+       are sternly halted and ordered to go back. A shot and
+       a command. Hippy's hat is shot off.
+
+
+       CHAPTER VI--HIPPY MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARS             61
+
+       Overlanders throw up their hands. Nora tweaks a
+       mountaineer's nose, and boxes his ears. Tables turned
+       on a mountain ruffian. A night prowler frightened
+       away by a shot. "Hurry, Grace! Hippy has gone!"
+       cries Elfreda Briggs in a thrilling voice.
+
+
+       CHAPTER VII--A VOICE FROM THE SHADOWS                 74
+
+       The search for Hippy Wingate is begun. Significant
+       trail-signs are discovered. Grace Harlowe makes a find.
+       "Hippy's hat!" gasps Miss Briggs. A mysterious
+       message is tossed into the Overland camp at night.
+       The girls are encouraged by a comforting word.
+
+
+       CHAPTER VIII--A FRIEND IN NEED                        87
+
+       Hippy, awakening, finds himself a captive. A grilling
+       ride on horseback. Captors question and threaten their
+       prisoner. Sight of food makes Hippy sad. "Don't make a
+       sound, Lieutenant," warns a friendly voice. "There's a
+       price on your head!"
+
+
+       CHAPTER IX--THE POWER OF MIND                         99
+
+       "I didn't con-centrate for nothing," declares Emma
+       Dean. Grace finds and loses the trail. Elfreda fires
+       at a noise. "Cut the gun!" howls Hippy Wingate. "The
+       mountaineers are after us!" Lieutenant Wingate's
+       rescuer advises the party to move at once.
+
+
+       CHAPTER X--"THEY'VE GOT THE BOY!"                    107
+
+       "Two skips an' er jump" to their destination.
+       Washington's howls arouse the Overland camp. The
+       colored boy suddenly disappears. The night vigil of
+       the Overland Riders is broken by a shock.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XI--"A MARKED MAN"                           114
+
+       "Hold your fire!" orders Lieutenant Wingate. Washington
+       Washington flounders into camp. "All this scare for a
+       black nightmare," groans Emma. The "rural free delivery
+       man" makes an early call. Another mystery for the Overland
+       Riders to solve.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XII--A MOUNTAIN MYSTERY                      121
+
+       A message and a postscript. Miss Briggs says she will
+       show her companions. Camp is made on the Thompson farm.
+       Julie calls to look the Overlanders over. Invited to a
+       mountain dance. Hippy makes a trouble-forecast.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XIII--THREE MEN IN THE CORNFIELD             132
+
+       Washington says he "sawed" a man. Jeremiah makes a
+       call on the Overland camp. How the Spectacle Man
+       "fits" glasses. The "benefactor of all mankind"
+       suddenly changes his mind. "Two dollars, please."
+
+
+       CHAPTER XIV--ELFREDA DISTINGUISHES HERSELF           140
+
+       The Mystery Man makes a pun. Jeremiah "rolls" out of
+       camp. Elfreda discovers a bear. "He is eating up our
+       food." With the bear's assistance Miss Briggs succeeds
+       in lassoing him. The Overland camp turned into turmoil.
+
+       CHAPTER XV--WHEN EMMA SAID TOO MUCH                  148
+
+       Young Bruin upsets the entire Overland party. "Quick!
+       Get her loose!" Hippy kills and dresses the bear.
+       Footprints in the cornfield. A stranger comes to call
+       and fills up on bear meat. "I'm the game constable!
+       Where's the bear?" he demands sternly.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XVI--A JOKE ON THE OVERLANDERS               162
+
+       "No one ain't allowed to have bear meat till December."
+       Overland Riders are told that they are under arrest.
+       Hippy knocks out the "constable" and brings him to with
+       a pail of water. "I'll give you ten seconds to get out
+       of camp!"
+
+
+       CHAPTER XVII--THE DANCE AT COON HOLLOW               168
+
+       Hippy declares he is not getting sufficient nourishment.
+       Gay mountain folk gather at the schoolhouse. Washington's
+       music not appreciated. Emma Dean lays the foundation for
+       a "riot." Hippy makes a disheartening discovery.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XVIII--AN INTERRUPTED PARTY                  180
+
+       Julie introduces her "feller" to the Overlanders. Lum
+       Bangs threatens Lieutenant Wingate. Weapons drawn in
+       the schoolroom. A mysterious shot cripples the
+       "constable." Knocked out by a blow. Washington has a
+       bad fright.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XIX--A CALL FOR HELP                         189
+
+       Emma "con-centrates" on Hippy and "saves his life."
+       The Overland camp found destroyed. "Dey done got de
+       mule!" wailed the colored boy. Julie's warning is
+       recalled. Grace and Elfreda summoned to the Thompson
+       home to care for sick children.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XX--HIPPY AS A ROUGHRIDER                    199
+
+       Lieutenant Wingate goes for a doctor. The Overland
+       girls sleep in a barn. Julie refuses to tell tales. The
+       doctor arrives alone. "We were attacked from ambush!"
+       Jed Thompson orders the Overland nurses from his cabin.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XXI--AN APOLOGY AND A THREAT                 209
+
+       "The lieutenant is down there yet and may be dead!"
+       The doctor reads Jed Thompson a severe lecture.
+       Thompson goes to Hippy's rescue. Hippy accused of
+       being Jim Townsend. "If he looks like me, he's a
+       lucky man."
+
+
+       CHAPTER XXII--JULIE BRINGS DISTURBING NEWS           216
+
+       Lieutenant Wingate informs Jed that the Spurgeons are
+       coming to "shoot him up." On the trail again. Julie
+       overtakes the Overland Riders, bearing a warning. "Bat
+       Spurgeon an' his gang is waitin' fer you-uns on the
+       White River Ridge," she tells them.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XXIII--THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS            228
+
+       Grace learns that Tom Gray is in the feudist country.
+       Tom's tent found, but he is missing. Nora's missile
+       hits the wrong man. The Overland Riders seek refuge
+       in a cave. Fresh disasters befall them. Fighting out
+       a mountain feud.
+
+
+       CHAPTER XXIV--TRAIL'S END                            245
+
+       The Mystery Man found a captive in a cave. He "fits"
+       Grace Harlowe with "magic glasses." Through her new
+       specs she sees Tom Gray. Jeremiah Long says his
+       farewell. What Tom found on Hippy's claim.
+
+
+
+
+GRACE HARLOWE'S OVERLAND
+RIDERS AMONG THE
+KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEERS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+EXCITEMENT IN THE FOOTHILLS
+
+
+The foothills of the Kentucky Mountains echoed to the strains of a
+rollicking college song, as Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders rode into a
+laurel-bordered clearing and dismounted to make their first camp of
+this, their third summer's outing in the saddle.
+
+Only one of the party remained on his mount. This one was Washington
+Washington, the colored boy that they had taken on at Henderson to be
+their man of all work, guide and assistant cook, for Washington had
+declared that, "Ah knows more 'bout de mountings dan any oder niggah in
+Kaintuck." On his own recommendation, Grace and her party had accepted
+him.
+
+Washington, however, already had shown a love of leisure that was not
+wholly in keeping with his further recommendation for activity, and,
+instead of assisting the girls of the Overland unit to unload their
+ponies, the boy sat perched on the pack mule that he had been riding,
+playing a harmonica, swaying in his saddle in rhythm with the music, and
+rolling the whites of his eyes in ecstasy.
+
+"Just look at him, girls," urged Grace Harlowe Gray laughingly. "If that
+isn't a picture!"
+
+"I call it a nightmare," objected Emma Dean. "Oh, if I only had a nice
+ripe tomato, and could throw straight enough."
+
+"Impossible!" declared Elfreda Briggs, whereupon Anne Nesbit and Nora
+Wingate broke forth into merry peals of laughter.
+
+"Laundry!" roared Hippy Wingate. "We didn't hire you for a moving
+picture. Shake your lazy bones and get busy. If you don't hustle you'll
+get something harder than a tomato."
+
+"Laundry?" wondered Tom Gray. "Why Laundry, Hippy?"
+
+"That's his name, isn't it? Doesn't he call himself Washington
+Washington on Sundays and holidays, and Wash-Wash, for short, on
+weekdays? I have his word for it. Wash is laundry and laundry is wash in
+the neck of the woods where I was reared," explained Hippy, at the same
+time narrowly observing the colored boy, who, following Lieutenant
+Wingate's threat, had permitted himself to slide to the ground, and
+there he sat, still mouthing his harmonica, lost to everything but the
+music he was creating.
+
+"Your logic is unassailable," nodded Miss Briggs. "I was wondering why,
+while we are about it, we don't hire a brass band. We at least would not
+be obliged to listen to the same tune all the time. Does any one know of
+a way to put a mute on a harmonica?"
+
+"Ah reckon Ah do," mimicked Emma Dean, taking careful aim and shying a
+pebble at Wash.
+
+The pebble went rather wide of the mark--that is, the mark for which it
+was intended, but it reached another and a fully as satisfactory one.
+The pebble hit Washington's pack mule on the tender part of its hind
+leg, galvanizing that member into instant and vigorous action.
+
+The eyes of the Overlanders were not quick enough to see the movement
+that followed. What they did see, however, was Washington Washington
+lifted from the ground and pitched head first into a clump of laurel,
+where the light foot of an outraged mule had landed him.
+
+"He's killed!" cried Anne, voicing the thought that was in the mind of
+each of her companions, and a concerted rush was made for the clump of
+laurel.
+
+They found the colored boy somewhat dazed when they dragged him from the
+bushes.
+
+"Wha--whar dat 'monica?" he gasped, referring to the harmonica that he
+was playing when the mule kicked him.
+
+"Maybe he swallowed it," suggested Emma. "I hope not, for he surely
+would have musical indigestion. Wouldn't that be terrible--for us?"
+
+"No great loss if it has landed over in the Cumberlands," observed Tom
+Gray. "Wash, where did the mule hit you?"
+
+"Ah reckons all ovah, 'cept on de bean. Why dat fool mule kick me?
+Hain't nevah done nothin' laik that befo'. Ah ask yuh why he do dat?"
+insisted Washington.
+
+They glanced at Emma, whose face reddened.
+
+"I threw a stone at you and hit the mule, if you must know," she said.
+"The mule passed it on, hitting you with his foot. That mule must have
+played tag when he was a child. I'm sorry, Wash--but if you had been
+attending to your business you would not have been hit."
+
+Washington's first thought upon recovering from his daze had been for
+the harmonica, and his first act, after getting to his feet, was to go
+in search of it. He found it after considerable effort, and ran the
+scales on it.
+
+"Glory be!" cried the boy. "Dat fool mule ain't done kicked de music out
+ob it."
+
+"Listen to me, Washington," demanded Grace, stepping over and laying a
+firm hand on the lad's shoulder. "You will put that instrument away--"
+
+"'Tain't no inst'ment. Hit's a 'monica," he interrupted.
+
+"I am speaking. Put it away, and do not let me see you touch it again
+until you have finished your work. Do you understand?"
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+"See that you do not forget. Unpack both mule packs, but look out for
+the mules' heels, and remember that we did not hire you for an ornament.
+Emma Dean, let this be a warning to you," admonished Grace, turning to
+her companion. "Never trifle with a mule. They are all notoriously
+devoid of a sense of humor."
+
+Washington, in the meantime, had shuffled away and had leisurely begun
+removing the packs.
+
+"Speaking of ornaments, I suppose I am the only real ornament in this
+outfit," observed Hippy.
+
+"You mean the kind that they pack away in the garret with broken chairs
+and old chromos," suggested Emma.
+
+Hippy shrugged his shoulders and walked away, followed by the laughter
+of his companions. Emma had scored again, as she frequently did, and
+Hippy, instead of being ruffled, took keen delight, as usual, in her
+repartee.
+
+"I fear that boy is not going to do at all," said Grace's husband with a
+shake of the head. "As I have remarked before, you should have a man for
+a guide, a man who knows these mountains and who is able to protect and
+look out for you girls in the event of your getting into trouble."
+
+"But, Tom dear, don't you think the Overland girls by this time should
+be quite able to look out for themselves?" begged Grace.
+
+"Ordinarily, yes. You are, however, going into territory that is rather
+wild, going among people that do not value human life or liberty
+according to our standards. My friend, Colonel Spotsworth, of
+Louisville, strongly advised against you folks crossing the eastern end
+of the range, which would take you through mountains where moonshiners
+and feudists hold forth. I agree with him."
+
+"We have Hippy," suggested Elfreda. "In an emergency he is worth half a
+dozen of the ordinary kind."
+
+"Yes, but Hippy is not a woodsman. He knows nothing at all about
+woodcraft, a necessary accomplishment in one who is going to pilot a
+party of girls across such mountain territory as you propose to travel."
+
+"What's that you say, Tom Gray?" called Lieutenant Wingate from the
+campfire where he was observing Washington fan it into life.
+
+Grace laughingly repeated what Tom had said.
+
+"Humph! I know all I need to know about woodcraft," declared Hippy with
+emphasis. "When I smell wood burning in the kitchen stove I know it is
+time to eat. What more knowledge of woodcraft does a fellow need?"
+
+"Amply sufficient for you, Hippy. But what about the rest of the party?"
+grinned Tom Gray.
+
+"As I was about to say," resumed Grace, "we shall be up with you in a
+few weeks. How long do you reckon it will take you to finish your
+government contract to survey that tract in the Cumberlands?"
+
+"Possibly four weeks. Not longer."
+
+"Call it three weeks--three weeks from to-day. That will make it the
+twenty-fifth. We will try to be in the vicinity of Hall's Corners on
+that date, and if you are not there we will wait for you. You will do
+the same provided we are late in reaching the Corners. Let's have a look
+at the contour map," suggested Grace.
+
+While the others of the party were busy setting the camp to rights,
+Washington having removed the packs from the mules, Grace and Tom pored
+over the map of the eastern section of the mountains. Not only were they
+planning their routes, but they were critically examining a portion of
+the map that was encircled with a ring of red ink. The space within the
+circle represented a tract of mountain land that belonged to Lieutenant
+Hippy Wingate, property that he had inherited.
+
+Hippy had never seen this property, it having been left to him by a
+wealthy uncle whose large fortune Hippy had inherited while fighting the
+Germans in the air in France. He now proposed to look it over. In fact,
+this journey of the Overland Riders had been planned with that object in
+view.
+
+Following their return from France, where they had served in the Overton
+College Unit, Grace having been an ambulance driver at the front, the
+girls had decided to seek recreation in the saddle each summer. Their
+first vacation was spent in an exciting ride over the Old Apache Trail
+in Arizona, following this with a venturesome journey on horseback
+across the arid waste of the Great American Desert. Lieutenant Wingate's
+determination to visit his property in the Kentucky Mountains led the
+Overland Riders, as Grace Harlowe and her friends called themselves, to
+make those mountains the objective of their third vacation in the
+saddle.
+
+After Tom Gray had finished his government survey, it was their purpose
+to proceed with him to Lieutenant Wingate's tract, where Tom was to make
+a survey and examination of it, so that Hippy might learn whether or not
+the property possessed any particular value.
+
+"Hippy says his uncle took the property in payment of a debt, but that
+the uncle never had considered it to be worth much of anything," said
+Tom reflectively. "From what little I know of that section of the
+country, I am inclined to agree with him. However, we shall see when we
+get there."
+
+"Who knows but that Hippy may find still another fortune awaiting him
+there?" suggested Grace.
+
+Tom shook his head and smiled.
+
+"It would be Hippy's luck, wouldn't it? He doesn't need it; he already
+has more money than he knows what to do with. Nor have I the slightest
+hope that he will find anything of value there. The twenty-fifth, then,
+it is. I shall make Chapman's my base and work from there. If necessary
+to communicate with me in the meantime you may address me there. I--"
+
+"What's this? Henpecking your husband again, Grace Harlowe?" teased
+Hippy, coming up to them at this juncture.
+
+"Yes, Hip. I am a shining example of a much henpecked husband. What
+would you do were you a henpecked husband?" questioned Tom quizzically.
+"Come, now!"
+
+"Well," reflected Hippy, "I think that would depend largely upon the
+hen."
+
+"You are right," agreed Tom Gray laughingly. "I shall be leaving in the
+morning, old man, and I have agreed with Grace to meet the Overland
+outfit at Hall's Corners three weeks from to-day, or as near to that
+date as possible. We will then make a pilgrimage to the lands of one
+Lieutenant Wingate and see what we shall find there. Probably nothing
+more than some wild game, a few rattlers and--and some mountaineers,"
+added Tom significantly.
+
+"I have been thinking, Tom and Grace, that, should we discover anything
+of real value there, the Overland Riders should share in it. This is a
+sort of exploration party, and to the discoverers should belong the
+spoils," declared Hippy.
+
+Tom shook his head.
+
+"No, no," protested Grace. "It is fine of you to make the offer, but I
+could not permit it for myself, and I am positive that the other girls
+will not even listen to it."
+
+"You see, Tom, how they spurn me. The instant I get a brilliant thought
+they promptly duck it in ice water," complained Hippy.
+
+"We will do this much, we will be your guests when we reach your
+domains, and, if you insist on being liberal, you may cook our meals for
+us three times a day. However, so far as sharing in your good fortune is
+concerned, we can do so only in our hearts," decided Grace with
+emphasis.
+
+Grace immediately acquainted her companions with Hippy's unselfish offer
+to share with them whatever good fortune might be in store for him in
+the Kentucky Mountains.
+
+"That is splendid of Hippy," declared Anne, smiling and nodding.
+
+"I tell him, however, that when we are his guests in the Hippy
+Mountains, he can give us three good meals a day, cooked by his own fair
+hands, but that is all," announced Grace. "Do I echo your sentiments,
+girls?"
+
+They said she did. That is, all except Emma Dean agreed with Grace
+Harlowe. Emma warned them that Hippy had better not offer her a share in
+anything unless he were prepared in his heart to lose it.
+
+"Very good then, I won't. I withdraw the offer," declared Hippy airily.
+"I will agree to cook a meal for you over on the range. Mark the words,
+'cook a meal for you on the range!' Ha-ha. How is that? I reckon I can
+stand it to cook a meal for you if you can stand it to eat it. Speaking
+of food reminds me that I smell bacon frying, so suppose we fall to and
+devour it, provided it is fit to eat. Personally I am not overloaded
+with confidence in Laundry's ability as a chef."
+
+Night had settled over the mountains when they finally sat down on the
+ground by the campfire to eat their supper, the first warm meal they had
+had since starting out on their journey at daylight that morning.
+
+Washington had done very well with his first meal, considering that he
+so recently had been kicked out of camp by an irate mule, and the
+Overland girls admitted that the little colored boy did know how to cook
+after all, for the bacon, the coffee, and the potatoes, baked in their
+jackets in hot ashes, were delicious.
+
+The girls, however, had already found it necessary to read Wash a
+lecture on the beauties of neatness and cleanliness, it having been
+discovered that, in this direction, Wash-Wash was not all that his
+nickname implied.
+
+Wash, having been given permission, retired to the edge of the laurel to
+resume his harmonica exercise. Lying back in the shadows, only the
+whites of his eyes and the reflection of the light from the campfire on
+teeth and harmonica were visible to the Overlanders, giving merely a
+suggestion of a human countenance.
+
+"A nature sketch in black and white," observed Anne Nesbit. "I should
+think he would weary of blowing that thing so much. He has been doing so
+all day long."
+
+"Blowing? You are wrong," corrected Hippy. "A harmonica is played with a
+grunt and a sigh. I could make a brand new pun on that if I wanted to,
+but--"
+
+"Don't you dare," begged Miss Briggs. "I am long-suffering, but I cannot
+tolerate the ancient quality of your puns."
+
+"Most spinsters are that way," retorted Lieutenant Wingate. "Tom, have
+you any orders for me? I suppose I shall have to act as guardian for
+your wife while you are absent from this outfit. If you have half as
+difficult a time managing her as I do, I don't envy you your lot. The
+only bright spot in the situation is that I have to put up with her
+peculiarities for the duration of this journey only. You are in for
+life."
+
+"Hippy, I am ashamed of you," rebuked Nora Wingate.
+
+"Thank you. You see, Tom, what a helpmate my little Nora is. I don't
+have to feel ashamed of any act of mine; I don't have to feel
+embarrassed after I have put my foot in it, nor anything. Nora does all
+of that for me. Really, Tom, you ought to train Grace to be ashamed for
+you for your shortcomings, or to be embarrassed for you. You have no
+idea what a lot of bother over nothing it relieves a fellow of."
+
+"Nora Wingate is a very busy woman," observed Emma, whereat there was a
+laugh at Hippy's expense.
+
+"Tom Gray's wife doesn't have to apologize for him," laughed Grace.
+"Folks, don't you think this conversation is growing rather personal? I
+would suggest that we all put on the brakes and start something less
+personal."
+
+The brakes were instantly put on in one direction, but wholly released
+in another. The music from Washington's harmonica ceased suddenly in the
+midst of a lofty flight, ending in a gurgle and a gasp. The Overlanders
+heard it and laughed.
+
+"He's swallowed the music box!" cried Emma.
+
+Wash, finding his voice, uttered a shrill scream of fright that brought
+the Overland Riders to their feet in alarm. They were amazed to see the
+colored boy charging across the camp, his feet barely touching the
+ground, his eyes wide and staring. In his flight he bowled over Grace
+Harlowe who measured her length on the ground on her back.
+
+"Stop!" shouted Tom Gray, making a grab for the boy, and missing him by
+an inch or so.
+
+Emma Dean stuck out a foot and succeeded better than she had hoped, for
+Washington tripped and plunged floundering into the campfire.
+
+Uttering a piercing yell, he bounded up like a rubber ball and made a
+mad dash for the bushes with Hippy Wingate in full pursuit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MYSTERY MAN
+
+
+"I've got him," cried Hippy, appearing with a firm grip on the
+frightened Washington's arm, and fairly dragging him along. "Can't
+afford to let any fellow get away who can bake potatoes like Wash can."
+
+"Bring him to me, please," demanded Grace. "Now, Washington, what
+happened to frighten you so?" she asked in a soothing tone, at the same
+time patting the colored boy on his kinky head.
+
+Wash rolled his eyes from side to side and twisted his head as if to
+smooth out the wrinkles in his neck muscles.
+
+"Speak up. Don't be afraid. Nothing can harm you. What was it?" urged
+Grace.
+
+"De--de debbil him--him speak--him heyeh. Him speak to Wash right outer
+de air," gasped the boy.
+
+"There! I knew something terrible would happen from your awful work on
+that harmonica," declared Emma Dean. "I'm not at all surprised, Wash."
+
+Grace shook her head at Emma.
+
+"You imagined all of that, Wash," she said. "What did you think you
+heard him say?"
+
+"Him say--right outer de air, 'Wash! Remembah, dis am de sebbenth yeah.'
+Den Ah tuk a frenzy spell."
+
+"What do you mean by the seventh year?" questioned Miss Briggs.
+
+"Ah doan know. It's de hoodoo, Miss. Somet'n sure gwine happen to dis
+niggah."
+
+"Nonsense!" retorted Nora sharply.
+
+"If you don't brace up and behave yourself, something surely will happen
+to you," warned Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"I believe the boy really did hear something," declared Grace as she
+gazed at the trembling lad before her. "Tom, please look there where he
+was sitting, will you?"
+
+Tom Gray rose and started to obey her request. At this juncture the
+bushes parted, and a man, faintly outlined in the light from the
+campfire, stepped into view.
+
+Wash saw him and, uttering another yell, made a break, but Hippy, on the
+watch for this very thing, caught and held him.
+
+"Behave yourself or I'll let the fellow have you," he warned.
+
+Tom hesitated, then stepped forward to meet the stranger. He saw a man
+apparently of early middle age, smooth-shaven, wearing long iron-gray
+hair that hung below his sombrero, the locks curling slightly at the
+bottom. The eyes that regarded Tom were keen and twinkling, full of good
+nature and humor.
+
+"Well, sir, who are you?" demanded Grace's husband.
+
+"Who am I? You will be surprised when I tell you. I'm the original
+Mystery Man. Spectacles, notions and trinkets are my specialty. I make
+the near blind see and dull the glare of the sun for those who do see."
+
+"Glad to meet you. Come in, won't you?" invited Tom.
+
+"That's what I'm here for. I've invited myself to have a snack with
+you-all."
+
+Grace said they had just eaten, but that they would prepare something
+for their caller if he could wait. The stranger said he could and would
+wait, so Anne and Nora set about making coffee and frying bacon,
+Washington being still in too great a fright to do anything useful.
+
+"I'll introduce myself again," resumed the caller. "I'm Jeremiah Long,
+and that's the long and short of it. Who are you?"
+
+Grace introduced the members of her party, telling Long that they were
+riding for their health and amusement. Emma added that they were on
+their way in search of a fortune on Lieutenant Wingate's tract of
+mountain land, and would have said more had not Grace given her a
+warning look.
+
+"Are you the voice from the wilderness?" demanded Hippy scowlingly.
+
+The stranger threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"I confess it. I am the 'seventh year' man. Couldn't resist the
+temptation to give the pickaninny a scare. Oh, thank you," he added as
+Nora handed a heaping plate of food to him and a tin cup full of
+steaming coffee.
+
+"You are a peddler. Is that it?" questioned Emma.
+
+"Heavens, no! I'm a promoter. I promote the well-being of these good
+mountain folks by giving them sight and by furnishing them with
+nick-nacks to delight the eye. If you-all are troubled with poor sight
+I'll be happy to fit you with glasses warranted to make you see double.
+More coffee, if you please. This is the real article. I think I'll have
+to make this camp my headquarters."
+
+"This camp will be some miles from here by this time to-morrow," Grace
+Harlowe informed him.
+
+"So will I. So will I. No bother at all about that. Wash, come here!"
+
+Washington would not budge, so Hippy led him over to the caller.
+
+"Scared you, didn't I, eh? Mebby it is the seventh year, but don't let
+that bother you. Here! Here's a new harmonica for you. It will make more
+noise than the one you lost when I whispered in your ear out yonder. Go
+on now, and behave yourself," he added, giving Wash a playful push.
+"What can I do for you, folks?"
+
+"I suppose you know this country well?" questioned Grace.
+
+Long shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Sometimes I think I do, then I discover that I don't," he replied
+soberly. "No one knows it. I know the people, on the surface, and know
+my way around."
+
+"Perhaps you know something about the moonshiners and the feudists?"
+suggested Nora.
+
+Jeremiah Long gave her a quick glance of inquiry.
+
+"Take a word of advice from the Mystery Man. The less you know about
+anything up here in these hills the better off you are in the end. Some
+folks have made the mistake of knowing too much for their own good, and
+some of them are here yet, but they ain't saying anything."
+
+Grace thanked him and agreed that his advice was good, at the same time
+speculating in her own mind over their guest. She was not wholly
+satisfied that he was what he pretended to be, but what he was in
+reality, she could not even guess.
+
+In the meantime, Washington, lost in admiration of his new possession,
+was drawing harmony, and some discord, from it and rolling his eyes
+soulfully. In the ecstasy of the moment he had forgotten his recent
+fright. Tom and the Mystery Man were engaged in conversation, Hippy now
+and then interjecting a question, for the topic under discussion was the
+tract of land owned by Hippy, though not since Emma's remark had any
+reference been made to Hippy's ownership of it. The guest's talk was
+largely about the lay of the land there and its possibilities.
+
+"I'll see you folks if you are going there," he promised finally. "I
+shall be in that section of the range about three weeks from now, and
+maybe I can do you some good."
+
+"Thank you," smiled Grace. "We shall be pleased to see you then or at
+any other time. Mr. Gray leaves to-morrow morning for the Cumberlands
+where he has business, and we hope to join him, or rather to have him
+join us, in about that time. I think--"
+
+"Hulloa the camp!" shouted a voice from the bushes on the opposite side
+of the camp from that by which Mr. Long had entered.
+
+"Hulloa yourself!" bellowed Hippy Wingate. "Come in. The door's wide
+open."
+
+An instant later a man stepped into the camp, a rifle slung under one
+arm, a revolver hanging from his belt in its holster. He was tall, gaunt
+and raw-boned, a typical Kentucky mountaineer, and, as he stood there
+surveying the Overland Riders from beneath his broad-brimmed hat, not a
+word was spoken on either side. The mountaineer was studying the members
+of the Overland party, and the Overland Riders were regarding him
+inquiringly.
+
+"Why, where is--" began Emma Dean, but a gesture from Grace checked her.
+Not so with Washington Washington, however.
+
+"Whar dat man?" he cried, referring to their first visitor.
+
+A quick glance about the camp revealed to the amazed Overlanders that
+Jeremiah Long, the Mystery Man, had suddenly and mysteriously
+disappeared. No one had seen or heard him go. He had simply melted away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HIPPY BOUNCES THE "SHEREEF"
+
+
+Still the newcomer stood peering into the faces of the Overlanders.
+Hippy began talking to the man with his fingers in the deaf and dumb
+system. The stranger regarded him frowningly, then shifted his rifle
+into his right hand.
+
+"Who be yuh?" demanded the man.
+
+"Oh! I thought you were a dummy," apologized Hippy. "A thousand pardons,
+old man."
+
+"May I ask who _you_ are and what you wish?" questioned Grace
+pleasantly, as she stepped forward.
+
+"Ah asked yuh first. Who be yuh?"
+
+"We are a party from the north, riding through the Kentucky Mountains
+partly for pleasure, partly for business reasons."
+
+"Whut business?"
+
+"That is a personal question, is it not?" smiled Grace. "Won't you sit
+down and rest before you go on? We shall be glad to have you do so."
+
+"Be yuh goin' to answer mah question?"
+
+"I think not, sir."
+
+"Ah'll tell yuh who Ah be, then, an' mebby yuh'll answer. Ah'm the dep'y
+Shereef of this 'ere deestric'. Ah kin land yuh all in the calaboose if
+Ah wants to."
+
+"Deputy Sheriff! Mercy to goodness!" murmured Emma. "Next thing we know,
+the Lord High Executioner will be calling on us looking for victims to
+decapitate."
+
+"Yes?" questioned Grace.
+
+"Let me speak with the man," urged Tom Gray, whereupon Grace waved her
+hand behind her to warn Tom to keep quiet.
+
+"Who be yuh?"
+
+"Presumably the man means to ask 'Who are you?' but unfortunately he
+doesn't speak English," said Emma in a voice loud enough for the
+mountaineer to hear. He glared at her and Emma glared back.
+
+"I think, sir," replied Grace Harlowe, "that this has gone far enough.
+We have no information to give. I am sorry, sir. Our purpose in visiting
+these mountains is a proper one. We are violating no law, have committed
+no crime, and therefore can have no interest for a deputy sheriff.
+Besides, I do not believe you are a deputy sheriff!"
+
+The stranger shifted uneasily. Hippy had risen and was stretching
+himself and yawning.
+
+"All Ah've got to say is, yuh-all git out o' these mountings right smart
+or Ah'll take yuh-all in. T'morrow mornin' yuh git!"
+
+"Thank you." Grace smiled sweetly.
+
+Hippy strolled up to the mountaineer, also smiling, with right hand
+extended as if about to shake hands with their caller, but as he neared
+the man the smile suddenly left his face, and he inhaled a long full
+breath.
+
+"Beat it!" exploded Lieutenant Wingate in the mountaineer's ear, at the
+same time turning the man about and running him out of camp in bouncer
+fashion.
+
+"Run, Mr. Man! Run as if the Old Harry were after you, and don't forget
+to keep that rifle pointed away from the camp. If it goes off you're
+liable to get hurt. Get out!"
+
+The mountaineer, as Hippy released him, sprang away a few paces, then,
+suddenly whirling, fired point blank at Hippy.
+
+Expecting this very move, Lieutenant Wingate had dropped down the
+instant he saw the man turning, and the bullet went over Hippy's head,
+and incidentally over the heads of the Overland Riders in the camp a
+few yards to the rear.
+
+Lieutenant Wingate was unarmed, his revolver being in its holster on his
+saddle, so all he could do was to duck. His experience as a fighting
+aviator in France had made Hippy somewhat callous to bullets, as well as
+an expert in ducking. In the present instance, Lieutenant Wingate made
+so many ducks and dives, side-slips and Immelman turns that the
+mountaineer, crack shot that he was, found himself unable to score a
+hit. The darkness, too, prevented his getting a good sight at the man he
+was trying to shoot.
+
+Back in the camp the rest of the Overland outfit were lying flat on the
+ground, just as they used to do in France when they heard a shell
+coming, which might be due to land somewhere near them. Not one of them
+had a weapon handy, nor would they have dared use them had weapons been
+at hand, because there was no telling where Hippy Wingate was at any
+given second. That, too, was what was troubling the mountaineer.
+
+At the first shot, Washington Washington had forsaken the harmonica and
+dived head first into the bushes where he lay, face down, a finger stuck
+in either ear.
+
+Hippy's floundering finally ceased and the mountaineer could not find
+him. Believing, perhaps, that he had hit his victim, the fellow began
+shooting into the camp of the Overlanders.
+
+"I'm not going to lie here and let that fellow kill us all," declared
+Grace Harlowe, springing up and starting away on a zigzagging run. "Keep
+down, all of you. I'll fetch weapons," she called back.
+
+Tom Gray, however, had forestalled her, and, leaping to his feet, had
+run back to the tethering ground, where the ponies and their equipment
+had been placed for the night, to fetch rifles.
+
+Tom and Grace were back in a few moments, but instead of stepping out
+into the open space where the tents were pitched and the campfire was
+burning, they separated and crept around opposite sides of the camp,
+over which bullets continued to whistle at intervals.
+
+"That you, Grace?" demanded a cautious voice a few yards to her right.
+
+"Hippy! Are you wounded?" begged Grace.
+
+"I _am_ not. I'm trying to get to my rifle."
+
+"Here. Take mine. Look out for Tom. He is on the opposite side of the
+camp. We agreed not to go beyond the edge of the clearing so there might
+be no danger of our hitting each other. He is looking for the
+'shereef.'"
+
+"I'll fix him. Hark! Did you hear that?"
+
+"Yes. It was a revolver shot on beyond where Tom is," answered Grace.
+
+"There it goes again. Tom must be using his revolver. A hit! Somebody
+yelled," cried Lieutenant Wingate. "I hope it is that pesky mosquito
+that has been trying to sting us. Stay here while I go out to
+investigate."
+
+"No, no!" protested Grace. "If you do you and Tom surely will shoot at
+each other. Remember he is a woodsman and knows how to creep up on one
+without making a sound that a human being could hear half a dozen yards
+away. Go to the edge of the clearing and wait. I will go back and around
+on Tom's side of the camp."
+
+Grace crept away, calling softly to the girls to keep down. Washington,
+with his ears muffled, failed to hear her coming, nor had she given the
+little colored boy a thought until she planked a foot down on his neck.
+
+Wash uttered a yell and leaped to his feet, for the second time that
+night bowling Grace over and darting deeper into the bush.
+
+"Oh, that impossible boy!" complained Grace. "He nearly frightened me
+out of my wits. The firing has stopped. I must know what has happened."
+
+Grace crept on cautiously, listening intently, not knowing what moment
+she might come upon the mountaineer. Either he had been hit or he was
+still stalking the camp, and she must settle the question in her mind
+before she would feel safe to settle down for the night.
+
+"Is that you, Grace?" demanded a low, guarded voice just ahead of her.
+
+"Oh, yes! Gracious, Tom, you gave me a start that time! Where is the
+man?"
+
+"Gone away."
+
+"Was it you who shot at him?"
+
+"No. I was just about to let him have it when some one fired two shots
+from a revolver. The second shot hit the man in his shoulder, I think,
+spinning him clean around and dropping him. He was up and staggering
+away in a few seconds. I followed him for some little distance; then,
+being satisfied that he was trying to get away, I came back."
+
+"I hope he stays away," said Grace with emphasis.
+
+"He may be back in force," answered Tom. "I could easily have hit the
+fellow, and was about to put a bullet through his leg when the revolver
+shots were fired. Say, Grace! You did not do that, did you?"
+
+"No, Tom, I did not, nor do I know who did. Let's go into camp."
+
+They got up and walked briskly back, calling out to the Overlanders that
+they were coming.
+
+"He has gone," cried Grace as the two emerged into the clearing.
+
+"Tom, did you wing the critter?" demanded Hippy.
+
+"Hippy, did you fire those shots?" demanded Tom Gray, each asking his
+question at the same time.
+
+There was a laugh from the girls, and another laugh when both men
+replied in chorus, "I did not!"
+
+"Where's Washington?" asked Miss Briggs.
+
+"I heard him yell," answered Hippy. "Hope the kid hasn't gotten into
+trouble. I'll go look for him."
+
+"Yes," spoke up Grace. "I stepped on his neck and he uttered a frightful
+howl and ran away."
+
+"The question now appears to be, 'Who killed Cock Robin?'" observed Emma
+Dean. "We know who stepped on Laundry's neck, but we do not know who
+fired the fatal shot."
+
+"Mystery, mystery, mystery!" complained Miss Briggs. "This is only our
+first day out and we have involved ourselves in a maze of it, with an
+excellent foundation laid for future trouble."
+
+"All because that husband of mine ran that deputy sheriff out of our
+camp," wailed Nora. "Hippy will be the death of all of us yet."
+
+"Hippy did exactly right," approved Tom Gray. "What I am thinking about
+now is why the mountaineer came here to order us out. I have my
+suspicions, and I don't like the outlook at all."
+
+"Don't worry, Tom dear," soothed Grace.
+
+"Yes, the worst is yet to come," called Hippy Wingate, at this juncture
+appearing leading Washington Washington by the ear. "I found Laundry
+hiding in the bushes. Sit down there and behave yourself, Little
+Snowdrop, and let that harmonica alone for the rest of the night. Will
+some one tell me what became of Jeremiah Long?"
+
+"The Mystery Man is here," announced a voice, and the spectacle man
+walked up rubbing his hands and smiling in great good humor. "What's the
+excitement?"
+
+"Where did you go so suddenly?" demanded Hippy frowningly.
+
+"I went out to stake down my horse and get my store--my grip. Did I not
+hear shooting?"
+
+"Yes. We had a visitor and--" Emma bubbled over with words as she
+described what had occurred after Long's departure, to all of which he
+listened attentively. "Somebody, we don't know who, shot him in the
+shoulder. Who do you think could have done that, Mr. Long?"
+
+"Very mysterious, very mysterious," answered the Mystery Man.
+
+Grace and Elfreda were regarding him keenly.
+
+"Think I'll pitch my camp by your fire to-night, if you haven't any
+objection," announced the visitor.
+
+"You are quite welcome," offered Tom. "If you wish to, you can bunk in
+with the lieutenant and myself. There is room for three in our tent. We
+could not think of letting you sleep outside in this chill air."
+
+"Outside for me," answered Mr. Long. "Must have air and plenty of it.
+You see I heat it up inside of me and use it later to sell my goods. A
+promoter, you know, must depend upon hot air because what he's selling
+won't float on cold air."
+
+Grace brought out blankets and a pneumatic pillow which she placed in a
+heap near the fire.
+
+"Make up your bed on the softest spot you can find, Mr. Long, though I
+do not believe there is much choice," said Grace. Then, in a lower
+voice: "I hope you may not find it necessary to shoot any more
+mountaineers to-night, Mr. Long."
+
+"Sh--h--h--h--h!" warned the Mystery Man. "I don't know what you're
+talking about," he added in a louder tone, observing that Washington
+Washington was standing close by, all eyes and ears.
+
+Grace walked away laughing, Jeremiah Long observing her with twinkling
+eyes, a quizzical smile on his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+FOOTPRINTS IN THE MOSS
+
+
+Tom Gray had planned to make an early start next morning, so he was up
+just before break of day, lighting the cook-fire that Washington had
+laid for him. Wisps of smoke from the fire were wafted into Grace's
+tent, awakening her instantly.
+
+"Well, Tom, you thought you would steal a march on me, didn't you?" she
+chided, as she came out unbraiding her hair.
+
+"I hoped I might. That was why I said good-bye last night."
+
+"You did not think for a moment that I would let you go away without my
+getting up to see you off, did you?" she wondered. "No. You should have
+known better than that."
+
+"Now that you are here, I will speak what is in my mind. Watch yourself,
+Grace. That affair last night disturbs me not a little, because it is
+an indication of what you folks may have to contend with up here. The
+Kentucky mountaineer is not a gentle animal. He is a man of almost
+primitive instincts, and the worst of him is that he doesn't come out in
+the open to settle a grudge, but, as a rule, settles it from ambush."
+
+"You forget, Tom dear, that we girls are not tenderfeet, that we are
+seasoned veterans of the world war and that the whistle of a bullet is
+not a new nor a particularly terrifying sound to us. I hope you will not
+worry about us. In three weeks you will be with us. By the way, when did
+our Mystery Man leave?"
+
+"When? Why--I--I didn't know--"
+
+"You had not even discovered that he had gone?" chuckled Grace. "Oh,
+Tom! There are his blankets within a yard of you, neatly folded, and a
+slip of paper pinned to the top one, probably bidding us good-bye and
+thanking us for our hospitality. Read it, please."
+
+Tom did so and nodded.
+
+"Just what you thought it was, Grace. You must be gifted with second
+sight. About the man Jeremiah Long, who calls himself the Mystery Man, I
+have a thought that he is the fellow who shot the mountaineer last
+night."
+
+"Tom dear, you're really awake at last, and before breakfast, too. I am
+proud of you, my husband. Indeed I am," teased Grace.
+
+"Don't laugh at me. I will confess that it never occurred to me until a
+few moments ago. There _is_ something mysterious about the fellow, and I
+confess that I cannot make him out."
+
+Grace nodded and her face took on a thoughtful expression.
+
+"He is not only mysterious, but very keen. Last night--I don't know
+whether or not you noted the fact--he heard that mountaineer
+approaching, and slipped out of camp. I do not believe he went far, but
+that where he was he could see and hear all that was going on. Later he
+must have hurried around to the rear of the camp, and, when the fellow
+was trying to shoot Hippy, Long put a bullet through our caller's
+shoulder. I call that good shooting."
+
+"Hm--m--m--m! Now that you speak of it, I do recall that he disappeared
+rather suddenly. I am grateful for what he did for us, of course, but,
+Grace, I do not wholly trust the man, and, if he comes again, I should
+watch him, were I in your place."
+
+"I do not agree with you at all, Tom. The man is a mystery, but I am
+convinced that nothing bad lurks behind those twinkling eyes. However,
+we shall undoubtedly know more about him later, for I have a feeling
+that Jeremiah will play an important part in our operations up here in
+the Kentucky mountains. We won't get worked up over him at present,
+anyway. To change the subject, I haven't told you that Elfreda has
+adopted Little Lindy, the hermit's daughter that we took from the cave
+in the Specter Mountains last season. The Overlanders are still her
+guardians, but that guardianship will be transferred to Elfreda when we
+get back home in the fall."
+
+"Lindy is a lucky girl. The silver mine is panning out big and she will
+be a very rich girl by the time she comes of age. Have a cup of coffee
+with me?"
+
+"Yes, Tom."
+
+While Tom was eating his breakfast, he and Grace discussed their
+personal affairs, then Grace walked with him to the tethering ground,
+first having seen to it that Tom's pack contained sufficient food to
+last him through his journey of several days to the Cumberlands.
+Good-byes were then said and Tom rode away.
+
+After watering the ponies, Grace returned to camp and sat by the fire
+thinking, until it was time to call her companions. By the time they
+came out she had breakfast ready for them. Washington, who slept in a
+little pup-tent, had to be dragged out by the feet by Hippy before he
+was sufficiently awake to function.
+
+"Laundry," said Hippy solemnly, "I hope you never get caught in a
+burning house in the night. If you are, the house and yourself will be a
+heap of ashes in the cellar by the time you get awake."
+
+"Listen to him, will you, Nora Wingate," cackled Emma Dean hoarsely, for
+the chill of the mountain morning had gotten into her throat.
+
+"For your information, Miss Dean, I will say that the only time my Nora
+ever listens to her husband is when he talks in his sleep." A pained
+expression appeared on Hippy's face when he said it.
+
+"Go on wid ye," laughed Nora. "Ye know ye can't talk in your sleep
+because your snores don't give ye a chance."
+
+Grace put an end to the argument by announcing that breakfast was
+served. The girls regarded Grace inquiringly when she informed them that
+their late guest, the Mystery Man, had again vanished with his usual
+mysteriousness.
+
+"He hath folded his tent and stolen away," observed Emma Dean
+dramatically.
+
+"He didn't fold his tent, for he hadn't any tent to fold," differed
+Hippy. "He folded his blankets and hiked for the tall timber. How far do
+we ride to-day, Grace?"
+
+"To Spring Brook. Wash, how far from here is the next camping place?"
+questioned Grace, turning to the colored boy.
+
+"Wall, Ah reckons it's 'bout er whoop an' er holler from heyeh."
+
+"So far as that?" chuckled Hippy Wingate.
+
+"It's terrible! I know I never shall be able to stand it to ride so
+far," declared Emma, tilting her nose up, her head inclined over her
+right shoulder, a characteristic pose for her when she thought she was
+saying something smart. As usual, her remark brought a laugh.
+
+"Emma Dean, your nose is the last word in neat impertinence," declared
+Elfreda Briggs. "Were you a man, some one surely would flatten it for
+you. Forgive me, dear. That was rude of me," apologized J. Elfreda.
+
+"Never mind the apology. I am used to being abused by my companions,"
+retorted Emma, her face a little redder than usual.
+
+Grace laughingly interrupted the badinage by directing Washington to
+begin packing. She said they must make an early start, not knowing how
+far it was to their day's destination, but which, she believed, from a
+perusal of her map, was all of twenty-five miles.
+
+"The trails are no more than foot-paths and we can make no time, so
+let's go," she urged.
+
+It was an hour later when the party mounted and started away,
+Washington bringing up the rear on a pack mule, industriously playing
+his new harmonica. The going was slow and tedious and the Overlanders
+were tired when they halted for a rest and luncheon shortly before noon.
+A half hour's nap followed the luncheon, the party being "lulled" to
+sleep by Washington's harmonica.
+
+It was a discordant, insistent screeching of the harmonica that finally
+awakened them.
+
+"Stop that noise!" roared Hippy. "I'll--"
+
+"What is it?" cried Grace, springing up, shaking her head to more
+thoroughly awaken herself.
+
+"Ah seen er man, Ah did," answered Washington. His eyes wore a
+frightened expression and he was shifting and shuffling uneasily. "Ah
+seen his face. He war a peekin' through the bushes right thar where yuh
+be sleepin'," he informed them, nodding to Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"You were dreaming," scoffed Hippy.
+
+"Ah wuz wide awake, Cap'n. Er fly er a bug bit me on de nose an' waked
+me up. Ah seed de man den, an' when he seen I sawed him he run away."
+
+"I hope you gave him an anesthetic before you 'sawed' him, Wash," said
+Emma Dean, who had been listening eagerly to the conversation.
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+Hippy started towards the spot indicated by Wash.
+
+"Wait! Don't trample down the bushes until I have had a look," begged
+Grace, stepping forward. "We will look first."
+
+Parting the bushes she peered in and pointed. Hippy saw a well-marked
+trail where the bushes had been brushed aside, and here and there a
+tender leaf-stem broken off.
+
+Stooping over, the Overland girl scrutinized the ground, and, with a
+finger, beckoned Hippy to kneel down.
+
+"See that?" she demanded.
+
+"What is it?" questioned the other girls in chorus. They had followed
+Grace and Hippy and were eagerly peering over the heads of the two
+kneeling Overlanders.
+
+"Footprints of a pair of heavy boots," announced Hippy. "The impression
+they have left in the moss is unmistakable. This looks as if he had
+rested his gun-butt here," he added, laying a finger on another
+depression in the moss.
+
+"I do not think so," said Grace, after examining it critically. "I
+should say that the man made that second impression with the toe of his
+left boot. By looking at the impression of the right boot you will
+observe that it sunk in deeper, meaning, probably, that he threw his
+weight on the right foot and took a step forward with the left, only the
+toe of which was on the ground as he leaned forward to peer into our
+camp."
+
+"'Ma'velous! Ma'velous, Sherlock!' How do you do it?" chortled Hippy.
+
+"Elfreda, please fetch my revolver. I am going to follow out this trail
+a little way. Perhaps I may discover something," said Grace.
+
+Hippy said he would accompany her, but Grace shook her head.
+
+"Please stay here and look out for the camp. If I need you I will shoot
+three times."
+
+"I wish you would not go out," urged Elfreda. "What is to be gained?
+Nothing, and there may be much to lose."
+
+"Grace has made up her mind to go, so you might as well save your
+breath, J. Elfreda," said Anne.
+
+"Some persons are so stubborn," murmured Emma.
+
+Grace smiled and nodded, then parted the bushes and stepped in. She was
+lost to their sight in a few seconds, moving on through the tangle of
+bush and vine without causing a rustle that their listening ears could
+hear.
+
+"Fine, fine!" observed Miss Briggs. "We surely have made a most
+excellent start."
+
+"Cheer up. The worst is yet to come," reiterated Hippy. "Keep your ears
+open. I'll be back in a moment."
+
+Hippy ran to his tent, returning with his heavy army revolver strapped
+to his waist.
+
+"What are you going to do?" questioned Anne. "Grace said you were not to
+follow her."
+
+"I'm not going to. I have merely prepared myself in case she signals for
+me. All hands keep quiet and listen. Stop that noise!" warned Hippy as
+Wash struck a chord on his harmonica. "Nora, if he sounds another note,
+take the infernal music box away from him. I--hark!"
+
+A sharp report startled the Overland girls.
+
+"That wasn't Grace's revolver," announced Lieutenant Wingate, leaning
+forward in a listening attitude, but before the words had left his lips,
+in fact, instantly following the first shot came a heavy report, a bang
+that woke the mountain echoes.
+
+"That's Grace! That's a service revolver," cried Hippy.
+
+"They're at it!" exclaimed Elfreda, as three more shots in quick
+succession, two of them from Grace's revolver, were fired.
+
+"Run, Hippy!" cried Nora Wingate. "Shake your feet!"
+
+"My knees are shaking already. Isn't that enough?" returned Hippy as he
+plunged into the bushes going to Grace's assistance, but there was
+nothing in his movements to indicate that his knees were shaking. Hippy
+Wingate knew no fear, as befitted a man who had fought many winning
+battles with the Germans high above the earth, but it amused him to
+convey the impression that he was timid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE WAY IS BARRED
+
+
+The Overland Riders were calm. The thrilling experiences through which
+they had passed, while engaged in war work in France, had taught them to
+be so.
+
+"Do--do you think--she is hurt?" stammered Emma.
+
+"We sincerely hope not," answered Anne. "Judging from the reports, it
+was Grace who fired the last shot we heard," said Elfreda Briggs.
+"Still, that does not prove anything. I would suggest that we arm
+ourselves at once and prepare for trouble. There appears to be plenty of
+it abroad in these mountains."
+
+Acting on her suggestion, the four girls hurried to their tents and
+armed themselves with rifles, then, taking positions around the outer
+edge of the camp, just within the bushes, they watched and waited,
+observed by Washington Washington with wide, frightened eyes.
+
+It was Elfreda who made the first discovery. She caught the faint sound
+of some one moving through the bushes and raised her rifle.
+
+"Halt! Who comes?" she demanded as she saw the bushes sway, a few yards
+ahead of her, as some one worked their way slowly through them.
+
+"It's Grace," came the answer. "Help me in."
+
+"Girls!" called Miss Briggs sharply, springing forward. She paused at
+the first glimpse of Grace Harlowe's face, which was pale; then hurried
+to her.
+
+There were flecks of blood on Grace's cheek, and by that token Elfreda
+Briggs knew that she had been hit.
+
+"Got a smack, I see."
+
+"Just a mere scratch," replied Grace. "It made me feel weak and dizzy,
+but I shall be myself in a few moments."
+
+Elfreda led her companion into the camp, then examined Grace's wound,
+which, as the Overland girl had said, was a mere scratch over the left
+temple. Miss Briggs washed the wound where a bullet had barely grazed
+the skin, and applied an antiseptic.
+
+"Lie down a few minutes, Loyalheart," she urged.
+
+Grace shook her head.
+
+"I shall get my bearings sooner if I keep on my feet. I am ashamed of
+myself to give way to a little thing like a bullet scratch."
+
+"That's because you're out of practice. You haven't been shot since last
+summer," said Emma Dean soothingly. "You won't mind it at all after you
+have been shot again a few times."
+
+Grace laughed so merrily that, for the moment, she forgot the pain of
+her wound.
+
+"Emma Dean, you are a regular tonic. I thank you. Now I am all right.
+Where is Hippy?" she questioned, gazing about her.
+
+"Hippy!" wailed Nora Wingate. "Where is he?"
+
+"He went out when we heard you shoot," Elfreda informed Grace. "Did he
+miss you?"
+
+"I have not seen Hippy since I left this camp. He must have got lost,"
+replied Grace. "Elfreda, fire three interval shots with your rifle to
+guide him in."
+
+Miss Briggs did so, and all listened for an answer, but none came.
+Acting on Grace's suggestion, Elfreda fired further signal shots, and
+still no reply from Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+Grace, finally becoming disturbed at Hippy's long absence, announced her
+intention of going out to look for him, and was giving her companions
+directions about signaling her when Hippy Wingate came strolling into
+camp, his clothing torn and his face scratched from contact with brier
+bushes. "Hulloa, folks," he greeted, grinning sheepishly.
+
+"My darlin', my darlin', are you hurt?" cried Nora, hurrying to him
+solicitously.
+
+"No. I got lost and just found myself. Where do you suppose I was? Why
+less than ten rods from this camp all the time. Never saw such a country
+for mixing a fellow up. Confound the whole business. If my property is
+in such a mess as this I'll set the lazy mountaineers at work clearing
+it up before I'll set foot on it. Hey! What hit you, Brown Eyes?"
+
+"A bullet."
+
+"I heard it. I mean I heard the shot, and, like the hero I am, I ran to
+the rescue, but got all tangled up," explained Hippy.
+
+"Didn't you hear our shots?" demanded Anne.
+
+"I heard 'em, but I was too busy untangling myself to answer. I thought
+the shots sounded off the other way and got deeper into the mess trying
+to find the camp."
+
+"You are a fine woodsman," rebuked Elfreda.
+
+"Yes, and you wouldn't be here yet had it not been for me," declared
+Emma Dean.
+
+"How's that?" demanded Hippy.
+
+"Well, you see, when we found that you did not come back and we surmised
+that you were lost, I just sat down and con-centrated. Then you came
+back, just like the cat did in the old story."
+
+"Where did you get that piffle?" chortled Hippy when his laughter had
+subsided.
+
+"From a professor who visited our town last winter. He said that, by
+con-centrating, one could bring anything to pass that he
+wished--provided he con-centrated intently enough and long enough. Why,
+he said that a person, by con-centrating properly, could move a house if
+he wished."
+
+The Overlanders shouted.
+
+"You'd better see a doctor," advised Hippy. "Brown Eyes, you haven't
+told me what happened to you. Who shot you?"
+
+"I don't know. I did not see the person who did it. He saw me,
+evidently. Perhaps, catching a glimpse of my campaign hat, he thought it
+was you and shot at me. I let go at him, and we had it out. His second
+shot hit me and my third hit him. How badly I don't know, but he
+plainly had enough and got away without even picking up his rifle. It is
+out there yet, unless he returned for it."
+
+"Did you follow him?" asked Nora.
+
+"A few yards only, then I got dizzy and had to sit down for a few
+moments. That is all I know about it. I think we had better pack up and
+move."
+
+"I sincerely hope the next stopping place may be more peaceful than
+those that have preceded it," said Miss Briggs.
+
+"Please hurry, Washington," admonished Grace. "We have delayed much too
+long, and if we do not make haste we shall not reach our day's objective
+before dark. I don't fancy traveling here at night without a guide. Can
+you find your way about in the night, Washington?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"I doubt it," observed Emma.
+
+Soon after that, Grace now feeling fit again, the Overlanders were
+mounted and on their way, following a narrow trail, dodging overhanging
+limbs, pausing now and then to consult their map, for they had found
+that Washington could not be depended upon to guide them. He was useful,
+but apparently was not overstocked with information about the mountains.
+
+It was after seven o'clock that evening before they swung into a valley
+that, according to the map, narrowed into a cut in the mountains,
+through which ran a stream of sparkling water fed by equally sparkling
+mountain rivulets that rippled down to it in silver cascades. The
+Overland party was still riding under difficulties, for the trail was
+narrow and, in some instances, overgrown. They were now looking for the
+stream that the map indicated as being somewhere in the vicinity.
+
+"Here's water," called Lieutenant Wingate, who was in the lead.
+
+"Washington!" called Grace. "What is this stream?"
+
+"Ah reckons it am watah," answered the colored boy, which brought a
+laugh from the Overlanders.
+
+"Laundry must have been 'con-centrating,'" observed Anne Nesbit.
+
+"This may be Spring Brook," called Miss Briggs. "We shall have to take
+for granted that it is."
+
+"I think it is," answered Grace as they rode out into a fairly open
+space and discovered the cut in the mountains through which the stream
+was flowing.
+
+The ponies already were showing their eagerness to wade into the water
+and drink, and Grace had just headed her mount towards the stream when
+she brought him up with a sharp tug on the bridle-rein.
+
+Just ahead of her stood a tall, gaunt mountaineer leaning on his rifle.
+The expression on his face was not one of welcome, but Grace Harlowe saw
+fit to ignore that.
+
+"Howdy, stranger," she greeted, smiling down at the man.
+
+"Howdy," grunted the man, as they regarded each other appraisingly.
+
+"Where do ye-all reckon yer goin'?" he demanded gruffly.
+
+"Is this Spring Brook?" interjected Hippy.
+
+"Ah reckon it air."
+
+"Then that is where we are going."
+
+"Yer kain't go this a-way," replied the mountaineer.
+
+"Why can't we?" demanded Grace.
+
+"'Cause Ah says ye kain't."
+
+"Perhaps you do not know who we are. We are a party out for a ride
+through the Kentucky mountains. We ride every summer. We have no other
+object, and, if you will pause to consider, you will see that we can do
+no harm to you or any one else by going where we please in this part of
+the country," urged Grace.
+
+"Ah knows who ye be. Turn aroun' an' git out o' here right smart!"
+
+"You are making a mistake, sir," warned Grace. "If there is good reason
+why we should not go up this gorge we will go around it on the ridge."
+
+"Ah said git out! Ye kain't go up the gorge nor over the ridge. Git out
+o' the mountains!"
+
+"Not this evening, we won't!" shouted Lieutenant Wingate, now thoroughly
+angered, as he gathered up his reins.
+
+_Bang!_
+
+A bullet from the mountaineer's rifle went through the peak of Hippy
+Wingate's campaign hat, lifting it from his head and depositing it on
+the ground.
+
+"Don't draw!" cried Grace in a warning voice as Hippy let a hand slip
+from the bridle-rein.
+
+"Put yer hands up! All of ye!" commanded the mountaineer, the muzzle of
+his rifle swinging suggestively from side to side so as to cover the
+entire party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+HIPPY MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARS
+
+
+All except Nora Wingate obeyed the command to hold up their hands.
+
+"I'll not put me hands up for the likes of you!" she retorted, her eyes
+snapping, as she deliberately got down from her pony.
+
+"Don't do anything foolish," warned Grace Harlowe.
+
+Unheeding the warning, Nora stepped over and picked up Hippy's hat, eyed
+the hole in it, the color flaming higher and higher in her face. Nora
+then walked straight up to the mountaineer, apparently unconscious of
+the fact that his rifle was now pointed directly at her.
+
+The mountaineer was nearer death at that moment than he knew, for two
+hands had slipped to two revolver butts resting respectively in the
+holsters of Grace Harlowe and Lieutenant Wingate. What mad thing Nora
+had in mind they could not imagine, but they did not believe the fellow
+would dare to shoot her down in cold blood, for it must be plain to him
+that she was unarmed.
+
+"Look what you did!" she demanded, holding up the hat that the
+mountaineer might see the bullet hole in it. "You put a bullet through
+my husband's perfectly good hat. Aren't you ashamed of yourself? That
+hat cost him eight dollars, and if I thought you had eight dollars in
+the world, I'd make you pay for it. You're a cheap ruffian, that's what
+you are!"
+
+Nora's chin was thrust out belligerently. At this juncture her right
+hand flashed up to the nose of the mountaineer. The fingers closed over
+that prominent member and Nora Wingate gave it a violent tweak.
+
+The fellow's jaw sagged. He appeared actually dazed and the muzzle of
+his rifle, that Nora had thrust to one side as she boldly stepped up to
+him, had been permitted to sink slowly towards the ground.
+
+Nora Wingate did not stop there. She soundly boxed the fellow's ears,
+first with the right, then with the left hand, each whack giving his
+head a violent jolt to one side.
+
+"Jump back!" It was Grace Harlowe who, in an incisive tone of voice,
+gave the order to Nora.
+
+"Why should I jump back?" demanded Nora, turning a flushed face to her
+companions. What she saw, however, caused Nora to take a few slow steps
+backwards. Three revolvers were pointed over her head at the
+mountaineer. The revolvers were in the hands of Grace Harlowe,
+Lieutenant Wingate and Elfreda Briggs.
+
+The mountaineer saw the weapons at the same time.
+
+"Drop it!" bellowed Hippy. "Drop it or I'll bore you full of holes!"
+
+The mountain man permitted his grasp on his rifle to relax and the
+weapon fell to the ground.
+
+"Back up!" commanded Hippy. "Don't play any tricks, and keep your hands
+away from your holster. Keep him covered, Grace, while I dismount. You,
+fellow! Take notice! We know how to shoot, probably better than you do.
+If you try any tricks you'll get what's coming to you. Turn around and
+stand still with your hands as high above your head as they will go.
+Good!"
+
+Hippy dismounted and, with revolver at ready, stepped over to the man
+who was now standing with his back to the Overland Riders.
+
+"Don't make a move! I'm going to take your revolver," warned Lieutenant
+Wingate, pressing his own revolver against the mountaineer's back. He
+then jerked the fellow's weapon from its holster and tossed it behind
+him. Nora picked it up.
+
+"Turn around!"
+
+The mountaineer faced him, his face contorted with deadly rage.
+
+"I'll kill ye fer this 'ere!" threatened the man.
+
+"Not this evening you won't. Listen to me, Mister Man. We are not here
+to interfere with you or with your business, and we wish to be let
+alone. So long as we are let alone, we shall move along peaceably. When
+we are not, some one is going to get hurt right smart. Get me?" Hippy
+thrust out his chin pugnaciously.
+
+The mountaineer did not reply, but his eyes, and the malignant scowl on
+his face, voiced the thought that was uppermost in his mind.
+
+"Now turn around, face up the gully and sprint when I give the word.
+Don't you show up in this vicinity until to-morrow. You will find your
+rifle and revolver right here where I am standing. We don't want any
+such antiquated hardware. Don't stop until you get to the other end of
+the gully, if you value your life. Go!"
+
+The mountaineer started away at a brisk trot, never once looking behind
+him.
+
+"Shoot! Make him dance," urged Emma Dean excitedly.
+
+"No!" replied Grace incisively. "We are not savages."
+
+"Why didn't you 'con-centrate' on him and save us all this bother?"
+demanded Hippy. "Nora darling, I am proud of you," he said, turning to
+her smilingly. "But never do a crazy thing like that again. Even Emma
+Dean could do no worse. What's the next thing on the programme, Grace?
+Do we go on or do we camp here?"
+
+"I don't like the climate of Spring Brook at all. It is too warm and
+malarial for me," interjected Miss Briggs.
+
+"I agree with you, J. Elfreda," replied Grace laughingly. "I would
+suggest that we detour to the right and proceed over the ridge, and on
+into the mountains where there may be a probability that we shall not be
+molested. What do you say, people?"
+
+"I think we all agree with you," answered Anne.
+
+"Yes, let's seek the seclusion of the mountain fastness and have Emma
+sit up and 'con-centrate' all night. If she can move a house and lot
+with her con-centration stunt, she surely should be able to move that
+touchy mountain savage further away from us," suggested Hippy to the
+discomfiture of Emma and the great amusement of her companions.
+
+"I think you are real mean," pouted Emma.
+
+"Would it not be a wise thing to do to leave one of us here for a short
+time to see if that fellow returns and tries to follow us?" asked Nora,
+still full of fight. "I should just like to teach him a lesson."
+
+"You already have done so," chuckled Anne.
+
+"Your suggestion is excellent," agreed Grace. "However, it is getting
+dark and we must locate ourselves before that. That is, we should do so.
+Let's go!"
+
+The Overlanders then mounted and retraced their steps until they found a
+place where they could climb to the ridge. Reaching the top, they
+followed the ridge trail for half a mile, then struck off into the
+mountain fastness. In order to better hide their trail, they guided
+their horses into a small stream and rode up that for a full mile,
+finally finding a suitable camping place.
+
+A cook fire, a small blaze, was made under a shelving rock, and
+Washington was left to cook the supper while Hippy and the girls watered
+and cared for the ponies. Supper was ready about the time they finished.
+The pitching of the tents was left for the boy to attend to while the
+Overlanders were eating.
+
+"Now that we are composed, what does all this disturbance of to-day
+mean?" demanded Miss Briggs.
+
+"It may be the result of our running that fellow out of our camp last
+night, or rather Hippy's running him out. Then again, the incident of
+to-day may be explained in another way. I first had a duel with some one
+in the bushes; later, when we headed into Spring Brook valley we may
+have been getting into the Moonshiners' territory. I understand they are
+rather touchy when it comes to outsiders penetrating their mountain
+preserves. At least this last savage was thoroughly in earnest when he
+ordered us to get out. I fear we should have gotten into trouble had it
+not been for Nora." Grace smiled at the recollection of Nora's
+chastisement of the mountaineer.
+
+"Surely, they do not think we are revenue officers, do they?" asked
+Anne.
+
+"They are suspicious of all strangers," Hippy informed his companions.
+"I had a friend in the flying corps, who comes from Kentucky, and he
+told me all about these mountaineers. They are, in a way, simple as
+children, but bad all through when they differ with you."
+
+"Then, there is the Mystery Man," reminded Nora. "Is he one of them?"
+
+"He may be for all we know about him," answered Elfreda, shrugging her
+shoulders.
+
+Grace said "no."
+
+"It doesn't seem probable, that, were he one of them, he would have shot
+one of them in our defense, does it?" she asked.
+
+The Overlanders admitted the force of her argument. Supper finished,
+they sat about the campfire, now a glowing bed of coals, which now and
+then was fed and stirred into little ribbons of flame by adding bits of
+dry twigs.
+
+"I am going to sit up to-night, and watch the camp," announced Hippy
+after the tents had been pitched and the girls, one by one, had begun to
+do their hair for the night.
+
+"Yes, it will be wise. When you get sleepy, call me and I will take the
+watch for the rest of the night," directed Grace.
+
+"I never sleep," remonstrated Hippy.
+
+"He never sleeps," mimicked Emma in a deep voice from her tent, sending
+her companions into a shout of laughter.
+
+"Except when he is supposed to be awake," teased Anne.
+
+Before turning in, Grace made a circuit of the camp and the bushes and
+the trees surrounding it, halting where the ponies were tethered to see
+that they were properly tied for the night. Soon after making camp she
+had taken possession of Washington's harmonica, for it was all-important
+that attention be not attracted to their camp that night.
+
+Grace was certain that they had not yet heard the last of their mountain
+enemies and that trouble might be looked for from that direction, hence
+no precaution must be overlooked with regard to protecting themselves.
+
+"Tom was right," murmured Grace, when, after giving Washington and Hippy
+final directions, she had retired to her tent and lain down with rifle
+and revolver within easy reach.
+
+Lieutenant Wingate put out the fire and sat down to watch, rifle in
+hand. Grace got up an hour later and, peering from her tent, saw Hippy
+sitting with his back against a rock. At first she thought he was
+asleep; then, when she saw him take off his hat and smooth back his
+hair, she knew that she was mistaken.
+
+It was long past midnight when Grace again roused herself and got up
+with a feeling that all was not well. A quick survey of the camp from
+her tent revealed nothing disturbing. Hippy was in the same position in
+which she had seen him some hours before and not a sound was heard from
+the ponies' direction.
+
+Picking up her rifle, and strapping on her revolver, Grace stepped over
+to Hippy and peered down into his face. He was sound asleep and snoring.
+
+"It were a pity to wake him," she muttered, moving quietly away and
+sitting down within a dozen feet of the sleeping man to guard the camp
+for the rest of the night.
+
+Grace suddenly tensed with every faculty on the alert. She thought she
+heard something moving cautiously in the bushes at the left of the camp.
+A few moments of listening convinced her that she was right. She knew
+that none of her outfit was out there and that Washington Washington was
+sleeping in his little pup-tent a few yards from her, for she could hear
+him breathing.
+
+The Overland girl used her eyes and ears, and a few moments later she
+made out a vague form at the edge of the camp. Even then she would not
+have seen it, had it not moved to one side. The dark background
+prevented her being able to make anything out of the form, except that
+it was a human being.
+
+Having satisfied herself of this, Grace raised her rifle, aiming it
+above the head of the intruder, and waited. Herself being in a deeper
+shadow, her movements were not observed by the prowler.
+
+Grace put a gentle pressure on the trigger. A flash of fire and a
+deafening report followed.
+
+Hippy Wingate sprang to his feet.
+
+"Wha--wha--wha?" he gasped.
+
+"Don't get excited," soothed the calm voice of Grace Harlowe. "I shot
+over the head of a prowler. Go back to your tent, Washington," she
+directed, as the colored boy ran out ready to bolt into the bushes.
+
+Grace had heard the prowler crash through the bushes in his haste to get
+away, and felt reasonably certain that they would not be troubled by him
+again that night. In the meantime the others of her party had sprung
+from their tents, excitedly demanding to know what had occurred. She
+told them briefly, and advised that they go back to sleep.
+
+"You too turn in, Hippy," directed Grace. "It is too bad to have spoiled
+that lovely sleep. I will look after the camp for the rest of the
+night."
+
+Without a word Lieutenant Wingate went to his tent. He was ashamed of
+himself despite his former assertion that Nora Wingate always provided
+this emotion for him.
+
+"I think I'll ask Emma to sit up and 'con-centrate' to keep me awake
+after this," muttered Hippy, and then lost himself in slumber.
+
+The camp once more settled down and was not again disturbed, but Grace
+kept her vigil ceaselessly through the rest of the night. The girls did
+not know the details of the disturbance until breakfast next morning
+when Grace told them all she knew about the occurrence. After breakfast
+she and Hippy searched the ground about the camp and found traces of
+their visitor. In leaving he had made no effort to hide his trail,
+probably having been in too great a hurry, but Grace did not consider
+it worth while to try to follow the trail.
+
+"We must make time, you know," she told her companions upon returning to
+camp. "If we are late in keeping our appointment with Tom, he will be
+worrying for fear something has happened to us."
+
+"Something probably will have happened to us by that time," observed
+Elfreda solemnly. "Several somethings, perhaps."
+
+After considerable milling about, after retracing their steps along the
+mountain rivulet, they found the trail that they were in search of, the
+footpath that led in the direction that they wished to go. On either
+side of the path was a jungle-like tangle of shrub and vine, through
+which the party, riding in single file, were obliged to force their way.
+
+So dense was the foliage that they could not see each other, but they
+kept up a rattling fire of conversation back and forth, much of which
+was directed at Hippy who was leading and doing his best to beat down a
+path for those who were following.
+
+This continued for some time, until finally Hippy's mount seemed to be
+getting lazy, for Elfreda, who was riding directly behind the leader,
+bumped into his pony several times.
+
+"Come, come, Hippy! Have you gone to sleep?" demanded Elfreda. "We
+shall never get out of the tangle at this rate."
+
+There was no reply, and when Elfreda communicated her belief to her
+companions that Hippy had gone to sleep on his saddle, there was much
+laughter. Emma called out that, so long as the horse kept awake, they
+would be all right.
+
+This condition of affairs continued for some little time, until finally
+Elfreda rode out into a rugged, rocky clearing and made a discovery
+that, for the moment, left her speechless.
+
+Hippy Wingate's pony was browsing at tender blades of grass that were
+sprouting from crevices in the rocks, but its saddle was empty.
+
+"Hippy! Oh, Hippy!" called Miss Briggs.
+
+There was no response to her call. The pony raised its head and looked
+at her and then resumed its eating.
+
+"Grace!" cried Elfreda in a tone that thrilled every member of the
+party. "Hurry! Hippy has gone!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A VOICE FROM THE SHADOWS
+
+
+The Overlanders came trotting into the clearing, Grace bringing up the
+rear of the line just ahead of Washington and his mules, who still were
+some little distance behind.
+
+"What is it?" called Grace as she burst into the clearing.
+
+Miss Briggs pointed to Hippy's empty saddle, and it was not until then
+that Nora Wingate fully realized the meaning of the scene.
+
+"Hippy, my darlin', where are you?" she cried excitedly.
+
+"Steady now," cautioned Grace. "It will profit us not at all to lose our
+heads. Spread out and search the clearing. First, tie your ponies so
+they don't disappear and leave us in the lurch."
+
+The girls quickly slipped from their saddles and began searching, Grace
+first having examined the saddle of Hippy's pony. She found his rifle in
+the saddle-boot and his revolver in the holster suspended from the
+pommel. This discovery indicated to her that Lieutenant Wingate had not
+had time to take either weapon with him when he dismounted.
+
+"It is my opinion that Hippy fell asleep and fell off," declared Emma,
+after they had completed their search of the clearing.
+
+"Oh, what shall we do?" wailed Nora, wringing her hands. "Grace darlin',
+help me think. I can't think straight. Somebody suggest something."
+
+"When did you first discover that his pony was lagging?" questioned
+Grace, turning to Miss Briggs.
+
+"I should say that it was twenty or thirty minutes ago."
+
+"Say half a mile back. It is possible that Hippy was unseated by coming
+in contact with an overhanging limb, though I do not recall having seen
+any low enough to bump one's head."
+
+"We must go back and try to find him," said Miss Briggs.
+
+"Yes," agreed Grace, her brow puckering in thought. "Anne, I think you
+had better remain here in charge of the camp. Get your rifles out and be
+on the alert. This affair looks suspicious to me. Shoot a signal if you
+need us in a hurry. Elfreda, will you go with me?"
+
+Miss Briggs nodded.
+
+"Bring your revolver. Rifles will be in the way," advised Grace. "You
+girls stay right here. Do not attempt to leave this spot. Nora, keep
+your head level. Let's go!"
+
+The two girls started back over the trail on foot, walking briskly. A
+short distance back from the clearing they met Washington, whom Grace
+directed to go on and wait for them in the clearing. She did not think
+it worth while to ask the boy if he had seen Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"I have a recollection of seeing the bushes trampled down on the left
+side of the trail as we came along," said Grace, after they had left
+Washington. "It is possible that there is where Hippy was unhorsed."
+
+"Grace, you suspect something, don't you?"
+
+"I don't know whether I do or not. I will tell you after we have found
+the place where he left the trail. Does not Hippy's disappearance strike
+you as being a strange one, Elfreda?" questioned Grace, giving her
+companion a quick glance of inquiry.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I think we are nearing the spot to which I referred. Keep your eyes
+open and move slowly. Should we find nothing there, we will walk along a
+little way off the trail, each taking a side. There!"
+
+Grace pointed to a spot where the bushes had been lately crushed down.
+She then laid a restraining hand on her companion's arm, and there they
+stood for a few moments, fixing the picture of the scene in their minds.
+
+Grace finally parted the bushes and looked in, Miss Briggs peering over
+her shoulders. Using extreme caution they stepped into the bushes, to
+one side of the disturbed spot, and there Grace got down on her knees
+and examined the ground with infinite pains. She then crawled along a
+short distance, following the trail that had been made by whoever had
+passed through there.
+
+"How far are you going?" asked Elfreda.
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Grace's search led her a full five hundred yards into the thicket, she
+halting only when she came to a spot where the brush had been trampled
+down over several yards of space. The sound of a stream could be heard
+close at hand.
+
+An examination of the ground there gave Grace a fresh clue, and, after
+stepping over to the brook and gazing at it briefly, she announced
+herself as ready to go back.
+
+"What now?" asked Elfreda.
+
+"After I get something we will return to camp. We must hold a
+consultation. I do not feel like deciding this problem alone."
+
+"I know you have made a discovery, but beyond the fact that some one has
+trampled down the bushes beside the trail, and that a horse has been
+standing where we are now, I must confess that I am no wiser than
+before."
+
+"You have done very well," smiled Grace. "Come with me and I will
+enlighten you further."
+
+They walked briskly back to the edge of the trail where they had first
+found the bushes disturbed.
+
+"Two men have stood here. If you will scrutinize the ground you will see
+the imprint of their hobnailed boots. They stood facing each other, just
+as you and I are doing at this moment. All at once they turned facing
+the trail and took a step toward it."
+
+"Wait a moment! Wait a moment! You are going too fast for me, Grace
+Harlowe. Are you gifted with second sight that you know all this?"
+
+"J. Elfreda, for goodness' sake use your eyes. The footprints are so
+plain that all you have to do, to understand, is to look at them. They
+tell the whole story up to a certain point," answered Grace.
+
+"Go on."
+
+"They unhorsed Hippy at that point, and I should not be at all surprised
+if they hit him over the head with a club or the butt of a revolver.
+You see how easy it would be to do that without being discovered, the
+foliage being so dense over the trail. After unhorsing him they at least
+dragged him back for some little distance before they picked him up. I
+found the marks of his heels where they had dug into the soft earth as
+he was being dragged."
+
+"You--you said you wished to--to get something," reminded Miss Briggs,
+somewhat dazed by her companion's rapid recital.
+
+"Yes. I discovered it when I was on my knees examining the trail here."
+Grace stooped over and, thrusting a hand into the bushes, brought forth
+an object which she held up for Elfreda's inspection.
+
+"Do you recognize it, J. Elfreda?"
+
+[Illustration: "Hippy's Hat!" Gasped Miss Briggs.]
+
+"Hippy's hat!" gasped Miss Briggs.
+
+"Yes. Let us examine it. Look at this! Am I right?" demanded Grace
+triumphantly. "Hippy was whacked over the head with the butt of a
+revolver, and the blow cut right through the felt. No wonder he made no
+outcry. He is a lucky fellow if he hasn't a fractured skull. Elfreda,
+this is serious."
+
+"Both serious and marvelous--serious so far as Hippy is concerned, and
+marvelous so far as your visualizing the incident is concerned,"
+declared Miss Briggs.
+
+"Do you think we should tell Nora?"
+
+"We must tell her something, and we cannot tell her an untruth," replied
+Elfreda after brief reflection. "I should advise telling her all except
+about the hat. We can conveniently forget about the hat. He was taken
+prisoner by two men, probably in the belief that it was some one else
+they were capturing."
+
+"I don't think so," interrupted Grace.
+
+"I do," insisted Miss Briggs.
+
+"All right, then you tell the story to Nora. Let's go back."
+
+Grace hid the hat, intending to return for it at another time, as it
+might be useful as evidence. They then started on to join their
+companions, both silent and thoughtful.
+
+Reaching the halting place of the party in the clearing, Elfreda,
+without giving Grace an opportunity to speak, launched forth into a
+description of what they had discovered--minus the hat.
+
+Nora wept silently, and Emma slipped a comforting hand into hers.
+
+"Don't cry, Nora darling. Hippy will be back. Nobody, not even a
+mountaineer, could live with him very long. I don't see how you ever
+stood it so long as you have." Saying which, Emma prudently dropped the
+hand she was holding, and backed away.
+
+Nora Wingate sprang up blazing, to meet the laughing eyes and impishly
+uptilted nose of the irrepressible Emma Dean. Nora laughed and wept at
+the same time, and then quickly pulled herself together.
+
+"I ought to take ye over me knee, but I won't because ye've brought me
+to me senses. Grace, see how calm I am. I am ready to listen to your
+plan, knowing very well that you have one in mind. If they haven't
+killed him, my Hippy will yet beat those scoundrels at their own game.
+Any man who has fought duels with the Germans above the clouds, and won,
+surely will be able to outwit a whole army of these thick-headed
+mountaineers. What do you think we should do?"
+
+"At the beginning of this journey, as well as those we have taken
+before, it was agreed between us that when one strays away or gets
+separated from the party, the Overlanders were to go into camp at or as
+near the point of separation as possible, and wait there a reasonable
+time for the return of the absent one. That is what I should suggest
+doing in the present instance," offered Grace.
+
+"Make camp right here?" asked Anne.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yes, but are we not going to try to find my Hippy?" begged Nora.
+
+"I think it advisable to wait a reasonable time, so, with the approval
+of you folks, I will tell Washington to make camp."
+
+This the girls agreed to, though Nora was for setting out in search of
+her husband at once. That, too, was what Grace Harlowe would have liked
+to do, but she believed it would be better for them to remain where they
+were for the time being.
+
+"Couldn't you follow the trail of those men?" asked Nora.
+
+"I did up to the point where they rode into a stream to throw off
+pursuers, just as we did last night. Of course they had to leave the
+stream somewhere, but the probabilities are that they were sharp enough
+not to leave a plain trail where they came out. For instance, they could
+easily dismount their prisoner on a rocky footing where no trail would
+be left, carry him on and secrete him, then have one of their party ride
+the horses in another direction. Don't you see where that would leave
+us?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I do," moaned Nora. "My wheels are all turning the wrong way.
+Don't mind me."
+
+"We won't," promised Emma.
+
+Washington, aroused from a day dream, was directed to hustle himself and
+make camp. While he was busying himself at this, the girls held a
+further conference. At its conclusion, Grace paid another visit to the
+scene of Lieutenant Wingate's undoing.
+
+This time, Grace followed the trail left by the two men who had captured
+him, and then on down the stream until she came in sight of a rocky
+clearing, where she believed the captors had left the brook and followed
+out the plan that she had visualized.
+
+Grace dared not press her investigation further, nor even show herself,
+the Overland girl shrewdly reasoning that the spot would be watched by
+those responsible for Hippy's disappearance. She was not desirous of
+taking unnecessary chances just yet, for, being the captain of her
+party, she was responsible for their safety.
+
+All during the rest of the day, after her return to camp, one or the
+other of the girls was posted outside the camp, secreted in the bushes,
+to prevent a surprise by intruders. So far as they could discover no one
+approached the camp.
+
+The camp having been pitched at the extreme end of the open space, the
+campfire, at Elfreda's suggestion, was built at the opposite end, which,
+as she pointed out, would leave their tents in a shadow after dark, for
+there were a few scattering laurel bushes between the tents and the
+fire, but not so dense that the view was greatly interfered with.
+
+The outside guarding was continued until nearly bedtime, eyes and ears
+being strained, not only for prowlers, but for the return of Hippy
+Wingate.
+
+"If we get no word to-morrow, what?" questioned Anne.
+
+"Grace and myself will take the trail," announced Elfreda. "If she does
+not think it wise to go, I can go alone."
+
+"We will both go, unless something occurs to make our going
+inadvisable," answered Grace quietly. "Elfreda, you and I will sit up
+together to-night, if you don't mind."
+
+After the others had turned in and Washington had piled some hard wood
+on the fire, so that a bed of coals might remain for some hours after
+the flames had died out, Grace and Elfreda sat down together in the
+shadows near the tents and began their long night's vigil.
+
+Their conversation was pitched too low to be heard by one a yard away;
+in fact it was carried on mostly in whispers.
+
+Elfreda's watch showed that it lacked but a few minutes of one when, as
+she gazed at the illuminated dial, Grace suddenly gripped her arm.
+
+"I heard something in the bushes," whispered Grace. "It may have been
+an animal. I rather think it was. I--"
+
+Something thudded on the ground between the two girls and the laurel
+shrubs.
+
+"Wha--at is it?" whispered Grace.
+
+"A stick of wood," replied Elfreda. "It looks like a section of a tree
+limb. Something white is wrapped about it. Oughtn't we to see what it
+is?"
+
+"No!" answered Grace with emphasis. "Sit tight. It may be a trick."
+
+With rifles held at ready, ears alert, Elfreda Briggs and Grace Harlowe
+sat almost motionless until the skies began to assume a leaden gray that
+foretold the coming of another day.
+
+A few moments later Elfreda crept over and returned with the stick that
+she had observed to fall. An old newspaper sheet was wrapped about it.
+This Miss Briggs undid cautiously, Grace's eyes keenly observing the
+operation.
+
+"Look! There is writing on the lower margin of the sheet," she said.
+
+Miss Briggs turned the page around and eagerly read the words that were
+penciled there.
+
+          "'Stay where you are. Friends are working in your
+          behalf. In the meantime guard yourselves
+          vigilantly.
+
+                                                 'A FRIEND.'"
+
+The message that Elfreda had read out loud to her companion served to
+deepen the mysteries that surrounded them, yet, as they pondered and
+discussed it, the message seemed to convey to them the hope that at
+least one of the mysteries might soon be solved.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A FRIEND IN NEED
+
+
+"Hey! What hit me?" demanded Hippy Wingate, opening his eyes.
+
+"Keep shet!" commanded a surly voice near at hand.
+
+Hippy tried to raise his arms, but could not. They were roped to his
+sides, as he discovered now that he was regaining full consciousness. A
+dim light filtering through an opening that he could not see, for it was
+behind him, showed Lieutenant Wingate that he was lying in one of the
+shallow caves that may be found almost anywhere in the Kentucky
+mountains.
+
+"How did I--I get here?" he ventured to ask.
+
+The other occupant of the cave stepped up and gave the captive a vicious
+prod with his boot.
+
+"Ouch! Say, you! Don't be so infernally rough about it. Kicking is a
+dangerous habit to get into. One of these days you will forget yourself
+and kick a Kentucky mule. Then _good night_!"
+
+"Didn't Ah tell ye-all to keep still? Want another clip ovah the haid?"
+
+"Thank you, no," replied Hippy. "If you don't mind, before I relapse
+into gloomy silence, you might tell me what the big idea is. Who or what
+hit me, and why am I here hog-tied like a captured hoss thief?"
+
+"Mebby ye-all be that. Kain't answer no questions, an' if ye don't keep
+still Ah'll shoot ye. Ah reckon ye-all will keep still that-away."
+
+"Ah reckon maybe you're right," agreed Hippy, and was silent.
+
+Lieutenant Wingate was kept in the cave all that day. Now and then his
+guard would go out for a short time, and, returning, would stand peering
+down at the prisoner, but no further conversation passed between them.
+
+Hippy tried to recall what had happened to him. He remembered riding
+along the trail; remembered the good-natured teasing of the Overland
+girls, then all at once consciousness was blotted out. He had a faint
+recollection of being jolted, which probably was when he was being
+carried away on a horse, but that was the extent of his recollections.
+He did know that his head hurt him terribly and that it felt twice its
+natural size. His throat was parched from thirst, but Lieutenant Wingate
+declared to himself that he would die rather than ask a favor of the
+ruffian there who was guarding him.
+
+Shortly after dark Hippy heard voices outside the cave; then two men
+came in, jerked him to his feet and, dragging him out, threw him over
+the back of a pony just ahead of the saddle, as if he were a bag of
+meal. When the rider mounted, Hippy was placed right side up on the
+saddle, his companion sitting behind him on the horse's back.
+
+A rough, miserable ride of something more than an hour followed; then
+they halted. Hippy, now being blindfolded, could make out nothing of his
+surroundings, but he realized that there were trees all about him, and
+he could hear the snapping of a campfire, which reminded him of food and
+that he was nearly famished.
+
+"If they fry bacon near enough for me to smell, I'll break my bonds and
+run--for the bacon," he added to himself.
+
+Lieutenant Wingate was roughly yanked from the horse. He landed heavily
+on the ground in a heap, where he was left to untangle himself as best
+he could. By violent winking and twisting his head from side to side he
+was able, by tilting his head well back, to displace the handkerchief
+with which he had been blindfolded sufficiently to enable him to look
+about.
+
+Several men were holding a discussion by the campfire, and that their
+conversation had to do with him, Hippy Wingate knew from the frequent
+gestures in his direction, though he was too far away to distinguish
+what they were saying.
+
+The men finally came over to him and demanded to know who and what he
+was.
+
+Hippy told them briefly. One of the men laughed.
+
+"Ye mean ye'r a hoss thief," he jeered.
+
+"I wish I were. I'd steal a horse and get away from here."
+
+"Know anybody in these parts, anybody who'll give ye a character?"
+questioned another.
+
+"No. I've got a character of my own. I don't need any one to give me a
+character," retorted Hippy.
+
+"Who is the feller that come inter these mountains with ye, and then
+quit ye in such a hurry?" demanded another.
+
+"His name is Tom Gray. He is the husband of Grace Harlowe Gray, who
+leads our party of Riders. He has gone over to the Cumberlands on
+business."
+
+"Whut business?"
+
+"He is to make a survey for the government."
+
+Lieutenant Wingate had let slip something that he should not have done.
+He saw instantly from the exclamations that the mountaineers uttered
+under their breaths, that he had "said something," as he expressed it to
+himself.
+
+"So that's it, hey! Be ye-all workin' fer the gov'ment, too?" demanded a
+voice.
+
+"I am not, nor have I been since I fought in France. Is there anything
+else that you ruffians wish to have me tell you?" demanded Hippy
+belligerently.
+
+"Where be the other feller headed for fust?"
+
+"I don't know where he is headed for now," answered the captive,
+becoming wary.
+
+"Reckon we'd better look that gov'ment feller up right smart," said one
+of the captors in a low tone. "We'll bag the bunch of 'em. Shore ye
+ain't got nothin' else t' tell us honest folk up here?" demanded the
+first speaker.
+
+"No."
+
+"Reckon ye better think it over, young feller. We'll give ye till
+ter-morrer t' make a clean sweep an' tell us the whole business. If ye
+don't we'll jest blow yer fool haid off an' chuck ye in a hole in the
+mountain an' there won't be nothin' more heard of ye," threatened
+another.
+
+"The Germans tried to do that same thing, but they didn't succeed,"
+dared Lieutenant Wingate. "Who do you think I am, anyway? What do you
+think I am? Come, now, suppose you make a clean sweep and tell me what
+all this rotten business is about."
+
+"Ah reckons ye don't have t' be told nothin'," was the reply that Hippy
+got. "We're goin' t' take ye away from here an' put a guard over ye, so
+if ye wants t' live till ter-morrer, keep quiet."
+
+"Wait a moment!" called Hippy, as the captors turned away for further
+conference. "Don't I get anything to eat out of all this?"
+
+There was no reply to his question, and Hippy went without his supper,
+which fact really gave him more concern than the knowledge that he was a
+prisoner in the hands of desperate men, who, if their word could be
+believed, proposed to do desperate things to him.
+
+All but two of the mountaineers soon left the scene, and these two took
+turns in sleeping and guarding their prisoner. Along towards morning
+Hippy fell into an uneasy sleep, but his sleep was brief. He was roughly
+yanked to his feet, and, at the point of a rifle, driven deeper into the
+forest. His guards did not halt until daybreak. They then untied the
+prisoner's arms, bound his feet, and placing him in a sitting position,
+back against a tree, passed a rope around his waist and tied him to the
+tree.
+
+"You forgot something," reminded Hippy as they started to walk away.
+
+"Huh?" demanded one of the mountaineers.
+
+"You forgot to tie the tree down. It might run away, you know."
+
+A grunt was the only reply he got. The men then built a small fire and
+began preparing their breakfast. Bacon and coffee was their meal, and
+Hippy Wingate, now without his blindfold, was forced to sit there and
+watch them eat. It was the most unhappy hour that he remembered ever to
+have experienced.
+
+After finishing their own breakfast they favored him with a cup of
+water, and, lighting their pipes, sat down to talk, much of which the
+listening ears of their captive overheard.
+
+As nearly as Hippy could make it out a mountain feud was in the making,
+and the twenty-third of the month was the time set for the opening. He
+heard the names "Bat Spurgeon" and "Jed Thompson" mentioned, but they
+conveyed nothing to him beyond the mere names. The voices of his captors
+and his own weariness finally lulled Lieutenant Wingate to sleep, and he
+slept for hours. He was awakened late in the day by being roughly shaken
+and a cup of water thrust into his hands.
+
+"I thank you for this bounteous repast," said Hippy mockingly. "Is this
+the water cure you are giving me?"
+
+"Oh, shut up!" growled the mountaineer, and went away leaving Hippy
+gazing after him, a sardonic grin on the Overland Rider's face.
+
+Hippy was aching all over his body as darkness settled over the forest,
+marking the second night of his captivity. With it came the cook fire
+and again the agonizing odors of coffee and bacon. With it, too, came
+something else--a low, guarded voice behind him and, seemingly, only a
+few inches from his ear.
+
+"Don't make a sound, Lieutenant."
+
+"Who are you?" demanded Hippy, without in the least changing his
+position or showing excitement.
+
+"You would not know if I told you. Listen to me. When those two fellows
+sit down to supper, the light of the fire will be in their eyes, and,
+unless they get up and stare, they will not be able to see you in this
+shadow. If everything is safe I will cut you loose. Are your feet
+bound?"
+
+"Yes. Who are you?"
+
+"You wouldn't know if I told you, I said. Keep quiet and speak only in
+answer to my questions."
+
+"All right. Got anything loose about your person--I mean food,
+man-sized food, not canary-bird rations such as those bandits have been
+doling out to me?"
+
+"You can't have anything now. After we have gotten away from here I will
+try to dig up a snack for you. Silence!"
+
+For the next several minutes neither the prisoner nor his mysterious
+friend uttered a word. Supper was ready for the mountaineers, but,
+before sitting down to it, one of them walked over to the prisoner and
+stood peering down at him. Hippy's heart almost stopped beating, so
+intent was he on listening for the breathing of the man behind him and
+from his fear that his mysterious friend might be discovered.
+
+No such emergency arose, nor did he hear the breathing he was listening
+for.
+
+After satisfying himself that the captive was safe, the mountaineer
+returned to the fire and sat down to his supper.
+
+Hippy felt a slight tug on the rope that bound him, then its pressure
+about his waist was released.
+
+"Steady, now," warned that even voice behind him. "Crawl on all fours."
+
+The rescuer placed a hand on Hippy's shoulder and guided him slowly,
+cautiously, every movement forward threatening to draw a groan from the
+released captive.
+
+"Now get up! Give me your hand," whispered, the stranger. "Don't speak."
+
+For some little time they crept on in silence, the stranger twisting and
+turning, finally taking to the middle of a mountain stream and following
+it up for some distance when he halted.
+
+"Tell me what the situation is back there. What did they propose to do
+to you?" demanded the man.
+
+"I expect the gang is on its way there now to shoot me up, provided I do
+not give them the information they seek," answered Hippy.
+
+"What information?"
+
+Lieutenant Wingate repeated the conversation of the previous night,
+leaving out no details, however trivial they might seem to him.
+
+"I thought so. Come up here and sit down. I shall have to leave you,
+perhaps for an hour or more. When I return I will give one short
+whistle. If all is well you will reply with two short whistles."
+
+"You are going back there to spy on that outfit that we just left?"
+questioned Hippy.
+
+"Yes. I want to see who the others are, and what they have up their
+sleeves. Here's a revolver for you. I suppose they took yours. Don't use
+it unless you have to."
+
+"Wait a moment!" called Hippy, as his mysterious friend started away.
+"Haven't you forgotten something? That 'snack' you promised to dig
+for."
+
+"Oh, yes. Here's some dog biscuit for you, and--"
+
+"Dog biscuit?" exclaimed Hippy.
+
+"Hardtack. You ought to know what that is," chuckled the stranger.
+
+Hippy groaned. It revived painful memories of France in wartime, but he
+accepted the hardtack and began biting it off in large chunks. Hippy did
+not concern himself about how long the mysterious friend remained away
+so long as the biscuit held out, unpalatable as it was.
+
+"I shall be listening for shells to burst first thing I know. Army food!
+How did I ever eat it for nearly two years and live?"
+
+It was full two hours later when the welcome whistle signal sounded
+somewhere down stream, which Lieutenant Wingate answered as directed.
+
+"Come! We will head for your camp now," announced the man a few moments
+later, as he stepped up before Hippy.
+
+"Did you learn anything on your little excursion?" questioned Hippy
+thickly, for his mouth was well filled with hardtack.
+
+"Yes, Lieutenant. I learned a great deal. I was there when the crowd
+came in to put you on the rack. The two fellows who let you get away
+had a hard time of it, and it looked for a time as if there was going to
+be shooting. Cooler heads, however, headed it off. When you get back to
+your party I should advise you to pull up stakes and get out. Those
+fellows will be after you and you'll have to look alive or you won't be
+alive long."
+
+"I know I am thick, old man, but tell me why they are so eager to blow
+my light out," begged Hippy.
+
+"Don't you know, Lieutenant?"
+
+"If I did I shouldn't be asking you. Begging your pardon for my
+bluntness."
+
+"One reason, but not the principal one, is that you bounced one of the
+gang from your camp."
+
+"Go on. What's the big idea?"
+
+"The big idea, as you call it, is that there is a price on your head up
+here! Now do you understand, Lieutenant?"
+
+Hippy Wingate uttered a low, long-drawn whistle of amazement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE POWER OF MIND
+
+
+"What do you suppose it can mean, and who threw it into our camp?"
+wondered Elfreda Briggs, folding up the newspaper that contained the
+message to them.
+
+"It must mean that a friend is interested in our welfare," replied
+Grace. "Whoever and whatever he may be, his advice is good, and here we
+stay until we find Hippy. I am going out right after breakfast and make
+an effort to pick up the trail. Surely the outlaws, or whatever they
+are, will not be waiting all that time for us to follow them. I will
+make a quiet scout. I do not look to be interfered with, for they surely
+will have gone away by now."
+
+"Shall I call the girls and tell them? The knowledge that a helping hand
+has been held out to us surely will comfort Nora," said Elfreda.
+
+"Yes. I will rout out Washington and have him start the fire. It has
+been a trying night and I am glad it is at an end," replied Grace.
+
+"I knew it," cried Emma Dean when she learned what had taken place. "I
+didn't con-centrate for nothing."
+
+"You what?" frowned Elfreda.
+
+"I have been con-centrating all night long--con-centrating on Hippy to
+call him back to us."
+
+"Oh, you darlin'," cried Nora, throwing her arms about Emma.
+
+"I should advise you to continue to 'con-centrate,'" suggested Anne. "If
+you were to stop now you might break the mental string; then we should
+lose Hippy for good."
+
+"You just wait. You'll see whether or not he comes back," retorted Emma
+indignantly.
+
+Nora's face was flushed that morning and her heart was filled with a new
+hope--the hope that Hippy might be with them before the close of that
+day.
+
+After breakfast, as planned, Grace took up her rifle and went away,
+leaving Elfreda and the others to guard the camp and, incidentally, to
+keep Washington busy and out of mischief. He was, too, forbidden to play
+his harmonica lest the noise attract attention to the camp of the
+Overland Riders.
+
+Proceeding cautiously, Grace reached the stream, and followed it until
+she found where the kidnappers of Hippy had left it. After waiting and
+watching for a full hour, Grace stepped out boldly. For six hours the
+Overland girl employed all her knowledge of the open in an effort to
+pick up the trail of the mountaineers, but the trail appeared to end
+abruptly at the bank of the creek. Not even the hoofprints of horses
+could be found on the softer ground a short distance back from the
+stream.
+
+There are tricks in masking one's trail that the Kentucky mountaineers
+had learned from generations of feuds and attacks by revenue agents,
+which Grace Harlowe knew nothing of.
+
+At noon she gave up the attempt to find the trail over which Hippy
+Wingate had been taken, and started back towards the camp.
+
+"What luck?" called Nora, as she appeared at the edge of the clearing
+where the camp was pitched.
+
+"None. As a trailer, I am a miserable failure, a rank amateur."
+
+"If you were to spend as much time con-centrating as you do tearing
+about over the landscape, you would be more successful," declared Emma
+wisely, at which there was a laugh at Grace's expense.
+
+"I surely could not be more unsuccessful than I have been," replied
+Grace smilingly.
+
+The afternoon was passed in discussing their situation. While the girls
+were eager to be out trying to find Hippy, they believed that they were
+doing the wise thing in following the advice of their unknown friend,
+whose message had been tossed into their camp, so they remained in camp
+and waited.
+
+When night came and still no Hippy, the depression of the Overlanders
+increased and there was little conversation, each one appearing to be
+listening, Emma, with a faraway look in her eyes, now and then relapsing
+into deep thought. Emma was "con-centrating."
+
+The same arrangement for guarding the camp, as had been carried out the
+previous night, was again followed. This time, Grace took one side of
+the camp and Miss Briggs the other. Both hid in deep shadows, each with
+a rifle at her side and a revolver in its holster. Thus prepared they
+settled themselves for the night, all the other members of the party
+being in their tents and, supposedly, asleep.
+
+It was late when Grace and Elfreda were aroused by Washington talking,
+muttering in his sleep, then the nerves of the two girls leaped to
+attention as, out of the bushes on Miss Briggs' side of the camp, a twig
+snapped. It was accompanied by a sound that indicated the presence of a
+human being.
+
+"Who goes?" demanded Elfreda sharply.
+
+_Bang!_
+
+Without giving the maker of the noise out there time to answer, she
+fired a shot from her revolver into the trees in that direction, but
+high enough to be certain that one underneath them would not be hit.
+
+Miss Briggs' shot brought instant results.
+
+"Hey there! Cut the gun!" howled Hippy Wingate.
+
+"It's Hippy!" breathed Grace, springing to her feet. "Don't shoot,
+Elfreda!"
+
+The two girls sprang up and waited. They were still cautious, but their
+companions, awakened by the shot, were not. Nora, Anne and Emma rushed
+out, demanding excitedly to know what the trouble was.
+
+At this juncture Hippy walked into the clearing.
+
+"Meet me with a pail of food! I'm starving!" he wailed.
+
+For the next few minutes there was excitement in the camp, Nora clinging
+to Hippy's neck laughing and crying, Emma standing a little aloof from
+them with a superior smile on her face, Anne, urging the wide-eyed
+Washington to start the fire and prepare coffee, and Grace seeking to
+quiet Nora so that they might hear Hippy's story.
+
+When the campfire blazed up and they saw his condition, Nora wept again.
+Hippy was hatless--his hat was out in the bushes where Grace, after
+finding it, had secreted it--his clothes were torn, he was hollow-eyed,
+and his head wore a lump that stood out prominently.
+
+"Never mind the trimmings. Give me food," he begged. Then between
+mouthfuls he told the story of his capture so far as he knew it, told it
+to the moment of his reaching the Overland camp. Hippy said he intended,
+if possible, to creep in quietly without awakening any one and give the
+girls a big surprise in the morning, when Elfreda threw a wrench into
+the machinery, "and tried to wing me," he added amid laughter.
+
+"I could not afford to wait," answered Miss Briggs.
+
+"You sure are some quick on the trigger," declared Hippy. "The fellow
+who was with me ducked, and I heard him chuckling and laughing as he
+sneaked away."
+
+"Yes, but, had it not been for me, you might not have been here,
+Lieutenant Wingate," interjected Emma Dean.
+
+"Eh? How's that, Emma?"
+
+"Why, I--I con-centrated on you and brought you back," answered Emma
+solemnly.
+
+"What a pity," murmured Hippy sadly. "And she so young."
+
+"Who was the man who rescued you?" questioned Grace, after the laugh at
+Emma's expense had subsided.
+
+"I don't know. I never saw him before. He is a slick article, whoever he
+may be."
+
+"Are you certain that it was not our Mystery Man?" asked Anne.
+
+"I am. Say! We must get out of here right smart, for there is going to
+be trouble," urged Hippy.
+
+"I should say that we already have had our share of it," complained
+Elfreda.
+
+"Yes, but this is different, child. The mountaineers are after us--after
+me especially," he added, throwing out his chest a little.
+
+"After you--after you, Hippy, my darlin'?" cried Nora. "Why should they
+be after you?"
+
+"I don't know any more about it than you do. Perhaps the little mix-ups
+we had with those two fellows may have something to do with it."
+
+"It must be something more serious than revenge for your having bounced
+one and driven the other one away," offered Grace. "Will you please tell
+me why we should move in such a hurry?"
+
+"Because the fellow who got me out of my scrape said we must. He says we
+have got to make Thompson's farm as quickly as possible and stay there
+until the storm blows over," insisted Lieutenant Wingate. "Of course, I
+don't give a rap for myself, but I have a great moral responsibility."
+
+"A what?" interjected Emma.
+
+"Moral responsibility. I am responsible for the safety of you girls and
+my powerful body shall stand between you and all harm."
+
+"Ahem--m--m," piped Emma Dean.
+
+"To what storm did he refer?" asked Grace. She was regarding Hippy
+narrowly, not yet sure that he was not joking, though she did not
+believe he was.
+
+"I don't know, Brown Eyes. That depends upon which way the wind blows.
+It feels like snow to me. He did not say what kind of storm, but he
+strongly advised what I have told you," answered the lieutenant.
+
+"It doesn't sound reasonable to me. I do not see how we should be any
+safer on the farm you speak of, than we shall be by following the trail
+to Hall's Corners, all the time attending strictly to our own business,"
+observed Elfreda.
+
+"Nor do I," agreed Grace.
+
+"I will tell you why, Elfreda," answered Hippy. "We shall be safer
+there, where, for some reason, my informant doesn't seem to think those
+ruffians will bother us. Whereas, if we remain out and continue on our
+way to our destination, I shall probably be shot. Those mountaineers are
+bound to get me."
+
+"What?" gasped Nora Wingate. "Hippy, my darlin', do you mean it?"
+
+"Yes I do. There is a price on my head up here! That's the whole story."
+
+"A price! Huh! If there is, I'll wager that it is a cut-rate price.
+Good-night! I am going back to bed." Emma Dean turned her back on them
+and flounced off to her tent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"THEY'VE GOT THE BOY"
+
+
+"I don't believe it. Your rescuer was drawing the long bow," spoke up
+Anne Nesbit.
+
+"Yes, I can't imagine Hippy with a price on his head," nodded Miss
+Briggs.
+
+"When I'm dead you folks will be sorry that you didn't take me
+seriously," rebuked Lieutenant Wingate. "Do we do as my friend
+suggested, and hike for the Thompson farm, or must I be sacrificed on
+the altar of unbelief?"
+
+"Grace must answer that question. She is our captain," answered Elfreda.
+
+Grace Harlowe regarded Hippy with searching eyes.
+
+"You are not fooling us, Hippy?" she demanded.
+
+"Could I be so base as to deceive my dearest friends?" answered
+Lieutenant Wingate in an aggrieved tone. "How can you doubt me?"
+
+"Girls, if there be no objection, we will start at daybreak. Washington,
+do you know where the Thompson farm is?" questioned Grace.
+
+"Ah reckon Ah does," drawled Washington.
+
+"How far is it from here?"
+
+"'Bout two skips an' er jump, Ah reckons."
+
+"He thinks we are a flock of fleas," grumbled Hippy under his breath.
+
+"I will get the map. We shall learn nothing from Washington," said
+Grace, rising. "Washington, pack up everything we shall not need
+to-night. We wish to make an early start in the morning."
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+Fetching the map, Grace and Elfreda pored over it and finally located
+the farm in question. The map was a sectional map issued by the
+government and gave every trail and landmark in the territory that it
+covered.
+
+"I should say Thompson's farm is about twenty miles from here. It
+appears to be quite a bit out of our way, but that doesn't matter in the
+circumstances. Yes, I think we can make it. All right, Hippy."
+
+"What about to-night?" asked Miss Briggs.
+
+"The same arrangement as last night," replied Grace in a low tone. "We
+will take turns. Take your blanket out. He needs a rest to-night,"
+nodding towards Hippy Wingate.
+
+Neither Grace nor Elfreda felt like sitting up another night. Hippy
+insisted that he must take his watch on guard, but they declined his
+offer, telling him that they could not trust him to keep awake in view
+of what he had been through and the sleep he had lost. So the two girls
+took up their vigil again, Grace lying down near her companion, Elfreda
+taking the first watch of the night.
+
+It was not long after the camp had settled down to sleep that Elfreda
+put a quick pressure on the arm of her companion. Grace was awake
+instantly.
+
+"What is it?" she whispered, instinctively sensing that the pressure on
+her arm was a warning pressure.
+
+"I thought I heard something yonder by Washington's tent," whispered
+Miss Briggs.
+
+"Yes, something is moving about there," agreed Grace, after a few
+minutes of attentive listening. "It may be Washington himself. Don't
+shoot. Remember, too, that the ponies are in that direction, so if we
+have to fire we must fire high."
+
+"I had thought of that. I--"
+
+Miss Briggs was interrupted by the most unearthly yell that any member
+of the Overland party had ever heard. The yell was uttered by Washington
+Washington.
+
+"Leggo me! Leggo! He kotched me! He kotched me! Wo--o--o--o--o--ow!"
+
+The howls of the colored boy ended in a gurgle.
+
+"Shoot!" commanded Grace. "Shoot high! Empty your rifle!"
+
+Both girls let go a rattling fire with their rifles, and the howls and
+the shots brought the others of their party tumbling and shouting from
+their tents.
+
+"Down! Quiet!" commanded Grace. "Let no one shoot without orders, unless
+in an emergency. I am going out there."
+
+"Better not," advised Miss Briggs.
+
+"I must. You know I must. If they have harmed that boy--Well, you know
+the answer. Keep them quiet."
+
+With only her revolver, Grace crept around the outer edge of the camp,
+making every movement with extreme care, pausing now and then to listen.
+It was her opinion that the disturbers had left, but she was too old a
+campaigner to take that for granted, and never for an instant relaxed
+her caution.
+
+The Overland girl reached the far end of the camp without incident. She
+crept to the tent where the colored boy slept and found it empty. There
+was no trace, that she was able to discover in the dark, to indicate
+what had happened to him. Not satisfied with what she had already
+accomplished, Grace crept further out along the trail, revolver in hand,
+eyes and ears keenly on the alert.
+
+Finally she turned campwards.
+
+"They have got the boy," she announced, coming up from the rear of the
+tents, and approaching her companions from behind. All were sitting on
+the ground, silent, expectant, waiting, either for Grace's return or a
+burst of revolver fire. Their nerves jumped from the reaction when Grace
+spoke to them.
+
+"Oh, that is too bad," murmured Anne.
+
+"Did you discover anything else?" asked Elfreda.
+
+"No. I could not see anything in the dark. The worst of it is that we
+shall not be able to do a thing until morning. That settles our getting
+started in the morning, for I for one shall not leave here until we have
+found Washington. I don't know why they should have taken the boy. He
+surely can be of no use to them."
+
+"He can give them information, can't he?" asked Hippy.
+
+"None that will be of use to them."
+
+"It is my opinion," spoke up Elfreda, "that they were not after the boy
+at all, but that his howls made it necessary for them to take him to
+protect themselves. Of course they will drag such information as he has,
+from him."
+
+"We must all stand watch for the rest of the night," announced Hippy. He
+then promptly distributed his force, taking the lead in the
+arrangements, which Grace was now glad to have him do. Then again, she
+understood full well that Lieutenant Wingate himself was eager to even
+up old scores with the men who had handled him so roughly.
+
+Each girl, armed with a rifle, took the position assigned to her, and
+there was no more conversation for the next two hours, no sound other
+than that from the insect life and the occasional whinney of a pony. The
+minds of the Overlanders, however, were active. They were pondering over
+these persistent attacks on them, and Grace, for one, became finally
+convinced that Lieutenant Wingate was not overstating when he declared
+that there was a price on his head. She was inclined to think, too, that
+the same condition applied to all members of the Overland party.
+
+As for Washington, none of them believed that the mountaineers could
+have any possible motive for harming him, unless, perhaps, it were
+necessary to do so for their own protection. That, the girls realized,
+was a grave possibility, especially were the men to see that he
+recognized any of them.
+
+There was worry on the minds of the Overlanders, and the hours of their
+vigil seemed to drag out interminably. It was not until morning,
+however, that anything occurred to disturb them or even rouse them from
+their endless listening and peering into the darkness with straining
+eyes and bated breaths. Therefore, the interruption that followed the
+long, tense silence came as a shock, an interruption that startled each
+member of the party into a new and throbbing alertness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+"A MARKED MAN"
+
+
+The first indication that something was approaching the opposite side of
+the camp was made known by the sudden restlessness of the ponies, which
+sprang up and gave every indication of fright.
+
+The action of the ponies was followed by a floundering and crashing out
+there in the bushes as if a large animal were tearing its way through
+them.
+
+"Hold your fire!" directed Lieutenant Wingate in a low voice. "It may be
+that one of the ponies has broken loose."
+
+No one answered, but every rifle was held at ready.
+
+"There it comes! It's a man," cried Nora, as a figure burst into view
+from the bushes.
+
+"Doan shoot! Doan shoot! It am Wash," howled Washington Washington, then
+tripping on a vine, he fell flat on his face. "It kotched me! It kotched
+me!" he bellowed, springing up ready to make another dash.
+
+By this time Hippy had him by the collar.
+
+"Oh, fiddlesticks! All this scare for a black nightmare," groaned Emma.
+
+"Stop that racket!" commanded Hippy. "Is any one chasing you?"
+
+"Ah--Ah doan know. Ah--Ah reckons de debbil hisself am chasing me. Ah--"
+
+"Pull yourself together and tell us what happened to you," directed
+Grace as Lieutenant Wingate led the trembling lad up to them.
+
+"He got me, he did."
+
+"Who got you?" interjected Miss Briggs.
+
+"Ah doan know. He kotched me an' Ah yelled--"
+
+"He yelled? How unusual," muttered Emma.
+
+"Den--den he put er hand ovah ma mouth an' gib me er clip on de haid,"
+continued Washington excitedly. "Ah doan knows nothin' moah till Ah
+wakes up. Dey was talkin' 'bout dat time."
+
+"Who was talking?" interrupted Hippy.
+
+"Dis heah niggah doan know nothin' 'bout dat. Dey was talkin', an' den
+Ah jest jumps up--an' den Ah jumps up an runs away."
+
+"How did you find your way here?" asked Anne.
+
+"That is what I have been wondering," nodded Grace.
+
+"Ah didn'. A feller kotched me when Ah runned, an' held mah mouf shut
+so Ah couldn't holler. Den he-all fotched me heah. Den he gib me er kick
+an' says, 'Gwine on, yuh lazy niggah, but look out fer de guns. Dem
+folks kin shoot.' Dat's why Ah hollered when Ah kim inter de camp,"
+finished Washington.
+
+"Did you recognize any of the men who took you away from here?"
+questioned Miss Briggs.
+
+Washington shook his curly head.
+
+"Did you know the man who brought you back?" asked Grace.
+
+"Ah did not. Who yuh reckons he was?"
+
+"That is what we are trying to find out," Hippy informed him. "Would you
+know the man were you to see him again?"
+
+"Ah didn' see him nohow. Ah felt him, Ah did, an' Ah feels him yit, Ah
+does."
+
+"No need to question him," laughed Grace. "His militant friend was
+rather violent, it appears. Washington, get your blanket and lie down
+here near the tents. The camp is being guarded and you will be perfectly
+safe. The others had better turn in also, and get what rest they can. It
+now lacks only about two hours to daylight, and we shall be able to make
+an early start, now that Washington is here."
+
+"Yes, he's here, but he would not be here if I had not con-centrated on
+him," spoke up Emma Dean.
+
+"For the love of goodness, drop that piffle!" begged Hippy wearily. "We
+have enough serious matters on hand to think about without having to
+listen to prattle. Laundry, did you know that Miss Dean had been
+'con-centrating' on you?"
+
+"What dat? Er hoodoo?"
+
+"Yes, that is what Miss Dean is trying to put on you," laughed Hippy.
+
+"You listen to me, Wash!" demanded Emma spiritedly. "When I was
+con-centrating on you, making my mind reach out to yours, didn't your
+hair seem to stand on end just the way a cat's hair does when you stroke
+it the wrong way--"
+
+"Yes'm! Mah hair stood up all right when dey kotched me," admitted
+Washington.
+
+"And didn't you feel a distinct electric shock all over your being?"
+
+"Just like as if you had run into an electric light pole?" interjected
+Hippy.
+
+"No, suh. Didn' feel no shock, 'cept when dat feller kicked me. Ah felt
+dat all right an' Ah feels it yit."
+
+"I reckon that will be about all. You see, Emma, this was not a case of
+mind over matter, but of a heavy boot against Washington Washington's
+anatomy," chuckled Hippy.
+
+The Overland Riders laughed louder than their situation warranted, and
+Emma Dean, very red in the face, flounced off to her tent without
+another word.
+
+"I think that was real mean of you, Hippy," chided Grace, laughing in
+spite of her effort to be stern.
+
+Soon after that the camp settled down to quietness, with Hippy Wingate
+and Elfreda Briggs on guard, Grace having consented to lie down and
+sleep for the rest of the night--provided.
+
+They were undisturbed, except when, shortly before daylight, something
+again aroused the ponies, but the disturbance quickly subsided, and the
+watchers believed that some animal had startled them.
+
+At daylight the camp was astir--that is, with the exception of Hippy
+Wingate who insisted on a brief beauty nap after his two-hour vigil. He
+came out just as Washington, after building the cook-fire, was starting
+out to water the horses.
+
+"Good morning, Lieutenant," greeted Emma Dean sweetly. "What's the
+quotation this morning?"
+
+"On what?" demanded Hippy, halting and eyeing her suspiciously.
+
+"On heads, of course."
+
+"Is there any reason why, because I'm a marked man--because there is a
+price on my head, you should make fun of me? Having a price on one's
+head is not a joking matter. My mind is carrying a heavy weight, Emma
+Dean," rebuked Hippy impressively.
+
+"Nonsense! I know better. If it was carrying a heavy burden your mind
+long ago would have caved in," retorted Emma.
+
+Hippy Wingate threw up his hands in token of surrender, and breaking off
+a twig of laurel he gravely placed it in Emma's hair so that it drooped
+over her forehead.
+
+"I bestow upon thee a crown of laurel," announced Hippy solemnly amid
+shouts of laughter.
+
+"Come, children. Breakfast is ready," called Grace Harlowe.
+"Washington!"
+
+"Ah'm comin'," answered the colored boy from the bush. "Ah found dis on
+de saddle," he announced, holding out an envelope to Grace.
+
+She took it wonderingly.
+
+"What's this? The rural free delivery man here so early in the morning!"
+questioned Emma.
+
+"This is addressed to you, Lieutenant," said Grace, handing the envelope
+to Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+Hippy read it and a frown grew on his face, deepening as he read it a
+second time.
+
+"More mystery?" questioned Anne Nesbit.
+
+"Yes. Listen to this, will you?"
+
+Hippy read out loud the following words, almost illegible on the much
+smeared paper:
+
+          "'Yuh-all will git out o' these mountings right
+          smart. We-all knows who yuh be. We-all knows why
+          yuh be here. Turn aroun' an' git out or it'll be
+          th' wus fer yuh-all.'"
+
+"They propose to drive us out, do they?" murmured Grace.
+
+"I looked for something of the sort," nodded Elfreda. "Is the letter
+signed?"
+
+"No. But wait a moment. There is a postscript here that I haven't read,"
+said Hippy. "Talk about your mysterious forces! Just listen to this
+postscript, written in another hand and evidently by an intelligent
+person."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A MOUNTAIN MYSTERY
+
+
+"Perhaps the postscript is to tell us that it is all a mistake and that
+we do not have to leave," suggested Emma.
+
+"Listen!" commanded Hippy, then began to read:
+
+"'Do not follow the trail you are on, on your way to Thompson's. Strike
+due north for half a mile and you will come up with a wagon trail,
+broader and safer, because you can see a long way on either side through
+the thin forest. Keep the broad trail for fifteen miles, take third left
+and second right, which will take you to Thompson's. You're all right,
+but be vigilant. The above warning means what it says.'"
+
+"Is there a name signed to the postscript?" asked Miss Briggs.
+
+Hippy shook his head.
+
+"I know who wrote that postscript," spoke up Miss Dean. "It was our
+Mystery Man, Jeremiah Long."
+
+Grace asked for the letter, which she scrutinized critically.
+
+"No, this is not his writing," she decided.
+
+"How do you know? He hasn't been corresponding with you," objected
+Hippy.
+
+Grace explained that Mr. Long had left a note thanking the Overlanders
+for their hospitality. To make certain that she was right she went to
+her kit and fetched the note referred to, and also brought the note that
+had been tossed into their camp on the occasion of Hippy's
+disappearance. The three missives were examined by each of the Overland
+Riders. It was found that the message tossed into camp and the
+postscript of the letter found by Washington were in the same
+handwriting. Mr. Long's handwriting was different.
+
+"That disposes of the theory that either of these messages was written
+by Mr. Long," agreed Elfreda. "The question is, who is our mysterious
+friend?"
+
+"You do not think it is a trick to get us where we shall find ourselves
+in a tight place?" suggested Anne questioningly.
+
+"No. I do not feel that there is a shadow of doubt that these two notes
+are what they appear to be--the suggestions of a friend. Who or what he
+is we may or may not learn. I propose that we follow the advice he gives
+us. Are you all agreed on that?" asked Grace.
+
+The Overlanders said they were.
+
+"Then we will go on our way," directed Grace.
+
+They found the wagon trail after nearly an hour's hard riding over
+rocks, into and out of gullies with steep, precipitous sides, but the
+wagon trail when reached, while rutty, was so much better that they soon
+forgot the discomforts of riding "across lots," as Hippy put it.
+
+The noon halt was a brief one, after which they pressed on, having no
+difficulty in finding their way as directed by their mysterious adviser.
+
+It was nearly dark when they came in sight of a clearing of several
+acres covered with growing corn, which they surmised to be part of the
+Thompson farm. Grace asked Washington if it were.
+
+"Ah reckons it be," answered the colored boy, but it was apparent that
+he knew no more about it than did the Overland Riders.
+
+"Where is the house of this Thompson party?" demanded Hippy.
+
+"Mebby 'bout er whoop an' er holler from heah."
+
+"Huh!" grunted Hippy. "The last 'whoop and holler' you told us of was
+nearly twenty miles. Don't guess. If you don't know the correct answer
+to a question, say so. Don't stall around and--"
+
+"Yassuh."
+
+"I suppose we should ask permission before we camp on private property,"
+suggested Elfreda. "Not knowing where to do so, might it not be wise to
+back up a little?"
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Grace.
+
+"Move away from the trail and into the thicket where we shall be both
+out of sight and probably on no man's land, as it were."
+
+"The suggestion is good, though I do not wholly approve of the idea of
+getting into a pocket where we cannot see about us," agreed Grace. "Our
+mysterious friend must know what he is talking about when he advises us
+to go to Thompson's farm, as some one urged Hippy to do."
+
+"He seemed to think we would be safer here," nodded Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"So far as my observation goes--has gone for the last couple of
+years--safety is not the one great ambition of our young lives. At
+least, getting into difficulties and perilous situations has become a
+habit with Grace Harlowe," declared Miss Briggs.
+
+"Yes, for instance, roping bandits with that Mexican lasso that the
+cowboys gave her last season," suggested Emma. "Why aren't you throwing
+it more? I have seen you swing it only once since we started."
+
+Grace said that she had practiced with the rope nearly all winter, and
+declared that it was about time that the rest of the party took up
+throwing the lasso. Elfreda, as related in a previous volume, "GRACE
+HARLOWE'S OVERLAND RIDERS ON THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT," also had
+learned to throw the lasso and could do so quite well, but since her
+winter's practice with it Grace had gained much skill and was far ahead
+of her friend in its manipulation. Perhaps, having mastered the secret
+of rope-throwing, she had lost interest in it.
+
+"I will start practicing again to-morrow," promised Miss Briggs.
+
+"You need it. I don't believe you could even catch cold with a rope,"
+teased Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"Yes I could--I--" Elfreda's following remark was lost in the laughter
+of her companions. "What I said, but which you folks were too impolite
+to listen to, was that I will show you whether I can throw a rope or
+not. Let me have it, Grace."
+
+"You will find it just inside of my tent, on the left-hand side. What
+are you going to do?"
+
+"I am going out, as soon as it is light enough to see, and practice
+until breakfast time."
+
+This Miss Briggs did with the graying of the dawn, after a night of
+peaceful rest, while Grace and Hippy kept guard over the camp. They
+teased her at breakfast, and Hippy suggested that Elfreda ask Emma Dean
+to "con-centrate" on her during Miss Briggs' future practice with the
+lasso.
+
+"To change the subject, I am going to look up the Thompsons and try to
+make peace with them, provided they are like most of the mountaineers
+that we have come into intimate contact with," announced Grace. "I
+suggest that you and I ride out on a tour of investigation this morning,
+leaving Hippy here to protect the camp, Elfreda. You may take your rope
+along and practice on me, if you wish," smiled Grace.
+
+"You will be perfectly safe," murmured Emma.
+
+Immediately after breakfast the two girls mounted and rode out along the
+trail they had been following, now bordered on one side by a field of
+rustling corn. Reaching the end of the cornfield they discovered, just
+ahead, a cabin located in an open space of several acres of rugged
+mountain land.
+
+"That must be the place. We will ride up and find out," announced Grace,
+clucking to her pony.
+
+As they approached the cabin a slovenly looking woman, accompanied by
+three children, one a girl that the Overlanders judged to be about
+fourteen years of age, the other two girls being much younger, one a
+mere toddler, came out and, shading her eyes with a hand, eyed the
+newcomers suspiciously.
+
+"Is this Mr. Thompson's home?" asked Grace, smiling down at the
+children.
+
+"Ah reckon it be. Who be you?"
+
+"I am Mrs. Grace Gray. My companion is Miss Briggs. We are riding
+through the mountains for pleasure and business combined, and are camped
+with our party on the other side of the cornfield. What I wished to ask,
+if you are Mrs. Thompson, is, may we be permitted to remain there for a
+few days?"
+
+"Ah reckon ye kin if ye wants to if mah husband ain't objectin'."
+
+"Is he here?" interjected Elfreda.
+
+The woman shook her head.
+
+"Mah other daughter is out pickin' berries. Mebby she'll come down an'
+look ye over bymeby. Kin I sell ye anything!"
+
+"Yes, if you have milk we should be glad to have some every morning and
+night while here. We have a man friend and a colored boy with us. One of
+them will call for the milk early this evening. Thank you so much. Are
+the children quite well?"
+
+"Tol'bly, tol'bly, Ah reckon."
+
+"I think we have a little candy left. I will send it over to them
+later," said Grace smilingly, as she wheeled her pony and trotted back
+towards camp.
+
+"What a sight! Think of living as those people do," reflected Elfreda.
+
+"Perhaps they are just as happy as we are. But those poor puny children!
+I am sorry for them, and when I think of my daughter, Yvonne, and that
+healthy young animal, Lindy, your adopted daughter, I feel like crying."
+
+"Don't! Your eyes do not look nice when, they are red. By the way, those
+two kiddies, despite what the mother says, do not look at all well. Did
+you observe how red their faces were and how listless they appeared?"
+
+Grace said she did. She wondered, too, what the other daughter was like.
+Her wonder in this direction was gratified before she had been back from
+her brief journey twenty minutes. While telling their companions of the
+mountaineer's wife and family and the appearance of the woman and
+children, a figure rose up from behind a bush and stood curiously
+regarding the Overland party.
+
+Washington discovered the newcomer and began to chatter and point.
+
+"Don't shoot. It's a woman," cried Emma.
+
+"No one is going to shoot," retorted Hippy hopelessly.
+
+By this time all the girls were on their feet, gazing at the head and
+shoulders of a young woman showing above the bush. Her full cheeks and
+lips were red, and the black, straight hair hanging down her back
+reminded the Overlanders of Indian squaws they had seen in their journey
+over the Old Apache Trail. It was the caller's eyes, however, that
+attracted the most attention. They were large, black and full, and one
+felt that they were capable of blazing.
+
+"Won't you come in, Miss?" urged Miss Briggs. "May I ask your name?" she
+added, as the girl, whom she judged was not much past twenty years of
+age, stepped out into the open.
+
+"Ah'm Julie." That was the only information vouchsafed by the caller,
+and the only words she spoke for nearly the entire half hour of her
+stay. The Overland girls plied her with questions, and by a nod in
+answer to their question learned that Julie was the daughter of the
+woman they had called on shortly before. They called her by her first
+name, though now and then Emma would address her as "Miss Thompson,"
+which seemed to perplex Julie.
+
+"My Paw mebby'll drive ye folks off. He don't like no strangers in these
+parts," she finally jerked out.
+
+"It will not be necessary. We shall be moving on in a few days," replied
+Grace.
+
+"Paw don't want no strangers," insisted the girl stubbornly. "Spec'ly
+since he had er gun fight with one o' them. My gosh how them bullets did
+fly. Paw got one through his stumik and had er right smart trouble with
+his eatin' fer two days arter that. What you-all doin'?" she demanded,
+eyeing Nora Wingate, who was making a sweater.
+
+"Crocheting, Julie. Knitting, perhaps you call it."
+
+"Uh-huh. My gran'ma kin beat you-all knittin'."
+
+"Yes?" smiled Nora.
+
+"You bet she kin. Why, whad you-all think? Gran'ma takes her knittin'
+ter bed with 'er and every now and then she throws out a sock. I'll bet
+a cookie you-all kain't knit like that-away."
+
+"You win," chuckled Hippy, and the Overland girls laughed merrily.
+
+"I'm going now. Maw said as I'd better come down and look you-all over,
+cause Paw'll want ter know 'bout you-all. Say! Goin' to the dance?"
+
+"When?" questioned Emma, her interest instantly aroused.
+
+"Sat'dy night to the schoolhouse over in the holler yonder. Mebby
+you-all kin help we uns to pay the band."
+
+"What? Do you have a band up here?" wondered Anne.
+
+"Uh-huh--fiddle and er banjer, and the feller that plays the banjer kin
+tear more music out o' it and stomp on the floor harder'n any other
+perfesser in the mountains. Better come if Paw ain't run you-all out
+befo' then."
+
+"Don't worry, little one. Paw won't run this outfit out just yet,"
+replied Hippy.
+
+"I dunno, I dunno. Ain't no tellin' 'bout Paw. Bye." Julie pushed a mass
+of hair from her forehead, gave her head a jerk to settle the hair more
+firmly in place, then, turning on her heel, walked away without once
+turning her head.
+
+"With a stomach like his, 'Paw' should have been in France fighting the
+Boches," observed Emma Dean solemnly. "I'm going to the dance! I'm going
+to the dance! Tra-la-la," she cried, doing a fancy step about the camp,
+keeping time with her upraised arms until she stepped on Washington
+Washington's foot and brought a howl from that worthy.
+
+The Overland girls then fell upon and subdued Miss Dean without loss of
+time.
+
+"If you let her go to that dance there will be a riot, as sure as I am a
+foot high," declared Hippy Wingate, in which assertion most of the girls
+agreed with him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THREE MEN IN THE CORNFIELD
+
+
+"Ah tells yuh, Ah did. Ah sawed him obah dar in de co'nfield," protested
+Washington Washington.
+
+"There you go again. You will saw the wrong person one of these days,
+then you will go to jail for life," rebuked Emma Dean.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Grace, hurrying to the excited colored boy, who
+was rolling his eyes and gesticulating as he tried to tell the
+Overlanders what he had seen.
+
+"Laundry performed a surgical operation on a man in the cornfield.
+That's all, Grace," Emma Dean informed her.
+
+"Ah did. Ah sawed his gun, too."
+
+"Yours must be a sharp saw if it will saw a gun," murmured Emma.
+
+"He war peekin' at yuh-all, an' when he seed Ah sawed him he snooked an'
+Ah didn't sawed him no moah."
+
+"Is that all?" questioned Grace.
+
+"Yassuh. Yes'm."
+
+"Quite likely it was the man who owns the cornfield. He probably was
+looking the crop over to see if it were fit to cut. I presume a man has
+a perfect right to look at his own cornfield, even up here in the
+Kentucky mountains," observed Miss Briggs.
+
+"Ah reckons you're right," chuckled Hippy. "I decline to get excited
+over it. I have troubles of my own. Say!" he added, his face growing
+suddenly serious. "You don't suppose it was a fellow trying to collect
+that head money on me, do you?"
+
+"Not in broad daylight, Hippy," smiled Grace. "The headsman probably
+will perform the delicate operation of decapitating you some night when
+you are asleep."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Nora. "The mountain air has made you all
+light-headed. I know who it was. It was 'Paw.' Paw has returned and was
+looking us over. I hope, for our own peace of mind, that he liked our
+looks."
+
+"Nora may be right," nodded Anne.
+
+"Yes," agreed Grace. "I think it would be wise for Hippy to go to the
+Thompson home for the milk to-night. He can then get acquainted with Mr.
+Thompson, and perhaps interest him, and make him friendly to us."
+
+Hippy eyed her disapprovingly and sighed.
+
+"A lamb was led to the slaughter and--"
+
+"Just the same, we must be alert to-night," advised Grace. "If Hippy
+and Elfreda will take the first half of the night, Anne and I will take
+the watch the balance of the night."
+
+This was agreed to, and the rest of the day was devoted to setting the
+camp to rights, practicing with the rope, at which all tried their hand,
+and taking naps, always with attention to their surroundings, for the
+Overland Riders knew they were in more or less peril in the Kentucky
+mountains, and believed that sooner or later those who, for some reason,
+wished to be rid of them, would make a desperate attempt to force them
+to leave that neighborhood.
+
+There was the warning note to indicate that the attempt might not be
+long delayed.
+
+Supper, that evening, was eaten just after dark, as the Overlanders
+enjoyed sitting about their campfire in the cool evening air, chatting
+and telling stories and indulging in good-natured banter as they ate.
+They had just sat down when a voice from the darkness brought instant
+silence, and a quick reaching for their weapons. The nerves of the
+Overland girls were getting jumpy.
+
+"I make the near-blind to see and the seeing to see better. I am the
+promoter of happiness, the benefactor of all-uns of the mountains.
+Specs, ladies and gentlemen. Nick-nacks, thread, needles, but
+principally specs and good cheer. Yes, thanks. I will have a snack with
+you. I thank you for the invitation."
+
+The Overland Riders, who, up to this juncture, had not uttered a word,
+burst into laughter, for they recognized that voice, the
+never-to-be-forgotten voice and lingo of Jeremiah Long, the Mystery Man.
+
+"You are indeed welcome," greeted Grace, stepping forward to shake hands
+with the spectacle man, who put down his grip, mopped his forehead, then
+grasped her hand, regarding Grace with twinkling eyes.
+
+"I have just come from Jed Thompson's hospitable home where I have
+spectacled the family from the old man himself down to and including the
+babe. They told me that down by the cornfield was a bunch of campers,
+and I said I'd go down and sell them some specs. I'll introduce myself.
+I don't know you," he added in a lower tone. "I'm Jeremiah Long, and
+I've already told you the rest. Who are you?"
+
+"We are the Overland Riders, riding through the mountains for
+pleasure--and business," answered Grace, quickly catching his intimation
+that he did not desire that listening ears should know that he had met
+the party before. "After mess you must show us your wares. Perhaps we
+may find something that may be useful to us."
+
+"Charmed, I'm sure." The Mystery Man of the mountains placed a hand over
+his heart and made a profound bow. He then sat down. "Cream and sugar in
+the coffee, please. Thank you. I caught the odor of this coffee before I
+rounded the upper corner of the cornfield. My nose frequently leads me
+to the good things of earth, and what I don't then see with my own eyes,
+the eyes in my case do."
+
+"I would give almost anything to be able to talk a blue streak the way
+you do," exclaimed Emma so earnestly that her companions nearly choked
+with laughter, and that left the Mystery Man with laughter instead of
+words on his lips.
+
+"Yes, but greater even than the gift of gab, is the gift of
+'con-centration,'" twinkled Jeremiah Long.
+
+"How did you know about that?" demanded Emma, looking her amazement.
+
+"How did I know? My dear young woman, the essence sent out by
+'con-centration' is an imponderable quantity--"
+
+"Imponderable?" wondered Miss Dean. "I like that word, and, though I
+don't know what it means, it sounds good."
+
+"As I was saying, the waves sent out by your 'con-centrating' may have,
+like the wireless waves, been picked up by my own delicate mental
+mechanism and--"
+
+"In other words, Miss Dean overshot the mark she aimed at," interjected
+Hippy.
+
+"Well, something like that, I should say," chuckled the Mystery Man.
+
+"Is there anything you do not know?" wondered Anne Nesbit.
+
+"You are a mighty fortunate man, I should say," declared Hippy. "Think
+what the result would have been had that 'imponderable quantity' hit you
+fair and square. Why, it would have blown you to atoms--molecules and--"
+
+"Suppose we change the subject," suggested Grace Harlowe. "Show us your
+wares, won't you, Mr. Long?"
+
+The visitor got up, and, fetching his case, opened it, revealing great
+numbers of shining spectacles, beads and other shoddy adornments.
+
+"We will now fit you to glasses, those of you who need them."
+
+"You, of course, know how to examine eyes?" nodded Elfreda.
+
+"Oh, no. I 'fit' the bows to the ears," answered Mr. Long.
+
+"Yes, but aren't you afraid you will ruin the eyes of the persons you
+fit glasses to?" questioned Grace.
+
+The Mystery Man smiled.
+
+"I never heard of a person's eyes being ruined by looking through a
+window," he made reply, raising a merry laugh. "I'll fit you to smoked
+glasses to protect your eyes from the sun. They won't cost you anything.
+Neither did they cost me anything. I want my wares known in every home
+in the mountains, and I want every man, woman and child, and babe in
+arms, to be seeing things through my eyes, and I'll accomplish it if the
+window glass holds out."
+
+"Of course we expect to pay you," began Grace.
+
+"Not a cent, not a cent. I should say it might be wise to have them--the
+glasses--well smoked up like a ham, for there may be doings up here that
+it were the part of wisdom for you folks not to see. Do the bows fit,
+Mrs. Gray?" he asked, adjusting a pair of specs to her ears.
+
+"I--I think so."
+
+The visitor rattled on, keeping his customers fairly convulsed with
+laughter, until he had equipped half the party with spectacles.
+
+"You may pay me," he suddenly suggested, lowering his voice. "I've
+changed my mind. That will be two dollars apiece," he added in a loud,
+blustering tone.
+
+The Overland Riders looked at him in amazement. Only a few moments
+before that he had proposed to "fit" them with glasses free of charge.
+
+"Of course we will pay you," announced Emma Dean airily.
+
+Elfreda and Grace, who had been eyeing Mr. Long inquiringly, saw motive
+in his sudden change. The quick, meaning glance he gave them convinced
+them that their surmise was right.
+
+"What is it?" asked Grace, her voice down almost to a whisper.
+
+"Yes, two dollars. Thank you. There are three men in the cornfield
+watching us," he added in a tone barely loud enough for the Overlanders
+to hear. "Don't look. If I don't run out of change I'll have you all
+fixed up in three shakes of a possum's tail," said Mr. Long, again
+boisterously.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ELFREDA DISTINGUISHES HERSELF
+
+
+"The smoke is too thick. I can't see through the glasses. I want my
+money back," complained Emma.
+
+"No extra charge for the additional soot. Who is next? Ah! Wash needs a
+pair of specs to tone down the whites of his eyes," cried Jeremiah.
+
+"Never mind him. He is smoky enough as it is," returned Hippy. "If you
+are dead set on doing more business you might go out and put goggles on
+the mules. Perhaps then they might not see so much to bray at."
+
+This badinage was kept up for some little time, so that the prowlers in
+the cornfield might not suspect that their presence were known to the
+campers.
+
+All of the party were wondering how the Mystery Man knew that they were
+being watched, for none of the Overlanders had heard the slightest sound
+in the direction of the cornfield, and their ears, after all their
+campaigning, were always on the alert. Jeremiah was a man of many
+mysteries.
+
+Grace invited him to share their hospitality for the night, which he
+acknowledged by rising and favoring them with another profound bow.
+
+"I will sleep in the open, if I may be permitted to do so--as before,"
+he murmured. In the same low tone, he added: "I don't just like the
+location of your camp."
+
+"Why not, sir?" asked Miss Briggs.
+
+"Too many ears in the cornfield, and besides--"
+
+Emma Dean uttered a dismal groan. Her companions burst out laughing,
+Jeremiah regarding them with eyes that twinkled and laughed, though the
+face remained almost expressionless.
+
+"Is it not true?" he asked.
+
+"Yes. Too true! Alas, too true," murmured Hippy in an awed tone.
+
+Grace got up laughing and went to her tent for blankets for her guest.
+
+"By the fire as before?" she asked upon her return.
+
+Jeremiah shook his head.
+
+"I will place them, Mrs. Gray. Thank you."
+
+The girls then bade their guest good-night, each one shaking hands with
+him, and, as Grace extended her hand, he placed in it a roll of money.
+
+"The funds I held you folks up for," explained Mr. Long. "You can
+return it to them to-morrow with an explanation. Do not let the
+lieutenant take too many chances, is my suggestion. Good-night."
+
+It had been decided that, so long as their guest were to sleep in the
+open, it would not be necessary to keep guard outside. Grace said,
+however, that she would stand watch in her tent part of the night, then
+call Elfreda, and turn in.
+
+Mr. Long made up his bed on the cornfield side of the camp and, after
+listening to one of Hippy's war stories, rolled up in his blankets and
+went to sleep. Grace, from her tent, could faintly make out the form of
+the Mystery Man, and, sitting, chin in hand regarding him, she wondered,
+as she had done many times before, who and what the man was. That he was
+all he would have them believe she did not for a moment credit.
+
+"What's that?" Grace leaned forward and peered. Mr. Long appeared to be
+asleep under his blankets, but, a short distance from him, she saw
+another figure cautiously rolling slowly towards the cornfield.
+
+Looking more closely at the blankets, the Overland girl saw that they
+were folded lengthwise to make them appear something like the form of a
+human being, and that it was Jeremiah himself who was so cautiously
+rolling away.
+
+After waiting another hour for his return she decided that their guest
+had left them for the night. Grace then awakened Elfreda and asked her
+to take the watch for a couple of hours, saying she was very tired.
+
+Elfreda got up sleepily and, for several minutes, sat with hands clasped
+to her head.
+
+"Anything stirring?" she asked, yawning.
+
+"Nothing except the Mystery Man. He stirred himself out of camp. He
+rolled out. I do not believe he will return to-night."
+
+"Queer chap, that. All right, Loyalheart. I am awake now. Tumble in and
+I will see if I can keep you out of trouble until daylight."
+
+"See to it that, instead, you don't get us into a peck of it," chuckled
+Grace, tucking herself in under the blankets. "Thank you for getting the
+bed so nice and comfy for me."
+
+"Don't tantalize me. I know how sweet that bed is, for I just got out of
+it myself," replied Miss Briggs sourly. Grace did not hear, for she
+already was sound asleep, and Elfreda, muttering to herself,
+straightened up and exercised her arms and shoulders more thoroughly to
+arouse her sleepy faculties.
+
+"There! I think I can manage to keep awake now. I hear Hippy snoring.
+Gracious! If I had a snore like that I think I should file it. Oh!"
+
+Elfreda had seen a movement on the cornfield side of the camp. To her,
+it looked like a man crawling into camp.
+
+Miss Briggs reached for her rifle and waited. Now and then little
+ribbons of flame flickered over the bed of coal of the campfire,
+lighting up the camp momentarily. Elfreda was unafraid for the weapon in
+her hands gave her confidence, and the cool touch of the barrel against
+her hand steadied it.
+
+The intruder was now coming directly towards her.
+
+The moving object was directly in line with Washington Washington's
+tent, and for that reason Miss Briggs would not have dared to fire, even
+did she find it necessary to do so.
+
+Her first impulse was to awaken Grace, but upon second thought she
+decided to wait. Perhaps it was the Mystery Man returning, though
+Elfreda did not believe he would take the chance of getting shot.
+
+"Mercy! It's an animal," gasped the watcher. "A bear!" she added in an
+awed whisper, as a faint mountain breeze fanned the campfire into a
+flame.
+
+The bear by this time had sniffed its way across the camp, bearing to
+the left as it neared her tent, but halting when it reached the pack
+that contained their provisions. Here the animal was quite clearly
+outlined in the light cast by the fire.
+
+It was a small bear, but it looked very large to Elfreda Briggs, who had
+never experienced meeting a bear at such close range. He began clawing
+at the pack of provisions and tearing with his teeth at the tough canvas
+covering, and had it open before Elfreda realized what he was up to.
+
+"He is eating up our food!" she exclaimed under her breath. Miss Briggs
+raised her rifle to fire. She lowered it ever so little as a new thought
+occurred to her.
+
+"I'll do it!" she declared, laying the rifle on the ground beside her.
+"I probably shall make an awful mess of the attempt, but I am going to
+try to rope that beast. I don't believe he will attack me if I miss. If
+he does I shall have every incentive to break all running records in my
+sprint for the rifle."
+
+Elfreda reached for Grace Harlowe's Mexican lasso, arranged it for
+casting, then, after listening briefly to Grace's breathing, stepped
+cautiously from the tent.
+
+The bear was tearing at the food and its covering, and grunting with
+satisfaction, and the supplies of the Overland Riders were disappearing
+at a rate that promised a famine, if Bruin's operations were not
+immediately checked. So busy was he that her cautious footsteps were
+unheard, and so deep was his snout plunged into the treasure he had
+found that he failed to catch the scent of his enemy.
+
+As she neared him Miss Briggs felt a sudden weakness in the knees that
+threatened flight on her part, but, by summoning all her will, she
+managed to call back her grit.
+
+"Ill do it if it kills me!" muttered the Overland Rider. "If I win, I
+shall have the laugh on Grace Harlowe. If I lose--well we won't think
+about that. Here goes. Steady, and 'con-centrate,' Elfreda Briggs!"
+
+Miss Briggs swung the rope above her head three times to open the loop,
+and, gauging her distance as well as she knew how, she let go. One side
+of the loop hit Bruin on the ear.
+
+Uttering a snarl at the interruption, the animal made a leap and
+accomplished what the roper had failed to accomplish. He leaped right
+into the loop with his head and one leg. His spring drew the lasso
+tightly about him. He was fast, but he did not propose to be so for many
+seconds. Throwing himself on his back, the bear began clawing and biting
+at the hateful thing that was drawing tighter and tighter about him.
+
+Elfreda, triumphant, now highly excited, determined to hold fast to that
+which she had, twisted the free end of the rope about her arm and
+grasped the tautened strand with both hands, at the same time bracing
+her feet and pulling with all her might.
+
+Bruin bounded to his feet, and for one terrible instant J. Elfreda
+thought he was going to rush her. Instead, the bear whirled and, humping
+himself almost into a furry ball, galloped away. His captor, with the
+rope twisted about her arm, could not have freed herself in time, even
+had she thought of so doing.
+
+"Help! Oh, help!" she wailed, as her feet were jerked from under her and
+she was hurled violently to the ground. "Help--p!"
+
+The camp of the Overland Riders was in an uproar in an instant. J.
+Elfreda, champion of peace, though not a pacifist, had started
+something, the end of which was not yet in sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+WHEN EMMA SAID TOO MUCH
+
+
+"Where is he?" bellowed Hippy, charging from his tent, rifle in hand.
+"Elfreda!" shouted Grace, rubbing her eyes to get the sleep out of them.
+She could hear the commotion, but was unable to make out the cause of
+the disturbance.
+
+In the meantime, Miss Briggs was being dragged over the ground at a rate
+of speed that was neither good for her clothing nor her body. In his
+blind fright, the animal charged straight into Washington Washington's
+pup-tent, landing right on the colored boy. The lad threw up his arms,
+and they closed about the neck of the bear.
+
+A frightful howl instantly woke the mountain silence, as Washington let
+go and rolled from under. The bear, as much frightened as was Wash,
+turned and charged across the camp. He met Emma Dean head on, and she
+went down under the onslaught.
+
+"It's a bear! Shoot him!" screamed Emma.
+
+"No!" shouted Grace. "He is dragging Elfreda. Don't shoot!" Grace's
+eyes by this time had become adjusted to the uncertain light and her
+mind instantly comprehended the situation, so far as the fact that her
+companion was being dragged was concerned, though she did not realize
+that it was her rope that was around the neck of the frightened animal.
+
+Young Bruin went through Grace's tent, Elfreda following him like a
+projectile. Both emerged from the ruins on the other side and headed for
+the bush, with the Overland Riders in full pursuit.
+
+"Throw yourself on the rope and grab it!" panted Grace, as Hippy ran
+past her.
+
+"Let go!" he shouted to Miss Briggs, but, though Elfreda was willing to
+do so, she could not. Neither could she summon enough breath to answer.
+
+"Snub the rope around something," urged Grace.
+
+Hippy reached and passed Elfreda and threw himself on the rope, as he
+thought. The bear, having made a sudden turn to get away from him,
+caused Hippy to miss the rope by a few feet. The rope tripped Grace who
+landed flat on the ground.
+
+It was at this juncture that Anne and Nora reached the scene, and the
+next instant they too were tripped by the rope. The entire Overland
+party were now floundering about in the bushes, and Washington
+Washington was up a tree, clinging to it, wide-eyed, as he listened to
+the uproar below him.
+
+Darting this way and that, the bear finally raced around a tree with
+Miss Briggs following. The purchase thus given to her served to check
+the progress of the animal. Hippy took instant advantage. He threw
+himself on the rope, and, this time, succeeded in grasping it with both
+hands.
+
+[Illustration: "Get Her Loose."]
+
+"Quick! Get her loose," he panted, holding to the lasso with all his
+strength, but feeling it slowly slipping through his hands, for the bear
+possessed greater pulling strength than did Hippy.
+
+Grace lost no time in freeing the rope from Elfreda's hands and arm.
+
+"Drag her away. Lively!" she urged.
+
+Anne and Nora gave instant obedience, and the instant Elfreda was free
+of the rope, Grace quickly snubbed it about the trunk of the tree.
+
+"Let go, Hippy," she called. "I think I can hold him till you get here
+to help me."
+
+Bruin was snarling and plunging, throwing himself this way and that in
+his vain efforts to free himself, but the hair rope held. Mere bear
+strength was not equal to breaking a woven hair rope, and, when Hippy
+threw his weight on the end of it with Grace, they hauled the animal
+up towards the tree little by little, Bruin fighting every inch of the
+way.
+
+"Watch him," warned the lieutenant.
+
+As he neared the tree, the animal showed fight but Grace and Hippy made
+the rope fast when the bear was a yard or so from the tree, fearing to
+draw him any closer to themselves.
+
+"How is Elfreda?" called Grace, fanning herself with her hat.
+
+"Sadly mussed," answered Nora.
+
+"Well, now that you have him, what do you propose to do with him?"
+demanded Grace, walking over and gazing down at Miss Briggs, who lay on
+the ground breathing hard.
+
+"I--I have done all I ca--an," groaned Elfreda.
+
+"I should say you had. What happened, Elfreda?"
+
+"Mostly myself. You ought to know that by looking at me." Miss Briggs'
+face was scratched from contact with the bushes; her hair was down and
+in a tangle, and her clothing was torn. She was a much mussed-up young
+woman.
+
+"Watch him, Hippy," called Grace. "J. Elfreda, if you are feeling able
+please tell us what occurred. I know that you roped the animal, but that
+is all."
+
+Miss Briggs briefly related her experience up to the time the
+Overlanders appeared on the scene.
+
+"You win the blue ribbon," laughed Grace. "As I asked before, now that
+you have the beast, what do you propose to do with him?"
+
+"Let him go," replied Elfreda a little petulantly.
+
+"Yes, but how? You roped him. It seems up to you to untie him."
+
+"Oh, cut the rope," suggested Emma.
+
+"Indeed, you will not," objected Grace. "You must think of some better
+plan."
+
+"Leave it to the bear. He will have the rope gnawed in two very soon at
+the present rate," called Hippy. "Come, Emma. Get busy and
+'con-centrate' on the difficulty."
+
+The animal was on its back when the girls gathered about him, keeping a
+safe distance from him, however. He was clawing and biting and snarling
+savagely, and Grace was much concerned for her rope, which was one of
+her prized possessions.
+
+"What do you suggest, Hippy?" she asked.
+
+"Either cut the rope or shoot him, or else let him liberate himself."
+
+"He will have to be shot. I am sorry, but it seems the only way,"
+decided Grace. "Will you do it, Hippy?"
+
+"Sure I will. Mighty glad for the opportunity. We will have bear steak
+for breakfast."
+
+"Perhaps we shall have jail to digest it in. I am not certain whether or
+not we are permitted to shoot bear at this time of the year. Do you know
+what the Kentucky game laws with reference to bear are?"
+
+Hippy said he did not, and did not care. Having made up his mind to have
+bear for breakfast, no mere laws should interfere with his appetite he
+said. The girls, not wishing to witness the operation, returned to the
+camp and Hippy shot the bear.
+
+Most of the balance of the night was spent by him in dressing the animal
+and stringing it up by its hocks to let it cool. He was not an expert at
+this sort of thing, but had Tom Gray been there he would have done the
+job and been back between his blankets in an hour. However, there was
+bear steak for breakfast, though Elfreda declared she wouldn't touch a
+mouthful of it for anything. The others were not suffering from delicate
+appetites, and did full justice to the meal.
+
+Later in the forenoon, Hippy, who had declared himself too busy to go
+for the milk the night before, started out for the Thompson cabin,
+accompanied by Nora and Emma, to purchase a pail of fresh milk.
+
+Upon their arrival there, Julie and the rest of the family, except Mr.
+Thompson, gathered about the Overland Riders, full of curiosity. Julie
+explained that "Paw" had gone away the night before and hadn't come
+back.
+
+"Paw's awful mad 'bout you folks," she announced. "Said as how ye had
+better git out afore he got too het up 'bout ye."
+
+"We shall be going in a few days," answered Nora. "Tell your 'Paw' not
+to get excited."
+
+"I'll tell you what," bubbled Emma. "Does he like bear meat?"
+
+"Ah reckon he likes most any kind o' food," answered Mrs. Thompson.
+
+"Good. Listen to me! We got a bear last night and we had part of him for
+breakfast. For a time it looked like he was going to have us for his
+breakfast, but we shot him and Lieutenant Wingate dressed him, and he
+was fine," declared Miss Dean with enthusiasm. "I will send the colored
+boy over with a fine bear steak for Mr. Thompson, and, if he is anything
+like Lieutenant Wingate, he will be mad no longer."
+
+The mountain woman smiled at Emma's temperamental enthusiasm.
+
+"I reckon he'll be mighty glad to have it," she nodded.
+
+Before leaving, Hippy Wingate chucked the two little children under the
+chin and gave each a five-cent piece, promising to give them as much
+more each time he came for the milk.
+
+"Queer about 'Paw,' ain't it?" mimicked Emma as they were on their way
+home. "I wonder if he is staying in the cornfield watching our camp.
+Perhaps he'll come out when he hears there is bear steak at home. My,
+but aren't those children dirty?"
+
+Grace frowned when Nora told her of Emma's offer to give the Thompsons
+some of the bear meat.
+
+"Emma, no good ever comes from babbling. I am sorry you did that, but so
+long as you promised you must make good," directed Grace.
+
+"All right. Don't be so frightfully touchy. I will send Wash over with a
+hind leg."
+
+"No. You will send or take a steak, as you promised. A bear's leg! The
+idea!"
+
+"I don't know what you mean. A leg of lamb is considered a real delicacy
+where I come from, and I should think a leg of bear would be an equally
+delightful delicacy up here where the beast grows."
+
+Even Miss Briggs joined in the laugh that followed, though it hurt
+frightfully to exercise her facial muscles.
+
+Hippy said he would cut out a steak, but Nora decided that he must have
+assistance or he would be sending something that not even the
+mountaineers could eat. A black chunk of meat that weighed all of twelve
+pounds was the result of the carving. This Hippy tied up in a roll and
+gave to Washington to take to the Thompsons.
+
+"Our peace offering to 'Paw,'" observed Hippy as the colored boy, with
+the bear meat on his shoulder, trudged away playing his harmonica. "That
+dance that Julie invited us to attend, comes off to-morrow night. She
+asked me to-day, if we were going. I said I reckoned we'd be over, and
+asked her if she would trip the light fantastic with me, but Julie shook
+her head. What about it? Do we go or stay?"
+
+"What will we do about the camp?" wondered Grace.
+
+"Leave it here, of course," urged Emma.
+
+"And find it missing when we return," suggested Elfreda. "I fear that
+won't do at all."
+
+"We can hide our equipment and ride the ponies over to Coon Hollow, with
+Laundry along on one of the mules to look after our horses when we get
+there," planned Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"What about the other mule?" questioned Anne.
+
+"Let him take care of himself. If any stranger attempts to fool around
+that mule he will get the everlasting daylights kicked out of him.
+Nora, you had better shake your feet up to-day and get in practice, for
+to-morrow night you dance--if--"
+
+"Yes, if," laughed Grace. "It shall be just as you people wish.
+Personally I am not keen for it, except that it will be a treat to watch
+the mountain folk at play."
+
+All except Miss Briggs were enthusiastic for the dance.
+
+"With my damaged countenance, I shan't be able to dance," she
+complained.
+
+"You don't intend to dance on your face, do you!" wondered Emma.
+
+"If I perform the way I did with the bear, I undoubtedly shall. There is
+no telling what I might do."
+
+"You ought to have a net to perform over, like the circus people do,"
+declared Emma. "Do we go?"
+
+"Yes, let's go," urged Nora.
+
+The others being of the same mind, Grace gave a rather reluctant consent
+and the matter was settled then and there, greatly adding to the
+happiness of Emma Dean.
+
+That afternoon Grace made an inspection of the cornfield and discovered
+the imprints of heavy boots in the soft dirt near the camp. There had
+been, she believed, four men in the party, and all four evidently had
+been spying on the Overland camp. She followed their trail until she
+came to the edge of the cornfield, facing the Thompson cabin. Grace
+shrugged her shoulders and retraced her steps.
+
+"I have a feeling that our affairs must come to a head soon," she
+murmured. "The footprints, after leaving the cornfield, appear to lead
+directly towards the Thompson home. However, we shall see. The night may
+bring something in the way of a development. I am getting tired of the
+waiting policy. Girls," called Grace, as she entered the camp. "What do
+you say if we break camp and get out to-morrow?"
+
+"You forget the dance," reminded Emma, who did not propose to miss such
+an opportunity as this.
+
+"Day after to-morrow, then?" questioned Grace.
+
+"In spite of warnings and the suggestion of our unseen friend?" asked
+Anne.
+
+"Yes. We can't stay here forever. Besides, the days are passing and we
+have some little distance to go before reaching the rendezvous where we
+are to meet Tom. What we need is action."
+
+"Did I not start something for you last night? What more do you want?"
+demanded Miss Briggs.
+
+"To keep moving. You started the wrong way. You were headed towards
+home when you set out behind your bear," laughed Grace. "What do you
+say, girls?"
+
+"Yes. Let's go," nodded Elfreda. "Nothing much matters after last night,
+so far as I am concerned." The rest left the decision entirely in Grace
+Harlowe's hands, and she decided to move as suggested, provided nothing
+intervened to prevent their doing so.
+
+Bear meat, coffee with real cream and fresh vegetables, procured from
+the Thompsons, made an unusually appetizing supper that night, and
+during the meal Washington furnished music to entertain them. He was
+still playing when Anne warned her companions that a man had just
+stepped out of the cornfield and was coming into camp.
+
+The Overlanders got up, wondering who their caller might be.
+
+"Evenin', folks," greeted the stranger, who was of the same gaunt,
+razor-faced type that they had come in contact with on other occasions
+on this journey.
+
+"Good evening," answered the Overland Riders pleasantly.
+
+"We have just finished supper, but won't you sit down and have a snack?"
+asked Grace. "There is some meat and coffee left."
+
+"Reckon Ah will, thankee."
+
+The caller sat down, tucked his red handkerchief under his chin, hitched
+his revolver holster back a little further, leaned over and sniffed at
+his heaping plate of bear meat, then fell to with a will. "He ate as if
+he had had nothing to eat for a fortnight," as Emma confided to Anne
+Nesbit. Washington made a fresh pot of coffee for him.
+
+"Reckon this 'ere's as fine a piece o' beef as Ah ever stowed," observed
+the guest, rolling his eyes up to the assembled Riders.
+
+"It isn't beef. It's--" began Emma, but quickly subsided as Anne pinched
+her warningly.
+
+"It's what?" demanded the caller.
+
+"Codfish!" answered Emma lamely.
+
+The stranger shrugged his shoulders and resumed his eating.
+
+"Ahem!" said Hippy by way of clearing his throat. "It is a fine, large
+evening. Do you ordinarily have such large evenings in the Kentucky
+mountains?"
+
+"Off an' on, Mister. Wall, Ah reckon Ah'm full clear to the gullet. Who
+be ye-all?"
+
+"We call ourselves the Overland Riders. May I ask who you are?"
+questioned Hippy.
+
+"Ah'm the game constable of this 'ere county. Where's the bear?"
+
+"Some--some of it is--is inside of you," gasped Emma Dean a little
+hysterically.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A JOKE ON THE OVERLANDERS
+
+
+"Help!" murmured Elfreda Briggs.
+
+"The game constable!" repeated Lieutenant Wingate. "Oh! Glad to know
+you, old man. Glad to know you. This is a genuine pleasure, I assure
+you. How is business? Are you arresting any game--rabbits, possums, or
+anything of that sort?" went on Hippy jovially, to hide his real
+feelings.
+
+Grace Harlowe laughed in a low tone.
+
+"Ah may be. Ah asked, where is the bear?"
+
+"Bear, bear?" questioned the lieutenant, glancing about him inquiringly.
+"I--I didn't know that you had lost one. What sort of a looking bear was
+he, and did he wear a license tag on his collar or--"
+
+"Oh, shet up!" growled the constable. "That was bear meat Ah had fer mah
+supper. No one ain't allowed to have bear meat till December."
+
+"Then why did you eat what you say was bear meat?" demanded Miss Briggs
+in her severest legal tone. "You say no one is allowed to have bear
+meat until December, but it appears to me that you have had your share
+of it this evening."
+
+"Whut's that over thar?" he exploded, pointing to where the carcass of
+Elfreda's bear was faintly discernible, hanging by its hocks from a pole
+suspended between two trees. The constable strode over and peered at
+what was left of Mr. Bruin.
+
+"So, that's what yer up to in these 'ere mountings, eh?"
+
+Hippy shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You win," he said. "What is the answer?"
+
+"Wall, Ah reckons as if you'd pay me fer the bear an'--an' settle fer
+the damages, Ah might--"
+
+"Settle nothing!" roared Hippy in a tone calculated to frighten the
+visitor, but which failed to have that effect. "Why, I could have you
+arrested for trying to accept a bribe from a former United States
+officer. You will get no bribe from me."
+
+"Ah'll arrest the whole pack of ye. Officer, eh? Ah reckoned as ye was
+that. Ah did, an' seein' as ye admit it, ain't nothin' more to be said
+'bout that, but Ah'll take ye in and clap ye in the calaboose jest the
+same. Yer under arrest! All of ye is under arrest onless ye'll agree t'
+git out o' the mountings t'-night."
+
+Hippy shrugged his shoulders, and the Overlanders, with the exception of
+Grace, looked serious. Grace was trying hard not to laugh out loud.
+
+"See here, Mister Man!" demanded Lieutenant Wingate gruffly. "My great
+grandfather was from Missouri. You have got to show me. How do I know
+you are a constable? Where is your authority?"
+
+"This 'ere's mah authority," replied the mountaineer, patting his
+revolver holster.
+
+Hippy stepped a little closer to the constable.
+
+"And 'this 'ere's my authority' for saying that you are no more a
+constable than I am!" retorted the Overlander.
+
+_Whack!_
+
+Hippy's fist landed on the point of the mountaineer's jaw, and the
+mountaineer went over backwards, landing heavily on the ground
+unconscious from the blow.
+
+"Hippy! Oh, Hippy darlin'! What have you done?" wailed Nora.
+
+"Hit him! Hit him again before he can get up!" cried Emma excitedly.
+
+"Be quiet, you little savage," admonished Anne.
+
+"You surely have done it this time, Hippy Wingate. Now we _are_ in for
+trouble," rebuked Grace Harlowe.
+
+"Brown Eyes, this fellow is a rank fraud. He isn't a constable, and I
+will wager that, were he to think there were such an animal within a
+mile of him, he would hit out for the bushes right smart."
+
+"I agree with you. But, Hippy, you shouldn't have done that. The man was
+only bluffing. I saw that, or thought I did."
+
+"So was I bluffing. The difference is that he and I do not bluff in the
+same way. Wait!" Hippy snatched the mountaineer's revolver from its
+holster, removed the cartridges and tossed them away, after which he
+returned the weapon to its holster. He then unbuckled the man's
+ammunition belt, shook all the cartridges out of that and rebuckled the
+belt about the fellow's waist.
+
+"Laundry!" called Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"Yassuh! Yassuh!"
+
+"Fetch me a pail of water. On the run!"
+
+"I reckon this will wake him up," chuckled Hippy as he dashed the
+pailful of water that Washington brought, full into the face of the
+unconscious "constable."
+
+It did. The man gasped and choked and struggled, and sat up, brushing
+the water out of his eyes with a sleeve. His blinking eyes slowly swept
+the camp, finally coming to rest on Hippy Wingate's face.
+
+"Question him," suggested Grace.
+
+"Who sent you here to try to bluff us?" asked Hippy sternly.
+
+"Ah'll show ye." The mountain man's revolver was out of its holster in a
+flash as he leaped to his feet, and aimed it at Hippy. He pulled the
+trigger, but there was no report, only the click of the hammer as it
+struck the rim of an empty chamber of the revolver.
+
+Five times did the fellow pull the trigger of his weapon, but with no
+better result, Hippy standing at ease before him, a smile on his face.
+
+"I have a perfect right to shoot you for that, Mister 'Constable.' I may
+yet decide to do so. Who sent you here to play tricks on us?"
+
+Uttering an exclamation of disgust, the mountain man thrust his revolver
+into its holster, one hand having crept about his ammunition belt and
+found it empty. He appeared to be dazed, but whether from the rap Hippy
+had given him, or because of the mysterious disappearance of his
+cartridges, they were not certain.
+
+"Are you going to answer my question?"
+
+The fellow shook his head.
+
+"Do you know Jed Thompson?"
+
+The mountaineer regarded his questioner sullenly, scowlingly, and
+without much change of expression. The scowl had been there ever since
+he woke up from the blow on his chin.
+
+"Perhaps you know Bat Spurgeon?" This was one of the two names that
+Hippy had heard mentioned when he was the captive of the mountaineers.
+The other name was Jed Thompson, the man, undoubtedly, on whose farm the
+Overland Riders were then encamped.
+
+A sudden change of expression flashed into the eyes of the "constable."
+
+"So? You do know him, eh?" chuckled Lieutenant Wingate. Hippy drew his
+own weapon from its holster, fingering it absently while frowningly
+regarding the man before him.
+
+"Why are you ruffians so eager to have us get out of the mountains? What
+have we done to you that you should be so dead set on getting rid of
+us?"
+
+As before, there was no answer.
+
+"I see it is useless to question you. Of course I could _make_ you talk,
+and I would were there no ladies present to criticize my methods.
+However, I am going to let you go. You go back to the fellow who sent
+you here. Tell him for me that, if he bothers us further, we will take
+matters into our own hands. As for you, you poor fish, if ever I see you
+hanging about this or any other camp I am in, I'll shoot you on sight."
+
+"Do it now while you have the chance," urged Emma.
+
+Grace rebuked her with a stern look.
+
+"I will give you ten seconds, after you have faced about, to get out of
+sight in the bushes," resumed Hippy. "Turn around! Go!"
+
+_Bang!_
+
+Hippy fired a shot over the head of the mountaineer who had fairly
+leaped for the bushes and disappeared in them.
+
+"Quick! Follow him, darlin'. He may have other cartridges in his
+pockets," urged Nora.
+
+"Anyway, the joke is on us. We fed the man and put evidence against us
+right in his stomach," wailed Emma Dean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE DANCE AT COON HOLLOW
+
+
+Lieutenant Wingate, comprehending instantly, sprang into the bushes
+after the man he had driven out of camp.
+
+"Didn't I tell you to get out of here?" demanded Hippy, pointing his
+revolver at the mountaineer, who had halted and was feverishly going
+through his pockets in search of ammunition.
+
+The man stood not upon the order of his going, and, to speed him up,
+Lieutenant Wingate sent two shots over his head, following these up by
+chasing the fellow clear out into the open field where the Thompson
+cabin stood. The mountaineer made a quick run across the field,
+zigzagging, expecting, undoubtedly, to hear a bullet whistle past his
+head.
+
+"Whew!" exclaimed the lieutenant, brushing the perspiration from his
+forehead as he stepped into the camp. "I am afraid I am not getting
+proper nourishment. My wind is not as good as it used to be. Nora
+darling, you will have to feed your husband better if you expect him to
+live this strenuous life."
+
+"Did you hit him?" questioned Emma eagerly.
+
+"No."
+
+"Fiddlesticks! If I could not shoot straighter than that I think I
+should practice until I learned how to shoot."
+
+"No you wouldn't. You would just sit down and 'con-centrate,'" retorted
+Hippy Wingate. "What do you make of all this, Brown Eyes?"
+
+"More than I can very well express."
+
+"I wish you might have been willing for me to use on him some of the
+methods employed by the intelligence department of the army to make
+Boche prisoners talk. He would talk, all right," said Hippy.
+
+"This is not war," reminded Grace.
+
+"No, but it is going to be," answered Hippy briefly. "Well, what do you
+dope out?"
+
+"I think that the man who was just here is a Thompson man. Did you
+notice his expression when you mentioned Bat Spurgeon? If ever there was
+murder in a man's eyes, there was in his."
+
+Hippy nodded.
+
+"From what you overheard the night you were a captive of the
+mountaineers, you understood that the Spurgeons were going to start
+trouble with Jed Thompson, did you not?"
+
+"Yes. Of course that may have been mere bluff talk," said Hippy.
+
+"I don't think so. They are a bad lot, all of them. I am glad we have
+decided to leave this place, for, having assaulted our visitor, we may
+look for reprisals from Thompson."
+
+"What's the difference? There is a price on my head, so I might as well
+be a lion as a lamb. Is there any bear meat left?"
+
+"None cooked," replied Nora. "The 'constable' ate it all."
+
+"I hope it gives him indigestion for life," growled Hippy. "I will watch
+the camp to-night, and, if you hear a rifle fired, don't get excited. It
+will be the man-with-a-price-on-his-head taking a pot shot at some
+fellow who is trying to earn the reward."
+
+The Overland Riders did not sleep very well that night, for each of them
+looked for action from the mountain men. Nothing, however, occurred to
+disturb the camp.
+
+Next morning Lieutenant Wingate went to the Thompson cabin to get milk,
+hoping to see Jed Thompson and have a talk with him, but Julie said
+"Paw" was not at home and might not be for "a right smart time."
+
+While at the cabin, Lieutenant Wingate inquired how to reach the
+schoolhouse in Coon Hollow where the dance was to be held that night.
+Julie told him in such great detail that Hippy was positive he never
+should find his way there, but he promised to do his best to get there.
+
+"Ah'd go 'long and show you-all the way if Ah didn't have t' meet mah
+fellow. Bet you-all'll like him. Name's Lum Bangs an' he kin wallop any
+fellow in the mountains."
+
+"Do you think he could whip me?" teased Hippy smilingly.
+
+"He shore could. Jist let him lam you-all t'-night and see whether he
+kin er not."
+
+"Thank you. I prefer to do the 'lamming' myself. When 'Paw' comes home
+please tell him I wish he would call on us to-day, for we are planning
+on moving our camp to-morrow. Tell him I wish to have a friendly talk
+with him."
+
+Julie shook her head vigorously.
+
+"Paw ain't strong on that kind o' talk. He'd rather fit with a man than
+gab with him."
+
+Lieutenant Wingate asked Julie if she would dance with him, saying that
+Nora would be glad to have Julie do that.
+
+"Ah will not," she retorted with a fine show of indignation.
+
+"Why not?" teased Hippy.
+
+"'Cause my feller would lam you-all's haid off an' then give me er punch
+in the jaw."
+
+"Gracious! Lum is a gentle animal, isn't he?" grinned Hippy.
+
+Julie blinked, but made no reply. Hippy said good-bye and went away
+laughing.
+
+Late that afternoon Grace sent Washington out to learn the way to the
+schoolhouse, for, otherwise, she knew they would have difficulty in
+finding their way, for the nights up in the mountains just now were very
+dark.
+
+Upon his return, the colored boy was unable to give them clear
+directions as to how to reach the schoolhouse, though his conversation
+on the subject was voluble, if not specific.
+
+"That will do," rebuked Grace. "Pack all the supplies, except what will
+be needed for supper." She then consulted with Lieutenant Wingate as to
+where to stow their possessions so that they might not be disturbed by
+man or beast during the absence of the party at the mountain dance.
+Hippy went out and scouted about for a suitable place for the purpose.
+He found it in a hollow in the rocks which he said they could protect by
+placing stones in front of the opening.
+
+Much of the equipment was stowed there before dark. After supper the
+rest of it was placed in the opening in the rocks.
+
+"Do we take the rifles with us?" questioned Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"No, indeed," answered Grace with promptness. "It would not look well."
+
+"Nor does it feel well to be held up or shot at without having the means
+to defend one's self," answered Hippy. "I shall take my revolver."
+
+"Yes," agreed Grace. "Wear it under your blouse. I will do the same."
+
+They decided to hide the rifles and ammunition in the bushes and trust
+to luck that no one stumbled on them. When they had finished with their
+preparations, nothing was left in the camp but the tents and a few
+blankets, mess kits and provisions being in the cache in the rocks.
+
+One mule was to be ridden by Washington, the other to be left to its
+fate, hidden in a dense growth of laurel.
+
+"I suppose he will awaken the whole country with his brays," growled
+Hippy.
+
+"There are mules and mules," observed Emma Dean.
+
+Hippy gave her a quick, keen glance, but her face was guileless.
+
+At eight o'clock the Overland Riders set out on their ponies, Washington
+Washington in the lead on his pack mule, industriously mouthing his
+harmonica, the girls laughing and chatting, Hippy silent, lost in
+contemplation of his own problems.
+
+"Which way to the Coon Hollow schoolhouse?" called Grace as they passed
+a slowly walking couple a short distance beyond the Thompson home.
+
+"Yer headin' fer it," answered the man.
+
+"If Laundry gives the mule a free rein, we probably shall reach our
+destination sooner than if the boy tries to guide the animal," suggested
+Elfreda Briggs.
+
+As they neared the schoolhouse they heard the music of the "band," as
+Julie had been pleased to call it. Hearing, Washington Washington played
+his own musical instrument with renewed vigor.
+
+Many others, bound toward the schoolhouse, laughed and made remarks, or
+greeted the Overlanders pleasantly as they passed.
+
+The ponies and the mule were tethered to trees hard by the schoolhouse,
+after which the party filed into the building, with Washington trailing
+along after them, rolling his eyes and wagging his head in rhythm with
+the music of violin and banjo.
+
+The music proved too much for Washington to endure in silence, and the
+Overland Riders were amazed when he clapped the harmonica to his lips
+and began to play with the two musicians.
+
+Grace started for the boy, but another got to him ahead of her. A young
+mountaineer picked up the colored boy and tossed him out through a
+window. It was not so roughly done that the Overlanders could make a
+protest, and the young fellow who had performed the feat turned from the
+window laughing over the neat way he had checked Washington's musical
+interference.
+
+The dance already was under full headway. The floor swayed and groaned,
+and the building fairly rocked under the rhythmic assault of more than
+twenty pairs of stamping, shuffling feet. A smoking oil lamp supplied a
+dull, smoky haze so that it was difficult for friends to recognize each
+other from opposite ends of the room. All eyes, including those of the
+dancers, had been turned to the newcomers as the Overlanders filed in
+and took seats on benches at one side of the room.
+
+It was but a few moments later when Hippy and Nora swung out on the
+floor and Hippy was soon raising the dust with the best of them.
+
+He then danced with each of the girls of his party in turn. Grace,
+watching the unusual scene with keen interest, observed that there was
+little or no change of partners. Each young mountaineer danced with the
+same girl most of the time, and she concluded that this was the custom
+up there in the mountains.
+
+At the end of the first dance after their arrival, Grace called Emma
+over to her.
+
+"I brought two boxes of candy with me, Emma," she whispered. "There is
+one box left at the camp and I wish to give that to the Thompson
+children. Do you wish to pass these two boxes around to the mountain
+girls?"
+
+Emma was delighted. It gave her an opportunity to place herself in a
+more prominent position than she had occupied on a bench at the side of
+the schoolroom.
+
+At first the mountain girls were shy, but they soon overcame their
+diffidence and helped themselves liberally--by the handful--to sweets
+such as few of them ever had tasted.
+
+"This is Mrs. Gray's treat," explained Emma to each girl.
+
+"Don't Ah git any?" teased the young mountaineer who had assisted
+Washington through the window.
+
+"Yes. You get left," came back Emma spiritedly.
+
+"Ah never gits left," he retorted, springing up and grabbing the little
+Overland girl.
+
+In a few seconds they were swinging around the room in a waltz, Emma's
+face flushed and triumphant, the face of the partner of the man she was
+dancing with growing blacker with the moments. The mountaineer would not
+release Emma until she had danced two dances with him, and by that time
+the girl he had brought to the party refused even to look at him.
+
+Emma made her unsought partner introduce her to other boys, and with
+smiles and teasing she won many partners, until the room was bordered
+with a ring of blazing and snapping eyes, all resentful at her success
+in winning their escorts.
+
+Grace tried to catch her eye to warn her, but Emma studiously refrained
+from permitting that very thing. Soon the mountain girls allowed
+themselves to be led to the dancing floor by others than their own
+escorts.
+
+The atmosphere was becoming highly charged. Even Hippy had swung a
+mountain miss out to the floor and was dancing with her, but the
+Overland girls, with the exception of Emma, had smilingly declined when
+invited by mountain boys to dance.
+
+Men, under the scornful smiles on the faces of their regular partners,
+were growing sullen. The laughter was dying from the faces of the
+dancers, and it was quite evident that trouble was brewing.
+
+"Call Hippy to you and tell him to sit down by you, Nora," whispered
+Grace Harlowe. "I will catch Emma at the end of this dance, if I can.
+That child is going to start a riot if she is allowed to go on much
+longer."
+
+Hippy got his summons a few moments thereafter. He obeyed it as
+gracefully as he could, but rather against his inclinations, for he was
+having a jolly time of it, forgetting for the moment that he was "a
+marked man."
+
+Grace explained the situation briefly to Hippy, and told him that
+between himself and Emma they had created a situation that bade fair to
+end in trouble.
+
+"What's the odds? I am a marked man anyway," answered Hippy, shrugging
+his shoulders.
+
+"You will be marked in reality if those husky young mountaineers get
+after you. Please keep your seat and fade out of the picture," urged
+Grace. "You see--"
+
+A voice to one side of her arrested Grace Harlowe's attention. She
+recognized it as the voice of Julie Thompson, whom she had not seen at
+the dance up to that time, though she had been looking for her.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Hipp," Julie was saying. "Ah wants t' give you-all a knockdown
+to mah feller. Oh, here's Miss Gray, too. Folks, this is my feller, Lum
+Bangs."
+
+"Sounds like a pain in the back," muttered Hippy.
+
+"Lum, shake paws with Mister Hipp an' Miss Gray. They're the folks that
+air campin' down by Paw's cornfield."
+
+"Glad to meet you, Lum, for we all think Julie is a mighty fine--"
+Hippy's voice trailed off into an indistinct murmur as he gazed up into
+the face of Julie's stalwart escort. He heard Grace give utterance to a
+scarcely audible laugh, but at that moment Hippy Wingate did not feel
+like laughter, for in Lum Bangs he recognized the "constable" whom he
+had knocked down and driven from the Overland camp by the cornfield.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+AN INTERRUPTED PARTY
+
+
+"Oh! It's you, is it?" muttered Lieutenant Wingate, rising slowly, his
+eyes fixed on the face of the man before him.
+
+"Ah reckons as it's me," agreed Lum, permitting a hand to slip
+carelessly inside his coat across the chest, where Lieutenant Wingate
+had reason to believe that a revolver hung suspended from a shoulder
+holster. This being the case, he considered it inadvisable to reach for
+his own weapon.
+
+As yet the drama being played by the two men had not attracted the
+attention of those in the schoolroom, with the exception of the Overland
+girls who had recognized Lum instantly, and Julie Thompson, who was
+gazing open-mouthed from one to the other of them.
+
+"Ah told ye t' git out, didn't Ah?" demanded the mountaineer in a
+strained voice.
+
+"And I put you out," retorted Hippy. "This is no place for a fight. If
+you wish to see me, come around to our camp in the morning."
+
+"Be careful, Hippy," warned Anne in a low tone.
+
+"Ah'm goin' t' say it agin, once more. You git out o' this right smart
+or Ah'll put er hole through yer miserable carcass!"
+
+Hippy suddenly found himself facing a revolver in the hands of Lum
+Bangs.
+
+The dancers stopped dancing, a couple at a time, and quickly got out of
+range of Lum Bangs' weapon; the music died away, and a heavy silence,
+tense with possibilities, settled over the hot, smoky room.
+
+"Are ye goin'?"
+
+"On one condition--that you put down your gun and come outside with me.
+We'll have it out man to man. These gentlemen will give us fair play,
+and the fellow who is whipped takes his medicine and goes. Are you man
+enough to come out and stand up to me?" Hippy thrust out his chin, and
+there was a set expression on his face, such as Grace Harlowe recalled
+having seen there immediately after he had shot down three German
+airplanes on the French fighting front.
+
+"No, no!" begged Nora, not much above a whisper.
+
+"Oh, stop him!" begged Emma of the young mountaineer with whom she had
+been dancing. "He's going to shoot. I know he is. Make them fight it
+out with their fists. Hippy whipped Lum once, and he can do it again.
+I'll be Lum's second and you can be the second for Lieutenant Wingate."
+
+"What's er second, Miss?"
+
+"A--a second is one who fans his fighter with a towel, and wipes up the
+blood. Oh, do stop him!"
+
+"Ah reckon Ah will," drawled the mountaineer.
+
+"Are ye goin'?" demanded Lum Bangs.
+
+"No!"
+
+"Drop that gun or I'll drill ye, Lum Bangs!" commanded the cool voice of
+Emma Dean's dancing partner, his revolver now levelled at Lum.
+
+The warning came too late.
+
+Lum Bangs, in a sudden impulse of rage, pulled the trigger and fired
+point blank at Lieutenant Wingate, but the young mountaineer's warning
+to him, at the critical moment, had drawn Lum's thoughts from his aim,
+and his bullet missed its mark. Hippy heard it whistle past him close to
+his head.
+
+_Bang!_
+
+Barely a second had elapsed between Lum Bangs' shot and a second report.
+
+Lum uttered a howl, and his weapon dropped from his relaxed fingers,
+just as Hippy sprang upon him and dealt the mountaineer a blow that
+felled him.
+
+"Don't! Don't, Hippy! The man has been shot," begged Anne.
+
+"Jump on him! Stomp on him, why don't ye?" screamed a mountain girl.
+
+The room was in instant uproar, and weapons were drawn and levelled
+menacingly at the young mountaineer who had ordered Lum to "drop" his
+gun.
+
+"Stop!" cried Emma Dean excitedly. "This man didn't fire that second
+shot. He has done nothing, so put away your cannon."
+
+"That's right, folks. Ah didn't shoot, but Ah was goin' t'. Some other
+duffer fired the shot that hit Lum. You-all kin look at mah gun." He
+held it out with the muzzle toward him.
+
+The men crowded about him, examining the cylinder to see if a cartridge
+had been fired from it, and taking a sniff at the muzzle.
+
+"That's right. It ain't been fired," agreed a mountaineer, a puzzled
+expression appearing on his face. "Did Lum get his'n?"
+
+"No. The bullet went through his wrist," answered Lieutenant Wingate,
+who, having turned up the sleeve of Bangs' coat, was peering at the
+wounded wrist. "Men, I'm sorry I struck him, but you see I didn't know
+some one was going to shoot him. I had to punch him to save my own
+life, expecting that he would shoot again. As it was I nearly ran into
+that second shot. Fetch me something--some water."
+
+A glass of lemonade was brought, and Nora Wingate threw it into the face
+of the unconscious mountaineer. In the meantime, Elfreda was giving
+first aid to the injured wrist. Lum began to stir about this time, and,
+at Elfreda's suggestion, he was carried to a window where he might get
+more free air.
+
+The mountaineers were puzzled. They had, by then, examined every
+revolver in the room, including those carried by the Overland Riders,
+but not one had been fired.
+
+"Ah wants ter know who fired that shot," demanded one of them. "Somebody
+did, an' we're goin' to find the critter that did it. I ain't sayin'
+that this feller with the uniform on didn't do all right in hittin' Lum,
+but what we wants t' find out is who winged him in the wrist."
+
+"I think, gentlemen, that the second shot was fired through the window.
+I am quite certain that it was. I sat near the window and the report of
+the weapon seemed to be behind me," Anne Nesbit informed them.
+
+There was a concerted rush for the outer air, leaving the Overlanders to
+attend to Lum Bangs, who was now almost wholly restored to
+consciousness. Julie Thompson was standing back a little from the group
+about him, gazing at Lum, a heavy frown on her forehead. Grace nodded
+and smiled to the girl.
+
+"Don't worry, Julie. He will be all right in a few moments," soothed the
+Overland girl.
+
+"I ain't worryin' fer the likes o' him," she replied, elevating her chin
+and turning her back on her escort.
+
+The Overland girls looked at each other inquiringly.
+
+"Ah hearn somethin' 'bout ye to-night, Lum Bangs, that ye don't know as
+Ah does know," she said, whirling suddenly on him.
+
+"You-all ain't goin' back on me, are yuh, Julie?" begged Lum.
+
+"Naw. Ah ain't goin' back on ye, cause Ah already has. Ah don't want
+nothin' more t' do with ye. Understand?"
+
+The mountaineer's face reddened.
+
+"Who shot me?" he demanded, sitting up suddenly and feeling for his
+weapon.
+
+"You needn't look at me that way," objected Hippy. "I didn't shoot you.
+I punched you, that's all. Some one on the outside of the building fired
+the shot that hit you. I--"
+
+A commotion at the door interrupted Hippy. The mountaineers came
+crowding in dragging Washington Washington with them. Washington's eyes
+were rolling, and he was trembling from fright.
+
+"Is this heah your niggah?" demanded one, glaring at Hippy.
+
+"No, he isn't my 'niggah,' but he belongs to our outfit. Why?" replied
+Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"'Cause we found him hidin' in the bushes, an' reckoned as mebby he is
+the feller that shot Lum."
+
+"What, Wash?" laughed Emma Dean. "Why, Wash couldn't hit the side of a
+barn with a shotgun. Besides, he has no revolver, and it was a revolver
+that fired the shot you refer to."
+
+"Let me talk to him," urged Grace. "Washington, were you outside near
+the building when the shots were fired?" she asked in a soothing tone.
+
+"Yessah--yes'm."
+
+"Did you see any one near the window?"
+
+"Yessah--yes'm. Ah--Ah sawed er man hidin' in de bush dere."
+
+"Did you see him shoot?" asked Elfreda.
+
+"Ah did not, but Ah heard him shoot, den w'en Ah looked, Ah didn't sawed
+him no moah."
+
+"Who was it?" demanded a mountaineer.
+
+"Ah doan know. Ah didn't sawed him close 'nuf, an' den Ah didn't sawed
+him at all."
+
+"He oughter be strung up anyway," suggested a voice.
+
+"Don't get excited! Don't get excited," urged Lieutenant Wingate, when
+it became plain that the mountaineers were determined to make further
+trouble.
+
+"Gentlemen, Lieutenant Wingate has given you good advice. That colored
+boy is not to be blamed for what has occurred here," declared Miss
+Briggs, getting to her feet. "It is not necessary for you to take my
+word for that, nor the boy's. You can prove it for yourselves."
+
+"How?" demanded several voices.
+
+"Go outside and examine the bushes that grow by the window through which
+the shot was fired, and look at the ground carefully for foot-tracks. I
+am amazed that you didn't think of it yourselves. You see when one is
+angry he does not reason and--"
+
+The men did not give her opportunity to finish. They again bolted from
+the schoolroom. Their voices and their exclamations were heard under the
+window a moment later.
+
+"That was fine, J. Elfreda," glowed Grace.
+
+"If they fail to find tracks there I am sorry for Wash, that's all,"
+replied Miss Briggs with a shrug.
+
+"Yer right!" cried a mountaineer, entering the room at that juncture.
+"We seen where the critter was standin' when he shot Lum. We seen the
+mark o' his boots, and the bunch is startin' to follow his trail. Reckon
+you gals might as well go home, fer they'll be a different kind o' a
+party if they kotch him. Won't be no more dancin' t'-night."
+
+"Ladies, I am sorry if we were the cause of trouble here," began Grace.
+
+"You-all ain't," protested Julie.
+
+"Thank you." Grace favored her with a radiant smile. "What I was about
+to say, is that we expect to break camp and go on to-morrow morning. If
+we do not, we should like to have you young ladies come and call on us.
+It is always open house in the Overland camp. Julie, I hope we shall see
+you in the morning."
+
+"Ah don't reckon as you-all will be goin' away in the mornin'. Ah
+s'ppose Ah ought t' tell you-all what Ah knows, but Ah reckons
+you-all'll find out for yourselves soon 'nuf."
+
+Julie's words did not impress the Overlanders at the moment, but while
+on their way to camp they pondered over them, discussed them and
+wondered what she may have meant.
+
+The answer to the question in their minds Grace and her friends found
+awaiting them when they reached the camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A CALL FOR HELP
+
+
+"Hippy, did you know that I saved your life to-night?" asked Emma Dean
+as the party neared their camp.
+
+"You--you saved my life?" questioned Lieutenant Wingate in amazement.
+
+"Uh-huh."
+
+Hippy laughed uproariously.
+
+"You poor child, you got us all in Dutch, that's what you really did."
+
+"With your assistance, Hippy," interjected Anne. "How did you save his
+life, please, Emma?"
+
+"I con-centrated. When Lum pointed the revolver at Hippy, I put my mind
+on making him miss his aim. He did, didn't he?"
+
+"Yes," agreed the girls, Hippy saying nothing at all.
+
+"Then, I con-centrated on him that he might not shoot again. He didn't,
+did he?"
+
+"Of course, you are right in what you say," agreed Nora. "He did miss
+and he did not shoot again, but I think you are drawing the long bow,
+darlin', in taking all the credit to yourself. What do you say, Hippy?"
+she asked solemnly.
+
+"Nothing! Nothing at all. After I have had an opportunity to consult a
+dictionary perhaps I may make a few appropriate remarks."
+
+The party, with the exception of Emma, after a hearty laugh, fell to
+discussing the incidents of the evening, particularly the mysterious
+shot that, perhaps, had saved Lieutenant Wingate's life. They were still
+discussing that mysterious occurrence when they rode up to their camp.
+
+Washington Washington, who had been silent all the way home, perhaps
+thinking over the narrow escape that he had had from rough handling,
+suddenly set up a wail and began to chatter so fast that they were
+unable to make a single thing of what he was saying.
+
+"Stop that!" commanded Hippy. "Have you gone crazy?"
+
+"Something is wrong here, darlin'. Don't scold the boy," begged Nora
+Wingate.
+
+"The tents are down. Washington, build a fire. Be quick about it,"
+directed Grace, leaping from her pony.
+
+Anne, who had reached what had been her own tent, uttered an exclamation
+of dismay.
+
+"Girls, this tent has been slit into ribbons!" she cried.
+
+"So has mine," cried Elfreda. "What has happened here?"
+
+"That is what I am wondering," replied Grace. "Washington, please hurry
+with that fire."
+
+Hippy ran over and assisted the colored boy, who was fumbling about and
+not accomplishing anything. In a few moments Hippy had a fire snapping.
+By its light they looked about in amazement. The camp was a wreck. Every
+tent in their outfit had been slit to pieces, tent poles had been broken
+up, and such other equipment as they had left out, including three
+blankets, which had been overlooked when they hid their belongings, had
+been practically destroyed.
+
+A sudden thought occurring to her, Anne ran on fleet feet to the place
+where their provisions and equipment had been secreted. She found the
+stones torn away from the opening and their supplies scattered about.
+The ground about the opening to the hiding place was littered with them.
+
+Her next move was to look for their rifles and ammunition. A moment
+later she ran breathlessly into camp.
+
+"The equipment has been scattered, but the rifles and ammunition are as
+we left them," panted Anne. "This is a fright."
+
+"There! Why didn't you 'con-centrate,' Emma Dean?" demanded Hippy. "Old
+Con-centration is never on the job when he is really needed."
+
+"How could I when I didn't know anything about this?" returned Emma,
+with a sweeping gesture that took in the entire camp. "What are we going
+to do now? Where are we to sleep, I ask you?"
+
+"Sleep standing up just as the ponies do, my darlin'," suggested Nora.
+"Who do you suppose could have done such a thing? Why--"
+
+Washington, who had gone out to tether the horses, set up a howl that
+called the Overlanders to him on a run.
+
+"Dey done got de mule! Dey done got de mule!" he wailed. "What Ah gwine
+do now? Ah doan like dis nohow. Ah sure gwine took er frenzy spell if
+dis doan stop right smart."
+
+"The mule?" gasped Anne. "Why--wha--"
+
+The pack mule that had been left at the camp, they saw laying stretched
+out on the ground, its halter still tied to a sapling. Hippy was now
+standing over it, peering down at the animal. Stooping over, he examined
+it briefly.
+
+"Somebody has done it this time. The mule is dead, folks," he announced,
+standing up. "Shot through the head. It seems our _friends_ have not yet
+deserted us."
+
+"This is an outrage!" muttered Elfreda.
+
+Grace turned on her lamp and went over the ground about the mule,
+examining the dirt for footprints as carefully as possible. Next she
+visited the hiding place of their provisions and equipment, there to
+make the same careful, painstaking search of the ground.
+
+"Hob-nail boots. I find the imprint of the same boots in both places.
+One man apparently did all of this," was her conclusion.
+
+"Such as all these mountaineers wear," added Anne.
+
+"Perhaps, but I do not believe it. These boots had a horseshoe of
+hob-nails on each heel. Look at the footprints in the morning and see
+for yourself."
+
+"Wait!" exclaimed Miss Briggs. "I have a thought."
+
+"Hold it," called Hippy. "We need real thought this very minute."
+
+"Have you forgotten what Julie said to us?" asked Elfreda. "I believe
+this is what she meant by her remark that we would find out for
+ourselves soon enough."
+
+"She knew, then!" exclaimed Nora.
+
+"I believe she did, though how, I am at a loss to understand," answered
+Elfreda.
+
+"Girls, girls! Don't waste time talking," urged Grace. "We have work to
+do, unless you folks prefer to sleep in the open to-night. I believe we
+can mend enough of this canvas to use as a big blanket. We can then
+sleep together and keep each other warm underneath it, I think.
+Washington, please go out and gather up all of the stuff that you can
+find. Some of our provisions have been destroyed, but there may be
+enough for a few meals. Fetch everything here so we can look it over by
+the campfire."
+
+All hands set to work to make the best of their disaster, and as they
+worked they discussed the problem uppermost in the mind of each. They
+were busily engaged when a shout brought instant silence to the group.
+
+"Miss Gray! Miss Gray!" some one called from the darkness.
+
+"Yes," answered Grace.
+
+A woman came floundering along the trail at the edge of the cornfield.
+
+"It's Miss Thompson. Ah wants Miss Gray."
+
+"She seems excited," observed Emma.
+
+"What is it, Mrs. Thompson?" called Grace, stepping out to meet the
+mountaineer's wife.
+
+"The chilern has took a frenzy, an' Ah don't know what t' do," cried the
+woman, wringing her hands.
+
+Slipping an arm through hers, Grace led the woman up to the campfire.
+
+"Compose yourself. Now what is the trouble? Are the children sick?" she
+asked.
+
+"Yes'm. An' Jed's gone away an' Ah don't know what t' do. Ah thought as
+mebby ye'd come up to the house an' see."
+
+"I surely will. Miss Briggs, who was a nurse in the war, will be of more
+assistance to you than I could be, so I will take her with me."
+
+Jed Thompson's wife heaved a deep sigh. A load already had been lifted
+from her mind.
+
+"Ah didn't think ye'd come, but Julie said as you'd come right smart."
+
+"Julie was right," smiled Grace, "even though we are in rather bad shape
+here. Some one nearly destroyed our camp while we were at the dance. I
+will be back before long," she added, speaking to her companions. "Come,
+Elfreda."
+
+On the way to the Thompson cabin the two girls questioned Mrs. Thompson
+as to what ailed Lizzie and Sue, those being the names of the two sick
+children. They were able to make but little out of her description of
+the children's condition.
+
+The sick ones were babbling when Grace and Miss Briggs entered the room.
+Elfreda sniffed the air.
+
+"I smell fever. Open the windows, Mrs. Thompson. You must have air in
+this room."
+
+Julie, her face wearing a frightened look, sat regarding the children,
+both of whom were delirious. A look of relief flashed into her eyes as
+Grace and Miss Briggs entered and Elfreda stepped directly to the bed on
+which both children lay. She felt the pulse of each, looked into their
+mouths, and listened to their breathing.
+
+[Illustration: "High Fever?" Murmured Grace.]
+
+"High fever?" murmured Grace questioningly.
+
+"Yes. Very high. I wish I had a clinical thermometer. Make her throw
+those windows open as far as they will go, and, if that doesn't give
+enough air, open the door."
+
+The entire family lived, ate and slept in the one room of the cabin, and
+the air, normally bad enough, was infinitely worse now.
+
+"How long have they been this way, Mrs. Thompson?" questioned Elfreda.
+
+"They was took that-away t'-night. They ain't been right smart fer some
+little time."
+
+Miss Briggs and Grace consulted aside. At the conclusion of their
+consultation, carried on in low tones, Elfreda turned to the mountain
+woman.
+
+"These children must have a doctor without delay, Mrs. Thompson. Where
+is the nearest doctor to be found?"
+
+The woman said the nearest one was at Holcomb Court House.
+
+"We passed through there on our way here, did we not?" asked Elfreda.
+
+"Yes," replied Grace. "It must be twenty miles or so from here. Have you
+any one that you can send there for the doctor?"
+
+Mrs. Thompson shook her head.
+
+"Mah man's gone awa' an' won't be back till t'-morrow. Ain't no one else
+that Ah knows 'bout."
+
+"Do you think it would be safe to wait until morning, Elfreda?" asked
+Grace.
+
+"No. The little one's heart is not acting right. We must have treatment
+for her as soon as possible."
+
+"Very well. I will hurry back to camp. Hippy must go after the doctor,
+though I really hate to ask him. What do you think is the matter with
+them?" nodding toward the bed.
+
+"Frankly, I don't know. I do know that they are very sick children."
+
+"Poor Hippy," murmured Grace, a faint smile on her face, as she hurried
+from the mountain cabin and started at a run towards the Overland
+Riders' camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+HIPPY AS A ROUGHRIDER
+
+
+Reaching her camp, Grace quickly acquainted the girls with conditions at
+the Thompson cabin. She then turned to Hippy and told him that he must
+ride to Holcomb Court House and fetch a doctor.
+
+"All right. I'll get an early start in the morning and--"
+
+"No! To-night! Now, Hippy. To-morrow may be too late," urged Grace.
+
+"Of course, if it is so bad as that. Why don't you have Emma Dean
+'con-centrate'?"
+
+"This is not a matter to make light of, Hippy Wingate," rebuked Nora.
+"Of course you will go."
+
+"Laundry, get my pony, and be lively about it," ordered Lieutenant
+Wingate.
+
+While this was being done, and Hippy was looking to his rifle and
+revolver, Grace was explaining to him how to reach Holcomb over the
+broad wagon trail that they had followed during the last day of their
+journey. Nora, in the meantime, was packing her husband's kit with
+sufficient food, that had been picked up from the scattered remnants, to
+see him through the trip. Twenty minutes later they had started Hippy on
+his way.
+
+"If I don't come back, remember that I had a price on my head," he
+called back to his companions.
+
+"Pack up!" directed Grace. "We must move up near the Thompson cabin. It
+won't do for you girls to remain here alone."
+
+"Where shall we camp?" asked Anne, a worried look on her face. "We have
+no tents fit for use."
+
+"I don't know just yet, but they have a barn. Perhaps you might sleep
+there. I must stay with Elfreda, at least until the doctor comes."
+
+All the girls began to prepare for moving, and finally their possessions
+were strapped in packs, some of which they placed on the backs of
+ponies, for they were one mule short, and moved up to Thompson's.
+
+Bidding her companions wait outside, Grace went in and consulted with
+the mountaineer's wife.
+
+"Yes, you folks will have to sleep in the barn," Grace informed them.
+
+"I never thought I should have to sleep with the pigs and the cows,"
+declared Nora. "Bad luck to the man that spoiled our fun."
+
+There was an old haymow overhead in the barn, and there the girls
+decided to make their bed for the night.
+
+"If there are mice up here I shall die of fright, I know," groaned Emma.
+
+"'Con-centrate' on the mice," advised Anne teasingly. "Once they bump
+against that 'imponderable quantity,' the mice will trouble you no
+more."
+
+"Why can't we go into the cabin and lie down on the floor? It can't be
+worse than the barn," urged Nora.
+
+Grace firmly refused to permit it. Not knowing what the two children
+were suffering from, she knew that it would be inadvisable for her
+companions even to enter the cabin.
+
+The girls found their way to the hayloft, after many bumps and falls
+accompanied by smothered cries and loud protests from Emma, and after he
+had tethered the horses and the mule just outside the barn, Washington
+Washington was put to bed on the barn floor. Grace then returned to the
+cabin.
+
+The children were still delirious and Elfreda said that their
+temperature seemed to be rising. She decided to give them a sponge bath.
+This occupied some time, but it had the effect of reducing their
+temperatures somewhat.
+
+Julie watched every movement of the Overland nurses, following them
+with eyes in which wonder was not unmixed with admiration, but Mrs.
+Thompson seemed helpless to do or think, and sat regarding them with
+expressionless eyes, now and then heaving a troubled sigh.
+
+Along towards morning the children ceased their babbling and sank into
+an uneasy sleep. The mother, soon after, dozed off in her chair.
+
+"Julie, get some water and soap and help us clean this place. It's a
+fright," declared Miss Briggs.
+
+This Julie did, so far as getting the water was concerned, but she took
+so little interest in scrubbing the floor that Grace and Elfreda were
+obliged to take that task into their own hands. They were down on their
+knees scrubbing away, when Mrs. Thompson awakened.
+
+"What you-all doin'?" she demanded blinkingly.
+
+"Cleaning house," replied Elfreda briefly.
+
+"'Tain't no use. It'll git dirty ag'in. Ah reckon Jed won't like it,
+neither."
+
+"We don't care whether Jed likes it or not," retorted Grace. "Leave him
+to us, Mrs. Thompson."
+
+Early in the morning Grace and Elfreda went out to the barn to see how
+it had fared with their friends. They were a "frowzy lot," as Miss
+Briggs characterized their appearance. Their heads were full of hay,
+their eyes were red, and their faces showed much loss of sleep.
+
+"You folks go down to the brook and wash, and by the time you return we
+shall have breakfast cooked for you," offered Elfreda.
+
+The breakfast they cooked on Mrs. Thompson's stove, but in the
+Overlanders' utensils. Nor would they permit any of the girls to come
+into the house for the food. Handing the breakfast out to the eagerly
+waiting hands of their companions, Grace and Miss Briggs soon followed
+and joined the girls at breakfast in the open.
+
+It was not a particularly enjoyable meal. Not once during the breakfast
+had one mentioned Hippy Wingate and his mission, and it was not until
+they had finished and sat back that Nora broached the subject.
+
+"When should Hippy be back?" she asked.
+
+"If he found the doctor at once he should have been here two or three
+hours ago," replied Grace.
+
+"Don't get excited, Nora," begged Elfreda, as Nora's face paled ever so
+little. "A number of things may have occurred to detain him. Hippy is
+not one to be beaten when he starts out with a definite purpose in
+view."
+
+"Especially when I am con-centrating on him," spoke up Emma.
+
+This brought a laugh and put all the girls in instant good humor. They
+were interrupted by Julie who came out rubbing her eyes, after a few
+hours' sleep on a blanket on the floor of the cabin.
+
+"Maw wants to know what she'll give Sue and Liz fer breakfast?" she
+asked.
+
+"Breakfast?" exclaimed Elfreda. "Not a mouthful until the doctor gets
+here and advises what is to be done. They may have all the water they
+wish, but nothing of solid food. You won't forget, will you?"
+
+Julie shook her head.
+
+"This is the first opportunity I have had to speak with you quietly
+since last night, Julie," said Grace. "You made a remark as we were
+about to leave the dance, indicating that you knew something had
+occurred at our camp. Julie, you knew what had been done there, didn't
+you?"
+
+The mountain girl nodded.
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+"Er feller an' girl comin' t' the dance seen it," she answered with some
+hesitation.
+
+"And you know who did it?"
+
+"Uh-huh," nodded the girl.
+
+"Who was it?"
+
+"Ah shan't tell you-all!" exclaimed Julie, a challenge snapping in her
+black eyes.
+
+"That is all right, my dear, if you do not wish to speak. How is your
+friend, Lum Bangs, to-day?"
+
+"He ain't no friend of mine. Ah don't know nothin' 'bout how he is, an'
+Ah don't care." Julie blazed as she said it.
+
+The Overland girls smiled. Grace's question, they thought, had been
+answered.
+
+"Thar comes somebody," cried Julie, distracting the attention of all
+from the subject.
+
+A man on horseback was seen pounding up the trail at a fast pace.
+
+"It's the doc!" announced the mountain girl.
+
+"Hippy! Where's Hippy?" gasped Nora.
+
+"Keep steady," urged Grace, as they got up and walked out to meet the
+doctor in front of the cabin.
+
+"Are you the doctor?" asked Elfreda as he rode up and swung a hand to
+them.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where did you leave Lieutenant Wingate?" asked Grace.
+
+"About ten miles down the trail. I got here as quickly as possible. To
+be brief, we were attacked from ambush. The lieutenant's horse was shot
+from under him. We both began shooting, but he yelled to me, 'Go on,
+Doc. They need you at Thompson's. I'll get out of it somehow.'
+
+"Well, I saw that he was right, so I rode for keeps till I got out of
+range of the bullets. Lively neighborhood up here, eh? I'll see the
+patients, if you please."
+
+Elfreda conducted the doctor into the cabin, Grace remaining to comfort
+Nora and to consider what was best to be done in the circumstances. Nora
+was urging her to start out in search of Hippy, but Grace pointed out
+that they were as likely to miss as to find him, and that the best
+course appeared to be to wait until later in the day, then, should
+Lieutenant Wingate not return, a searching party must be organized to go
+out for him. Grace then entered the cottage and the girls led Nora out
+to the shady side of the barn where they consoled her as best they
+could.
+
+"I will sit right down here and con-centrate," promised Emma. "You will
+see that it will fetch him back. If it doesn't never, never again will I
+con-centrate on Hippy. The trouble is that he resists the instant he
+feels the magnetic current, which makes con-centrating very difficult
+and takes so much of the imponderable quality out of one--"
+
+"Emma! Emma!" cried Anne. "For mercy sake come up and get a breath of
+air. You will drown if you stay down another second."
+
+Nora laughed heartily.
+
+In the meantime Grace and Elfreda were leaning over the bed watching the
+doctor's diagnosis. Elfreda told him what had been done for the two
+children, naming the few home remedies that she had been able to find
+and administer to them.
+
+"Good, Miss Lizzie might have been dead by this time if you had not done
+what you did. Susie is not in quite such bad shape."
+
+"What is the matter with them?" questioned Grace.
+
+"Scarlet fever--both of them," was the terse answer. "Have your party
+all been exposed?"
+
+Elfreda informed him that, not knowing what the children's trouble was,
+they had thought best not to permit the Overland Riders to enter the
+cabin.
+
+Grace questioned the doctor further on the attack that had been made on
+himself and Hippy, and asked him to indicate, as nearly as possible, the
+spot where the attack was made.
+
+The doctor was giving them the details when the door of the cabin was
+roughly thrown open and a man stepped in.
+
+"It's Paw! Hello, Paw. The Doc is here."
+
+Jed Thompson carried a rifle under his arm, and his face was as black as
+a thunder cloud.
+
+"Here's a squall," murmured Miss Briggs, just loud enough for Grace to
+hear.
+
+"What you-all doin' here?" he demanded, eyeing the two Overland Riders
+sternly.
+
+It was plain that Thompson's anger was rapidly getting the best of him.
+
+"You-all! Git out o' mah house afore Ah throws ye out!" he roared.
+
+"Be quiet, Paw," urged Julie weakly, Mrs. Thompson being too frightened
+to utter a word.
+
+"When we have finished with our work, Mr. Thompson, we will leave. Not
+one second sooner," retorted Elfreda Briggs coolly, as she stepped
+forward and faced the irate mountaineer.
+
+"Then Ah'll throw ye out! The pack of ye git out afore Ah fergits
+mahself and shoots ye out."
+
+Jed started for Miss Briggs, his anger now beyond all control.
+
+"Stop where you are, Jed Thompson!" commanded Elfreda Briggs.
+
+The mountaineer halted abruptly. He was facing J. Elfreda's revolver,
+which was leveled at him, held in a steady hand.
+
+"Let your rifle drop to the floor," she directed sweetly. "Drop it! My
+hand is a little nervous to-day and this revolver might go off."
+
+The rifle clattered to the floor, but Elfreda Briggs still held her
+position, her eyes narrowly watching the angry mountaineer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+AN APOLOGY AND A THREAT
+
+
+"Here, here, here!" roared the doctor in a commanding voice. "What
+you-all trying to do here? Haven't you got trouble enough on hand
+without looking for more, Jed Thompson? Give me that gun."
+
+The doctor recovered the fallen rifle, drew the cartridges from its
+magazine, dropped them in his pocket and stood the gun in a corner.
+
+Elfreda lowered her weapon, but did not immediately return it to its
+holster under her blouse.
+
+"Thank you," she said, smiling over at the doctor.
+
+"Listen to me, Jed," ordered the doctor. "These young women came here to
+see what they could do for Sue and Liz. If they hadn't, Liz probably
+would be dead this minute. They saved her life, Jed Thompson. Now what
+have you got to say for yourself?"
+
+"That right, Doc?"
+
+"It's the almighty truth. That isn't all. Lieutenant Wingate, one of
+their party, rode all the way to Holcomb after me last night and nearly
+killed his horse. On the way back we were attacked from ambush and the
+lieutenant's horse was shot from under him. I tried to stick and help
+him fight the critters off, but he told me to 'get!' Said I was needed
+here. He's down there yet, maybe dead. Jed Thompson, you ought to get
+down on your knees and apologize to these women folk. I've half a notion
+to whale you if you don't."
+
+Jed fumbled his hat.
+
+"Who do you-all reckon did the attackin'?" he stammered.
+
+"I don't know. You ought to know more about it than I do. You folks up
+here in the hills are altogether too sudden--too handy with your guns.
+One of these days you will meet some one who is more so."
+
+"Ah reckons that young woman's kinder sudden, too," answered Jed, with a
+sheepish grin at Miss Briggs. "Do you-all say that some critter shot at
+that feller when he was fetchin' you-all here for Liz an' Sue?"
+
+"Yes. They may have got him before this."
+
+"Gi' me that rifle!" demanded the mountaineer sternly.
+
+"Wait, Jed. What do you propose to do?" questioned the doctor.
+
+"Ah'm goin' t' fetch the loot'nant, an' Ah'm goin' t' git the feller
+that shot you-all up if Ah kin kotch him."
+
+"Take the rifle, Jed, and the best of luck," bowed the doctor, handing
+the weapon to the mountaineer, and reaching into his pocket for the
+cartridges he had taken from it. "We'll now see what we can do for the
+sick."
+
+Jed was out of the house and across the field at top speed by the time
+Elfreda had reached the door, after stowing her revolver.
+
+"He is right," nodded Grace, regarding Elfreda with sparkling eyes. "You
+_are_ sudden. I did not think it was in you to be so quick."
+
+"Huh! I was scared half to death. It is a wonder I didn't--"
+
+"Of course we take that for granted," twinkled Grace.
+
+The doctor announced that he would stay until the children got better,
+all day and night if necessary. There being nothing more for them to do
+for the time being, Grace and Elfreda joined their companions outside.
+
+They had not been outside the cabin very long before Emma uttered a
+little cry of delight, and excitedly pointed down the trail that led
+past the cornfield.
+
+"Look! Oh, look! There comes Hippy and Mr. Thompson. Didn't I tell you I
+would fetch Hippy back?" she cried.
+
+"Why, Emma, how is that?" wondered Grace.
+
+"I con-centrated on him, I did, and--"
+
+"She did," glowed Nora, running forward to meet her husband.
+
+"You should open an office when you get home," advised Miss Briggs. "Let
+me see, your business sign should read, 'Miss Dean, Imponderable
+Concentrator.'"
+
+"Make all the fun you wish. I know now what I can do, and you know what
+I have done, only you folks are too stubborn to admit it." Emma elevated
+her chin and stamped around behind the barn out of sight.
+
+After Hippy had embraced Nora and greeted the other girls he shook hands
+with the doctor, who had come to the cabin door to wave a hand at Hippy.
+
+"They didn't get you after all, I see," chuckled the doctor.
+
+Hippy grinned.
+
+"Now you-all is back, Ah wants t' talk t' ye," said Jed.
+
+"Just a minute, Jed. What's that, Doc?"
+
+"I say, what happened after I left you?"
+
+"We took a few pot shots at each other from the bushes. The bullets got
+rather thick, so I decided upon a retreat. Came near having another
+set-to with Jed. We both were stalking each other down the trail a
+piece, but Jed got the drop on me and, when he found out who I was, he
+told me that he had come after me and why."
+
+The doctor chuckled and returned to his patients, whereupon Hippy nodded
+to the mountaineer, and the latter led the way to the rear of the barn
+where they found Emma sunning herself and "con-centrating" on something.
+Hippy waved her away and turned to Thompson.
+
+"What's the big idea, Jed?" he asked jovially.
+
+"That's what Ah wants t' know, Jim Townsend."
+
+"Eh? Townsend! I don't get you."
+
+"We uns up here ain't no fools even if we hain't got edication. We uns
+knowed you-all was comin'. If I'd seen ye before ye did this fer Liz an'
+Sue, I'd a plugged ye shore."
+
+"Just a moment, please. Let me get this straight. Who is it you think I
+am?"
+
+"Yer Jim Townsend. Ah knows you-all, cause you-all was pinted out t' me
+one time down t' Henderson, 'cept ye didn't have on them togs you-all is
+wearin' now."
+
+"Who is Townsend?" questioned Hippy. "If he looks like me, he is a very
+fortunate man."
+
+"You be he. What Ah wants t' know is what--jest what's yer game up
+here? As Ah've said, you-all, and the wimmen, has done me a favor an' no
+man kin say Jed Thompson ever fergits a favor. But it kain't last.
+You-all got ter git out. What Ah ain't goin' t' do now, an' what some
+other folks might do, is two different things. Ah tell ye it ain't safe
+fer ye t' stay up here in these hills at all."
+
+"Listen to me, Thompson. I don't know who this man is that looks like
+me, but I have every reason to believe that my name is Wingate. The
+record in the family Bible at home says I am, and what I read in that
+book I believe. You're wrong, Buddy. I am Wingate. I was a lieutenant in
+the flying corps during the war with Germany. These young women were
+over there too, as nurses, ambulance drivers and in other wartime
+occupations. When we returned to the United States, we decided to take a
+vacation in the saddle each season until we tired of it. The first
+season we rode over the Apache Trail in Arizona. Last year we crossed
+the Great American Desert in the west. This season we decided to come up
+here and combine business with pleasure."
+
+Thompson's under jaw, Hippy observed, was sagging a little.
+
+"An uncle, among other things, left me some mountain property on White
+River Ridge. I have never seen it, but I am now on my way to look it
+over and see if it is worth anything. That is the business to which I
+referred, and is the only business I have in the Kentucky mountains. Are
+you satisfied?"
+
+"If Ah ain't, Ah'll give you-all warnin' that somebody'll shoot ye till
+you-all's daid!" warned Jed Thompson.
+
+"That is a game two can play at. I have played at it myself," chuckled
+Lieutenant Wingate. "You have given me a timely warning, and I'll return
+the compliment, old dear."
+
+"What's that ye say?"
+
+"I have not said it; I am about to say it. Listen, Jed! Bat Spurgeon's
+gang has planned to come over here on the twenty-third and shoot up you
+and your crowd until you-all are 'daid,'" was Hippy Wingate's solemn
+warning. "Put that in your pipe and smoke it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+JULIE BRINGS DISTURBING NEWS
+
+
+"Is that right, Loot'nant?" demanded the mountaineer, leaning forward
+and peering searchingly at his informant.
+
+"It is my information."
+
+"Whar you hear it?"
+
+"I overheard it one night. Another thing. That friend of yours, Lum
+Bangs, I should not trust too far were I in your place. Mind you, I
+don't speak with any knowledge that he isn't your friend, but I should
+advise you to keep your eyes on him."
+
+"Ah reckons you-all ain't such a fool as ye look," grunted Jed Thompson,
+turning abruptly and striding away.
+
+"Whew! That was a blow below the belt," muttered Hippy. "I am glad that
+Emma Dean didn't hear that."
+
+Lieutenant Wingate heard Thompson getting his horse from the barn, and,
+a moment or so later, saw him riding away, rifle thrust in the saddle
+boot. Jed did not return until late that night, after all were asleep.
+The doctor had decided to remain all night with his patients, so
+Elfreda and Grace made up their beds in the barn for a much-needed
+night's rest.
+
+Before they were awake next morning, the mountaineer had again ridden
+away, and soon after breakfast the girls began work on their equipment,
+patching up the tents and sewing the blankets that had been cut. The
+doctor reported that Lizzie and Sue were considerably improved, and
+decided that, if their improvement continued, he would return to Holcomb
+that afternoon.
+
+This he did, leaving medicine and explicit directions after extracting a
+promise from the Overlanders to remain with the patients until he came
+up later in the week.
+
+Three days later the Overland Riders, having finished their mending,
+pitched their camp in the open near the barn, where they felt much more
+comfortable.
+
+During the days that followed the departure of the doctor, the girls and
+Julie came to know and understand each other better. Julie would sit for
+hours watching them at their sewing or knitting, as they in turn watched
+over the sick children. Elfreda told Julie of their work in France, of
+the bravery of Grace Harlowe and Hippy Wingate; of the little orphan
+that Grace had taken from a deserted French village one night and later
+adopted; of her own little Lindy, the hermit's daughter, and of many
+other things that deeply interested the black-eyed, fiery mountain girl.
+
+In return, however, Julie told very little of the affairs of the
+mountaineers. Like all of her kind she was close-mouthed, as the
+Kentucky mountain people had learned from bitter experience was the only
+way to safety, for an indiscreet word might be passed along and bring
+the revenue officers down on the moonshiners, which most of the mountain
+men were.
+
+While nursing the sick girls, Grace wrote to Tom at Hall's Corners,
+asking him to wait there as the Overland outfit undoubtedly would be
+late in reaching the rendezvous. Hippy, in the meantime, with Julie's
+assistance, had found and bought a horse to take the place of his lost
+pony.
+
+The doctor came up on Saturday, and after looking the patients over
+announced that they were now wholly out of danger.
+
+"Then, I suppose we are no longer needed here," suggested Miss Briggs.
+
+"Well, I shouldn't exactly say that, but it will be safe to leave them.
+Julie must have learned something from your attention to her sisters,"
+said the doctor.
+
+"She has learned to be helpful, at least," interjected Grace. "We would
+not go, but it is important that we start as soon as possible. However,
+Doctor, if you think we should stay longer, we will do so."
+
+"Go on. You young women have done more than any one else has ever done
+for these people. Jed is a queer fellow, but I know he appreciates it,
+though he is diffident about saying so. Where is Jed, by the way?"
+
+"We have seen him only once since you were here," Hippy informed him.
+"By the way, Doc, do you know a fellow named Jim Townsend?"
+
+The doctor gave Lieutenant Wingate a quick, keen glance.
+
+"Can't say as I ever met him," reflected the medical man, stroking his
+chin. "Why?"
+
+Hippy shrugged his shoulders, but made no reply.
+
+"Were I in your place, Lieutenant, I shouldn't mention that name up
+here. It might not be safe," he warned. The doctor changed the subject
+and began giving Julie explicit directions for the care of the sick
+children. Elfreda added some suggestions of her own regarding their
+food, which suggestions the doctor approved, and left after shaking
+hands and beaming upon each Overland Rider.
+
+The next day being Sunday, the entire party rode to the little mountain
+church, three miles from the Thompson cabin, and attended services. The
+devoutness of these queer mountain folk, moonshiners and feudists
+included, interested them deeply.
+
+Early the next morning, their equipment having already been packed, they
+bade good-bye to the Thompsons. Julie cried a little, and the sick
+children clung to Grace and Elfreda as if they could not let them go.
+
+Before leaving, Nora slipped some money into Julie's hand.
+
+"This is for new clothes and shoes for yourself, the children and your
+mother," she whispered. "My Hippy wished me to give it to you." Giving
+Julie an impulsive kiss, Nora ran out without giving the mountain girl
+opportunity to recover from her surprise, and, after Julie had
+recovered, her amazement at the amount of money held in her hand left
+her altogether speechless until the Overland Riders had jogged away and
+were out of sight.
+
+They were short on equipment and provisions, but knew that they could
+replenish their supplies at the general store at Hall's Corners.
+
+Although they might have made the journey in two days' hard riding, it
+was decided to make camp early in the afternoon and rest up and enjoy
+the scenery, and on the following day camp about five miles from their
+destination, going on to Hall's Corners on the third day. After their
+idleness at Thompson's all hands were thoroughly enjoying being back in
+the saddle, and even Emma was enjoying herself so keenly that she forgot
+to be petulant or to "con-centrate" on anything at all.
+
+In the two days' ride, which they made without incident, meeting very
+few persons, and not being annoyed by any one, they had come to hope
+that they had left the troubled area of the mountains behind them and
+that only peaceful scenes lay before them. Hippy, however, still
+insisted that he was a marked man.
+
+It was some time after the evening meal of the second day when they
+heard a horse galloping along the wagon trail that they had followed
+ever since leaving the Thompson place.
+
+Hippy held up a hand for silence, and the Overlanders sat listening
+intently.
+
+"Some one is in an awful hurry," observed Emma.
+
+"Going for a doctor, perhaps," suggested Hippy. "That's the way I rode
+when I went after old Doc Weatherby."
+
+"Only one rider," announced Grace. "Otherwise we might have reason to
+feel disturbed."
+
+The horse suddenly slowed down, its rider probably attracted by the
+light of the campfire.
+
+"Hulloa the camp!" shouted a voice.
+
+"A woman!" exclaimed Nora.
+
+"Hulloa! Come on in so we can see who you are," called Emma.
+
+"Howdy," answered the rider, picking her way towards them from the
+trail.
+
+"Julie!" cried the Overlanders, as Julie Thompson rode into the
+flickering light of the campfire.
+
+"What is the matter? Has something gone wrong, Julie?" begged Grace,
+running forward, her companions following close at her heels.
+
+"Ah reckons somethin' is goin' t' right smart," answered the girl,
+slowly dismounting.
+
+Washington was summoned to take her horse, with directions to water and
+groom it, for the animal was wet with sweat.
+
+"See here! Where did you come from to-day?" demanded Hippy.
+
+"Ah come from home, an' Ah been er ridin' ever since sunup, Ah have.
+Ah'm sore an' Ah'm hungry, folks!"
+
+Nora and Anne ran to prepare food and coffee for their guest, while
+Grace and Elfreda led her to the fire and made Julie sit down.
+
+"Is anything seriously wrong at home?" begged Miss Briggs.
+
+Julie shook her head.
+
+"Not yit. Thar may be. Liz an' Sue is feelin' fine. Paw ain't home, but
+he tole me t' find a hoss an' git to you-all as fast as Ah could. Ah
+didn't have no horse so Ah helped mahself t' one o' Lum Bangs' an' rid
+him right here."
+
+They did not press Julie for the reason for her long hard ride until she
+had gulped down a cup of coffee, then Lieutenant Wingate suggested that
+she tell them what it was all about.
+
+"Ah come t' warn you-all," she said. "Paw said as ye oughter know 'bout
+it right smart."
+
+"Yes? What is it?" urged Grace.
+
+"You-all got t' turn aroun' an' go back, 'cause Bat Spurgeon an' his
+gang is waitin' fer you-uns on the White River Ridge," announced Julie
+unemotionally.
+
+Hippy uttered a partly suppressed whistle.
+
+"That is where they are going to collect the price on your head,"
+suggested Emma Dean.
+
+"Sh--h--h!" rebuked Anne. "This is news to me. Who is Bat Spurgeon? Is
+there something you have kept back from us, Grace?"
+
+"I don't know much about him except what Hippy told me after his capture
+by the mountaineers. I don't wish to speak of it here," with a
+significant glance at Julie. "How do you know this, Julie?" she asked,
+turning to the mountain girl.
+
+"Paw! Don't know how Paw knowed 'bout it. Paw knows nigh everything
+'bout what's doin' up here. Reckon you-all'll have er right smart time
+gittin' to the loot'nant's property ever, 'cause that's where Bat an'
+his bunch make their hangout."
+
+"Do they live there?" asked Hippy.
+
+"Reckon they do now an' ag'in."
+
+"They carry on their business there? Is that what you mean, Julie?"
+questioned Elfreda.
+
+"Don't know nothin' 'bout that."
+
+The girls exchanged significant glances. True to her type, Julie would
+not even expose an enemy. The Spurgeons and the Thompsons were feudists,
+and had time and again made war on each other for several generations,
+and it was their policy not to talk, but to let their rifles talk for
+them.
+
+"What you-all goin' t' do?"
+
+"We are going on, of course," announced Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+"You-all shore'll git lammed if ye do," warned Julie.
+
+"No we won't, 'cause I'll con-centrate. I think I will begin this very
+night, and by the time we reach that Ridge place all will be sweet
+peace," bubbled Emma.
+
+Hippy Wingate shook his head and sighed.
+
+"We must go as far as Hall's Corners, Julie. You know I have to meet my
+husband there. We shall, from then on, have one more man in the party
+and ought to be able to protect ourselves from those Spurgeon people,"
+said Grace. "However, we will take up the question with Mr. Gray upon
+arrival at the Corners and decide upon what is best to be done."
+
+"It is very fine of you, Julie," complimented Miss Briggs, laying a
+friendly hand on Julie's shoulder. "It really is wonderful that you
+should do all this for us."
+
+"It has helped us a lot, Julie," added Anne. "You see we now know what
+to look out for. Otherwise we probably should have innocently walked
+right into trouble."
+
+"And out again as fast as horseflesh could carry us," muttered Hippy.
+"What is your father going to do about the Spurgeons?"
+
+"Ah don't know. 'Bout what?"
+
+"Oh, most anything," answered Hippy lamely.
+
+"Well, Ah reckon Ah'll be gittin' back home," sighed Julie.
+
+"No, no!" protested the Overlanders in chorus. "You will remain here
+to-night. Your horse is tired out and so are you," added Grace.
+
+It required considerable persuasion to induce the girl to stay, but she
+finally consented. Grace and Elfreda arranged to have Julie use their
+tent, for they wished to talk with her, and the result of that chat in
+the seclusion of the patched-up tent was that Grace and Elfreda gleaned
+considerable information. They learned from Julie, indirectly, that it
+was her father who sent Lum Bangs, in the guise of a game constable, to
+threaten the Overland party and drive them out of the mountains, her
+father having heard the story of the bear when he got home that day.
+
+As to why Jed Thompson was so eager to be rid of the party, Julie had
+not a word to say, though her questioners had their own suspicions.
+
+It was late when the three girls finally dropped off to sleep, but Julie
+was up with the break of day. Hearing her, Elfreda and Grace also got up
+and made a hurried breakfast, and assisted her in saddling her horse.
+Julie rode away waving her good-bye, happy in the thought of a good deed
+performed, for her brief association with the girls of the Overland
+party had opened her eyes to many things.
+
+After breakfast the Overlanders held a consultation over what Julie had
+told them about conditions on White River Ridge, but deferred their
+decision as to what should be done until they had talked the situation
+over with Tom. Soon after that they packed up and rode away, reaching
+Hall's Corners about ten o'clock in the morning. They halted at the
+general store, which also was the post office, hitched their horses to
+the tie rail and hurried in for their mail.
+
+"I have a letter from Tom," whispered Grace to Elfreda. "I must talk it
+over with the girls. Get them outside as soon as they can be induced to
+lay aside their letters."
+
+"Not bad news, Loyalheart?"
+
+"It may be," answered Grace. "Tom finished his government contract a
+week ago and went on to the Ridge to make the survey of Hippy's property
+before we got there, and leaves directions as to where we may find him.
+Elfreda, I don't like this at all."
+
+"That means that we start for the Ridge and more trouble. Good! Let's
+go!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS
+
+
+"How long has Tom's letter been here?" asked Anne, after Grace had
+explained their situation to her companions.
+
+"Ten days. Every one seems to be issuing warnings, and Tom is no
+exception. Listen to this, will you? 'Be vigilant! The white moonlight
+reigns supreme up here.'"
+
+"What does he mean by that? Is Tom growing sentimental?" questioned
+Emma.
+
+"He means there are moonshiners on this ridge of Lieutenant Wingate's,"
+answered Miss Briggs.
+
+"Huh! Brown Eyes, don't you worry about Tom. Any fellow who is slick
+enough to say a thing without saying it, is slick enough to outwit the
+whole breed of feudists and others up here."
+
+Grace said she was not worrying, but that they must start as soon as
+they could replenish their stores. This they set about doing at once.
+New canvas with which to patch up their tents, cartridges for rifle and
+revolver, and provisions were purchased and lashed to the back of the
+remaining pack mule, or carried by the Overlanders in small packs on
+their ponies. As soon as possible, after studying the marked map that
+Tom Gray had left them to show the party where to look for his camp,
+they set out at a jog-trot, with which Washington and his mule had
+difficulty in keeping up.
+
+That night they camped near the wagon trail, and at daylight resumed
+their journey. Late in the afternoon they halted for rest and to study
+their map and the contour of the mountains at that point.
+
+"It should be somewhere hereabouts," declared Miss Briggs. "The
+landmarks appear to agree with Tom's markings on the map. It is my
+judgment that the wise thing to do would be to make camp near here."
+
+After consultation it was decided to do this.
+
+The part of the mountains where they were about to camp was the wildest
+and most rugged of any that they had seen since reaching Kentucky.
+Everywhere one saw caves, large and small, and unless one were vigilant
+he was quite likely to fall into one, for many were mere holes straight
+down through the rocks, and vine-covered at the top. The rocks
+themselves were misshapen, and in some instances hideous when the light
+of the day faded.
+
+"Hippy, is this your property?" questioned Emma as they sat down to
+their supper.
+
+"Yes. Why?"
+
+"You ought to come and spend the rest of your days here. What a lovely
+spot over on that knoll for a bungalow. I think--"
+
+A distant rifle shot interrupted what Emma was about to say. It was
+followed by several others in quick succession, but, while apparently
+not very far away, no bullets were heard, so the Overland Riders felt
+that they were not the object of the shooting.
+
+"Beginning already," muttered Elfreda.
+
+Grace said nothing. She was listening and wondering if Tom were out
+there, and if so, if he were in trouble. However, there was nothing to
+be done except to wait until morning before pushing their search for him
+further. The camp was well guarded that night, but nothing occurred to
+disturb them.
+
+Shortly after daylight a systematic search was begun for Tom Gray's
+camp, the Overlanders separating and going out for individual search,
+keeping the landmarks near their own camp well in mind.
+
+It was Elfreda Briggs who made the discovery. She called to Grace, who
+was near by, to come to her. Grace uttered an exclamation as she ran up
+to Miss Briggs, who stood pointing to a little tent nestling at the
+base of a rocky peak.
+
+"Is that Tom's tent?" asked Elfreda.
+
+"No, but we will have a look at it."
+
+The two girls ran eagerly to the little tent, proceeding more cautiously
+as they came up to it. The blankets, they found, were rolled neatly, and
+a pair of boots stood in one corner, while some clothing hung from hooks
+on a tent-pole.
+
+"This _is_ Tom's tent. Oh, I am so glad," cried Grace.
+
+"Yes. But where is Tom?"
+
+"It is all right. He may be away from here for days, sleeping in the
+open, living as only a woodsman knows how to live. You know he is making
+a survey of this tract, and, I presume, doesn't find it convenient to
+take his equipment with him. Now I am content to settle down and wait
+for him. In the meantime we can do some exploring on our own account. I
+wonder who Tom has with him?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Tracks of two different persons right there," answered Grace, pointing
+to the ground. "Where are your eyes, J. Elfreda?"
+
+"Let's go back," suggested Miss Briggs, sighing deeply. "We must let the
+girls know at once."
+
+All the Overlanders, except Nora Wingate, were quickly rounded up and
+told the good news. Nora was nowhere in sight, but Hippy said she was
+picking mountain berries about a quarter of a mile to the south of the
+camp, and that she had probably forgotten what she had been sent out
+for. He said, however, that he would go out and look for her.
+
+In the meantime, Nora had been sitting eating the hatful of berries that
+she had gathered, gazing off over the rugged landscape and enjoying the
+mountain scenery bathed in the early morning sunlight. The mountains, in
+that softening light, lost their hideousness and were really beautiful
+to look upon. Nora's eyes, slowly absorbing the scene before her,
+suddenly paused in their roving and fixed their gaze on a point some
+twenty yards below her. Nora was looking down on the crown of a
+sombrero. Below it, the figure that the hat belonged to was invisible in
+the dense growth of vine and bush.
+
+"Faith, and what's that?" murmured Nora, half humorously. "I know. It's
+that husband of mine wanting to give me a scare. Wait! I'll make the
+rascal jump."
+
+Nora Wingate groped for and found a small piece of rock, chuckling
+softly to herself. Rising cautiously she aimed the rock to fall several
+feet to one side of the man below her, then reaching her hand far back
+she let fly, just as she had seen bombers do in France when practicing
+bomb-throwing.
+
+Nora stood shaking with silent laughter at the fright she was going to
+give Hippy Wingate. To her horror, the rock, instead of landing to one
+side of the man, dropped fairly on the top of his head. As the stone hit
+him, the man uttered a grunt, but the Overland girl was too shocked to
+utter a sound.
+
+The fellow leaped to one side, threw a hand to his head and knocked off
+his hat in his effort to find out what had hit him, then quickly looked
+up.
+
+Nora Wingate found herself gazing down, not into the face of Hippy, but
+into the scowling, rage-contorted features of Lum Bangs. At that moment,
+Nora, of her own volition, could not have moved to save her life, but
+Lum speedily furnished the incentive for her to do so. Without an
+instant's hesitation he fired his rifle from the hip. The bullet from it
+cut the leaves not many inches from Nora's head.
+
+"Hippy! Oh, Hippy!" she screamed and ran, bullets clipping the leaves
+close by, which served to lend speed to her flying feet.
+
+Nora, as she ran, kept on shouting for Hippy. He heard her faintly and
+started at a run to meet her.
+
+"They are shooting at me. Hurry! Run!" urged Nora as he neared her.
+
+"Run? I guess not," retorted Hippy. "Where are they?"
+
+"Up the mountain. There was only one, but there may be more." Nora
+grabbed her husband's arm and both started at a brisk trot for the camp.
+Reaching there, Nora hurriedly told her companions what had occurred.
+
+"Lum Bangs!" exclaimed Miss Briggs. "What is he doing here? The
+Thompsons must be here."
+
+Grace shook her head and said she doubted it.
+
+"Julie warned us against the Spurgeons and said they were waiting for us
+on this ridge," reminded Grace. "Still, that doesn't explain Lum's
+presence here, unless he has followed us, seeking revenge."
+
+"Lum may have turned traitor," observed Hippy. "Folks, it is my opinion
+that we had better prepare for trouble. I smell it in the air."
+
+"Don't you think that it would be wise to protect our equipment?"
+suggested Anne.
+
+Grace pondered, then announced that for the present they would do
+nothing beyond looking for a place not only to stow their belongings,
+but to safeguard themselves in case of trouble. They found such a place
+in a cave that Hippy had discovered that morning, the opening to which
+was on a slight rise of ground, commanding a wide view across the valley
+below it.
+
+The party investigated the cave, and, finding it suited to their needs,
+began to move into it. Tents, mess kits, some food and a few blankets
+were all that were left in the nearby camp. Hippy then assumed the duty
+of guarding the party, but not a sign of life did he discover, nor was
+there a disturbing sound to be heard. Supper was eaten in camp before
+dark and the cook fire then extinguished.
+
+Grace was troubled about Tom, and, as the hours wore on, the thought
+that perhaps he might have come to some harm, grew upon her. She got up
+about midnight, and, leaving her tent, sat down on a rock, chin in
+hands, more nervous than she remembered ever to have been before.
+Hurried footsteps aroused her to instant alertness.
+
+"Is that you, Hippy?" called a low-pitched voice off to the right of
+her. It was Nora Wingate's voice. Grace had not known she was awake.
+
+"Yes. Wake the girls, but be quiet about it. The woods are full of
+them."
+
+"Of whom?" demanded Grace, getting quickly to her feet and hurrying to
+Hippy.
+
+"I don't know, but I saw several men about two hundred yards from here.
+They are creeping up on the camp. Hurry! Get the girls into the cave. I
+will keep watch here until you get safely to the cave."
+
+It was but a few minutes later when the Overland girls filed silently
+from their camp and headed for the cave. Hippy, rifle in hand, halted
+just outside the camp and waited. He did not have long to wait. A burst
+of rifle fire woke the mountain echoes, but, being out of the range of
+fire, he merely crouched down and waited to see what the attackers would
+do.
+
+In the cave, the Overland girls were peering from the opening, but, by
+agreement, not a shot was fired by them or by Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+The shooting kept up briskly for several minutes, then died away, and
+silence settled over the scene. Hippy remained near the camp so long
+that the girls began to feel concerned for him. This was dispelled
+nearly half an hour later when they discovered him, well bent over to
+hide his movements, running towards them.
+
+"Whew! They didn't do a thing to our tents. Shot them full of holes," he
+exclaimed. "They are going through everything and they're getting
+worried, judging from what I overheard. We played a neat trick on them,"
+chuckled the lieutenant.
+
+"Don't crow," advised Emma Dean. "It isn't daylight yet. I will
+con-centrate. I con-centrated all the time you were away, and you came
+back, didn't you?"
+
+"'Con-centrate' on those ruffians and drive them away; 'con-centrate' on
+Tom Gray; 'con-centrate' on the Mystery Man--'con-centrate' on anybody,
+but for the love of Mike don't let loose any of that 'imponderable
+quantity' on me," begged Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+Hippy advised the girls to lie down on their blankets and try to sleep,
+saying that he would keep awake and watch at the cave entrance, but none
+of them felt the slightest desire for sleep, especially when the rifle
+fire opened up again. They wondered if the attackers were shooting at
+shadows. Not more than a dozen shots were fired and these at intervals,
+after which there was no more shooting during the rest of the night.
+
+At daybreak Hippy dozed off, first nodding to Nora to take the watch for
+him, which she did. The others of the party were sitting on the rocky
+floor of the cave leaning against the wall, also dozing. Nora, for a
+short time, sat watching her husband who was snoring loudly; then she
+got up and peered out at the reddening sky. Unthinkingly, she stepped
+from the cave and stood inhaling deeply of the fragrant morning air.
+
+Nora suddenly uttered a cry and clapped a hand to her left cheek. At the
+same instant, it seemed, the report of a rifle woke the echoes.
+
+Hippy, awake and on his feet in an instant, jerked Nora back into the
+cave, but not before a bullet had flattened itself against the rocks
+close to his head.
+
+"Lie down and keep tight to the sides of the cave!" he commanded. "They
+know where we are now. Fine! Fine! Emma Dean could do no worse."
+
+No more shots were fired for fully an hour, then suddenly bullets began
+to pour into the cave, some hitting the sides and, ricochetting, wailed
+on into the dark depths of the cavern, making any part of the gloomy
+place unsafe. The best the Overlanders could do was to keep down and lie
+close to the wall.
+
+Nora had had a narrow escape from death at the first shot, though, while
+she had not been hit, the bullet had grazed her cheek, leaving a red
+mark across it.
+
+Frequent volleys into the cave, after several hours, set the nerves of
+each of the Overland Riders on edge. Hippy was eager to take a hand in
+the fray, but the girls forbade it, advising him that he would merely be
+making a mark of himself, whereas it were doubtful if he could see a
+single one of their assailants.
+
+"Yes, but suppose they keep us here for days?" objected Lieutenant
+Wingate.
+
+"We have plenty of food," answered Anne.
+
+"And precious little water," added Grace Harlowe. "My advice is to wait
+and watch. At night they are certain to come up closer to the mouth of
+the cave. Perhaps we may be able to get a shot at them then without
+exposing ourselves. Surely, if they try to enter here we can quickly
+drive them back."
+
+The rest of the afternoon up to three o'clock was spent in dodging
+bullets. Exactly on the hour of three there came an interruption that
+startled every one of the cave dwellers. A rattling fire sprang up, but
+no bullets came their way. Hippy held up his hand for silence, and
+listened.
+
+"Two gangs are at it and they must be shooting at each other. I'm going
+out to have a look!" cried Hippy.
+
+"Look! Look!" cried Emma, whose curiosity had led her to follow
+Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+Men were seen running down below them. On the opposite mountainside,
+just across the narrow valley that lay a short distance from the mouth
+of the cave, they saw skulking figures. Now and then one would drop to
+his knees and shoot at the fleeing figures in the valley.
+
+The fleeing men in the valley, after reaching the positions they were
+seeking, faced their adversaries on the mountainside and began firing up
+at them.
+
+"It is the feud!" cried Miss Briggs.
+
+"That's right. I have it!" exclaimed Hippy. "This is the twenty-second
+of the month. The Spurgeons were going to sail into the Thompsons on the
+twenty-third, but Jed Thompson has beat them to it by a day, and
+attacked them on the twenty-second. Good generalship!"
+
+"I call it terrible," murmured Anne Nesbit.
+
+From their elevated position, the Overland Riders were able to observe
+the battle in all its details, and it was a thrilling sight. They saw
+men fall, but whether from bullet or from stumbling the Overlanders did
+not know, for, in most instances, the fallen ones soon got to their feet
+and joined in the fight. Now and then, however, one remained where he
+had dropped.
+
+"I think the party on the mountainside is the Thompson party," announced
+Grace, who had been observing through her binoculars. "I am positive
+that I recognize Jed."
+
+"Then the Spurgeons are on the run. Look at that, will you!" cried
+Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+The supposed Spurgeons were now dashing down the valley, here and there
+making a stand and shooting up at their enemies, who were pouring down a
+hot fire on them. The shooting soon began to die down, with an
+occasional shot from the Thompson feudists, probably long-range shots at
+the fleeing figures of the Spurgeons.
+
+"All over," announced Hippy. "We can now safely go out. I am going over
+to see what the camp looks like."
+
+The girls said they too would go. They did not believe that their
+presence had been discovered by the Thompson fighters, but in this,
+however, they were mistaken. Keen eyes had espied them watching the
+battle from the mouth of the cave, and even then some of the Thompson
+party was on its way to look the Overlanders over.
+
+Washington Washington, who, during the firing on the cave, had remained
+flat on his stomach on the floor, a finger in either ear, trembling with
+fright, now assured that he had nothing more to fear, darted on ahead,
+eager to get to his mule. He gained the camp a few minutes ahead of the
+Overland party. They saw him coming back, wide-eyed, his feet barely
+touching the ground as he ran.
+
+"What is it, Laundry?" called Hippy.
+
+Washington's lips refused to frame the words that he was trying to
+utter. The Overlanders started forward at a run, bringing up abruptly as
+they gained their camping place. Not a vestige of it, save the ashes of
+their cook fire, remained. Everything was gone.
+
+"De hosses!" exploded Washington.
+
+"They're gone!" cried Emma Dean, who, following Washington's warning,
+had run to the tethering place.
+
+They were not all "gone," however. The Overland Riders found that one
+pony had been, shot through the head, and that the mule had shared a
+like fate. The other animals had disappeared, probably driven away by
+Bat Spurgeon and his gang of ruffians.
+
+"Howd', folks," greeted Jed Thompson, fairly bursting into the camp.
+"You-all don't know whether that critter Spurgeon has been heyeh, does
+ye?"
+
+"Just cast your eagle eyes about and see if you don't think it looks as
+if somebody had been here, old top," answered Hippy Wingate, taking in
+the camp and the tethering ground with a wave of the hand.
+
+"Our ponies are gone. Now we've got to walk all the way home," wailed
+Emma.
+
+"'Con-centrate,' little one," advised Hippy.
+
+"Never mind 'bout the hosses. We-uns'll fix ye up. Spurgeon and Lum
+Bates got er-way. They come this-a-way an' Ah reckon they're hidin' in a
+cave. Shore they ain't in that place where you was?" demanded Jed.
+
+"If ye ain't sartin, better look an' see. We'll be goin' through t'other
+holes right smart. Mah men is doin' it now!"
+
+"Bates?" wondered Hippy.
+
+"The houn' went back on we-uns. It was this-a-way. Lum opined as we
+ought ter follow ye and clean yer outfit up, but Ah said as after
+you-uns had done what you-all had done fer Liz an' Sue, there wan't
+nothin' doin'. That was the last Ah seen of the houn' dawg. Ah know he
+was with Spurgeon 'cause Ah put er bullet through his shoulder ter-day."
+
+"Sorry I couldn't have had a crack at him myself," muttered Hippy.
+
+"It was Lum that pestered ye so. Ah set him on ye an' put up that bear
+story, but you-all didn't swaller it," he added, nodding to Hippy. "Say,
+Loot'nant, are ye sartin you-all ain't Jim Townsend?"
+
+"Well," reflected Hippy, "I may say I am reasonably certain that I'm
+not."
+
+"You folks wait here till we-uns come back. Mebby 'twon't be till
+mornin', fer we've got t' git that houn', Lum, an' Bat Spurgeon, else
+they won't be no livin' round heyeh. This yer property?" with a sweeping
+wave of the hand.
+
+Hippy nodded.
+
+"Good thing we-uns cleaned out the Spurgeons then. Won't be none o' 'em
+'round when you moves up heyeh. Bye." And Jed left them at a trot.
+
+"I am going to investigate our cave. You can come along if you want to,
+but if that fellow with the explosive name--_Bangs_--should chance to be
+there I'll tell you in advance you better make tracks lively, for there
+surely will be some shooting," warned Hippy.
+
+Torches were prepared and Washington reluctantly led the way into the
+cave with one, Hippy walking behind him with drawn revolver, the
+Overland girls bringing up the rear a few yards from Lieutenant Wingate.
+
+Not having explored the cave very far, they were amazed at its depth; in
+fact they had gone on, it seemed, a good mile and were still looking for
+the end.
+
+"I don't believe there is any one in here," Hippy was saying. "We might
+as well go back."
+
+"Ahem!"
+
+"Who said that?" demanded Hippy.
+
+"Ahem!"
+
+Washington Washington uttered a yell and bolted back for the opening of
+the cave, taking his torch with him, leaving the Overlanders in the
+blackest darkness they had ever experienced.
+
+"I make the near blind to see, and the seeing to see in the dark as in
+the daylight. I am the benefactor of all-uns of the mountains. Specs,
+ladies and gentlemen--fit you with specs that will enable you to
+penetrate even the darkness of the under-earth. Nick-nacks, threads,
+needles, but principally specs and good cheer," announced a voice that
+seemed to come right up out of the earth before them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+TRAIL'S END
+
+
+"The Mystery Man!" shouted the Overland Riders.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Long, where are you?" cried Grace.
+
+"I am here, bound over to keep the peace. If you will kindly release me
+I will stretch myself, fit you with specs and proceed to break the peace
+as soon as I can catch sight of the fellows who put me here. Specs,
+folks? If you cannot wait, fetch my case. It is here somewhere, and I'll
+fit you before you untie me."
+
+Hippy struck a match, and by its light they saw Jeremiah Long, arms
+pinioned to his sides with rope, and a rope about his neck, fastened to
+a stake driven into a crevice in the rocks.
+
+The Mystery Man was quickly released.
+
+"Do you not wish to hear what has occurred here?" asked Nora.
+
+"Ah know what occurred, up to the time some one hit me over the head and
+put me to sleep."
+
+Hippy then briefly told him the story of their arrival at the Ridge, and
+of what followed. Grace added that they were disturbed, very much
+worried about Tom Gray, and asked Mr. Long if he would assist them in
+finding him.
+
+"To be sure. Here! Place these specs on your nose and I promise you that
+through those magic lenses you shall see your husband this very night.
+Do they fit you?" questioned Jeremiah Long.
+
+"The bows fit perfectly, but I cannot see a thing through the lenses,"
+answered Grace laughingly, as a match flared up in the hands of Nora
+Wingate and was held before Grace Harlowe's face.
+
+"That is as it should be. So long as the bows fit, it matters not about
+the lenses. Hold your positions, please, and light no matches until I
+tell you to, lest you destroy the magic spell."
+
+The Mystery Man left them, but returned in a few moments.
+
+"I will throw a gleam from my magic lamp, and through your magic lenses,
+Mrs. Gray, you will see that my spell has worked," announced the
+strange character. He flashed an electric pocket lamp on the face of a
+man standing facing the party.
+
+The Overlanders gasped.
+
+The circle of light drew the face of Tom Gray out of the darkness.
+
+"Tom!" cried Grace, snatching off the spectacles and running to her
+husband. "Oh, Tom, how could you keep silent so long when you knew how
+disturbed we were?"
+
+"I could not well do otherwise, Grace, seeing that I was bound just as
+Mr. Long was, but with the added burden of a gag in my mouth. He came in
+after I did, and we managed to get acquainted despite my gag. I could
+mumble and he got the mumble. After you released him he freed my mouth
+of the gag and cut the rope that held me helpless."
+
+"You see my magic specs saw that Captain Gray had been clubbed and
+kidnapped, and I was trying to find him when I was put to sleep and
+dumped in here to await further disposition. Have the specs fulfilled
+all that I promised, Mrs. Gray?"
+
+"A hundred fold," laughed Grace happily.
+
+"No charge, thank you. We aim to please our customers. Having an
+appointment late this evening to fit a pair of specs of another variety
+than you have seen me display, I will bid you good-evening. If I do not
+see you again in reality, I shall many times smile at you ladies with my
+eyes and my heart, and, should you at such times chance to be wearing
+the magic specs, you will see the smile and recall the smiler."
+
+"Won't you shake hands?" asked Miss Briggs.
+
+"Thank you. I have said my good-byes."
+
+"At least, Mr. Long, before you leave us, please tell us who and what
+you are," urged Nora.
+
+"With pleasure. I am Jeremiah Long, the Mystery Man, and spectacles is
+my line. All hay is grass and grass is hay. I'm here to-morrow and gone
+to-day." His voice seemed to fade away in the darkness, the last words
+sounding far away and barely heard. The Overland Riders did not know
+whether he had gone out or plunged deeper into the cave, to emerge from
+some exit the existence of which they were unaware.
+
+"What a queer man," murmured Anne Nesbit. "He almost gives one the
+creeps. I wish we knew who and what he is."
+
+"I think Tom knows," spoke up Grace. "Let's get out of this horrid
+place."
+
+"Yes, I do know. To-night he expects to accomplish what he has been
+working towards for many months, a round-up of the leading moonshiners
+of this district. I have seen Long before I came up here, and he
+confided in me, because I possessed some information, gleaned from
+hiking over this property of yours, which he wished to have, and that he
+could not very well ask for without giving me some information in
+return. Long is Dick Whitfield, the head of a corps of mountain sleuths,
+probably the shrewdest man in his line of work who ever came into the
+Kentucky hills. It was he who wounded the mountaineer in the bushes that
+night by your camp. It was he who protected you in many tight places,
+including some that you did not know about."
+
+"And shot Lum Bangs through the wrist at the dance," suggested Nora.
+
+"No, that was Jim Townsend, his principal assistant."
+
+"That's the fellow I want to know about--the fellow who ought to be the
+proudest man in the world because he looks like me," cried Hippy
+Wingate.
+
+As the party strolled out towards the mouth of the tunnel, Tom Gray told
+his companions that Hippy's resemblance to Townsend had been quickly
+seized upon by the Mystery Man, Jeremiah Long, and used as a cloak to
+cover the operations of the real Townsend, trusting to their skill and
+watchfulness to keep the moonshiners from collecting the reward that had
+been offered for Townsend. Either Townsend or the Spectacle Man had kept
+the Overland Riders under observation a good part of the time. It was
+Townsend who rescued Hippy from the Spurgeon gang, who conducted Hippy
+back to his camp, and who left the mysterious notes for the Overlanders.
+
+"Yes. But why did they mark me for the slaughter?" demanded Hippy.
+
+"Don't you understand? They thought you were Jim Townsend. In fact, the
+mountain men had been informed that Townsend was on his way here as a
+member of the Overland Riders, to get evidence against the moonshiners.
+As a matter of fact, Townsend was already here and had been, in
+disguise, for some time. That belief involved our entire party, you see,
+and it is a wonder that the mountaineers did not get one of you, at
+least. When they caught me, knowing that I was in Government service, I
+thought it was all up with me, but I believe they thought best first to
+settle their feud with Thompson.
+
+"One thing that possibly saved all of you people, and surely saved
+Hippy," resumed Tom Gray, "is that you are women. They were eager
+enough to put Hippy out of the way, but you girls made them hesitate.
+They didn't like the idea of committing a cold-blooded crime like that
+in the presence of a group of pretty girls."
+
+"What about that survey you were to make for me?" questioned Hippy.
+
+"I have made it," replied Tom. "That is, I have gone far enough with it
+to convince me that you have a wonderful coal deposit here. It will make
+you a richer man than you ever dreamed of being, but it will be at least
+two years before you can work the veins. A survey has been made for a
+railroad spur that will go through your property, and I believe the
+railroad people are going to begin work on it next spring. You will,
+therefore, have plenty of time to mature your plans for the big splash."
+
+"Hippy Wingate, don't you dare go and get enlargement of the head,"
+warned Nora, after his companions had crowded about Hippy and
+enthusiastically congratulated him.
+
+"Never mind, Nora. If he does, just let me know. I'll con-centrate on
+his head until it gets so small that he can wear a charlotte russe cup
+on it instead of a sombrero. Didn't I con-centrate on everything?"
+demanded Emma triumphantly.
+
+"You did," agreed Hippy in a guttural voice.
+
+"And didn't everything turn out just as I con-centrated that it should?"
+
+"It did," rumbled Hippy.
+
+"Then there is nothing more to be said," finished Emma amid the laughter
+of her companions.
+
+That night, having no tents to cover them, the Overland party slept in
+the cave. Tom Gray sat with Hippy on guard at the mouth of the cave all
+night, but their watchfulness was not needed. The Spurgeon gang that had
+been annoying them had been soundly whipped, and, one by one, those that
+were left were being arrested by revenue men. Spurgeon himself, as the
+Overlanders learned later, succeeded in getting away. Lum Bangs, too,
+managed to avoid the revenue agents, but was later hunted down and
+driven out of the mountains by Jed Thompson's friends.
+
+Late on the morning following the fight, Jed and some of his men rode
+into the camp with the Overland ponies and also turned in one belonging
+to his own outfit to take the place of the animal that the Spurgeons had
+shot.
+
+The Overland Riders spent a week longer in the mountains, during which
+Tom and Hippy went over the latter's property in detail and laid plans
+for the future.
+
+Before leaving the mountains, Hippy succeeded in inducing Captain Gray
+to go into partnership with him and share in Hippy's good fortune. At
+the end of this happy week the Overlanders packed up what was left of
+their equipment and rode away towards home, stopping for a day for a
+visit with Jed Thompson's family, and incidentally to warn Jed that it
+might be wise for him to raise and use other crops than corn, lest the
+revenue men take him in as they had done with the Spurgeon gang.
+
+In a way, the Overland girls were glad to start on their way home. None,
+however, was quite so happy to be homeward bound as was Washington
+Washington, who frankly admitted that he had had enough, and that he
+"didn' want no moah."
+
+The further adventures of the Overland Riders will be related in a
+following volume entitled, "GRACE HARLOWE'S OVERLAND RIDERS IN THE GREAT
+NORTH WOODS." Battles with the timber pirates, the fight for the
+Overland claim, the faithfulness of the Indian, who helps Hippy and Tom
+on to victory, and the Christmas dinner in the depth of the forest amid
+thousands of scintillating Christmas trees, makes a story of adventure
+and achievement second to none that Grace Harlowe and her companions
+ever have experienced.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+   Obvious punctuation errors corrected.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GRACE HARLOWE'S OVERLAND RIDERS
+AMONG THE KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEERS***
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