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 orbeast 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 theparty 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 Hippyand 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 atthe 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.
"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. Makethem 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 sprangupon 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 onewas 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 LumBangs, 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 draggingWashington 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 thecritter 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.
"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 thelong 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 ourfriendshave 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 youfolks 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.
"High Fever?" Murmured Grace."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.
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 withsufficient 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.
"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 allthe 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'mgoin' 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. "Youaresudden. 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 gotthe 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. Ihave 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."