"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."