rs before. He belonged to a good family, but was of a lawless
disposition and was generally disliked by the decent people of the
county. Just before he left for the extreme Southern States, it was
discovered that he had been concerned in a series of horse-thefts, for
which he would have been arrested had he not taken his departure from
the State.

Few people, excepting Mr. Loudon and one or two others, knew the extent
of his misdemeanors; and out of regard to his family, these had not been
made public. But he had the reputation of being a wild, disorderly man,
and now that it was known that he had contemplated boxing Kate Loudon's
ears and whipping Harry, the indignation was very great.

Harry and Kate were favorites with everybody--white and black.

"I tell ye what I'm goin' to do," said Tony Kirk; "I'm goin' after that
feller."

At this, half a dozen men offered to go along with Tony.

"What will you do, if you find him?" asked Mr. Loudon.

"That depends on circumstances," replied Tony.

"I am willing to have you go," said Mr. Loudon, who was a magistrate and
a gentleman of much influence in the village, "on condition that if you
find him you offer him no violence. Tell him to leave the county, and
say to him, from me, that if he is found here again he shall be
arrested."

"All right," said Tony; and he proceeded to make up his party.

There were plenty of volunteers; and for a while it was thought that
Uncle Braddock intended to offer to go. But, if so, he must have changed
his mind, for he soon left the village and went over to Aunt Matilda's
and had a good talk with her. The old woman was furiously angry when she
heard of the affair.

"I wish I'd been a little quicker," she said, "and dere wouldn't a been
a red spot on him."

Uncle Braddock didn't know exactly what she meant; but he wished so,
too.

Tony didn't want a large party. He chose four men who could be depended
upon, and they started out that evening.

It was evident that Mason knew how to keep himself out of sight, for he
had been in the vicinity a week or more--as Tony discovered, after a
visit to Aunt Matilda--and no white person had seen him.

But Tony thought he knew the country quite as well as George Mason did,
and he felt sure he should find him.

His party searched the vicinity quite thoroughly that night, starting
from Tom Riley's tobacco barn; but they saw nothing of their man; and in
the morning they made the discovery that M