d Cousin Maria; "he went out o' the back door, and
along the edge of the woods, and he was soon out of sight, fur George
has got long legs, as you well know; and the last I saw of him was just
out there by that fence. And if there isn't Jim Anderson! Come in, Jim;
what are you doin' standin' out there?"

So she went to the window to call Jim Anderson, and Tony stepped to the
door and whistled for the other men, so that when Cousin Maria came to
the door she saw not only Jim Anderson, but Thomas Campbell and Captain
Bob Winters and Doctor Price's son Brinsley.

"Well, upon my word an' honor!" said Cousin Maria, lifting up both her
hands.

"Come along, boys," said Tony, starting off toward the woods. "We've got
no time to lose. Good-by, Cousin Maria."

"Good-by, Cousin Maria," said each of the other men, as the party
hurried away.

Cousin Maria did not answer a word. She sat right down on the door-step
and took off her spectacles. She rubbed them with her apron, and then
put them on again. But there was no mistake. There were the men. If she
had seen four ghosts she could not have been more astonished.

Tony did not for a moment doubt Cousin Maria's word when she told him
that George Mason had gone away. She never told a lie. The only trouble
with her was that she told too much truth.

In about an hour and a half the five men returned to the place where
they had left their horses. They had found no trace of George Mason.

When they reached the clump of trees, there were no horses there!

They looked at each other with blank faces!

"He's got our horses!" said Jim Anderson, when his consternation allowed
him to speak.

"Yes," said Tony, "and sarved us right. We oughter left one man here to
take care uv 'em, knowin' George Mason as we do.'

"I had an idea," said Dr. Price's son Brinsley, "that we should have
done something of that kind."

"Idees ain't no good," said Tony with a grunt, as he marched off toward
the blacksmith's shop at Jordan's cross-roads.

The blacksmith had seen nothing of Mason or the horses, but Tom Riley's
horse was still there; and as the members of the party were all well
known to the blacksmith, he allowed them to take the animal to its
owner. So the five men rode the one horse back to Akeville; not all
riding at once, but one at a time.

CHAPTER XIV.

HARRY'S GRAND SCHEME.

This wholesale appropriation of horses caused, of course, a great
commotion in the vicinity of Ak