all life
save the squirrels and a few wood birds, but Conny heard a hawk's note
from above the cliff, and caught sight of a man silently watching him
from behind a mossy log. He laughed a little to himself to think how
often he had played the spy in that very hollow, watching to see who
came or went from Kilbourne, and then with a word started Doll into a
quicker pace. He was at Kilbourne in ample time to meet his passengers,
and, as the doctor had anticipated, Joe decided that he would ride
Prince, as he had so often done before, while Conny should take his
friend Douglass in the sulky.

The brief sunshine was already vanishing when they started, and the
warmth rapidly leaving the frosty air. Douglass wrapped himself closely
in his cloak, and Master Joe was glad to start Prince into a brisk
canter. Almost without warning the night shut down, and they found the
deeper cuts among the mountains quite dark. Doll was a swift traveller,
and old Prince could not keep up his pace, so Master Joe gradually fell
back, and kept near the sulky, exchanging words with his friend, and
plying Conny with questions about home.

"We shall soon be there now," he said, as they entered a narrow gorge.
"We really ought to show you some sort of an adventure, Douglass, to
give the proper spice to your first visit to the mountains. If it was
summer, now, we could get something terrific in the shape of a storm,
and slide a few rods of road down the mountain, or pile up the track
with big trees and rocks."

"I should fancy it was just the kind of place for banditti," said his
friend; "and I am sure some of those fellows we saw at the station look
as if they would take naturally to that sort of life."

They were driving slowly, and at that moment a strange, shrill cry went
wavering up from below them.

"That's a murderous voice for a bird," said Douglass.

"It's a hawk. I fancy," said Master Joe; "you often hear it among the
mountains, though I've never been able to find the fellow.-- What's
wrong, Conny?" for Conny had stopped Doll so suddenly that Prince bumped
his nose on the sulky.

Alas for Conny! He knew well enough what that cry meant. It was a
warning sent up to some one at the rocky pass above, to say that danger
was coming up the mountain. He remembered in an instant that old Timothy
had said there were stories of government officers in disguise spying
about Dunsmore, and that the moonshiners would make it uncomfortable for
them