g
out it was quite likely that there was a secret line of communication
open between his shifting sanctuary and his home. He wrote tactfully
inviting Turner to meet him across the Virginia line where he would be
safe from local enemies. He gave assurance that he had no intention of
serving any kind of summons and that he would come to the meeting place
unaccompanied. He held out the bait of using his influence toward a
dismissal of the prosecution against Bear Cat's father. Then he waited.

In due time he received a reply in Bear Cat's own hand.

"Men that want to see me must come to me. I don't go to them," was the
curt reply. "I warn you that it will be a waste of time, but if you
will come to the door of the school-house at the forks of Skinflint and
Little Slippery at nine o'clock Tuesday night there will be somebody to
meet you, and bring you to me. If you are not alone or have spies
following you, your trouble will be for naught. You won't see anybody.
Bear Cat Stacy."

At the appointed time and in strict compliance with the designated
conditions Mark Tapper stood at the indicated point.

At length a shadow, unrecognizable in the night, gradually detached
itself from the surrounding shadows and a low voice commanded, "Come
on."

Mark Tapper followed the guide whose up-turned collar and down-drawn
hat would have shielded his features even had the darker cloak of the
night not done so. After fifteen minutes spent in tortuous twisting
through wire-like snarls of thorn, the voice said: "Stand quiet--an'
wait."

Left alone, the revenuer realized that his guide had gone back to
assure himself that no spies were following at a distance. Tapper knew
this country reasonably well, but at the end of an hour he confessed
himself lost. Finally he came out on a narrow plateau-like level and
heard the roar of water far below him. He saw, too, what looked like a
window cut in the solid night curtain itself. Then the shadow-shape
halted. "Go on in thar," it directed, and with something more like
trepidation than he cared to admit, Tapper groped forward, felt for the
doorstep with his toe and rapped.

"Come in," said a steady voice, and again he obeyed.

He stood in an empty cabin and one which had obviously been long
tenantless. A musty reek hung between the walls, but on the hearth
blazed a hot fire. The wind sent great volumes of choking smoke eddying
back into the room from the wide chimney and gusts buffeted in, too,