cing thought.

"Too resky," he concluded, and edged a little nearer to the thicket's
edge. "Might stir up old--"

He paused suddenly, alert and keenly listening. From another path than
that by which he had approached the place there came the sound of voices
raised in talk and laughter. He easily identified them, to his great
surprise, as those of some young mountain-girl and some young bluegrass
gentleman. Their tones and accents told this story plainly. Surprised
and curious, he went farther, his head bent, with study of the voices,
peering, meanwhile, through the thicket's tangle to get sight of them
as soon as they appeared within the clearing. Suddenly he dropped his
jaw in blank amazement.

"Frank Layson!" he exclaimed.

The girl's voice he did not recognize, but knew, of course, from its
peculiar accent, that it was some mountain maiden's.

"Well!" he exclaimed beneath his breath in absolute astonishment. "I
didn't think it of Frank Layson! What would Barbara--"

The pair emerged, now, from a gully by-path, and came into view. He
tightly shut his jaws and watched them with a peering, eager curiosity.

A moment later, and by her wonderful resemblance to her dead mother, he
recognized the girl.

She, above all people, must not know that he was there, even if she only
thought him to be Horace Holton, newcomer among the bluegrass gentry in
the valley. His plans had been laid carefully, and for her to find them
out would almost certainly upset them all. He was far from anxious to
meet Layson, there among the mountains, for it would mean awkward
questioning, but he was doubly anxious to avoid a meeting with the girl,
first because she owned the land on which he had secured the bits of
rock then nestling in his pocket, and, second, because she was the
daughter of--

His thoughts were interrupted, for, for a second, he thought they must
have seen him, so definite was their approach straight toward the
thicket where he hid. He crouched, frightened. It would be a very
awkward matter to be found there by them, and, besides, he did not know
who might be out of sight within the hidden still. It was quite possible
that there might lurk a deadly enemy. He must worm back through the
thicket with great caution, and, following the secluded ways which he
had traversed in his coming, get back to the railroad camp, where was
safety.

He stepped backward hastily, and, in so doing, trod upon a rotten
branch. He had not been