ad," he finished finally,
unable to endure the thought that they _might_ have found him dead.

"If I had kept on, I'd be in Los Angeles now,--maybe in the navy
already. I've a good notion to try again. I could almost go by train,
now that my 'lowance has come. Mercy says it takes twelve dollars, and
I've got ten. 'T any rate, I could ride as far as that would take me,
and--by George, I b'lieve I could beat my way without spending a cent!
That's the way tramps travel from city to city."

He winced at the idea of being classed with tramps, and fell to
debating whether he would buy a ticket and ride like a gentleman as far
as his ten dollars would carry him, or whether he would attempt the
hobo's hazardous method of transportation. Before he had arrived at
any satisfactory conclusion, he heard the tramp of feet close by, and
the lively chatter of voices, and around the bend of the path came
Toady with his six cousins. They did not see him at first, half hidden
as he was by the heap of ragged rocks on which he lay stretched full
length, but even when they did become aware of his presence, they
merely glanced indifferently at the lazy figure and passed by without
speaking.

Angered at thus being ignored and left out in the cold, Billiard
resolved to display no interest in them, either, although he was
consumed with curiosity as to where they were bound; but a chance
remark of Susie's about being lowered in a bucket overcame his resolve,
and he called after them, "Where you going, kids?"

"Don't you wish you knew?" Inez flung back with a saucy toss of her
head.

"Up Pike's Peak," said Toady, without so touch as looking back.

"You mean down Ali Baba's cave," suggested Mercedes laughingly.

"Shall we tell him?" asked Irene, relenting as she glanced back at the
lonely figure on the rocks.

"He'll just be bad if we let him come," warned Susie.

"He hasn't been bad for a long time," gentle Irene reminded them.

"Aw, what do you s'pose I care where you are going?" sung out Billiard,
more hurt by their manner than he cared to acknowledge. "Keep on to
Jericho, if you want to."

"We ain't going to Jericho," said Irene, lagging uncertainly behind the
others. "Only just across town to that hill over there where is a--a
'bandoned mine. Toady's never seen what one looks like, so we're
taking him along to get a peek at it. Have you ever seen a mine?"

Billiard shook his head.

"Tabitha says if we're real good, sh