later, old man. But, remember, you've got to bring me
back, no matter how tired you are."

A good half-mile was covered, and then horse and rider reached a sharp
turn in the highway. Here the trees were thick and some of the branches
hung low.

[Illustration: THE YOUNG MAJOR STILL LAY WITH HIS EYES CLOSED

_The Mystery of Putnam Hall._ (Page 19)]

Andy bent down that he might avoid the branches. But he did not get
quite low enough. He looked ahead, saw a man standing on one side of the
roadway staring in astonishment at him, and the next instant he found
himself caught by the throat in a tree-limb and carried off the horse.
Then Jim bounded on riderless, and poor Andy, kicking and thrashing
wildly, sprang free of the tree-limb and landed on his shoulder in
the roadway.

The man who had seen him coming leaped to one side, and just in the nick
of time, for the runaway horse passed within a foot of him. The man
gasped in astonishment, and for several seconds did not know apparently
what to do.

"Looks like he was killed," the man muttered to himself, as he took a
few steps forward. Andy had rolled over on his back and lay stretched
out, with his eyes closed, very much as poor Jack had been stretched out
only a short while before.

The man looked up and down the roadway and saw that nobody else was in
sight, that part of the highway being but little traveled. Then he came
closer to the unconscious boy and bent over him.

"Only stunned, I reckon!" he muttered to himself. "Wonder if he belongs
around here?"

As the man bent over Andy he saw the lad's watch dangling from its
chain, fastened to a buttonhole of the youth's vest. Then his
ferret-like eyes caught sight of a fine ruby pin in Andy's necktie.

"He could easily lose that watch on the road, riding like that, and the
pin, too," he muttered to himself. "It's a fine chance to make a little
haul!"

He straightened up and took another look around. Not a soul was in
sight. With dexterous fingers he unfastened the watch and chain and
transferred them to his pocket. The stickpin followed. Then he slipped
his hand into a vest-pocket and brought out a five-dollar bill and three
one-dollar bills.

"Eight dollars!" he muttered. "Not so bad but what it might be worse. I
reckon the watch, chain and pin will bring me another twenty or thirty.
Sparrow, you are in luck to-day."

He lingered, wondering if Andy had anything more of value about him. The
youth wore a