annered," interposed Betty
mildly, as she reached Nigger and he whinnied a welcome. "He was just
distantly polite, that's all. He didn't want to be bothered, probably,
and he had a hard time to keep from showing it."

"Huh," grunted Mollie, as she flung herself upon Old Nick's back and
patted him soothingly. "I'm sure he has some real reason for not wanting
folks around. He acted mighty funny to me," she said.

"Goodness, hear the child!" cried Grace, as they rode swiftly back the
way they had come through the fine drizzle. "She never can resist making
a thief or something out of a perfectly ordinary person."

"Seems to me he is anything but ordinary," interposed Amy thoughtfully.
"No ordinary person could play the violin the way he was playing it
when we came up to the house. That sounded like the work of a master."

"Yes," agreed Betty, a faraway look in her eyes. "He plays exquisitely,
if he does live in a little house away up in the woods. And I can't
shake off the impression that I have heard that same selection played in
just that same way somewhere before."

Though this first excursion had been somewhat of a failure, the girls
were by no means discouraged and in the days that followed they rode
almost constantly. Finally they began to know their way about like the
natives.

Their rides were taken mostly in the open country, however, for in the
woods they knew lurked very real dangers. But these they avoided more to
save Mrs. Nelson worry than from any personal fears.

But one day, feeling more than usually adventurous and growing more and
more confident of their ability to find their way around alone, they
dared venture along a rocky trail that offered wonderful romantic
opportunities.

"Oh, this is the life!" cried Grace, as Nabob stepped daintily over the
rocks and underbrush that almost completely overgrew the narrow path. "A
peach of a horse under you, the whole day before you, and nothing to do
but enjoy yourself. Whoa-up there, Nabob. What's the matter with you?"
for the horse had whinnied softly and shied almost imperceptibly to the
side of the trail.

At the same time the other horses seemed to catch some of Nabob's
uneasiness, and the girls were kept busy for the next few minutes
soothing them and coaxing them back into a normal mode of progress.

"Something scared them," said Amy nervously. "Don't you think we had
better go back, girls? This trail seems to be getting narrower and
narrower. I