!"

As he pressed tremulously forward, he beheld a sight which made him ask
himself if it were possible that Alf Coggin had sent for him to join in
some nefarious work which had ended in leaving a man--a stranger--bound
to the old lightning-scathed tree.

Even in the uncertain light Tom could see that he was pallid and
panting, evidently exhausted in some desperate struggle: there was blood
on his face, his clothes were torn, and by all odds he was the angriest
man that was ever waylaid and robbed.

"Ter-morrer he'll be jes' a-swoopin'!" thought Tom, tremulously untying
the complicated knots, and listening to his threats of vengeance on the
unknown robbers, "an' every critter on the mounting will git a clutch
from his claws."

And in fact, it was hardly daybreak before the constable of the
district, who lived hard by in the valley, was informed of all the
details of the affair, so far as known to Tom or the "Traveler,"--for
thus the mountaineers designated him, as if he were the only one in the
world.

By reason of the message which Jim had delivered, and its strange
result, they suspected the Coggins, and as they rode together to the
justice's house for a warrant, this suspicion received unexpected
confirmation in a rumor that they found afloat. Every man they met
stopped them to repeat the story that Coggin's boy had told somebody
that it was his father who had robbed the traveler, and hid the empty
pocket-book in the chinking of the church wall. No one knew who had set
this report in circulation, but a blacksmith said he heard it first from
a man named Brierwood, who had stopped at his shop to have his horse
shod.

It was still early when they reached Jim Coggin's home; the windows and
doors were open to let out the dust, for his mother was just beginning
to sweep. She had pushed aside the table, when her eyes suddenly
distended with surprise as they fell upon a silk handkerchief lying on
the floor beside it. The moment that she stooped and picked it up, the
strange gentleman stepped upon the porch, and through the open door he
saw it dangling from her hands.

He tapped the constable on the shoulder.

"That's my property!" he said tersely.

The officer stepped in instantly. "Good-mornin', Mrs. Coggin," he said
politely. "'T would pleasure me some ter git a glimpse o' that
handkercher."

"Air it your'n?" asked the woman wonderingly. "I jes' now fund it, an' I
war tried ter know who had drapped it hyar."