mark she aimed at," interjected
Hippy.

"Well, something like that, I should say," chuckled the Mystery Man.

"Is there anything you do not know?" wondered Anne Nesbit.

"You are a mighty fortunate man, I should say," declared Hippy. "Think
what the result would have been had that 'imponderable quantity' hit you
fair and square. Why, it would have blown you to atoms--molecules and--"

"Suppose we change the subject," suggested Grace Harlowe. "Show us your
wares, won't you, Mr. Long?"

The visitor got up, and, fetching his case, opened it, revealing great
numbers of shining spectacles, beads and other shoddy adornments.

"We will now fit you to glasses, those of you who need them."

"You, of course, know how to examine eyes?" nodded Elfreda.

"Oh, no. I 'fit' the bows to the ears," answered Mr. Long.

"Yes, but aren't you afraid you will ruin the eyes of the persons you
fit glasses to?" questioned Grace.

The Mystery Man smiled.

"I never heard of a person's eyes being ruined by looking through a
window," he made reply, raising a merry laugh. "I'll fit you to smoked
glasses to protect your eyes from the sun. They won't cost you anything.
Neither did they cost me anything. I want my wares known in every home
in the mountains, and I want every man, woman and child, and babe in
arms, to be seeing things through my eyes, and I'll accomplish it if the
window glass holds out."

"Of course we expect to pay you," began Grace.

"Not a cent, not a cent. I should say it might be wise to have them--the
glasses--well smoked up like a ham, for there may be doings up here that
it were the part of wisdom for you folks not to see. Do the bows fit,
Mrs. Gray?" he asked, adjusting a pair of specs to her ears.

"I--I think so."

The visitor rattled on, keeping his customers fairly convulsed with
laughter, until he had equipped half the party with spectacles.

"You may pay me," he suddenly suggested, lowering his voice. "I've
changed my mind. That will be two dollars apiece," he added in a loud,
blustering tone.

The Overland Riders looked at him in amazement. Only a few moments
before that he had proposed to "fit" them with glasses free of charge.

"Of course we will pay you," announced Emma Dean airily.

Elfreda and Grace, who had been eyeing Mr. Long inquiringly, saw motive
in his sudden change. The quick, meaning glance he gave them convinced
them that their surmise was right.

"What is it?" asked Grace, her voic