ously refrained
from permitting that very thing. Soon the mountain girls allowed
themselves to be led to the dancing floor by others than their own
escorts.

The atmosphere was becoming highly charged. Even Hippy had swung a
mountain miss out to the floor and was dancing with her, but the
Overland girls, with the exception of Emma, had smilingly declined when
invited by mountain boys to dance.

Men, under the scornful smiles on the faces of their regular partners,
were growing sullen. The laughter was dying from the faces of the
dancers, and it was quite evident that trouble was brewing.

"Call Hippy to you and tell him to sit down by you, Nora," whispered
Grace Harlowe. "I will catch Emma at the end of this dance, if I can.
That child is going to start a riot if she is allowed to go on much
longer."

Hippy got his summons a few moments thereafter. He obeyed it as
gracefully as he could, but rather against his inclinations, for he was
having a jolly time of it, forgetting for the moment that he was "a
marked man."

Grace explained the situation briefly to Hippy, and told him that
between himself and Emma they had created a situation that bade fair to
end in trouble.

"What's the odds? I am a marked man anyway," answered Hippy, shrugging
his shoulders.

"You will be marked in reality if those husky young mountaineers get
after you. Please keep your seat and fade out of the picture," urged
Grace. "You see--"

A voice to one side of her arrested Grace Harlowe's attention. She
recognized it as the voice of Julie Thompson, whom she had not seen at
the dance up to that time, though she had been looking for her.

"Oh, Mr. Hipp," Julie was saying. "Ah wants t' give you-all a knockdown
to mah feller. Oh, here's Miss Gray, too. Folks, this is my feller, Lum
Bangs."

"Sounds like a pain in the back," muttered Hippy.

"Lum, shake paws with Mister Hipp an' Miss Gray. They're the folks that
air campin' down by Paw's cornfield."

"Glad to meet you, Lum, for we all think Julie is a mighty fine--"
Hippy's voice trailed off into an indistinct murmur as he gazed up into
the face of Julie's stalwart escort. He heard Grace give utterance to a
scarcely audible laugh, but at that moment Hippy Wingate did not feel
like laughter, for in Lum Bangs he recognized the "constable" whom he
had knocked down and driven from the Overland camp by the cornfield.

CHAPTER XVIII

AN INTERRUPTED PARTY

"Oh! It's you, is it?" mut