lush growth of huckleberry bushes, wild grasses, pawpaw thickets,
silvered by the moon, all fringing the great forests that had given way
on the shelving verge of the steeps where the road ran. Had he overheard
their unguarded, significant words? Who could divine, so silent were the
windless mountains, so deep a-dream the darksome woods, so spell-bound
the mute and mystic moonlight?

The group maintained a cautious reticence now, each revolving the
problematic disclosure of their secret, each canvassing the question
whether the pursuer himself was aware of his betrayal of his stealthy
proximity. Not till they had reached the ford of the river did they
venture on a low-toned colloquy. The driver paused in mid-stream and
stepped out on the pole between the horses to let down the check-reins,
as the team manifested an inclination to drink in transit; and thence,
as he stood thus perched, he gazed to and fro, the stretch of dark and
lustrous ripples baffling all approach within ear-shot, the watering of
the horses justifying the pause and cloaking its significance to any
distant observer.

But the interval was indeed limited; the mental processes of such men
are devoid of complexity, and their decisions prompt. They advanced few
alternatives; their prime object was to be swiftly rid of the coffin and
its inculpating contents, and with the "revenuer" so hard on their heels
this might seem a troublous problem enough.

"Put it whar a coffin b'longs--in the churchyard," said Wyatt; for at a
considerable distance beyond the rise of the opposite bank could be
seen a barren clearing in which stood a gaunt, bare, little white frame
building that served all the country-side for its infrequent religious
services.

"We couldn't dig a grave before that spy--ef he be a revenuer sure
enough--could overhaul us," Eugene Barker objected.

"We could turn the yearth right smart, though," persisted Wyatt, for
pickax and shovel had been brought in the wagon for the sake of an
aspect of verisimilitude and to mask their true intent.

Eugene Barker acceded to this view. "That's the dinctum--dig a few jes
fer a blind. We kin slip the coffin-box under the church-house 'fore he
gits in sight,--he'll be feared ter follow too close,--an' leave it thar
till the other boys kin wagon it ter the cross-roads' store ter-morrer
night."

The horses, hitherto held to the sober gait of funeral travel, were now
put to a speedy trot, unmindful of whatever