ional question. Phin Dady was not going to be lulled
to sleep by any interesting yarn that sounded very "fishy" in his ears.

Of course, the other scouts had discreetly remained silent while all
this was going on. They were content to let Thad do the talking, for
none of them could equal the patrol leader in explaining what the
benefits were, which boys might expect to obtain when they joined a
scout patrol.

Several of them just sat there, and stared in open-mouthed wonder at the
man, of whom they had heard more or less lately, and whose defiance of
the authorities had been a matter of many years' standing.

Phin Dady might boast of no education whatever; and his knowledge of the
world, outside the confines of the Big Smokies, was doubtless extremely
limited; but he did possess what served him far better in the warfare in
which he was continually engaged with revenue agents--a natural
shrewdness such as the wily fox of the forest shows, and by means of
which he outwits his pursuers.

"An' yuh kim 'way down this away jest tuh climb the mountings, an' see
wot yuh cud do acampin' out without ary tents er blankets, did yuh?" the
mountaineer went on, surveying the boyish faces that formed a half
circle around him. "Wall, I jest reckons ye'll know a heap more by ther
time ye gits back ter yer homes'n yuh did w'en yuh started out."

He chuckled as he said that. Thad wondered whether there could be any
hidden meaning back of the words. When dealing with such a slippery
customer as this hunted moonshiner, it was always necessary to keep on
the watch. The man who always suspected others of double dealing might
be in the same class himself.

"Oh! we're quite sure of that," said the patrol leader, with a pleasant
smile. "Already those among us who had never climbed a mountain slope
before, have had their leg muscles stiffened, and can do better work
than in the start. We expect to have a pretty good time all around. And
we wrote you that message, Phin Dady, because we believed you were
ordering us out of these mountains under a mistake that we meant to do
you, or some of your friends, harm. We want you to feel that we never
dreamed of that when we started in here."

"Then I hopes as how yuh beant changin' o' yer minds sence yuh kim,"
remarked the moonshiner, just as though he knew what the subject of
their recent conversations might have been.

Before Thad could decide just what sort of an answer he ought to make,
if any