marked the Southern boy, "and as I
said last night, they've sure got us marooned, all right. We can't move
without they're knowing it. Oh! what sort of chance would I have to get
him out of this awful country, even if it should turn out to be my
father who is the prisoner of the moonshiners? Thad, I reckon it's a
forlorn hope after all."

"Well," remarked the other, seeing that Bob needed cheering up again,
"even if you only discover that he is alive, that will be great news
alone. And when things get to coming your way the style they've been
doing lately, believe me, you can hope for the best. Keep your spirits
up, Bob. That girl is going to help us more than we ever dreamed of."

"It _was_ great luck, our running across Polly; and then the chance to
do her a favor, could you beat it? Reckon you're right, Thad; and I'm
foolish for letting myself look at the dark side, when things are
breaking so splendidly for me."

"That fellow doesn't seem to pay much attention to us, though I'm sure
he knows we're going to pass him by," Thad continued, in a lower voice.

"I used to know a good many of the men around here, and this might be
one of the lot; so I hadn't better take any chances of his seeing me too
close in the daylight," and with this remark Bob drew the brim of his
hat lower over his face.

The man never so much as moved, though the two descending boys passed
within thirty feet of where he reclined on the rock, his face turned
toward the road that wound in and out of the tangle far below.

Thad believed he could see a pair of sharp eyes under the man's hat,
that kept watch over their movements; but there was no hail, or other
sign of life from that sphinx-like figure stretched out at length on the
sunny rock. Should they have given the mountaineer cause for displaying
any activity, no doubt he would be quick to take action.

Thad certainly did not want to strike up a conversation with so morose a
man; and especially when his chum wished to keep aloof from him. So they
continued along down the side of the mountain, and soon lost sight of
the vidette.

Still, the circumstance left a bad feeling behind. It was far from
pleasant for the boys to realize how completely they had put themselves
in the power of these mountain moonshiners. Just as Bob had so bitterly
declared, Old Phin ruled with an iron hand among the men who lived here
among the uplifts; and once he had placed sentries on duty to watch the
movements