mart run, believe me!"

The boys exchanged expressive looks. They drew their own conclusions
from the little Bob had already dropped; and began to believe that he
must have been hotly pursued. Evidently then, if this were indeed the
case, Bob had met with an adventure since leaving the camp-fire, and a
serious one at that.

It is always a difficult thing for the ordinary boy to restrain his
impatience, and several of the scouts squirmed about uneasily while Bob
was trying to calm himself down, so that he might talk with reasonable
comfort.

Thad let him have his own time. He understood that Bob was even more
anxious to tell, than any of them were to hear; and that just as quickly
as he could, he was sure to start in.

That time came presently, when his heart began to beat less violently;
and as a consequence Bob started to breathe more naturally.

"I met Bertha," he began to say, "and she gave me the paper. Boys, it's
everything I hoped it'd be; and once I manage to get it in the hands of
a good lawyer, good-bye to Mr. Reuben Sparks' authority over little
Bertha, and her fortune."

"Wow! that's going some!" burst out Giraffe, rubbing his thin hands one
over the other, as though decidedly pleased by the news.

"Was she disappointed when you told her how impossible it would be for
us to take her away right now, when these moonshiners have got us
marooned up here in their blessed old mountains; and we can't turn
whichever way without runnin' slap up against a sentry with his old
gun?" asked Bumpus.

"That's right, she _was_ upset when I told her that same," answered the
other. "It made me feel right bad too, suh, to see how she took it; and
I tell you right now I came mighty neah givin' in, and sayin' we'd make
a try. But I remembered what Thad heah had told me, and how it was best
for all of us that we let the cou'ts summon old Reuben to bring Bertha
before the bar of justice. An' finally, after I'd explained it all to
her, she began to see it the same way. My cousin has got the spirit of
the Quails all right, I tell you, fellows, even if she is young and
little."

"I reckon you stayed so long tryin' to convince her, Bob, that you clean
forgot how you'd promised to get back here as soon as you could?"
remarked Step Hen, under the belief, no doubt, that he was giving the
other a sly dig.

"Well, perhaps you are correct about that same, suh," replied Bob,
quite unabashed; "she was like most girls, and had to be