lville district.

"He'll do," spoke Hank Tolliver for the first time. "Ask him, Buck."

"Do you want to drive that rig a few miles for us for a dollar?" asked
Buck Tolliver.

"Me?" cried Bart. "I guess so!"

"Can you obey orders?"

"Try me, boss."

"He'll do, I tell you. What do you want to waste time this way for!"
snapped Hank Tolliver irritably.

"Hitch him up," ordered Buck to Bart. "Come on, Hank."

Bart chuckled to himself. He did not know what all this might lead to,
but it was a famous start.

While he was putting on the horse's harness and hitching him up, the
brothers spread a piece of canvas over the wagon box. This they tucked
in, and completely covered trunk and canvas with long grass pulled from
the edge of a water pit near by.

Bart had the rig in full starting shape by the time they had concluded
their labors.

"What's the ticket, Captain?" he inquired of Buck, looking him squarely
in the face.

"You seem to know enough not to answer questions about yourself,"
observed Buck--"try and be as clever if anybody quizzes you about this
wagon."

"Why should they?"

"Oh, they may. If they do, you're from--let me see--Blackberry Hill,
remember?"

"All right--with a load of garden truck, eh?" propounded Bart
ingeniously.

"You hit it correct. What we want you to do is this: Drive down to the
main road, and turn west. Keep on straight ahead, and don't turn
anywhere. About nine miles west you'll hit Hamilton. Drive right through
the town, but as soon as you get out of it take the first branch south
from the turnpike, and keep on till you reach an old mill on the river.
Wait for us there."

"Why," said Bart, "aren't you going with me?"

"No," answered Buck Tolliver definitely.

"Why not?"

"None of your business," snapped out Hank.

"Oh!"

"You mind yours, strictly, or there will be trouble," warned Buck, and
Bart saw from the look in his hard face that he was a dangerous man,
once aroused. "You do this job with neatness and dispatch, and it will
mean a good deal more than a dollar."

"Crackey!" cried Bart, snapping the whip hilariously--"maybe this is one
of those story-book happenings where a fellow strikes fame and fortune!"

"Maybe it is," assented Buck drily.

Bart climbed up to the seat. He started up the horse, the Tollivers
following after the wagon till they reached the main road.

"When I get to the mill--" began Bart.

"We'll be there to meet you," announced Buck Toll