and
juicy! My, how good he will taste! At first I thought he was a bear,
but bear or hog he was bound to fall to my pistol!"

Langdon had indeed found a prize, and he had robbed no farmer to obtain
it. Harry and Dalton stood by for a half minute and gloated with him.
Then they helped him drag the hog into the cove, where the colonels sat.
A half dozen experts quickly dressed the animal, and the Invincibles had
a feast such as they had not tasted in a long time.

"Didn't I tell you," said Happy as he gazed contentedly into the coals
over which the hog had been roasted in sections, "that those who look
hard generally discover, that is, 'seek and ye shall find.' It's the
optimists who arrive. Your pessimist quits before he comes to the apple
trees, or before he reaches the thicket that conceals the fine fat pig.
As for me, I'm always an optimist, twenty-four carats fine, and therefore
I'm the superior of you fellows."

"You're happier than we are because you don't feel any sense of
responsibility," said Dalton. "I'd rather be unhappy than have an empty
head."

"Oh, it's just jealous you are, George Dalton. Born with a sour
disposition you can't bear to see me shedding joy and light about me."

Dalton laughed.

"It's true, Happy," he said. "You do help, and for that reason we
tolerate you, not because of your prowess in battle."

"Has anybody seen that fellow Slade again?" asked St. Clair.

"I'm thankful to say no," replied Harry. "He came out of the Southwest
promising big things, and he certainly does have great skill in the
forest, but our officers don't like his looks. Nor did I. If there was
ever a thorough villain I'm sure he's one. I've heard that he's drawn
off and is operating with a band of guerrillas in the mountains, robbing
and murdering, I suppose."

"And they say that a big ruffian from the Kentucky mountains with another
band has joined him," said Happy.

"What's his name?" asked Harry with sudden interest.

"Skelly, I think, Bill Skelly."

"Why, I know that fellow! He comes from the hills back of our town of
Pendleton, and he claimed to be on the Union side. He and his band fired
upon me at the very opening of the war."

"If you are not careful he'll be firing upon you again. He may have
started out as a Union man, but he's shifting around now, I fancy,
to suit his own plundering and robbing forces. We'll hear of their
operations later, and it won't be a pretty story."

The