OM A TREETOP

"I don't know as we want anything of you," said Dick. "We chanced to
be riding by, that is all."

"Oh!" The man looked relieved and let his hand drop from his pistol
pocket. "Are you alone?"

"No, there is quite a crowd of us."

At this, the man leaped up and looked out of the open doorway of the
shack. His face fell again when he saw so many, and all well mounted.

"May I ask what you are doing here?" he questioned, turning his sharp
eyes on Dick once more.

"We are doing a bit of traveling overland. We were on a houseboat,
but we got tired of riding on the Mississippi."

"I see. One of them 'personally conducted tours' a feller reads about
in them magazines, eh?"

"That is pretty close to it," and Dick smiled, more to throw the man
off his guard than any-thing else. He did not like the looks of the
stranger in the least.

"Don't go an' git lost, young man. Have ye a guide?"

"No, but I don't think we are going to get lost. What place do you
call this?" the eldest Rover continued, thinking to ask some questions
himself, and thus keep the fellow from becoming too inquisitive.

"This is Pluggins' Palace;" the man gave a short laugh. "Did ye ever
hear of Pluggins?"

"No."

"Pluggins was a pretty fair sort, but had a habit of stickin' his
nose into other folks' business. One day, so the story goes, he went
too far, and nobody has seen him since."

"Was he killed?"

The man shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't ask me, stranger. He disappeared, and that was the end of him.
He used to live here, and the boys writ that motto to his memory."
And the man pointed to a wall, upon which hung a board, on which had
been painted the following:

ThiS iS iN MEMorY Of
SiLAs plUGGinS
he waS A GooD MaN
bUT hE coULD NOT kEEp HiS NOsE
FRoM oTHeRS bISSnESS.
tAkE wARNiNG.!

Dick read the lines with deep interest, and so did all of the others.

"They didn't know much about sign painting, but they evidently knew
what they wanted to say," remarked Tom. "Do you live here now?" he
added, to the strange man.

"No; I was only taking a nap, that's all."

"Are you on foot?" asked Fred.

"No, my hoss is close by." The man gave a loud whistle, and soon a
slick-looking mare came into view from behind the shack. "Reckon I
must be goin'." He pointed to the board on the wall. "Kind of a sign
to set a feller to thinkin', eh?"

"Just a bit," returned Dick dryly.

"It don't do to stick your nose into wha