the ridge half an hour ago."

The boy gave a sudden start, and a quick uneasy expression passed over
his face. "Go 'long with ye!" he said, with a forced smile: "it ain't
her time yet."

"But I SAW her," repeated Hamlin, much amused. "Are you expecting
company? Hullo! Where are you off to? Come back."

But his companion had already vanished in the thicket with the
undeliberate and impulsive act of an animal. There was a momentary
rustle in the alders fifty feet away, and then all was silent. The
hidden brook took up its monotonous murmur, the tapping of a distant
woodpecker became suddenly audible, and Mr. Hamlin was again alone.

"Wonder whether he's got parents in the stage, and has been playing
truant here," he mused, lazily. "Looked as if he'd been up to some
devilment, or more like as if he was primed for it. If he'd been a
little older, I'd have bet he was in league with some road-agents to
watch the coach. Just my luck to have him light out as I was beginning
to get some talk out of him." He paused, looked at his watch, and
straightened himself in his stirrups. "Four o'clock. I reckon I might as
well try the woods and what that imp calls the 'bresh;' I may strike a
shanty or a native by the way."

With this determination, Mr. Hamlin urged his horse along the faint
trail by the brink of the watercourse which the boy had just indicated.
He had no definite end in view beyond the one that had brought him the
day before to that locality--his quest of the unknown poetess. His clue
would have seemed to ordinary humanity the faintest. He had merely
noted the provincial name of a certain plant mentioned in the poem, and
learned that its habitat was limited to the southern local range; while
its peculiar nomenclature was clearly of French Creole or Gulf State
origin. This gave him a large though sparsely-populated area
for locality, while it suggested a settlement of Louisianians or
Mississippians near the Summit, of whom, through their native gambling
proclivities, he was professionally cognizant. But he mainly trusted
Fortune. Secure in his faith in the feminine character of that goddess,
he relied a great deal on her well-known weakness for scamps of his
quality.

It was not long before he came to the "slide"--a lightly-cut or shallow
ditch. It descended slightly in a course that was far from straight, at
times diverging to avoid the obstacles of trees or boulders, at times
shaving them so closely as to leave smo