om
the Thompsons, made an unusually appetizing supper that night, and
during the meal Washington furnished music to entertain them. He was
still playing when Anne warned her companions that a man had just
stepped out of the cornfield and was coming into camp.

The Overlanders got up, wondering who their caller might be.

"Evenin', folks," greeted the stranger, who was of the same gaunt,
razor-faced type that they had come in contact with on other occasions
on this journey.

"Good evening," answered the Overland Riders pleasantly.

"We have just finished supper, but won't you sit down and have a snack?"
asked Grace. "There is some meat and coffee left."

"Reckon Ah will, thankee."

The caller sat down, tucked his red handkerchief under his chin, hitched
his revolver holster back a little further, leaned over and sniffed at
his heaping plate of bear meat, then fell to with a will. "He ate as if
he had had nothing to eat for a fortnight," as Emma confided to Anne
Nesbit. Washington made a fresh pot of coffee for him.

"Reckon this 'ere's as fine a piece o' beef as Ah ever stowed," observed
the guest, rolling his eyes up to the assembled Riders.

"It isn't beef. It's--" began Emma, but quickly subsided as Anne pinched
her warningly.

"It's what?" demanded the caller.

"Codfish!" answered Emma lamely.

The stranger shrugged his shoulders and resumed his eating.

"Ahem!" said Hippy by way of clearing his throat. "It is a fine, large
evening. Do you ordinarily have such large evenings in the Kentucky
mountains?"

"Off an' on, Mister. Wall, Ah reckon Ah'm full clear to the gullet. Who
be ye-all?"

"We call ourselves the Overland Riders. May I ask who you are?"
questioned Hippy.

"Ah'm the game constable of this 'ere county. Where's the bear?"

"Some--some of it is--is inside of you," gasped Emma Dean a little
hysterically.

CHAPTER XVI

A JOKE ON THE OVERLANDERS

"Help!" murmured Elfreda Briggs.

"The game constable!" repeated Lieutenant Wingate. "Oh! Glad to know
you, old man. Glad to know you. This is a genuine pleasure, I assure
you. How is business? Are you arresting any game--rabbits, possums, or
anything of that sort?" went on Hippy jovially, to hide his real
feelings.

Grace Harlowe laughed in a low tone.

"Ah may be. Ah asked, where is the bear?"

"Bear, bear?" questioned the lieutenant, glancing about him inquiringly.
"I--I didn't know that you had lost one. What sort of a lookin