ll surprised, Wash."

Grace shook her head at Emma.

"You imagined all of that, Wash," she said. "What did you think you
heard him say?"

"Him say--right outer de air, 'Wash! Remembah, dis am de sebbenth yeah.'
Den Ah tuk a frenzy spell."

"What do you mean by the seventh year?" questioned Miss Briggs.

"Ah doan know. It's de hoodoo, Miss. Somet'n sure gwine happen to dis
niggah."

"Nonsense!" retorted Nora sharply.

"If you don't brace up and behave yourself, something surely will happen
to you," warned Lieutenant Wingate.

"I believe the boy really did hear something," declared Grace as she
gazed at the trembling lad before her. "Tom, please look there where he
was sitting, will you?"

Tom Gray rose and started to obey her request. At this juncture the
bushes parted, and a man, faintly outlined in the light from the
campfire, stepped into view.

Wash saw him and, uttering another yell, made a break, but Hippy, on the
watch for this very thing, caught and held him.

"Behave yourself or I'll let the fellow have you," he warned.

Tom hesitated, then stepped forward to meet the stranger. He saw a man
apparently of early middle age, smooth-shaven, wearing long iron-gray
hair that hung below his sombrero, the locks curling slightly at the
bottom. The eyes that regarded Tom were keen and twinkling, full of good
nature and humor.

"Well, sir, who are you?" demanded Grace's husband.

"Who am I? You will be surprised when I tell you. I'm the original
Mystery Man. Spectacles, notions and trinkets are my specialty. I make
the near blind see and dull the glare of the sun for those who do see."

"Glad to meet you. Come in, won't you?" invited Tom.

"That's what I'm here for. I've invited myself to have a snack with
you-all."

Grace said they had just eaten, but that they would prepare something
for their caller if he could wait. The stranger said he could and would
wait, so Anne and Nora set about making coffee and frying bacon,
Washington being still in too great a fright to do anything useful.

"I'll introduce myself again," resumed the caller. "I'm Jeremiah Long,
and that's the long and short of it. Who are you?"

Grace introduced the members of her party, telling Long that they were
riding for their health and amusement. Emma added that they were on
their way in search of a fortune on Lieutenant Wingate's tract of
mountain land, and would have said more had not Grace given her a
warning look.

"Are yo