do a thing."

"I'll have the law on 'em. That gal's as good as mine for the time till
she's twenty-one, an' I'll show 'em whether they can run off that way
with a man's property. Guess even a farmer's got some rights--an' I can
afford to pay for lawin' when I need it done."

"I s'pose you can afford to pay us for runnin' off on this wild goose
chase for you, then? Hey?"

"Not a cent--not a cent!" they heard Farmer Weeks say, angrily. "I ain't
a-goin' to give none of my good money that I worked for to any low-down
shirkers like you--hey, what are you doin' there, tryin' to trip me up?"

A chorus of laughter greeted his indignant question, but he seemed to
take the hint, for the fugitives in the cave heard no more talk from
him, although for some time after that the sounds in the direction the
pursuers had taken on their return to the inn were plain enough.

When the last sounds had died away, and they were quite sure that they
were safe, for the time, at least, Bessie got up.

"Suppose we follow this trail right up the way they went?" Bessie asked
Jack. "Where will it bring us?"

"To the top of the mountain," said Jack. "But if you want to go off that
way I'll walk a way with you, and show you where you can strike off and
come to another trail that will bring you out on the main road to
Zebulon."

"That'll be fine, Jack. If you'll do that, you'll help us ever so much,
and we'll be able to get along splendidly."

"We'd better start," said Zara, nervously. "I want to get away as soon
as ever I can. Don't you, Bessie?"

"Indeed I do, Zara. I'm just as afraid of having Farmer Weeks catch us
as you are. If he found me he'd take me back to Maw Hoover, I know. And
she'd be awfully angry with me."

"I'm all ready to start whenever you are," announced Jack. "Come on. It
gets dark early in the woods, you know. They're mighty thick when you
get further up the mountain. But if you walk along fast you'll get out
of them long before it's really dark."

So they started off. Little Jack seemed to be a thorough woodsman and to
know almost every stick and stone in the path. And presently they came
to a blazed tree--a tree from which a strip of bark had been cut with a
blow from an axe.

"That's my mark. I made it myself," said Jack, proudly. "Here's where we
leave this trail. Be careful now. Look where I put my feet, and come
this same way."

Then he struck off the trail, and into the deep woods themselves where
the moss