tis, er de trouble-cloud gwine kyah him erway f'om yo'....
When de clock strike thuhteen--when de clock strike thuhteen--"

The droning voice ceased. The gaunt form became rigid. Then he started
and turned his eyes slowly about him, a vague look of anxiety on his
face. For a moment no one moved. When he spoke again it was once more in
his gentle quavering voice:

"Watah? Yas, Mars', good watah. He'p yo'se'f."

The judge set a dollar bill on the step and weighted it with a stone, as
the rest remounted. "Well, good-by, Anthony," he said. "We're mightily
obliged."

He sprang into the saddle and the quartette cantered away. "My
experiment wasn't a great success, I'm afraid, Shirley," he said
ruefully.

"Oh, I think it was splendid!" cried Nancy. "Do you suppose he really
believes those spooky things? I declare, at the time I almost did
myself. What an odd idea--'when the clock strikes thirteen,' which, of
course, it never does."

"Don't mind, Shirley," bantered Lusk. "When you see all 'dem troubles'
coming, sound the alarm and we'll fly in a body to your rescue."

They let their horses out for a pounding gallop which pulled down
suddenly at a muffled shriek from Betty Page, as her horse went into the
air at sight of an automobile by the roadside.

"Now, whose under the canopy is that?" exclaimed Lusk.

"It's stalled," said Shirley. "I passed here this afternoon when the
owner was trying to start it, and I sent Unc' Jefferson as first aid to
the injured."

"I wonder who he can be," said Nancy. "I've never seen that car before."

"Why," said Betty gaily, "_Ah_ know! It's Mad Anthony's trouble-man, of
course, come for Shirley."

CHAPTER IX

UNCLE JEFFERSON

A red rose, while ever a thing of beauty, is not invariably a joy
forever. The white bulldog, as he plodded along the sunny highway, was
sunk in depression. Being trammeled by the limitations of a canine
horizon, he could not understand the whims of Adorable Ones met by the
way, who seemed so glad to see him that they threw both arms about him,
and then tied to his neck irksome colored weeds that prickled and
scratched and would not be dislodged. Lacking a basis of painful
comparison, since he had never had a tin can tied to his tail, he
accepted it as condign punishment and was puzzledly wretched. So it was
a chastened and shamed Chum who at length wriggled stealthily into the
seat of the stranded automobile beside his master and thrust a dirty
p