, that it had been
occupied. He almost groaned to see the scattered leaves from his bed in
the corner, but was somewhat consoled to find that evidently no one had
discovered the opening below.

"Some tramp," he thought. "It's queer they should find this place, so
entirely off their routes, though. I wonder if that was the brute I saw
skipping out, then? I've a notion to hunt him down. He's spoiled my rest
for to-night, anyhow. And I never can feel safe again till I know who it
was, and what it wanted."

But the possession of his wheel hampered him. He did not like to leave
it, perhaps to be stolen, and it would be almost impossible to make his
way through the brush with it. In a quandary he stepped forth again, to
stand an instant among the over-hanging vines, making up his mind. He
was so placed as to be invisible from the brookside, though he could see
it plainly through the vine's interstices, and in that instant there saw
a flash of something black against the vista of light, and he knew,
rather than saw, that a man had leaped across the brook where it
narrowed suddenly, further down. The spray of the up-leaping water, as
he jumped short, sparkled in the pale rays of a rising moon.

At this his resolution was formed. The man, whoever he was, had
evidently headed for town. Dan decided instantly, to cross the brook
higher up, at another narrow spot, take to the road, mount his wheel,
and ride by this piece of woods as if with no object in view, then, when
well ahead, hide in some good place and intercept him--or at least see
who he might be. It did not take him long to recover the road, mount his
wheel, and start. Nobody was yet in sight, but he had not expected to
see anybody. The tramp would doubtless skulk along behind the fences
till sure Dan was gone, then come out and trudge after as fast as
possible. Such was the program the young man mapped out for him, at
least. Once, as he toiled through a sandy reach, he was sure he saw the
fellow skulking behind a rail fence, but he whistled negligently as he
sprinted by and did not seem to notice, though the perspiration started
a little at thought that this might be a desperate character, on his
very heels, and well armed.

He kept up his pace, anxious to get to a certain spot he had fixed upon
as his point of lookout. He presently reached it and, slowing up, gazed
well about him. Nobody was in sight, and dusk was now real darkness.
Still the moon, when not obscured