urry up!"

He turned to find Molly Breckenridge beside him, her finger on her lip,
and a wild light in her eyes. She was trembling with excitement and
could scarcely wait to whisper:

"I'm going, too!"

"Girl, how can you?"

"Horseback, course. Roderick's daughter's lending me her own pony.
Mattie, her name is, and she was all for going with the others but her
mother can't spare her. I told her I was just crazy, thinking of my
Dorothy; hurt maybe, lost anyway, and nobody but a lot of men to speak
to, even if they find her. Do you s'pose I'll desert her? That I love
best of all the world? I guess not. I'm a Breckenridge! Good-by!"

There was mischief in her eyes as she turned to leave him and Leslie
laughed:

"Course! You're thoroughbred--I saw that right away. And you're my
guest! Could I, as a gentleman, let you ride off alone on a lonely road
at night? Hurray! You're A 1! You're rippin'!"

Molly sped around the house. She wasn't familiar, as yet, with Leslie's
"rippin'" but she knew he'd approved of her wild prank and would join
her in it. She was a far better rider than he, for in her own southern
home she had been reared to the saddle and was never happier than when
she had a good horse at command. Mattie's pony was swift and easy, and
Molly sprang to its back with the feeling that now she was "really doing
something," and that very speedily she would have her arms about her
missing friend and all would be well. She had also begged Mattie to get
a mount for Leslie, forseeing that he would follow her--exactly as he
did. Another instant, and the pair were off along a little by-path,
toward the main road and the pursuit of the searching party. As they
struck into the smoother going Molly touched the calico pony with her
whip and called to Leslie:

"Come on! Hurry up! We'll have to ride like the wind to catch up with
the rest!"

"All right--I'll do my best but--but this--old nag--wait a little bit!"

Molly wheeled about and did so, but the delay made her extremely
impatient, and with some contempt she remarked, as the lad came
alongside:

"Why, I supposed you could ride! You looked like a boy who knew how!"

"So I do! But this thing I'm on--Call this a horse? I'd rather have a
mule! How dared they give me such a thing?"

In her hurry Molly had not observed the animal which had stood saddled
at the stable door, and that now seemed as ugly and tiresome a beast as
her own little pony was fine. Pity then ba