true--but with
sufficient promptness and intelligence to satisfy them that they might
rely upon him. Having reached a certain lonely spot among the hills,
contiguous to the crag, or series of crags, called the Wolf's Neck, Chub
made the party all dismount, and hide their horses in a thicket into
which they found it no easy matter to penetrate. This done, he led them
out again, cautiously moving along under cover, but near the margin of
the road. He stept as lightly himself as a squirrel, taking care, before
throwing his weight upon his foot, to feel that there was no rotting
branch or bough beneath, the breaking of which might occasion noise.

"Saftly! saftly!" he would say in a whisper, turning back to the party,
when he found them treading hurriedly and heavily upon the brush.
Sometimes, again, he ran ahead of all of them, and for a few moments
would be lost to sight; but he usually returned, as quickly and quietly
as he went, and would either lead them forward on the same route with
confidence, or alter it according to his discoveries. He was literally
feeling his way; the instincts and experience of the practised scout
finding no sort of obstacle in the deficiency of his reasoning powers.

His processes did not argue any doubts of his course; only a choice of
direction--such as would promise more ease and equal security. Some of
his changes of movement, he tried to explain, in his own fashion, when
he came back to guide them on other paths.

"Saftly back--saftly now, this way. Guy's in his dark house in the rock,
but there's a many rooms, and 't mout be, we're a walking jest now, over
his head. Then he mout hear, you see, and Guy's got ears like the great
owl. He kin hear mighty far in the night, and see too; and you mustn't
step into his holes. There's heap of holes in Guy's dark house. Saftly,
now--and here away."

Briefly, the rocky avenues were numerous in the Wolf's Neck, and some of
them ran near the surface. There were sinks upon the surface also,
covered with brush and clay, into which the unthinking wayfarer might
stumble, perhaps into the very cavern where the outlaw at that moment
housed himself. The group around the idiot did not fail to comprehend
the reasons for all his caution. They confided to his skill implicitly;
having, of themselves, but small knowledge of the wild precincts into
which they desired to penetrate.

Having, at length, brought them to points and places, which afforded
them the