ung into it and made his way to the main trunk of the tree, an
ancient elm. It was no trick at all then for him to slide to the ground.
Then, silently as a cat, he tiptoed his way from the old stone house,
with its occupants sleeping and snoring, blissfully unaware that Jack
had stolen a march on them.

"Well, things have gone finely so far," he mused. "Now, what shall be
the next step?"

He looked about him. The country was a wild one. There was no sign of a
house, and, as far as he could see, there was nothing but an expanse of
timber and rocks.

"This is a tough problem," thought the boy. "I've no idea where I am, or
the points of the compass. If I go one way, I might come out all right,
but then again I might find myself lost in the forest. Hanged if I know
what to do."

But, realizing that it would not do to waste any time around the old
house, Jack at length struck off down what appeared to have been, in
bygone days, some sort of a wood road. It wound for quite a distance
among the trees, but suddenly, to his huge delight, the boy beheld in
front of him the broad white ribbon of a dusty highway.

Suddenly, too, he heard the sound of wheels and the rattle of a horse's
hoofs coming along at a smart rate.

"Good; now I can soon find out where I am," thought the boy, and he
hurried forward to meet the approaching vehicle. It contained a pretty
young woman, wearing a sunbonnet.

Jack had no hat to lift, but he made his best bow as the fair driver
came abreast of him.

"I beg your pardon," he began, "but could you tell me----"

The young woman gave one piercing scream.

"Oh-h-h-h-h-h!" she cried, and gave her horse a lash with the whip that
made it leap forward like an arrow. In a flash she was out of sight in a
cloud of dust.

"Well, what do you know about that?" exclaimed Jack. "She must be crazy,
or something, or else she's the most bashful girl I ever saw."

He sat down on a rock at the side of the road to rest and waited for
another rig or a foot passenger to come by. Before long he heard a
sprightly whistle, and a barefooted boy, carrying a tin pail, and with a
fish pole over his shoulder, appeared round a curve in the road.

"Now, I'll get sailing directions," said Jack to himself, and then, as
the boy drew near:

"Hullo, sonny! Can you tell me----"

The boy gave one look and then, dropping his can of bait, and his pole,
fled with a howl of dismay.

"Hi! Stop, can't you? What's the matter wit