h eagerness.

The scouts clustered around Thad as he once again held the scrap of
soiled paper up so he could see the comparatively few words scrawled
upon it with a pencil, that must have been a mere stub, since it
evidently had to be frequently wet in order to make it do duty.

"It's brief, and to the point, I give you my word, boys," he said.
"Here, let me hold it up, and every one of you can push in to read for
yourselves. The writer believes in making his words correspond with
their sound. With that for a tip you ought to be able to make it out."

And this, then, was what they read, as they bunched together on the
mountain road running through the valley of the Smoky Range:

"Beter tak my advis an skip outen this neck ov the woods. The men round
heer aint gut no use fo you-uns in thes mountings. That's awl. Savvy?"

There was no signature to the communication.

"Well, that's cool, to say the least," remarked Allan, after he had read
the uncouth note that had come down with the rock that fell from above.

"Tells us to turn right around, and go back," declared Giraffe, who was
inclined to be peppery, and a bit rash. "Now, I like the nerve of the
gent. Just as if we didn't have as much right to wander through these
mountains and valleys as the next one."

"We're minding our own business, and I don't see how anybody would want
to shoo us away from here," said Smithy, brushing off some imaginary
specks of dust from his neat khaki uniform, always spic and span in
comparison with--that of Bumpus for example, showing the marks of many a
tumble.

Thad was rather puzzled himself. He knew that it would be hardly wise
for a parcel of boys to deliberately defy such a notorious character as
Old Phin the moonshiner, whom the Government had never been able to
capture; but then again there was a natural reluctance in his boyish
heart to retreat before making some sort of show with regard to carrying
out their original design.

Besides, when he happened to glance toward Bob White, and saw how
cruelly disappointed the Southern boy looked, Thad immediately changed
his mind. Still, he wanted to hear what his comrades thought about it;
since they had long gone by the wise principle that majority rules.

"Shall we take this kind advice, and go back, boys?" he asked.

A chorus of eager dissenting voices greeted his words.

"Not for Joseph, not if he knows it!" Giraffe chortled.

"We never turn back, after once we've placed