ildcat threatened to jump at her. But then Polly had been
reared among the mountains that seem to meet the sky; and she was a girl
accustomed to standing all manner of pain as well as any grown man could
have done.

They started to climb upward.

One thing favored them, for which Thad was really glad. Polly knew every
foot of the rough country like a scholar might the printed pages of a
book. She could lead them along trails that they never would have
suspected existed at all, hidden as they were from the eye of a
stranger, by the artful moonshiners. And while possibly the climbing
might be difficult, it was never as bad as the boys had found it when
ascending the mountain in the day time.

Bob for a wonder kept quiet. Of course he needed all his wind to carry
him through. Then again, he was naturally turning over in his mind the
amazing thing that had just come to him, and trying to realize his
wonderful good fortune.

The thought that he was about to see his dear father shortly was enough
to fill his mind, to the exclusion of all else. And so he continued to
follow close after the nimble girl, while Thad brought up the rear.

They paused to rest several times. No doubt it was more on account of
these two boys, quite unaccustomed to such harsh labor as climbing a
mountain, that compelled Polly to pause; because otherwise, she could
have kept straight on, without any rest.

"We's gittin' thar now," she remarked, finally, as they halted for the
fourth time, with Bob fairly panting for breath, and Thad himself
secretly confessing that this mountain climbing after a surefooted girl
who had shown herself as nimble as a goat, was no "cinch."

"I'm glad to hear that news, Polly," Bob admitted candidly; but then it
may have been on account of the fact that he was nearer the meeting with
his long-lost father, rather than an admission that he was tired.

"Jest wun moah stop, an' shore we'll be thar; p'raps we cud make her
right smart from hyah, ef so be yuh felt fresh enuff," Polly explained.

"Let's try, anyhow," declared Bob; "you don't know how much I can stand.
Why, I used to climb these same mountains as well as you ever could; and
it'd be queer if I'd forgot all I ever knew."

"Thet sounds jest like a Quail," remarked the girl, with a chuckle, as
she once more took up the work.

The last part of the climb was certainly the roughest of all. Old Phin
had hidden his secret Still in a quarter of the rocky uplift wh