pe around himself
again.

"Never knew me to miss doin' that, did you, Step Hen?" queried the
other; and from the flippant tone in which he said this it was plainly
evident that the lesson had been lost on him; and that Davy would be
doing his customary stunts right along.

The hike was presently resumed, and the little adventure reckoned a
thing of the past. Shortly afterwards they came suddenly on a man, with
an old vehicle, and a slab-sided horse that looked half starved. The
ramshackle wagon bed was covered to about the depth of three feet with
poor looking straw, that seemed to have done duty a long time.

As for the man himself, he was a typical mountaineer, thin and scrawny,
with a small, weasened face, and keen, snapping eyes. Bob White
instantly pulled his hat down over his face as he saw the man.

Thad noticed that the other looked alarmed at sight of these eight
khaki-clad boys strung out along the mountain road. Indeed, he had the
appearance of a man who would have turned and fled, only that he was
afraid to do so after finding himself face to face with what looked like
a squad of United States regulars, or at the least, North Carolina
militia, on the hike.

He returned the greetings of the boys with sundry nods of his head, and
urged his old nag along by several whacks from the hickory rod he held
in his hand in lieu of a whip. So ramshackle vehicle and scared driver
vanished around the bend which had concealed the scouts from his view
until it was too late to run.

"Looked like he'd seen a ghost!" suggested Step Hen, with a chuckle.

"Well, you can't blame him, if he saw _you_ roll your eyes, and make
that face of yours look like thirty cents," remarked Bumpus, cuttingly.

"He had mountain dew hidden under that straw," remarked Bob White; "I
remember the old fellow right well, and I'm glad he was that frightened
he didn't think to take at look at me. Nate Busby is his name. He always
was connected with Old Phin, and the others who make the moonshine stuff
further up in the hills. Right now, you can believe me, suh, he's on
his way with that load, to hide it where somebody from town can find
it."

"He don't know what to make of us, seems like?" suggested Giraffe.

"That is the truth," added Thad. "I thought his eyes would drop out, he
stared so hard. Seemed to me as if he actually expected some of us to
surround him, and examine his load. How he did whip that old nag of his.
The beast kicked up h