h off the scent.
He was to get off the train here at Denboro and I was to let him have a
horse 'n' buggy. Then, this afternoon, he was goin' to drive through the
wood roads around to Trumet and be at the Baptist Church there at eight
to-night sharp. Gertie's Aunt Hannah, she's had her orders, and bein' as
big a crank as her brother, she don't let the girl out of her sight. But
there's a fair at the church and Auntie's tendin' a table. Gertie, she
steps out to the cloak room to git a handkerchief which she's forgot;
see? And she hops into Sam's buggy and away they go to the minister's.
After they're once hitched Old Dyspepsy can go to pot and see the kittle
bile."

"Bully! By gum, that's fine! Won't Beriah rip some, hey?"

"Yes, but there's the dickens to pay. I've only got two horses in the
stable to-day. The rest are let. And the two I've got--one's old Bill,
and he couldn't go twenty mile to save his hide. And t'other's the gray
mare, and blamed if she didn't git cast last night and use up her off
hind leg so's she can't step. And Sam's GOT to have a horse. Where can I
git one?"

"Hum! Have you tried Haynes's?"

"Yes, yes! And Lathrop's and Eldredge's. Can't git a team for love nor
money."

"Sho! And he can't go by train?"

"What? With Beriah postmaster at East Harniss and always nosin' through
every train that stops there? You can't fetch Trumet by train without
stoppin' at East Harniss and--What was that?"

"I don't know. What was it?"

"Sounded like somethin' outside that back winder."

The two ran to the window and looked out. All they saw was an overturned
sawhorse and two or three hens scratching vigorously.

"Guess 'twas the chickens, most likely," observed the blacksmith. Then,
striking his blackened palms together, he exclaimed:

"By time! I've thought of somethin'! Is McKay is in town to-day. Come
over in the Lady May. She's a gasoline boat. Is would take Sam to Trumet
for two or three dollars, I'll bet. And he's such a fool head that he
wouldn't ask questions nor suspicion nothin'. 'Twould be faster'n a
horse and enough sight less risky."

And just then the "fool head," his brain whirling under its carroty
thatch, was hurrying blindly up the main street, bound somewhere, he
wasn't certain where.

A mushy apple exploded between his shoulders, but he did not even turn
around. So THIS was what the blacksmith meant! This was why Mr. Higgins
watched his daughter so closely. This was why Gertie h