tened at anything Apache may do."

"I aint scared none at what you an' dat hawse doin'. He's got sense
and--" added Jefferson with concession--"so has you. I aint got no time
ter be a troublin' 'bout you-all. It's dese yo'ng ladies I has ter bat my
eyes at; an' dey shore do keep me busy sometimes. Now what I tell you?
Look at dat?" and as though in sympathy with Beverly's schemes, Chicadee,
the little mare Petty Gaylord was riding chose that moment to shy at some
leaves which fluttered to the ground and, of course, Petty shrieked, and
then followed up the shriek with the "tee-hee-hee," which punctuated
every tenth word she spoke whether apropos or not.

That was exactly the cue Beverly needed. A slight pressure of her knee
upon Apache's side was sufficient. He was off like a comet, and to all
intents and purposes entirely beyond his rider's control.

Sally and Aileen laughed outright. Petty stopped her giggle to scream:
"Oh, she's being run away with!"

"Not so much as it would seem," was Hope MacLeod's quiet comment as she
laid in place a lock of Satin Gloss's mane, and quieted him after his
sympathetic plunge.

"Well ef she is, she _is_, but I'm bettin' she knows whar she a-runnin'
_at_," said Andrew Jackson Jefferson more quietly than the situation
seemed to warrant. "But just de same I'm thinkin' we might as well fool
oursefs some," and he hastened his pace, the others doing likewise. It
would never do to let one of his charges be run away with and not make an
effort to save her from a possible calamity.

CHAPTER VIII

CLIMAXES

Meanwhile the runaways were having the very time of their lives. Not
since that two-mile race to Four Corners for the letter which proved the
wedge to divide her own and Athol's ways, had Beverly been able to "let
out a notch," as she put it. Nor had the little broncho been permitted to
twinkle his legs as they were now twinkling over that soft dirt road.
Virginia roads were made for equestrians, _not_ automobiles. Head thrust
forward as far as his graceful slender neck permitted, ears laid back for
the first unwelcome word to halt, eyes flashing with exhilaration, and
nostrils wide for the deep, full inhalations and exhalations which sent
the rich blood coursing through each pulsing artery, little Apache was
enjoying his freedom as much as his rider. In two seconds they were at
the top of a rise of ground, down at