CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE STRANGE HORSEMAN.

The postboy's surprise was genuine, and had he pulled out a handful of gold dollars he could not have been more astonished, though it might have been in a different vein.

"Wot'd I tell yer?" cried the man, exultantly. "Needn't look fur fer yer letters, Dan."

"I shall look fur an' sharp afore this matter is settled," retorted Shag, taking the package. "Ye air all witnesses to wot has been done?"

"O' course," was the general reply.

Knowing it was useless for him to say more to them, Little Snap rode on toward Daring's Diamond in anything but an enviable frame of mind.

"We have got to look sharper than this, Jack," he said, speaking to his horse. "There is something and some one at the bottom of all this, and I do not understand it. One thing is certain; that package was not in my pocket when I left Greenbrier. And another thing equally certain is the fact that I saw no one after I left that post office. Then how came it there?"

Trying to solve this problem, Little Snap kept on toward Daring's Diamond, and then to Six Roads.

While stopping to have the mail sorted at the Diamond, he saw Dan Shag ride past, and he knew the postmaster was hastening on to Six Roads to spread the news of his latest trouble.

"I have got to keep my eyes open sharper than this or they will get the best of me yet. Push on, Jack! I am anxious to know how I shall be received at the home office."

About the same crowd as usual was gathered around the office at Six Roads, and to the postboy's surprise, nothing was hinted of his recent adventures.

After supper he sought Mr. Rimmon, to tell him the particulars of his last trip, the postmaster showing greater surprise than ever.

"Whew! that is a tough one. Those Blazed Acreites mean you the worst kind of harm, I fear. At least they will after this. You were gritty, though. Let me advise you to take a guard from this time on for at least a week."

"I would if that would end the matter, but I do not believe it would. The Burrnocks would naturally keep out of sight during that time, to begin their work as soon as I went alone, so it would only prolong the affair."

"I don't know but you are right, Dix, but it puts you in a tight box. If the Honorable Jason was in town I would call him for a consultation."

"That would do no good. He is no real friend to me, though he feels obliged to stand on my bond because Mr. Calvert says so."

"Dix Lewis, you have hit the nail right on the head! In his anxiety to get a nomination to Congress he is catering to every one, and he is getting into the hands of some that are going to wreck him; mark my words. What do you propose to do?"

"Keep on; only, I promise you, Mr. Rimmon, I won't be caught like that again."

"Good! I hope you will come out at the top of the heap."

The following morning, as the postboy was leaving the little village of Six Roads, he was accosted by a man on horseback, who was a stranger to him, and who showed by his personal appearance that he had ridden several miles.

"Young man," he said, "are you the postboy of the Kanawha?"

"I carry the mail, sir, between this place and Upper Loop."

"I thought I wasn't mistaken. I want to go to Greenbrier, and possibly to a place called Salt Works, and as the road is a strange one to me, perhaps you will have the kindness to allow me to ride with you. I can't promise that I shall be very good company, but I will at least be civil."

He spoke with an air of honesty, and he looked like a straightforward person. He was about forty years of age, and he rode a horse that Little Snap saw was to all outward appearances the equal of his Jack.

"Do you object to my company?" he asked, as Little Snap hesitated a moment in his reply. "If you have any suspicions of me, I won't object to riding a little in front of you, so you can keep your eye on me all of the time."

"I think I can trust you, sir."

"Thank you. My name is Austin Goings, and I am not ashamed to say that I am a Kentuckian, though it has been several years since I bade adieu to the scenes of my nativity. May I ask your name?"

"It is Dix Lewis, Mr. Goings. I am afraid you will find me to be poor company, as I have been so used to only the companionship of my horse that I must be dull."

"Fine-looking horse, Dix," said the Kentuckian, at once assuming a social companionship. "I should judge he might be fleet of foot. I am rather proud of my own horse here, and if agreeable to you, we will have a little spurt when we come to a suitable road."

"I never race Jack, sir, unless it is a case of necessity. His work is hard enough without my adding to it by any unnecessary hard driving."

"Good on your head, Dix Lewis! I like that kind of talk. We shall get along famously. How long have you been carrying this mail?"

"Two years."

"Must have begun pretty young."

"Was a little over sixteen when I made my first trip."

"I'll venture you are a gritty one. Ever have any trouble?"

"None that I could not look after."

"Don't be offended at my questions. I should judge there might be some tough characters in this vicinity, and, naturally, one in your position would be likely to run across them. If I am not mistaken, the Raggles settled in this locality."

"I never knew but one family by that name, and they have come recently."

"I may have been mistaken. They were a bad gang, anyway."

Little Snap making no reply to this, Mr. Goings dropped the conversation, so that very little was said until reaching Hollow Tree.

Dan Shag showed his surprise at seeing a companion with the postboy.

"Reckon it's a purty good thing to hev a guard," he said, in a low tone. "Had the colonel got home this mornin'?"

"No, sir. Everything all right this morning?"

"Alwus is goin' right, this way."

It did not need Dan Shag to tell him this. Neither did it need this postmaster to tell him that the trouble all centered at his office.

"You can put that man down as a cutthroat," declared Mr. Goings, as they rode away from the Tree. "But isn't that a singular office. By the way, I have seen that man's face somewhere before," continued the talkative Mr. Goings. "It may have been when I was this way before. Oh, yes, I have been over this same road—let me see—fifteen years ago. Time enough for me to have forgotten how everything looked. I do remember that the next place we shall come to is Greenbrier. It is situated at the junction of the river we have just crossed and the Little Kanawha, the streams making the Great Kanawha. Am I right?"

"Yes, sir."

Little Snap was growing suspicious of this voluble stranger, and he wished he might escape his company farther.