CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE GATHERING STORM.

It seemed a long time to the anxious postboy before his brother opened his eyes.

"I found you, Dix," he said. "I told mother I would if she would let me go on Fairy."

"What has happened, Sammy?"

"I don't know just what it is, Dix; but mother has been crying all the afternoon. She got a letter somehow, saying that you had been killed, and that if she and father valued their lives, to move out of Six Roads before to-morrow morning. Then, when you did not come, she was sure you had been killed, and she is nearly crazy."

"Well, it is not as bad as she thought, for you see I am as well as ever. Now let us hasten home as fast as we can, so as to relieve her suspense."

Sammy having fully recovered his usual self by this time, he remounted Fairy, and, side by side, the brothers galloped on toward Daring's Diamond.

It had been Little Snap's idea to have his brother ride on, to get home as soon as possible, while he stopped to have the mail sorted.

"Tell mother I am all right, and that I will be along as soon as possible. Let Fairy go at her best."

With Sammy's good-night ringing in his ears, Little Snap dashed up in front of the post office, where he was met by an excited crowd.

The postmaster was just locking the door of his store, in which he kept the post office.

"Here he comes, as true as you live!" said the well-known voice of Morton Meiggs.

"You have done your worst to-night, it seems, Mr. Lewis," he added, turning to the postboy.

"The mail, Mr. Anderson," said Little Snap, paying no heed to the words of Meiggs.

"The hour is past for me to keep the office open," replied that official, "and I refuse to accept the mail pouch unless you can show proper reason for coming in at this late hour."

"That's it, Anderson; stand up for your rights," interposed Meiggs. "We will soon know how long we have got to put up with this treatment. I expected letters to-night, which it is dollars' damage to me not to get before this time. But, as I said, we shall soon know how much longer Uncle Sam is going to permit this way of doing business."

Little Snap waited until Meiggs had finished speaking, when he said to the postmaster:

"Mr. Anderson, if you have heard of the terrible disaster in Tripping Waters Valley to-day, you know I have sufficient reason for coming in late. If you have not heard of it, you will in due season. Will you take the mail or not?"

"Bring it in," was the curt reply.

"It does not belong to me to do that. I have brought it as far as the law requires me to. I will wait here the allotted seven minutes; if at the end of that time you have not sorted the mail, I shall go on to the next office."

"Bully for you, Little Snap!" cried some one from the crowd.

Without speaking, the postmaster stepped down from the step and took the pouch, to carry it into the office.

A part of the crowd followed him into the building, Meiggs among the rest.

Little Snap was beginning to get impatient over the long time the postmaster was taking in sorting the mail, when the latter appeared at the door.

"Look here, Lewis! There are letters missing. I have advice that there were a certain number of registered letters in the mail, and five are not here. How do you account for that?"

"I do not know, Mr. Anderson. Why should you expect me to know?"

"For the very best reason in the world!" broke in Meiggs. "The reason that you know about their loss and where they are."

"Is the pouch ready for me, Mr. Anderson?" asked the postboy. "The time is up."

"Hear the impudence!" again broke in Meiggs. "Are you going to let him bluff you like this, Anderson?"

"I don't understand it," admitted the postmaster, hesitating in his manner. "You must be knowing to this."

"Are you going to let me have that mail, or must I go on without it?" asked Little Snap.

"How is it the Tree mail has not been taken out?" asked Mr. Anderson.

"The office was closed when I came along, and I could do no better than to bring its mail along. I will leave it in the morning."

"I should think you would—after you have had a night to look it over."

"I don't see as I can do any better than to let him have the bag," said Mr. Anderson.

"Do so, and you will lose your own head," cried Meiggs. "This has gone as far as it is going. I understand two of those missing letters were for me. I want my letters. Now, Mr. Lewis, give up those letters, or you don't leave this yard."

"I should like to see you stop me," replied Little Snap. "I know my footing, and, for the last time, I demand that mail pouch, Mr. Anderson. I am needed at home at this very moment. I have enough to contend with outside of those who should be my supporters."

Little Snap showed by his tone that he was in earnest, and as he concluded, the postmaster threw the pouch across Tom's withers, saying:

"Where is the man who went down with you?"

"Coming on the road now, as far as I know. Come, Tom, we must get home."

At that moment Morton Meiggs stepped forward to catch hold of the bridle rein, motioning to some of his followers to surround the postboy.

"Stand back, sir! I warn you to get out of my pathway."

He touched Tom lightly as he spoke, when the horse bounded forward at a smart canter, sending Meiggs reeling backward to the ground.

Without farther interference Little Snap rode on toward Six Roads.

"I wonder what has come over Mr. Anderson," he thought. "And I am more puzzled than ever for the disappearance of those letters—if any are gone this time. It don't look now as if Dan Shag had a hand in it."

In consideration of the fact that he had been more than commonly on the watch on this trip, it was no wonder he felt more than ever anxious.

Then the thought of the trouble at home drove the matter from his mind for the time.

Little Sammy Lewis must have urged Fairy on at a rattling pace, for Little Snap did not overtake him, until as the latter was turning up at the post office, he saw his brother riding up the street toward their home.

"Is Mr. Rimmon in the office?" asked the postboy, as he handed over the mail pouch to the clerk.

"No; he left town this forenoon, and we do not expect him back for two or three days. How is it you are so late to-night, Dix? Some of them have been raising a great hurrah because you have not come before. I told them there must be good reasons for your delay. What has happened?"