CHAPTER VIII.

"I AM STANDING ON MY OWN FEET."

"I don't know but you are right, Dix. Still, you haven't explained the worst feature of your case. How came the missing package of mail in your possession?"

"I cannot tell. Some one must have put it there, but who or when, I cannot say."

"You said it was missing before you got to Hollow Tree?"

"No, sir. I said it was not in the pouch when I looked for it at the request of Mr. Shag; but you must remember I did not see the pouch until after he had examined it, and had had the opportunity to take it out if he had chosen."

"Be careful how you make any charges you cannot back up. I must say you are exceedingly outspoken."

"I am standing on my own feet, Mr. Warfield, and I am going to tell you just what I believe is the truth. I will know the mystery of that packet of mail before I get through. You seem to forget the attack of the Burrnocks."

"On the contrary, I have been thinking of them very much, and this leads me to give you a bit of advice. I advise you to give up this mail route at once. You were too young to have undertaken it."

Little Snap looked up with surprise.

"I hardly expected that from you, Mr. Warfield."

"Excuse me, I was thinking only of your good. Those Burrnocks are desperate men, and I fear it will cost you your life to continue. Perhaps you think you cannot afford to give up so good a job, but you can better spare it than your life."

"Our living depends on my work," replied the postboy, with a quivering lip. "More than that, and what I prize infinitely higher, my honor is at stake. If I give up now, it will look as if I was guilty of the charge of taking the mail. I feel it thus my duty to stay where I am, until I have been able not only to prove my innocence but to show up the guilty ones."

"You cannot do this alone, and, of course, if those who have put you in this place do not think it prudent to back you up in your rashness, you cannot blame them."

Little Snap understood more by this statement than the mere words told, as the speaker intended he should. Drawing his boyish figure to its full height with an air which made the politician start with surprise, if not fear, he said:

"Mr. Warfield, I want to know who my friends are, and you and I might as well have an understanding at the outset as later. Of course I am very grateful to you for signing my bond and helping me so far as you have. Now, if you wish to withdraw, I shall have no ill feeling; but you must remember that Mr. Marion Calvert owns the contract for this route, and as long as he has confidence in me to carry the mail I do not expect to give way."

Little Snap was bolder in his speech than he might otherwise have been, as he knew that Mr. Warfield was anxious to keep on friendly terms with this Mr. Calvert, who had a strong political backing.

Mr. Warfield's reply, which came after a moment's hesitation, was more friendly than he had dared to expect.

"Bravo for you, Dix Lewis! Give me your hand. You are made of just the stuff to succeed, and I can see that you will do better than nine men out of ten. Your words have opened my eyes. Go ahead, and count upon me to lend you all the assistance in my power. Every dollar I have got in this world and all of my personal influence is enlisted in your behalf. I don't know how the other bondsmen feel, but you know my state of mind.

"I suppose the others are anxiously awaiting us, so let's adjourn this meeting. I will make it all right with Brady."

Little Snap, after thanking Mr. Warfield for his words, sought his mother to allay her fears.

Whatever the politician said to the Hollow Tree postmaster and Sheriff Brady he did not know, but the entire party went away at once.

"It's all right, mother," he said to her, as soon as the men had gone, "so have no further concern."

"I wish I could think so, my son; but somehow I fear there is trouble in store for you. Mr. Brady has been telling me about those Burrnocks, and he says they will kill you at the first opportunity. They are dreadful men, and I fear they would not hesitate at any crime. I wish you would give up carrying the mail, Dix; we can live somehow."

"It isn't all a living, mother; my good name is at stake now."

"The boy has too much of the blood of old John Lewis in his veins to do that, Mary," said a new voice, breaking in upon the scene before Mrs. Lewis could reply, and mother and son turned to see with surprise a tall, middle-aged man standing in the doorway.

He was Little Snap's father.

"Why, John! Where have you been?" asked Mrs. Lewis, starting toward him. "I have been so worried about you."

"No need of that, Mary. I think I ought to have shown you by this time that I am able to take care of myself."

Mr. Lewis was a man who was a mystery to all who knew him. He was generally considered mildly insane, but more often spoken of as "the man without a memory." His past life seemed to be a void to him, except at rare intervals, when a ray of light would suddenly flash across his darkened mind, to go as quickly as it had come. Of late years he had been at home but very little, though where he spent his time not even those at home knew. Of course his wife worried over his strange conduct, but as long as he was harmless and seemed, as he had said, able to care for himself, it was not thought best to keep him at home by force.

The Lewis family was one of the oldest and most respected in the valley of the Kanawha, our hero being directly descended from those gallant pioneers of the dark days of the Old Dominion, John and Samuel Lewis, well known to the pages of Virginia history.

"John," said the anxious wife, "I wish you would not be away from home so much. What is it calls you away so much? You look pale and haggard; there is some trouble."

"There is trouble, Mary, and I have been trying to think what it is. For the present we must wait, though it will all come round in good season.

"Did I tell you, my son, that you had aroused the snakes of Blazed Acre? You must carry a level head. Most of all, look out for those who profess the greatest friendship. There, that is all I can think of now. I must leave you now, Mary. I will be back again to stop longer next time."

Then, in spite of their remonstrances, he went out of the house and was not seen again that night.

Though it was late before our hero retired, he was on hand at his usual hour the following morning, and promptly at six he called at the post office for the mail pouch.

According to his instructions he was expected to leave Six Roads at six o'clock and arrive at Upper Loop at eleven in the forenoon; returning, he was to start from the last office at two in the afternoon, to get back to the home office at eight in the evening. To do this, he made a shift of horses at Salt Works, with extra animals at the end of the route to go every other day.

This was the day for Jack to rest, Little Snap riding a small, brown mare that he had named Fairy. Though not as intelligent as the bay, she was even fleeter of foot and perfectly obedient to the will of her young master.

"So you are going to try it again," said the postmaster, as he handed out the pouch. "I advise you to keep your eyes open, and not to lose sight of your business again."

Hardly knowing how to take this speech, the postboy nodded in assent, and touching Fairy lightly, dashed down the descending road toward Daring's Diamond.

It was a beautiful day in early autumn, and it was but natural a seventeen-year-old boy, full of life and activity, should throw off the cares and anxieties of his position, to break forth into snatches of song.

"I never felt so light-hearted in my life!" he cried, "and I hail it as a good omen. I can't think that you and I, Fairy, will find any such hornets' nest to come through as Jack and I did yesterday."

Thus, with a cheerfulness which puzzled those who knew of his adventures the previous day, Little Snap kept on without interruption, until he was about halfway between Hollow Tree and Greenbrier, when he was surprised to see Tag Raggles spring from the bushes by the wayside into his path.

"I want to speak to you, mister," she said.

"Well," said the postboy, reining up Fairy, and waiting for the elfin-like girl to speak.

Giving a hurried glance around, as if expecting to see some one in pursuit of her, she said:

"Dad sent me, an' he said he did yit for the kindness you tried to do him yesterday. He said for you not to go on alone. Them bad Burrnocks are laying in the rock in Devil's Wash Bowl to kill you as you go erlong! Fact!" seeing Little Snap's look of doubt on his face.

"Don't tell who told you," and before he could speak she had vanished into the depths of the woods.