The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1922-04-14
CHAPTER XII.
Around Robin Hoods Barn.

branched off to the left along tn,
mountain on a road that was littl,
better than a bride path through tn,
forest, and which, for the time, KEEP
it's level on the slope, neither ascend
ing nor descending.
How about IL, Daddy?' / asked
where does this trail goT"
Give it time enough, it comes out
at the old Haversack, on Greasel
| mountain"
ENDS there, you mean?"
you said 1t; far as 1 know, it ends
there"
What is the Haversack?"
at amt nothin', now. Used to be a
| gold prospect eight r ten year ago
Never got far enough along TO be a
mine, they tell me-"
1t was certainly singular that the
dog should be leading US to an aban-
doned mining project, but Barney
| seemed to know perfectly well where
ne was going.
In one of the gulch headings there
was patch of wash sand in what was,
in wet weather, a runway for water,
but which was now only a streamless
ravine with a few damp spots in it.
Here Daddy called a halt, and while
the dog sat down and yawned at us
and otherwise manifested his impa-
tience at the delay, the old man gath
cred a few pine-cOnes and twigs,
struck a match and lighted a fire, eau
tiOning me meanwhile not to walk on
the damp sand patch.
l hadn't the slightest idea of what
he was driving at, and he didn't ex-
plain; but after the fire had blazed
up enough to light the surroundings a
bit, he went down upon his hands and
knees and began to give an imitation
of man hunting for a dropped piece
of money. It's sort o. queer. Jeanie's
been here, and the dogs been back and
across a couple o times, as you can
see. But Fullerton hasn't crossed here.
There's only the one set o tracks"
We made a wider search, with a
dead pine branch for a torch, but
found no other tracks; in fact, the
gulch was quilted so deeply above and
below that there was no other prac-
ticable crossing-place for a horse. If
jeanne had headed for the gulch-and
the hoOf prints in the sand, and
Daddy's Identification Of them seemed
to prove this past any question of
doubt-she had headed it alone. But
why had she been riding alone into
the depths of this uninhabited noun
tain wilderness?
Calm and Self-cOntained as he usual |
" was, l could see, or rather feel that |
Daddy Hiram was growing increasing
" nervous as we pushed on. / didn't |
blame him; so far from it, was shar- |
Ing the nervousness in full measure. |
What were we going to find at the |
end of the trail?
1t must have been at least two miles |
beyond the damp sand patch that the |
linn trail we had been following ended |
abruptly at the abandoned mining
claim spoken of by Daddy Hiram-the
The starlight was bright
enough to show us what there was to
De seen, which wasn't much; a couple
IF tuInb.e-down shacks, a shed that
lad probably been the prospectors'
blacksmith shop, and a tunnel mouth
hat had once been securely boarded
Up, but from which the bulkheading
vas now partly fallen away.
Once more Daddy hunted for a dead
line branch and lighted torch. The
;hacks were empty, of course, and
While we did not go into the tunnel,
We could see. through the broken bulk
leading, that it was half filled with
aved-in earth and broken stone. I'm
erfoOt there was only the coarse
roOp of cavalry might have passed
yer it without leaving any visible
rail- Worse than all, Barney, the pie
aced collie, appeared now TO be COM
letely at fault. He was running
round in circles with his nose to the
round; a pretty plain indication that
e had lost the trail.
TN be bat-clawed and owI-hooted
/ know what-alI to do next" Daddy
uzzled.
He hadn't any the best of me there,
nd it was precisely at this point that
he split-faced dog took it into his
cad TO add another snarl to the knot
I'd tangle After galloping around all
yer the place half a dozen times,
hitting at everything in sight, he had
udlly come 10 SIdnQ WITH his nose
t a crack in the tunnel boarding. The
ext instant he had leaped through
lie hole where the planks had fallen 7
way, and presently we heard him
Inning and scratching behind the
llkhead.
l don't know about Daddy Hiram's L
cart, but 1 do know that mine was
ping flip-faps and back somersaults Z
hen we ran up to see what the dog c
adj found In the tunnel. For a half
,cond after Daddy thrust his torch h
trough the hole 1 was afraid TO look Y
scared stiff at the thought of what I a
light see When l did look, i saw the f
,g digging frantically at the heap of S
Ived-in earth, and, of course TO my S
sordered Imagination, the hole in I
hich he was burrowing transformed
self at once into newly made grave. S
Good God :" / gasped; and then: h
4ook, Daddy-right under your Ii
rch -
He looked and staggered back, and
ould have dropped the blazing pine k