Thad had kept very close to his heels, and was prepared for something like this, so that he acted from impulse, there being not a second to give to thinking.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE CLOCK IN THE SKY.

"OH! Thad!"

Bob unconsciously gave utterance to this low, bubbling cry as he felt the ground slipping from under him, and his eyes looking down into an inky void. Then something clutched hold of him, and his downward progress was stayed. Thad had shot out a hand, and grasped his chum by one of his legs, at the same time bracing himself for the shock.

This he did in the twinkling of an eye, dropping his gun, and with that hand laying hold of a sapling that, fortunately, chanced to be within easy reach.

"Careful, don't kick more than you can help, Bob," he remarked, as coolly as he possibly could, though a sensation akin to horror swept over him immediately he had acted. "I've got a good grip on you, and my other hand is holding on to a stout little sapling, so we just can't go down. Now work yourself back, inch by inch, as well as you can.

Yo-heave-o! here you come! Another try, Bob! That gave us quite some distance. Ready to make it again? Why, this is easy. Here you are now, altogether boys, with a will!"

And after half a dozen of these concerted pulls and backward movements, Bob found that he had reached a spot where he could take care of himself.

"Whew! that was what I call a close call!" he muttered. "I wonder, now, just how far down I'd have had to go, if you hadn't been clever enough to grab me just in time?"

"We're not going to bother our heads about that, Bob," replied the other, quickly; "only please go a bit slower. We won't make any time, if we have to stop, and go through that circus stunt every little while.

And Bob, it might happen that I'd lose my grip, and either let you go down, or there'd be two of us take the drop. Does it pay to try and make speed at such a terrible risk?"

"You're right, just like you always are, Thad," replied the hasty and now penitent one; "and I'm sure a fool for taking chances that way.

Here, you go up ahead, and set the pace. That's the only way we can fix it; because, like as not inside of five minutes I'd be rushing along again for all I'm worth."

"Perhaps that would be the best plan," Thad observed, with a chuckle. "I thought of it, but didn't want to make you feel that I distrusted your leadership. And I want to say right now that it isn't that makes me take the lead, only because you are so excited that you're not fit to judge things right."

"But don't let's waste any more precious time, Thad. Polly might have gotten to the place ahead of us, you know. Oh! wouldn't I be sore if she got tired of waiting, and went back home."

"All the same," Thad remarked, confidently, "I don't think Polly would ever do such a mean thing as that. She understands just how crazy you are to know, and she's right now putting herself in your place. No, Polly will wait up for us, make your mind easy on that, Bob. I wish I was as sure that we'd get there, safe and sound."

"Oh! I'm done with my capers, mind you, Thad," returned Bob, eagerly.

"Since you've taken the lead, there's no chance for us to go pitching over a precipice. When they catch a weasel asleep, and no mortal man ever did that, I've heard, they'll hear of Thad Brewster making a fool move."

"It's nice of you to say that, anyway, Bob; I only wish I deserved the compliment you pay me. But we'd better talk less, and get on a little faster."

And after Thad had given this gentle little hint the conversation lagged; Bob realized that it was really no time to carry on any sort of talk; and that when they could not tell what dangers might be close around them in that inky darkness, they would be far wiser to keep a padlock on their lips.

Each time they stopped they again saw the signal lights flashing out here and there across the way, or below. They seemed like giant fireflies, striving to free themselves from some invisible bonds. But the boys knew very well what it meant, and that the moonshiners of the Blue Ridge were holding an animated fire talk.

They met no animal on the way, which Thad thought was a piece of good luck. Even though he did carry his faithful little Marlin, which could send a powerful charge of shot a long distance; and close in, serve all the purposes of a big bore rifle, or musket, all the same, Thad was not desirous of meeting with any new and thrilling adventure.

Such things were all very nice after they had pa.s.sed along, and one sat comfortably by a camp-fire, relating the circ.u.mstance; but while in process of action they were apt to bring a cold chill along in their train, not at all comfortable.

"It must be after the time we set, isn't it, Thad?" Bob finally asked, in a low voice, when they rested again.

The scoutmaster could not look at his little cheap but reliable watch without striking a match; and there was really no necessity for doing that. It made very little difference whether they were ahead, or somewhat behind the hour arranged for their meeting with Polly. And besides, there were other ways of telling time pretty accurately, without even having a watch along.

Thad glanced up into the heavens. He had often studied the bright worlds and suns to be seen there, and knew considerable about the positions they occupied, changing, it might be, with the coming and going of the seasons.

"It's just close on to midnight, Bob," he observed, presently.

Of course Bob was at once interested.

"You're saying that because of the stars, Thad," he remarked. "Please tell me how you managed to tell."

"It's like this," the scoutmaster replied, not averse to pointing a lesson that might be seed sown in fertile ground; "notice those three rather small stars in the northeast, all in a line and pointing downward? Well, those are what they call the belt of Orion, the Hunter.

They point nearly direct down to a mighty bright blue star that you see there, twinkling like everything."

"Yes, I've often noticed that, and I reckon it must be a planet near as big as Venus or Jupiter," remarked the other boy.

Thad laughed.

"Well," he remarked, "I guess now you'd think me crazy if I told you just how far that same star is away from us right now, ever so many times further than either of the planets you speak of. Why, Bob, that's Sirius, the Dog Star, said to be the biggest sun known to astronomers.

Our little sun wouldn't make a spot beside that terrible monster; which may be the central sun, around which all the other tens of thousands revolve everlastingly."

"Oh! yes, I've heard of the Dog Star, but never reckoned it amounted to anything in particular," declared the Southern lad, interested, in spite of the anxiety that was gnawing at his heart all the while; "but suppose you go on, suh, and explain to me how you can tell the time of night by consulting the Dog Star. You sure have got me to guessing."

"Nothing could be easier, if only you'd put your mind to it, and think, Bob?" continued the patrol leader. "These stars and planets rise at a certain hour every night. It grows later all the while, and many of them are not seen only half of the year, because they are above us in the daytime the rest of the twelve months. Now suppose you had watched that star, as I did last night, and knew just when it crept above that mountain ridge over yonder; you'd have a line on when it could be expected to come up to-night. Now do you see?"

"Well, it's as simple as two and two make four," replied Bob. "And so that's the way old hunters tell the time at night, do they? Reading the clock in the sky, you might call it, Thad. I'm sure going to remember all about that; and later on, when my mind's at rest, I'll ask you a heap more questions about these things. They get more and more interesting the deeper you dip in; ain't that so, Thad?"

"I've found it that way," replied the scout leader, quietly. "A fellow who keeps his eyes and ears open can almost hear the stars whispering together, they say; and as to the secrets the wind tells to the trees in pa.s.sing, why that's easy to understand. But if you're rested by now, Bob, we'd better be on the move once more."

Only too willingly did Bob agree. He believed that they must by this time be very nearly up to the point where Polly had agreed to meet them.

She had asked Bob if he remembered the place; and he in return had declared he could easily find it, even in the darkness of night; for often had he climbed the face of this ridge when he lived close by; for at the time, his father had owned the very place where Old Reuben Sparks now had his home, the miser having purchased it from Mrs. Quail upon her moving North with her son.

"Keep on the lookout for three oak trees growing close together, Thad,"

he said, presently. "It's always been a landmark around here, because any one can see it from the valley, you know. I reckon, now, we must be close by the same; and I'd hate to miss it in the dark. It's been some time since I was up here, and I'm apt to get mixed a bit."

"Well, I think you've done mighty well so far; because, unless my eyes deceive me, there's the place right ahead of us," Thad declared.

"You're right about that," Bob added, feverishly; "that's the place of the three mountain oaks; and they stand out against the sky, now we've changed our position. Oh! I'm beginning to shake all over, Thad, I'm that anxious. What if Polly shouldn't be on hand? Perhaps she just couldn't learn anything, after all, and will only come to tell me she did her best; but they keep the Still guarded too close, and she couldn't get close in. There's a dozen, yes, twenty things that might come up to upset my hopes. They don't seem so strong, Thad, now that we've got to the point."

"Well, I wouldn't let myself get in any sort of gloom about it yet, anyway, Bob. Time enough to cry after the milk is spilt. Here we are at the oaks, and we'll wait for Polly to come, if she's late; but I'm dead certain she'll keep her word with you. When a girl like Polly says she'll do a thing, you can just make up your mind she will, unless the heavens fall."

"That's right peart o' you, suh," said a soft voice close by; and they heard a rustling sound, as though some one might be coming out from amidst the dense foliage just beyond the three oaks. "Here's Polly, be'n awaitin' this half hour fur you-uns to kim along. An' she's agettin'

right sleepy, let me tell yuh."

Thad felt his chum quivering with eagerness as the mountain girl made her way carefully down to where they awaited her coming. What sort of news Polly could be bringing neither of them could so much as guess; but it would not be long now ere Bob knew the best, or the worst.

CHAPTER XXV.