One thing Florence remembered distinctly. She had said to Caleb Powell:

"Mr. Powell, why did those men wish to hold me prisoner?"

"Miss Ormsby," he said, and there was no smile upon his lips, "some of our people are what you might call 'plumb quare'."

That was all he had said, and for some time to come that was all she was destined to know about the reason for her mysterious captivity.

Only one thought troubled her as she neared the whipsawed cabin, and that, she told herself, was only a bad dream.

That it was more than a dream she was soon to learn. Two days later Mr.

Dobson, having dismounted at their cabin, smiled with pleasure when he was told of the successful purchase of Caleb Powell's coal land. Then for a moment a frown darkened his face.

"I-I hate to tell you," he hesitated.

"You don't have to," said Florence quickly. "Please allow me to guess.

You were about to tell us that it is necessary to spend a great deal of time looking up records and getting papers signed before you have a clear t.i.tle to this mountain land, and that we can't have our money until you have your t.i.tle."

"That puts it a little strongly," said Mr. Dobson, smiling a little strangely. "As fast as we can clear up the t.i.tles to certain tracts my company has authorized me to pay that portion of the commission. I should say you ought to have your first installment within four months. It may be six, however. Matters move slowly here in the mountains."

"Four months!" exclaimed Marion.

"Not sooner, I fear."

"Four-" Marion began, but Florence squeezed her arm as she whispered; "It's no use. We can't help it and neither can they? There must be some other way. Besides, we haven't yet elected our trustee."

CHAPTER V SAFE AT HOME

That night, for the first time in many days, Florence found herself ready to creep beneath the hand woven blankets beside her pal. Ah, it was good to feel the touch of comfort and the air of security to be found there.

What did it matter that after all the struggle and danger she had found her efforts crowned only by partial success? Time would reveal some other way. New problems beckoned. Let them come. Life was full of problems, and solving them is life itself.

The whipsawed house in which the girls lived had been built more than sixty years before. The heavy beams of its frame and the broad thick boards of its sheeting inside and out had been sawed by hand from ma.s.sive poplar logs.

The walls of the room in which the girls slept were as frankly free of paint or paper as when the boards were first laid in place. But time and sixty summers of Kentucky mountain sunshine had imparted to every ma.s.sive beam and every broad board such a coat of deep, mellow, old gold as any millionaire might covet for his palace.

Heavy, hand-cut sandstone formed the fireplace. Before this fireplace, on a black bearskin, in dream-robes and dressing gowns, sat the two girls curled up for a chat before retiring.

Then it was that Marion told of the mysterious stranger who had peered in at the window at dusk.

"That's strange," said Florence as a puzzled look knotted her brow. "Who could he have meant when he said, 'Hit's her'? Could he have meant Mrs.

McAlpin?"

"Maybe. She's been around doctoring people a great deal. He might have seen her somewhere; might even have needed her services for his family and been too timid to ask for it. You know how these mountain folks are.

But-" Marion paused.

"But you don't believe it was Mrs. McAlpin," prompted Florence, leaning toward the fire. "Neither do I. I believe it was little Hallie, and I don't like it."

"Neither do I," said Marion with a sudden dab at the fire that sent the sparks flying. "I-I suppose we ought to want her ident.i.ty to be discovered, want her returned to her people, but she's come to mean so much to us. She's a dashing little bit of sunshine. This place," her eyes swept the bare brown walls, "this place would seem dreary without her."

"Marion," said Florence, "will we be able to elect our trustee?"

"I don't know."

"Al Finley and Moze Berkhart taught the school last year. They taught a month or two; then when it got cold they discouraged the children all they could, and when finally no one came they rode up and looked in every day, then rode home again, and drew their pay just the same."

"We wouldn't do that."

"No, we wouldn't. We'd manage somehow."

"Marion," said Florence after they had sat in silence for some time, their arms around each other, "this building belongs to Mrs. McAlpin, doesn't it?"

"Surely. She bought it."

"And everything inside belongs to her?"

"I suppose so."

"Old Jeff Middleton's gold-if it's here?"

"I suppose so."

"Then, if we found the gold we could use it to buy repairs for the schoolhouse, couldn't we?"

"Yes," laughed Marion, "and if the moon is really made of green cheese, and we could get a slice of it, we might ripen it and have it for to-morrow's dinner."

"But preacher Gibson thinks it's hidden somewhere about here. He saw it, over sixty years ago. When Jeff Middleton came home from the war he came from Georgia driving a white mule hitched to a kind of sled with a box on it, and on the sled, along with some other things, was a bag of gold. Not real coins, Preacher Gibson said, but just like them; 'sort of queer-like coins,' that's just the way he said it. There wasn't anything to spend gold for back here in the mountains in those days. He built this house, so he must have hidden the gold here. He lived here until he was killed.

The gold must still be here."

"Sounds all right," said Marion with a merry little laugh, "but I imagine the schoolhouse windows will have to be patched with something other than that gold. And besides-" she rose, yawning, "we haven't even got the positions yet."

"You don't think they'd refuse to hire us? Just think! Those boys who tried to teach last year couldn't even do fractions, and there wasn't a history nor a geography in the place!"

"You never can tell," said Marion.

In this she was more right than she knew.

A moment later Florence crept beneath the homewoven blankets. A little while longer Marion sat dreamily gazing at the darkening coals. Then, drawing her dressing gown tightly about her, she stepped to the door and slipped out. Like most mountain homes, the door of every room in the cabin opened onto the porch.

Stepping to the edge of the porch, she stood there, bathed in moonlight.

The night was glorious. Big Black Mountain, laying away in the distance, seemed the dark tower of some clan of the giants. Below, and nearer, she caught the reflection of the moon in a placid pool on Laurel Branch, while close at hand the rhododendrons wove a fancy border of shadows along the trail that led away to the bottom lands.

As the girl stood drinking in the splendor of it all, she gave a sudden start, then shrank back into the shadows. Had she caught the sound of shuffled footsteps, of a pebble rolling down the steep trail? She thought so. With a shudder she stepped through the door, closed it quickly, and let the heavy bar fall silently into place. Then, without a word, she crept beneath the covers. As an involuntary shudder seized her she felt her companion's strong arms about her. So, soothed and rea.s.sured, she rested there for a moment. She and Florence had been pals for many long months. Strange and thrilling were the mysteries they had solved, the adventures they had experienced. What would the morrow bring? More mystery, greater adventures? At any rate, they would face them together, and with these thoughts her eyes closed in dreamless sleep.