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Pony Rider Boys on the Blue Ridge

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<h3>CHAPTER XX</h3> <h3>A MYSTERIOUS PROCEEDING</h3> Tad had already started back along the ledge which opened into the gulch just before they reached the gap mentioned in the preceding chapter. A short distance to the rear the rocks sloped down into the gulch with a gradual fall. It was down this rugged place that Tad began to climb, followed closely by Ned Rector. <center><ANTIMG src="images/tad_followed_ned.jpg" alt="Tad Was Followed Closely by Ned Rector."> Tad Was Followed Closely by Ned Rector. </center> The boys were too busy with their climb to do much talking on the way down, and had they not been thoroughly seasoned they would have been obliged to stop for breath more than once, even if the way was down hill. "Whew! That was some climb, wasn't it?" exclaimed Rector when finally they reached the bottom. Tad ran forward. Some ten rods up the gulch he halted, pointing to a crushed heap on the ground. "There's the poor collie, Ned." "The fiends! They threw him over, didn't they?" Tad nodded, thoughtfully. The two boys found that the dog bore a severe wound on its head, where Tad believed it had been struck with a heavy club or the butt of a gun. There was no way of determining this to a certainty. But Tad pointed out something to his companion in support of his theory which again proved that the Pony Rider Boy possessed a keen mind for reasoning out things. "You will remember that the dog was running south when he was struck on the rock where we found the blood?" Ned agreed with a nod. "And that I said the man struck the dog from behind the rock on the left-hand side of the trail?" "Yes." "If you will examine the collie's head you will see that the wound extends from the top down the left side of the head, indicating that the person who dispatched him was also on that side. Doesn't that prove it?" Rector gasped. "Say, Tad, I'll run in a minute if you don't quit. You give me the creeps up and down my back. You're spooky. I'm glad Chunky isn't here. He'd have run long ago. What shall we do, leave the dog here?" "Why, yes, I don't think it will be worth while to carry him back to camp," decided Tad. "Then we'll give the faithful old fellow a decent burial and heap some rocks over him so the animals don't get at him. If Mr. Dunkan wants him we can tell him where to find the collie." The boys, choosing a hollow in the ground for the burial, heaped dirt, stones and rubbish over the dead dog. Having completed this, Tad started for the long climb back. The climb was somewhat different from the downward journey. It was grilling work going up that mountainside, and there were black and blue marks on the bodies of both boys when they reached the top. Ned's hands were skinned in spots and his temper had suffered proportionately. "Never again!" he exclaimed with a resentful look at Tad. "I might have known better than to follow you." "You ought to feel complimented that I asked you to accompany me." "Ha, ha! as Chunky would say. What an excellent opinion we have of ourselves, eh?" "You know better than that, Ned Rector. You know I'm not the least little bit conceited. I never could see any reason why a human being should feel that he was any better or any smarter than any other average person. Take my word for it, the conceited fellow gets his bumps sooner or later." "Like Chunky, for instance?" suggested Ned. "No, I don't mean that kind. Chunky doesn't mean half of what he says. He likes to make conversation and make fun, but he's a good fellow and smarter than most people give him credit for being." "I know that. I'd eat my hat for the fat little rascal, but I've got to have my fun with him. Now what?" "Maybe some more climbing. Use your eyes again. We are following a trail now." So far as either lad could observe there was no real trail to follow. It was rock, rock everywhere they went. All the time they were getting farther and farther away from the camp. After an hour of toil over the rocky trail they came out into a brush-covered plateau. Tad now got to work in earnest. It was but a few moments later when he announced that he had found a trail, but whether this was the particular trail for which they were in search he did not know. It was a trail and he proposed to follow it out until either it led them to something definite or came to a blind ending. The trail proved to be more fruitful than the boys had hoped. Half to three-quarters of a mile farther on they were startled by the report of a gun. "Someone firing a shotgun," said Tad. "Yes, it does sound that way," answered Ned. "We will head for it. Funny thing to be using up here. These people ordinarily use rifles. Where did you think the sound came from?" "Over there." Ned pointed off to the right. "I shouldn't be surprised if it were in the gulch we have just left." "Farther to the west then." The boys started to hunt out the man with the gun. They moved along with extreme caution now, not wishing to receive a charge of buckshot, nor were they courting discovery, for other good and sufficient reasons. "There it goes again," exclaimed Ned. All at once they caught sight of a man half way down the side of the gulch. A gun was standing against a tree near by, while the man was scraping the ground with a stick. "What is he doing?" whispered Ned as the boys, crouching down, eyed him inquiringly. "I don't know." After a little the man, whom they now recognized as their old enemy, Jay Stillman, took up his gun, reloaded it, and then began walking about the place as if selecting a particular spot for further operations. To the amazement of the boys Stillman thrust the muzzle of the gun down to within two feet of the ground, then fired the charge into the earth. A second barrel was fired in a similar manner. "For goodness' sake, what is he trying to do?" whispered Ned. "I don't know, unless he has gone crazy," answered Tad. "Shooting charges into the ground is new business to me. I'll warrant he is up to some monkeyshine, though." "Maybe he thinks he can hit a heathen on the other side of the world," suggested Ned. "He's going to shoot again," Tad announced. Two loud bangs gave evidence that Stillman had done it again. He continued these same tactics, covering quite an area of ground, his operations lasting until long after midday. All this time the two Pony Rider Boys were creeping along at a safe distance behind the mountaineer, watching his every movement. Finally, leaving his gun, he began working among the rocks. What he was doing the lads were unable to make out, and they were more puzzled over these peculiar actions than they ever had been in their lives. Late in the afternoon Stillman shouldered his double-barrelled gun and started off toward the southwest. The boys promptly secreted themselves, because it looked as though the man were going to pass near them. He did so, though all unconscious of their presence. "Are you going down there to see what he has been doing?" whispered Ned. "No, I'm going to follow him. We know where that place is. It can't get away, but he can." This being good reasoning Rector had nothing more to say. Stillman had swung off at a mountaineer's stride, a pace so rapid that he soon outdistanced the two lads, making it necessary for them to run to catch up with him. This running nearly proved their undoing. Suddenly they came in sight of the man. He was standing on a rise of ground, apparently listening, but looking off to the left. The boys dropped instantly, lying flat on the ground until they saw Stillman shoulder his gun and start on again. "He must have heard us," whispered Tad. "We must be cautious. We know him to be a bad man and we know he is up to some crooked business. I wish I knew just what it is. Probably he's going to his shack." "I see it!" exclaimed Ned. "Yes, there's the roof of a building and a chimney. I reckon we're getting near our friend's roosting place. This is fine. You see what a little patience does for one. Now go carefully." Making a wide detour the boys came up to one side of the building that they had discovered. Stillman was nowhere in sight. It was reasonable to suppose that he had entered the building. The structure was built up of small logs, the cracks being chinked with what looked to be red mud, and a broad chimney extended some six feet above the low roof, built high to give the fire below more draft. All about the place was a dense growth of bushes, with occasional paths intersecting the plot. "I wish we could get a look inside that place," muttered Tad. "Not going to try it, are you?" "No, not now. Not while he is in there. I wish he would go away." "No such luck," complained Rector. Almost ere the words were out of his mouth Jay Stillman stepped out from the cabin. This time he carried a rifle under his arm. He stood at the doorway of the cabin for some moments as if thinking. After a time he started down a well-beaten path that led him within a rod of where the two boys were in hiding. They scarcely breathed as he strode past them. Tad was up soon after on the mountaineer's trail. The boys did not have far to go. Stillman's horse was tethered in a glade a short distance from there. The man quickly saddled and bridled his mount; then, leaping into the saddle, he galloped away to the eastward. Tad started on a run, to keep the man in sight as long as possible, and further to make sure that Stillman really was going away. "He's gone. Now for his cabin!" cried Tad. "I do hope there's no one there. Perhaps we may be able to discover something." Turning toward the log cabin, still on a dog-trot, the boys headed towards more trouble and a most exciting experience in the cabin of the mountaineer. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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