"Just watch out. We'll take a new route today unless I'm much mistaken," and touching Apache lightly with her heel she cavorted to Jefferson's side. He had been too absorbed in his thoughts of Miss Stetson to leave room for any others: Your darkie is not unlike a horse in that respect; his brain is rarely capable of holding _two_ ideas at once. Perhaps that explains why darkies and horses are usually in such accord. As Apache careened against Jumbo's side the big horse gave a plunge forward which jerked Jefferson's wits back to his surroundings. That was exactly what Beverly wished. "Lor' Miss Bev'ly, you done scare Jumbo an' me foolish," he exclaimed, striving to bring Jumbo down to his usual easy pace, for the tall hack had resented the little broncho's familiarity, though he could not know that his own grandsire and Apache's were the same. "Jefferson, will you do something to please me this afternoon?" she asked eagerly. "I shore will if it aint gwine ter get me into no fuss wid de Misses," temporized Jefferson. "It won't get you into any fuss with anybody. Miss Woodhull is not at home and Miss Stetson was too busy trying to find out where the horses had lost their blinders to tell us _not_ to take the road to Kilton Hall." Jefferson almost chortled. "So, when we come to that road will you turn down it and leave the rest to me? And don't be surprised or frightened at anything Apache may do." "I aint scared none at what you an' dat hawse doin'. He's got sense and--" added Jefferson with concession--"so has you. I aint got no time ter be a troublin' 'bout you-all. It's dese yo'ng ladies I has ter bat my eyes at; an' dey shore do keep me busy sometimes. Now what I tell you? Look at dat?" and as though in sympathy with Beverly's schemes, Chicadee, the little mare Petty Gaylord was riding chose that moment to shy at some leaves which fluttered to the ground and, of course, Petty shrieked, and then followed up the shriek with the "tee-hee-hee," which punctuated every tenth word she spoke whether apropos or not. That was exactly the cue Beverly needed. A slight pressure of her knee upon Apache's side was sufficient. He was off like a comet, and to all intents and purposes entirely beyond his rider's control. Sally and Aileen laughed outright. Petty stopped her giggle to scream: "Oh, she's being run away with!" "Not so much as it would seem," was Hope MacLeod's quiet comment as she laid in place a lock of Satin Gloss's mane, and quieted him after his sympathetic plunge. "Well ef she is, she _is_, but I'm bettin' she knows whar she a-runnin' _at_," said Andrew Jackson Jefferson more quietly than the situation seemed to warrant. "But just de same I'm thinkin' we might as well fool oursefs some," and he hastened his pace, the others doing likewise. It would never do to let one of his charges be run away with and not make an effort to save her from a possible calamity. CHAPTER VIII