"I will tell you why, Elfreda," answered Hippy. "We shall be safer there, where, for some reason, my informant doesn't seem to think those ruffians will bother us. Whereas, if we remain out and continue on our way to our destination, I shall probably be shot. Those mountaineers are bound to get me." "What?" gasped Nora Wingate. "Hippy, my darlin', do you mean it?" "Yes I do. There is a price on my head up here! That's the whole story." "A price! Huh! If there is, I'll wager that it is a cut-rate price. Good-night! I am going back to bed." Emma Dean turned her back on them and flounced off to her tent. CHAPTER X "THEY'VE GOT THE BOY" "I don't believe it. Your rescuer was drawing the long bow," spoke up Anne Nesbit. "Yes, I can't imagine Hippy with a price on his head," nodded Miss Briggs. "When I'm dead you folks will be sorry that you didn't take me seriously," rebuked Lieutenant Wingate. "Do we do as my friend suggested, and hike for the Thompson farm, or must I be sacrificed on the altar of unbelief?" "Grace must answer that question. She is our captain," answered Elfreda. Grace Harlowe regarded Hippy with searching eyes. "You are not fooling us, Hippy?" she demanded. "Could I be so base as to deceive my dearest friends?" answered Lieutenant Wingate in an aggrieved tone. "How can you doubt me?" "Girls, if there be no objection, we will start at daybreak. Washington, do you know where the Thompson farm is?" questioned Grace. "Ah reckon Ah does," drawled Washington. "How far is it from here?" "'Bout two skips an' er jump, Ah reckons." "He thinks we are a flock of fleas," grumbled Hippy under his breath. "I will get the map. We shall learn nothing from Washington," said Grace, rising. "Washington, pack up everything we shall not need to-night. We wish to make an early start in the morning." "Yes'm." Fetching the map, Grace and Elfreda pored over it and finally located the farm in question. The map was a sectional map issued by the government and gave every trail and landmark in the territory that it covered. "I should say Thompson's farm is about twenty miles from here. It appears to be quite a bit out of our way, but that doesn't matter in the circumstances. Yes, I think we can make it. All right, Hippy." "What about to-night?" asked Miss Briggs. "The same arrangement as last night," replied Grace in a low tone. "We will take turns. Take your blanket out. He needs a rest to-night," nodding towards Hippy Wingate. Neither Grace nor Elfreda felt like sitting up another night. Hippy insisted that he must take his watch on guard, but they declined his offer, telling him that they could not trust him to keep awake in view of what he had been through and the sleep he had lost. So the two girls took up their vigil again, Grace lying down near her companion, Elfreda taking the first watch of the night.