"Bravo for you, Dix Lewis! Give me your hand. You are made of just the stuff to succeed, and I can see that you will do better than nine men out of ten. Your words have opened my eyes. Go ahead, and count upon me to lend you all the assistance in my power. Every dollar I have got in this world and all of my personal influence is enlisted in your behalf. I don't know how the other bondsmen feel, but you know my state of mind. "I suppose the others are anxiously awaiting us, so let's adjourn this meeting. I will make it all right with Brady." Little Snap, after thanking Mr. Warfield for his words, sought his mother to allay her fears. Whatever the politician said to the Hollow Tree postmaster and Sheriff Brady he did not know, but the entire party went away at once. "It's all right, mother," he said to her, as soon as the men had gone, "so have no further concern." "I wish I could think so, my son; but somehow I fear there is trouble in store for you. Mr. Brady has been telling me about those Burrnocks, and he says they will kill you at the first opportunity. They are dreadful men, and I fear they would not hesitate at any crime. I wish you would give up carrying the mail, Dix; we can live somehow." "It isn't all a living, mother; my good name is at stake now." "The boy has too much of the blood of old John Lewis in his veins to do that, Mary," said a new voice, breaking in upon the scene before Mrs. Lewis could reply, and mother and son turned to see with surprise a tall, middle-aged man standing in the doorway. He was Little Snap's father. "Why, John! Where have you been?" asked Mrs. Lewis, starting toward him. "I have been so worried about you." "No need of that, Mary. I think I ought to have shown you by this time that I am able to take care of myself." Mr. Lewis was a man who was a mystery to all who knew him. He was generally considered mildly insane, but more often spoken of as "the man without a memory." His past life seemed to be a void to him, except at rare intervals, when a ray of light would suddenly flash across his darkened mind, to go as quickly as it had come. Of late years he had been at home but very little, though where he spent his time not even those at home knew. Of course his wife worried over his strange conduct, but as long as he was harmless and seemed, as he had said, able to care for himself, it was not thought best to keep him at home by force. The Lewis family was one of the oldest and most respected in the valley of the Kanawha, our hero being directly descended from those gallant pioneers of the dark days of the Old Dominion, John and Samuel Lewis, well known to the pages of Virginia history. "John," said the anxious wife, "I wish you would not be away from home so much. What is it calls you away so much? You look pale and haggard; there is some trouble." "There is trouble, Mary, and I have been trying to think what it is. For the present we must wait, though it will all come round in good season.