But anxious to get away before the inhabitants of Blazed Acre, whom he felt sure would pursue him had they learned he was in the vicinity, he continued to urge Jack onward at a smart trot, until there came a sudden ending to his retreat. Without the least warning, Jack stumbled and fell headlong to the earth, Little Snap at the same time being flung over his head and into the bushes several yards away! CHAPTER XII. THE POSTBOY'S ARREST. Instinctively, as he found himself going, Little Snap tried to catch upon the saddle, but instead he seized upon the mail pouch, and this he carried with him on his flying trip through the air. Partially deprived of his senses by his fall, as he regained a sitting posture on the ground, he heard sharp cries from the pathway, and the dusky figures of half a dozen men appeared about the place where Jack had tripped and fallen. "Don't let him get clear!" he heard some one say, and then a furious rush was made toward the horse struggling to regain its feet. Little Snap's first thought was to rush to Jack's assistance, but the fact that he still held the mail pouch in his possession caused him to quickly change his mind. While the party were attacking the animal, frantically trying to regain its feet, in the belief the postboy was somewhere beneath its body, it was possible he might get beyond their harm. Finding their mistake, they would not likely injure Jack, and with this hope in his heart, Snap dashed lightly away in the direction he expected the path led. He soon proved his good judgment by coming suddenly upon the well-worn way leading to Hollow Tree. The sounds of the struggle had not ended, though he fancied they were nearly over. In this surmise he was correct, for he had not gone much farther before he heard the same voice as had spoken before, saying: "Th' leetle satan isn't hyur. He's got 'way, boyees! Look clus thet he don't escape!" Anxious to know what had been the fate of poor Jack, the postboy did not dare to remain a moment where he was. As long as the mail was in his hands he was in duty bound to look to its safety above everything else. Accordingly, he fled along the path at the top of his speed, and he was a pretty good runner, too. The sounds of his enemies were soon lost to hearing, and he pursued his way without interruption until he felt certain he must be near Hollow Tree, when he slackened his gait. As he came in sight of the singular post office, he saw that a light was burning within, by which he knew the postmaster was there. Then the sound of voices fell on the stillness of the evening, and surprised to hear his own name mentioned, he paused just outside the roughly made door. "There is one thing certain," Dan Shag was saying, "he is out o' th' way now." "And there ain't no danger of his taking off being laid to our door," said another, by whose voice Little Snap recognized Morton Meiggs, one of his bondsmen.