"What is the trouble, Jack, old boy?" asked his master, wondering at the creature's singular and unusual action. No sooner had the stranger gained the seat than the horse sprang abruptly to one side, and rearing into the air, sent the man flying heels over head into the bushes by the roadside. All of this was done so suddenly that Little Snap had not found time to express his amazement. As if impelled by a newborn fear, Jack bounded up the road, with a whinny of terror. "Hi, there! help—quick—he'll get away from me!" cried the man, staggering to his feet and bursting through the bushes into the road. Though startled by this unexpected turn in affairs, the postboy had presence of mind enough to see that the stranger was no longer a supplicant for favors, but that a fierce determination to gain his ends was apparent on his features and in his voice. He started to catch hold of Fairy's bridle, but with a snort of defiance the creature threw back her head, and Little Snap, reading the other's purpose, touched her smartly with the spur. At that moment the tramp of feet came from the growth, and the burly figures of three or four men sprang into sight. CHAPTER XVII. LITTLE SNAP'S DISAPPOINTMENT. "He's getting away!" shouted the man who had hailed the postboy. "Come on, you lubbers!" If Little Snap had been taken off his guard at first, he was wide awake enough now, and giving Fairy an encouraging cry, he was borne swiftly away by the fleet-footed mare. Glancing back once more, he saw the four men in pursuit of him, but as long as they were on foot, he had but little to fear from them. With their hoarse shouts ringing in his ears, he sped around a curve in the road and out of their sight. After he had gone a couple of miles, finding that he was not likely to be troubled by their pursuit, he slackened Fairy's speed, and improved his first opportunity to bend over and pat Jack's head close beside him, saying: "Noble boy, you knew more than your master that time. I wonder where I should be now if you hadn't read that fellow's intentions better than I did? I wasn't quite satisfied with him, but his story did throw me off my guard. I have got to keep my eyes open sharper than that." Talking thus, half to his animal friends and half to himself, he rode swiftly on toward Volney, the soft, clayey soil muffling the hoof strokes of his horses so that they gave back no sound, his advance scarcely breaking in upon the silence of the night. Soon after his escape from the waylayers, whom he judged the men to be, he shifted upon Jack, giving Fairy a rest. To his joy he at last came to what he was confident was the corner of the Blue Stone and Mountain roads spoken of by Mr. Renders.