"Cheer up, Mrs. Lewis; I guarantee that no harm shall come to you. Mr. Brady, I advise you to withdraw your men. Dix Lewis will not be hard to find when he comes." "If he comes!" said the sheriff. "You may not be aware, Mr. Rimmon, that Warfield has concluded not to stand the boy's bail, and thus we must have him." "I know nothing of this," replied the postmaster, sharply. "Why didn't you or Mr. Warfield come to me in regard to the matter?" "Of course I did not suppose you would care to stand in for the runaway, if Mr. Warfield did not. In that case it was my duty to capture the scamp as soon as possible." "Give yourself no farther concern in that direction, Mr. Brady. I will answer for the boy. Is that sufficient?" Mr. Rimmon was not the right man for Sheriff Brady to antagonize. Besides being a person of good financial standing, he was known to be a man of sterling integrity, and, to use a cant expression, "What Jack Rimmon says, goes." So the officer said: "Of course, Mr. Rimmon. But I want to tell you that you are making the greatest mistake of your life." "That's my lookout. Now go to your homes, every man of you, and when Dix Lewis is wanted I will guarantee he will be on hand, or there will be good reason for his not being there." Mr. Rimmon had barely finished speaking, when the clatter of a horse's hoofs broke the silence following his words. The sound came from the road below the crowd, and looking hastily in that direction, one and all saw a riderless horse coming swiftly toward them. Every one recognized the animal as Fairy, the brown mare so often ridden by the postboy. She was more exhausted than the bay had been, and in addition to the flecks of foam dappling her sides, were clots of blood. If any evidence of a mishap to Little Snap had been wanting before, it seemed supplied now. With a cry of anguish the bereaved mother fell in a swoon. The kind heart of the postmaster was deeply moved by this scene, and he ordered the onlookers to stand back, until she could be restored to consciousness. "This looks bad for the boy," he said. "Some of you care for the mare and the horse, too. I want half a dozen of you to go with me in search of him as soon as possible." Mrs. Lewis soon returned to life, when she was taken into the house, and comforted as best she could be, her friends assuring her that everything would be done to find Dix that was possible. Mr. Rimmon had meanwhile ordered his own horse to be saddled, and was ready to start in quest of the missing boy, as Dan Shag returned to the post office, accompanied by Justice Claverton and Morton Meiggs. "Reckon I'll take thet mail bag now," said Shag, with a sort of grim humor in his looks. "Ye hev kept me waitin' quite a spell." Mr. Rimmon glanced hastily at the speaker and his companions, and then toward the half dozen horsemen who were to go with him, before he said: