"There I incurred the lifelong enmity of a numerous family by the name of Raggles, Nicholas Raggles being at the head of the crowd. In a hand-to-hand fight with three of them one day I was nearly killed, and it was years before I fully recovered from the effects of that blow. "As soon as I was able I removed to Six Roads to live, my old home. You may judge of my surprise, when I found myself soon afterward followed by one of my enemies. But he came under another name, and, throwing off the ways of his father, he aspired to move among the better class of people. "I hoped he had forgotten, or overlooked, his ill feeling toward me, and I think I should not have been troubled by him had not the rest of his relatives come after him, to settle nearby, but under names not their own. I felt all this boded me ill, so I put myself on my guard. "I need not tell you now that the first of those to follow me was he you have known as Jason Warfield. The others were the Burrnocks, of Blazed Acre. "But I had no open trouble with them, no doubt partly because they considered me an imbecile, until you began to carry the mail of the Kanawha. At almost that very time they planned their systematic scheme of robbery, aided and abetted by Trencher Raggles, known to you as Jason Warfield. "Then it was that I conceived the idea of assuming the disguise of the hermit, in order to watch over you and to lay some trap whereby I might bring my enemies to justice. Later I joined them under another disguise to learn their secrets, but they proved too wily for a long time. "When this stranger, whom we now know as Mr. Goings, appeared, I was puzzled, and I stopped him as I did below the Narrows. When you were beyond hearing, he and I soon came to an understanding, and have worked together since. "He sent me the letter I got to-day, apprising me that the time to strike at the cave had come. To explain how I could get back and forth so quickly and readily, I would say that I found a passage through the mountain which served me an admirable purpose. "With all that I knew of the Raggles, I will confess that I had not had any suspicions against the postmistress of Greenbrier, but now I believe her to be connected with the Raggles', if not to be one of them. "You must pardon me for the way in which I have deceived even you. I considered it would be safest, though I have often had hard work to keep from betraying my secret. It is over at last, I am thankful to say, and I am sure that I am myself as of yore." "How glad mother will be," Little Snap exclaimed. "I can hardly believe it all." "A good job of work has been done," said Mr. Goings. "By the way, Dix, had you missed the postmaster of Hollow Tree?" "I did when I came back from the cave. I had not before."