"He shan't catch me!" he muttered to himself, as he kept up his running. He was somewhat hampered by his valise, which was heavy, and on reaching a street where ran a line of stages, he jumped aboard a passing vehicle. As the driver was behind time, he whipped up his horses, and before long Mark was a good mile from home. Nobody seemed to be in pursuit and this caused him to breathe a sigh of relief. Yet the youth felt strangely depressed. Contrary to his expectations, he was leaving home under a heavy cloud. "Unless the real thief is caught, Mr. Powers will always think I took that money," he reasoned, dismally. "Perhaps I am to blame, too, for I left the office during business hours and forgot to lock the door." At last Mark found himself in the shipping district of the city. It was growing dark, and the majority of the business people had taken themselves to their homes. As the stage came to a corner, he alighted and stared around him, not knowing where to go next. "I guess I had better get out of town," he told himself. "Mr. Powers will be after me hot-footed to-night and in the morning. Three hundred dollars looks like a fortune to him. And it is a big sum of money. Wish I had it for my own! I'd start West right away, and ride all the way, too!" An hour later found Mark on the way out of town. Strange as it may seem, he fell in with a man who was driving ten horses which had just come in on a boat. The man wanted to know the way to the village of Chesbrook. "I know the way," said the boy, quickly. "Let me ride one of the horses and I'll show you." "If you want to go to Chesbrook, hop up," answered the man, and in a moment Mark was in the saddle for the twenty-mile journey. "I haven't got much money and I want to save all I can," explained Mark. "Horseback traveling is good enough for me," answered the man. "I hate a stage coach, an' them railroad trains is too plaguety risky. I rode in one once an' I felt sure we was goin' to be killed ev'ry minit!" "Then you don't belong in the East?" "No, I belong out to Hankertown, in the western part o' the State." "Are you going that far?" "Yes, after a day's stop at Chesbrook." "Going to take the horses along?" "Four of 'em. The others are for a man at Chesbrook." "Then maybe you won't mind if I ride to Hankertown with you," went on Mark, after pausing in thought. "Oh, are you goin' West?" "Yes--if I can get there." "Say, you ain't goin' to try for Californy?" cried the man, with added interest. "Perhaps--I haven't made up my mind exactly. Maybe I'll get tired of the trip after I've been on the road a while." "I'd like to take the trip to Californy myself. But I don't know as I can git away. I've been away from hum a good spell already."