"Beter tak my advis an skip outen this neck ov the woods. The men round heer aint gut no use fo you-uns in thes mountings. That's awl. Savvy?"
There was no signature to the communication.
"Well, that's cool, to say the least," remarked Allan, after he had read the uncouth note that had come down with the rock that fell from above.
"Tells us to turn right around, and go back," declared Giraffe, who was inclined to be peppery, and a bit rash. "Now, I like the nerve of the gent. Just as if we didn't have as much right to wander through these mountains and valleys as the next one."
"We're minding our own business, and I don't see how anybody would want to shoo us away from here," said Smithy, brushing off some imaginary specks of dust from his neat khaki uniform, always spic and span in comparison with—that of Bumpus for example, showing the marks of many a tumble.
Thad was rather puzzled himself. He knew that it would be hardly wise for a parcel of boys to deliberately defy such a notorious character as Old Phin the moonshiner, whom the Government had never been able to capture; but then again there was a natural reluctance in his boyish heart to retreat before making some sort of show with regard to carrying out their original design.
Besides, when he happened to glance toward Bob White, and saw how cruelly disappointed the Southern boy looked, Thad immediately changed his mind. Still, he wanted to hear what his comrades thought about it; since they had long gone by the wise principle that majority rules.
"Shall we take this kind advice, and go back, boys?" he asked.
A chorus of eager dissenting voices greeted his words.
"Not for Joseph, not if he knows it!" Giraffe chortled.