"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."