"Dad sent me, an' he said he did yit for the kindness you tried to do him yesterday. He said for you not to go on alone. Them bad Burrnocks are laying in the rock in Devil's Wash Bowl to kill you as you go erlong! Fact!" seeing Little Snap's look of doubt on his face.
"Don't tell who told you," and before he could speak she had vanished into the depths of the woods.
CHAPTER IX.
A TERRIFIC TRAP.
It would have been difficult to describe Little Snap's feelings, as he listened to the sounds of Tag Raggles' retreat, following her strange warning.
"It may have been only a scare, after all," he mused, as he resumed his journey. "I judge the source whence it came is not very reliable. It would do me no good to speak of the affair at Greenbrier. The mere mention of the name of Burrnock is enough to give them the fits there. But I will keep my eyes open if I decide to go it alone."
Though at first he thought of mentioning the matter to the postmistress, Little Snap concluded to say nothing of the threatened danger, while determined not to be caught off his guard.
Thus he rode into the Wash Bowl that day with uncommon nervousness, and an ear and an eye trained for whatever might come. The rustling of a leaf would cause him to start, and once he felt sure he saw the outlines of a man's form behind one of the bowlders.
But no manifestation of danger presented itself, and with rising hopes he ascended the way to the Narrows, expecting now that if he was attacked at all it would be on Eagle's Tracks, where he had so narrowly escaped from the desperadoes of Blazed Acre the day before.
The trepidation on the part of the postboy does not by any means go to show that he was lacking in true courage, but it was rather the natural consequence under the circumstances.
He drew a good, long breath of relief as at last he passed over the summit and caught a wide view of the broadening valley of the Kanawha.