"But I did you no service. How was it you escaped from that cave so easily?"
"'Twan't easy, younker. Ye see we fell kerslap inter thet sink, but th' water wuz deep 'nough, so we weren't hurt, an' findin' there wuz chance, we swum 'way in an underground stream, which kem out lower down in th' valler. We weren't hurted; hope ye weren't, younker. See?"
The explanation seemed plausible, and Little Snap knew that if he decided to accept the proffered assistance of his guides he must not delay if he wished to get beyond Blazed Acre before dark. Thus he questioned Ab Raggles more closely in regard to the route, finally deciding to go that way.
A short distance above, the mountaineer led the advance into the forest, following a narrow pathway leading over the mountainside. Little Snap had often noticed this well-worn track, and wondered where it led.
It was barely wide enough to admit the passage of a horseman, so our party was obliged to go in single file, Ab Raggles in front, carrying his long, rusty-looking firearm slung across his left arm, Beeline bringing up the rear, his weapon of defense being simply a stout club.
Not a word was spoken as they slowly wended their way in and out among the dark clumps of stunted forest growth, or around huge piles of rocks and steep bluffs of earth and stone, until at last the backbone of the heights had been reached, and they were in plain sight of the descent reaching away to the region of the Blazed Acre.
"Mebbe yit'll be best fer us not to strike the settlement till after dark," said Ab Raggles, "an' mebbe we sh'n't ef we keep pushin' on."
"Let us keep moving," replied Little Snap, "but keep our eyes open."
The country was less rugged on this slope of the mountains, so they advanced more rapidly, though the shades of night were beginning to fall as at last the isolated settlement of the Burrnocks and their associates was seen half a mile away.
Little Snap had never been in that vicinity before, so he looked with curious gaze upon the place. The dwellings of these people deserved no better name than huts, for the most of them were made of sods and boughs of trees. These rude habitations were arranged in a semicircle, standing on the north side of the clearing, and facing the south.