"Oh! I thought you were a dummy," apologized Hippy. "A thousand pardons, old man."
"May I ask who you are and what you wish?" questioned Grace pleasantly, as she stepped forward.
"Ah asked yuh first. Who be yuh?"
"We are a party from the north, riding through the Kentucky Mountains partly for pleasure, partly for business reasons."
"That is a personal question, is it not?" smiled Grace. "Won't you sit down and rest before you go on? We shall be glad to have you do so."
"Be yuh goin' to answer mah question?"
"I think not, sir."
"Ah'll tell yuh who Ah be, then, an' mebby yuh'll answer. Ah'm the dep'y Shereef of this 'ere deestric'. Ah kin land yuh all in the calaboose if Ah wants to."
"Deputy Sheriff! Mercy to goodness!" murmured Emma. "Next thing we know, the Lord High Executioner will be calling on us looking for victims to decapitate."