Ralph Grangers Fortunes | Page 8

pale, brief glare.
"Ha--there she is!" exclaimed Ralph, discovering the object of his
search. "I almost knew the man as put up this kiln must have had a
shelter of some kind."
He made his way to a low, brush covered frame near by, arriving there
just in time. The darkness was intense, except when cloven by the
lightning, while the fall of rain was drenching and furious.
The shack leaked some, but it was an immense improvement over a tree
for shelter.
"Let's see where we are, anyhow," said Ralph, producing some matches,
one of which he struck. "Hello! There are some pine knots. Here's luck
at last."
In a few minutes he had a small fire blazing brightly, and felt more like
contemplating his surroundings with cheerful equanimity.
But as the rain increased, the leaks grew in number, threatening to put
out the fire, and converting the earth floor into a mushy mud puddle.
"I can't do any sleeping here," thought he. "Might just as well make up
my mind for a night of it round this fire."
By dint of careful watching he kept his fire from going entirely out, and
managed to keep himself dry by picking out the spots where the leaks
were fewest in which to stand.
But it was a dreary, lonesome time. The wind whistled dolefully
through the pines, and the rain splashed unmercifully upon the bark and
boughs of the shack.
After each flash of lightning, sharp peals of thunder added their harsh

echoes, until Ralph's ears ached, used as he was to mountain storms.
The rain began to slacken in an hour, while the wind gradually
dwindled to a light breeze.
Still there was no chance to lie down, and the boy was growing sleepy.
He had drooped his head between his knees as he sat on a pine block,
and was dropping into a doze when he heard something stirring at the
back of the shanty. He looked around in a drowsy way, but seeing
nothing, he again fell into an uneasy slumber.
How long his nap lasted he did not know, but all at once he nodded
violently and awoke. The fire was low. Then a muffled rattling noise at
his feet sent the blood in a furious leap to his pulses.
He threw on a rich knot, and as it blazed up his eye fell on an object
that caused him to spring up as if he had been stung.
"Great Caesar!" he exclaimed, and as the rattle sounded once more, he
made a long leap for the doorway. "That was a narrow escape. S'pose I
hadn't a woke up?"
Then he shuddered, but recovering, hunted up a cudgel and cautiously
returned within the hut.
There, within a few inches of where the lad's feet had rested as he slept,
was a large rattlesnake still in its coil and giving forth its ominous rattle.
A dexterous blow or two finished the reptile, but the odor given forth
by the creature in its anger filled the hut.
"Pah!" ejaculated Ralph. "I must get out of here. The place would
sicken a dog."
He returned to the open air, now freshened by the vanished rain, and
round to his delight, that a moon several days old was visible in the
west. The clouds had disappeared, and there seemed every prospect of a
clear and quiet night.

"It is light enough to see to travel if I can only find the road again," he
reflected. "Anything is better than staying here."
Taking the direction in which it seemed to him that the trail ought to be,
he sought eagerly for the narrow strip of white that would indicate the
wished for goal. Presently he heard a distant sound.
"It may be the deer a whistling," thought he, listening intently. "But, no;
that ain't made by no deer. I believe--it's--somebody a coming along."
Some distance to his left Ralph could now detect a connected sound as
if a tune were being whistled. In his eager desire for human
companionship, he cast prudence completely aside and ran forward
shouting:
"Hold on! I'm coming. Hold on till I get there!"
CHAPTER IV.
The Moonshiners and the Railroad.
The whistling stopped suddenly. Ralph kept on, however, in the
direction where he had last heard the sounds, and presently
distinguished two dim forms standing in an open space amid the trees,
through which ran the white thread that indicated the lost trail.
"I say," began the lad, "are you fellows going down the mountain? If
you are, I'd like to go with you. Fact is, I believe I'm lost."
"Halt, there, young feller!" was the reply, given in sharp, stern tones.
"One step further and you'll find half an ounce of lead under your skin,
mebbe."
Ralph