Ralph Grangers Fortunes | Page 8

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 obeyed, somewhat puzzled and decidedly alarmed. The men--there were two of them--drew something over their faces, then ordered the boy to advance.
He did so, and on drawing near saw that they now wore masks, and had long sacks swung over their shoulders, with a load of some kind in either end. When he saw the masks and the bags Ralph understood at once what their business was.
"Who are you?" demanded one of the men, and the lad could see that he held a pistol in one hand. "No lyin', now!"
"My name is Granger, and I'm from over on Hiawassee River way. Want to get down into the low country. Got lost; stayed in a shack while it rained, and--here I am."
"Be you a son of old Bras Granger?"
"No; grandson."
The two whispered together a moment, then one of them said:
"I reckon you're all right, boy. 'Taint wuth while to ast our names, 'cause d'ye see--we wouldn't tell."
"You'd be fools if you did," returned Ralph, his self confidence now fully restored. "I ain't a wanting to know who you are. I know already what you are."
"How's that?" came sharply back, and an ominous click was heard, which, however, did not seem to alarm Ralph.
"Moonshiners," said the boy briefly. "Haven't I been raised among 'em? I've got kin folks as stills regular, I'm sorry to say."
"Sorry! Ain't it a good trade?"
"Not when it lands you inside of some dirty jail. Besides, I don't like the stuff, anyhow."
"No use to offer you a dram then?"
"Not a bit. But I