The Young Mountaineers | Page 7

haw!" laughed the man in the mist.
Ike cooled off abruptly. He had been kicked and cuffed half his life, but
he had never been laughed at. Ridicule tamed him. He was ashamed,
and he remembered that he had been afraid, for he had thought the man
was some "roamin' harnt."
"I dunno," said Ike sulkily, "ez ye hev got enny call ter pounce so
suddint out'n the fog, an' go ter noddin' that cur'ous way ter folks ez
can't half see ye."
"I never knowed afore," said the man in the mist, with mock apology in
his tone and in the fantastic gyrations of his nodding hat, "ez it air
you-uns ez owns this mounting." He looked derisively at Ike from head
to foot. "Ye air the biggest man in Tennessee, ain't ye?"
"Naw!" said Ike shortly, feeling painfully awkward, as an overgrown
boy is apt to do.

"Waal, from yer height, I mought hev thunk ye war that big Injun that
the old folks tells about," and the stranger broke suddenly into a hoarse,
quavering chant:--
"'A red man lived in Tennessee, Mighty big Injun, sure! He growed ez
high ez the tallest tree, An' he sez, sez he, "Big Injun, me!" Mighty big
Injun, sure!'"
"Waal, waal," in a pensive voice, "so ye ain't him? I'm powerful glad ye
tole me that, sonny, 'kase I mought hev got skeered hyar in the woods
by myself with that big Injun."
He laughed boisterously, and began to sing again:--
"'Settlers blazed out a road, ye see, Mighty big Injun, sure! He combed
thar hair with a knife. Sez he, "It's combed fur good! Big Injun, me!"
Mighty big Injun, sure!'"
He broke out laughing afresh, and Ike, abashed and indignant, was
about to pass on, when the man gayly balanced himself on one foot, as
if he were about to dance a grotesque jig, and held out at arm's length a
big silver coin.
It was a dollar. That meant a great deal to Ike, for he earned no money
he could call his own.
"Free an' enlightened citizen o' these Nunited States," the man
addressed him with mock solemnity, "I brung this dollar hyar fur
you-uns."
"What air ye layin' off fur me ter do?" asked Ike.
The man grew abruptly grave. "Jes' stable this hyar critter fur a night
an' day."
For the first time Ike became aware of a horse's flank, dimly seen on
the other side of the boulder.
"Ter-morrer night ride him up ter my house on the mounting. Ye hev

hearn tell o' me, hain't ye, Jedge? My name's Grig Beemy. Don't kem
till night, 'kase I won't be thar till then. I hev got ter stop
yander--yander"--he looked about uncertainly, "yander ter the sawmill
till then, 'kase I promised ter holp work thar some. I'll gin ye the dollar
now," he added liberally, as an extra inducement.
"I'll be powerful glad ter do that thar job fur a dollar," said Ike, thinking,
with a glow of self-gratulation, of the corn which he had raised in his
scanty leisure on his own little patch of ground, and which he might use
to feed the animal.
"But hold yer jaw 'bout'n it, boy. Yer stepdad wouldn't let the beastis
stay thar a minute ef he knowed it, 'kase--waal--'kase me an' him hev
hed words. Slip the beastis in on the sly. Pearce Tallam don't feed an'
tend ter his critters nohow. I hev hearn ez his boys do that job, so he
ain't like ter find it out. On the sly--that's the trade."
Ike hesitated.
Once more the man teetered on one foot, and held out the coin
temptingly. But Ike's better instincts came to his aid.
"That barn b'longs ter Pearce Tallam. I puts nuthin' thar 'thout his
knowin' it. I ain't a fox, nur a mink, nur su'thin wild, ter go skulkin'
'bout on the sly."
Then he pressed hastily on out of temptation's way.
"Haw! haw! haw!" laughed the man in the mist.
There was no mirth in the tones now; his laugh was a bitter gibe. As it
followed Ike, it reminded him that the man had not yet moved from
beside the boulder, or he would have heard the thud of the horse's
hoofs.
He turned and glanced back. The opaque white mist was dense about
him, and he could see nothing. As he stood still, he heard a muttered
oath, and after a time the man cleared his throat in a rasping fashion, as

if the oath had stuck in it.
Ike understood at last. The man was waiting for somebody. And this
was strange, here in the thick fog on the bleak mountainside. But Ike
said to himself that it was no concern of his, and plodded steadily on,
till