Part 19 (1/2)

”To Hacknack!” he muttered, after reading a signboard. ”That's the place I'm looking for. One mile, eh? Well, I had better lose no time in getting there.”

The bully was a fair walker and now fear lent speed to his limbs, and in less than fifteen minutes he reached the hamlet named. He gazed around and presently located a small cottage standing near the edge of a sandpit.

”That must be the cottage,” he told himself, and walking to it he rapped on the door four times in succession and then four times again.

There was a stir within and then an old woman, bent with age and with a wicked look in her sharp, yellowish eyes, came to answer his summons.

”Is this Mother Matterson's place?” he asked.

”Yes, I'm Mother Matterson,” squeaked the old woman. ”Who are you and what do you want?”

”My name is Lew Flapp. I'm looking for a fellow called Si Silvers,” he added, for that was the name Dan Baxter had a.s.sumed for the time being.

”It's all right, old woman; tell him to come in,” said a voice from inside the cottage, and Lew Flapp entered the house. Immediately the old woman closed the door after him and barred it.

CHAPTER XII

FLAPP AND BAXTER PLOT MISCHIEF

The cottage which Mother Matterson occupied was a much dilapidated one of a story and a half, containing three rooms and a loft. Some of the windows were broken out and the chimney was sadly in need of repair.

Many were the rumors afloat concerning this old woman. Some said she was little short of being a witch, while others had it that she was in league with tramps who had stolen things for miles around. But so far, if guilty, she had escaped the penalty of the law.

”So you've come at last,” went on the person in the cottage, as Lew Flapp came in, and a moment later Dan Baxter came into view. He was tall and lanky as of old, with a sour look on his face and several scars which made him particularly repulsive. ”I had almost given you up.”

”I've had my own troubles getting here,” answered Flapp. ”At first I couldn't locate Hacknack and then I had the misfortune to fall in with Sam Rover”

”Sam Rover! Is he on your track now?”

”I rather guess not,” and the bully of Putnam Hall gave a short laugh.

”He has gone swimming for his health.”

”What do you mean?”

”I'll tell you,” answered Lew Flapp, and in a rapid manner he related all that had occurred since he had met Sam in the Oak Run barber shop.

”Well, all I can say is, that you are a lucky dog,” came from Dan Baxter, at the conclusion of the recital. ”You can thank your stars that you are not at this moment in the Oak Run lock-up.”

”I shouldn't have run any risk at all if it hadn't been for you,”

growled Flapp.

”Oh, don't come any such game on me, Flapp. I can read you like a book.

You know you don't dare to go home--after that trip-up at White Corners.

Your old man would just about kill you--and you'd be locked up in the bargain.”

At these words Lew Flapp winced, for he knew that Dan Baxter spoke the truth. He was afraid to go home, and had come to Hacknack simply because he knew not where else to go and because Baxter had promised him some money. The amount he had realized on the sale of the stolen jewelry had been spent.