CHAPTER IX.
STRANGE DISAPPEARANCES The further adventures of Mr.Hobbs on this memorable afternoon are quickly chronicled, notwithstanding the fact that he lived an age while they were transpiring, and experienced sensations that would still be fresh in his memory if he lived to be a hundred.
He was scarcely well out of sight of the cabin when his conscience began to smite him: after all, his patron might be in dire need of his services, and here he was, fleeing from an old woman and a whiff of smoke! Hobbs was not a physical coward, but it took more than a mile of hard-ridden conscience to bring his horse to a standstill.

Then, with his heart in his mouth, he slowly began to retrace his steps, walking where he had galloped a moment before.

A turn in the road brought him in view of something that caused him to draw rein sharply.

A hundred yards ahead, five or six men were struggling with a riderless bay horse.
"My Gawd!" ejaculated Hobbs.

"It's _his_ horse! I might have known!" He looked eagerly for his patron.