It is. If anywhere within two miles, they ought to see this
blaze or the glow from it. They're just doing this to make us worry.
I'd like to get them by the neck, this minute," he added.
Uncle Ike, the mule, gave vent to a vicious scream at that moment,
and Ned arose and started in the direction of the feeding ground.
When he reached the spot he saw that the mules were agitated, weaving
about on the tying lines in either fear or anger.
"Uncle Ike," Ned said, patting the ugly beast on the neck, "what is
it about your sleeping chamber that you don't like? Or it is your
supper you object to?"
Uncle Ike thrust his long ears forward and elevated his heels, as if
kicking at some imaginary object back of him. Then Ned saw a figure
moving in the darkness.
"Come out of that!" he called. "Why are you sneaking around here?"
The figure advanced toward the boy then--the figure of an old woman!
CHAPTER V
JIMMIE AND TEDDY MISS A MEAL
"I was scared to come up until I heard your voice," the old lady
said, as she came close to Ned. "I didn't know you were only a boy."
The woman appeared to be very old. Her hair was white and her lean
face was wrinkled and leathery with time and storm and exposure to
the winds of the hills.
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