best to get in a scrap with some of our fellows. Felix Wagner and Tom Ballinger had to lead him away, you remember. He doesn't like the boys of Hickory Ridge any too well, believe me, fellows."

They all went inside the little dusty-looking building, where some enterprising man had started a wayside grocery, and general store, at which you could purchase nearly anything from a paper of needles to a coffin, or an automobile tire, and gasoline.

Fortunately the man happened to have some stray bottles of soft drinks like sarsaparilla and root beer that must have been left over from his summer trade; and presently each of the scouts was washing the dust down his throat.

Altogether they may have spent about ten minutes in the store; and then after Toby had settled the account, they again passed out to the wagon.

The loitering Fairfield boy had disappeared, as Elmer noted when he looked over toward the fence where Angus McDowd had been standing on their arrival.

"Now, what ails you for a silly thing, Nancy?" said Toby, as the mare laid back her ears, and pranced at their approach. "Been getting too much oats lately, I reckon, with too little exercise. Well, you won't be feeling so fresh and frisky by the time we get back home to-night. That load of nuts is going to make you puff, let me tell you. Pile in, fellows, while I unfasten the hitching rope. Whoa! there, don't you dare try to bite me, you horse with the nasty temper! Why, this is a new trick for you to show. Grab the lines, won't you, Elmer? The blame nag's that anxious to show off she'd leave me in the lurch! Let up, there, can't you?"

It was only by making a hasty jump that agile Toby managed to gain his seat, to take the taut lines from Elmer's hands. Immediately the mare commenced to rear up in a most remarkable manner. Then, taking the bit between her teeth, she started along the road, fortunately in the right direction, at a whirlwind pace, amidst a cloud of dust, and with the three scouts who had been sitting on the second seat tumbling around in a heap in the bed of the wagon, all of them having been thrown backward.

Even as the grocery keeper came running out of the door to see what was the matter, and while they were still within hearing distance of the place, Elmer felt sure he saw a head rise into view above the pig-pen situated on one side of the road, and could recognize the grinning face of that Fairfield loafer, Angus McDowd.

There was no time to say anything. The mare was undoubtedly running away, and the wagon flinging from side to side in the road, as Toby stood half erect, pulling with might and main on the lines in the endeavor to hold the frantic animal in.

It began to look like croaking George might have been right when he said he doubted whether the nutting expedition would be much of a success.

CHAPTER II

"Hold her in, Toby!" George was heard to shout, as he floundered around in the midst of the gunny sacks, with the other two scouts straddling him half the time.

"Whoop! we ain't in thuch a hurry ath all that, Toby. Get a grip on the linth, Elmer, and help him pull. Oh! what a quack I got then on my head. I bet you I'll have a lump ath big ath a gooth egg! Quit clawing me, George; I can't help it if I do climb all over you. Look at the way the wagon thwings, would you?"

Elmer did not need to be told that it was his duty to assist Toby control the runaway animal. No matter what the cause of the beast's strange fright might turn out to be, their first business was to drag so heavily on the lines that Nancy would have to moderate her wild pace.

Accordingly both of the boys pulled and sawed and jerked until the mare was made to come to a full stop. This occurred fully a mile away from the wayside grocery, which was long ago lost to sight behind several bends in the road.

"Jump out and hold her, some of you other fellows!" gasped Toby, short of breath after his violent exertions.

Chatz, George and Ted all hastened to obey. They had been tumbled around in the bed of the big wagon at such a lively rate that they were only too glad of the chance to gain their feet. Held by a stout boy on either side the mare did not offer to run further, though still acting very strangely.

Elmer had once spent some time up on an uncle's ranch in Northwest Canada; and knew a heap about horses. He had sometimes seen animals act this way, and had before then guessed what might be the matter.

"Hold her steady, everybody, and let me look around a little," was what he called, as he jumped down, and began patting the sweaty back of the trembling animal.

A minute later and they heard him give an angry exclamation.

"I thought as much," Elmer was saying, as he held up his hand; "look what was fixed under her tail."

"Say, that seems like a bunch of those nasty little sand spurs that sting and poison like all get-out!" exclaimed George, and it might have been noticed that this time he showed no signs of his customary doubting spirit.

"Just what they are," Elmer went on to say, indignation in his whole manner.

"But how—when—where?" began Ted, when Chatz burst out with:

"He did it, Elmer, that skunk of a McDowd. Must have thought it'd be a fine way to pay back what he believed he owed the Hickory Ridge boys. The low-down coward, to hurt a hoss that way."

"But why, he might have made some of us get thrown out, and hurt right bad in the bargain!" exclaimed George, angrily.

"Much he'd have cared for that," Toby panted; "and didn't I just think I heard a silly laugh at the time Nancy started to rear up, and prance like a crazy thing? That must a been Angus. And like as not he's doubled up back there right now laughing over seeing how we got thrown around in the wagon because of his sand spur trick. For five cents I'd turn around, and go back to give him the licking he needs."

"Don't bother thinking about that," Elmer told him. "It was a mean trick, and I've known men to get a halter out on the plains for playing that same game. But we got out of the hole without any damage, only to our feelings; so let's forget it."

The others were usually swayed more or less by what Elmer thought or did. He was a natural leader, and it had become second nature for the other scouts to look to him for advice, whenever an emergency arose.

"Guess the poor frightened thing'll stand now, fellows, without holding her any more," Toby suggested; "so climb back on your seat; and be more careful next time how you let go your hold. It's a wonder none of you got dumped out when you tilted over backward."

Just as he said, the animal seemed to have partly recovered from her mad fright occasioned by the pain the little sharp-pointed burrs inflicted. Though still trembling, and acting in a skittish manner, she gave signs of being docile enough to be driven.

The three scouts hastened to climb in at the back of the wagon, and after securing the gunny sacks, as well as the large package belonging to Toby, they once more found seats for themselves. George and Chatz, however, it might be noticed, made sure to get a firm grip somewhere on the side of the wagon; while Ted, being in the middle, threw an arm around each of his chums, as though he depended on them to sustain him, should another runaway occur.

They were soon going along at a fair clip, though Toby had to "lean" pretty heavily on the lines in order to hold the big bay mare in, for he did not think it advisable to let her have her head again. The next time she made such a mad spurt as that