CHAPTER XXI—SURPRISES COME FAST
Alligator Pete gets the drop on the guide. Bill Lilly in a tight place. "Look out, this gun might go off!" The tables quickly turned.

CHAPTER XXII—OUTWITTED BY A BOY
Tad Butler ropes the enemy. "I'll kill you for that!" Pete stands on his head. A sign of surrender. The prisoner of the Pony Rider Boys. Butler takes a long chance.

CHAPTER XXIII—ICHABOD GETS A BIG SURPRISE
"De 'gator done gwine away, sah." Hounds and Pony Riders take the trail for bear. "They've got her!" A strange sight. A bullet that went home. Tad charged by a ferocious she-bear.

CHAPTER XXIV—CONCLUSION
In a dire predicament. Butler fights Mrs. Bruin. A hand and paw conflict. Tad's knife driven home. Laid up for repairs. Smugglers caught and punished. The triumph of pluck.

CHAPTER I

SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY

"Professor Zepplin, I believe?"

"The same. And you are?"

"Major Clowney, sah, at your service," answered the tall, gray-haired, distinguished-looking southerner who had greeted the Professor at the railway station in Jackson. Four clean-cut, clear-eyed young men, who had left the train with the Professor, stepped up at that juncture and were introduced to the southerner as Thaddeus Butler, Ned Rector, Stacy Brown and Walter Perkins, known as the Pony Rider Boys.

The Major regarded the young men quizzically, then shook hands with each of them, bowing with true southern courtliness over each hand as it was extended toward him.

"Isn't he the fine old gentleman?" whispered Stacy, otherwise and more familiarly known among his companions as Chunky, the fat boy.

Tad Butler nodded. The Major was a type that they had heard of, but never had known. He was a relic of the old South.

"It gives me great pleasure, gentlemen, to welcome you to Jackson. My old friend Colonel Perkins wrote me asking that I do what I could for you. I am delighted at the opportunity to serve him as well as these fine young gentlemen. You will wish to go to your hotel?"

"Yes, if you please," bowed the Professor.

The Major apologized for the humble hotel to which he conducted them, explaining that it was the best the little southern town afforded.

"I shall look for you to dine with myself and family this evening," he added.

The Professor expressed his appreciation, the boys murmuring their thanks. Tad Butler said he feared they were not in condition to accept home hospitality to which the Major replied that he and his family would feel honored to receive the party, no matter in what condition they might be forced to come.

"Did the Major fight the Germans?" questioned Chunky.

"No, they are all colonels, majors and captains down here," replied Tad laughingly.

It was agreed that the Professor and his party were to go out to the Major's home at five o'clock that afternoon, meet Major Clowney's family, and have dinner with them, after which a pleasant evening would be spent.

"You will no doubt wish to rest after your tiresome journey, Professor. At a quarter to five I shall send one of my servants to lead you to my home. My wife and daughters are impatient to meet you, my old friend Colonel Perkins having told us not a little about your young friends."

"You are very kind, sir," declared Tad.

"In the meantime, if you will give us the benefit of your advice, we shall look about us for a guide and for some horses, as I have been given to understand that we might procure all of these here in Jackson," said the Professor.

"It is all arranged, sah, all arranged," answered the Major. "It has been my pleasure to attend to all of the details. How many rooms will you require?"

Having received this information from Professor Zepplin, Major Clowney bustled about, sternly ordering the colored porters around, giving directions for the fetching of the equipment of the boys from the station, then making a personal inspection of the rooms assigned the Professor and the boys, ordering this and that thing changed, until it seemed as if all the forces of the hotel were jumping about at the Major's command.

"There, sah, I think you will be as comfortable as this miserable hostelry can make you. And now I shall leave you to your rest," he said.

The Major, after once more shaking hands all around, bustled out, leaving the boys to themselves.

Chunky blinked solemnly.

"Pinch me, fellows. I don't know whether I am awake or dreaming," said Stacy.

"You will wake up by and by," answered Ned.

"A splendid gentleman," nodded Tad thoughtfully. "We might all profit by Major Clowney's courtliness. Did you ask him what arrangements he had made for us, Professor?"

"No. He no doubt will explain when we see him this evening. Depend upon it, he has left nothing undone."

"Except to make the weather cool," answered Stacy. "Whew, but it's hot. Where is our baggage? I want to get into some togs that aren't so hot as these glad clothes."

"The baggage should be here very soon," answered Walter. "The men went after it before we came upstairs."

"I never saw so many colored folks in my life," declared Chunky. "Everything looks black to me now. I wonder if they are all black in this part of the country?"

"This is what is known as the Black Belt of the South," answered Professor Zepplin. "I believe there are four blacks to every white in this section. Further in we may find the proportion even greater."

"A regular study in light and shade," observed Rector.

"You had better keep tight hold of your valuables," advised Tad. "These gentlemen are light-fingered, I have heard."

"They better not take any of my stuff," bristled Stacy belligerently. "We know what to do to them if they do."

"Don't cry before you're hurt," advised Ned. "Who wants to take a look at the town?"

"I don't care anything about the town; I want to sleep," declared Chunky.

"That's right. Sleep is good for children," jeered Ned.

"Is that why you sleep so much?" wondered Stacy innocently.

"Ned, I will go with you," interjected Tad, by way of changing the conversation. "We have plenty of time, and need not dress before four o'clock. It is now only half past one."

Walter and the Professor decided that they would remain in the hotel, so Tad and Ned started out. Before they were out of the house, Stacy had thrown himself on the bed in his room, and was sleeping soundly. It was after three o'clock when Butler, returning to the hotel, shook Stacy awake, urging him to hustle his bath and dress. The boys were eagerly looking forward to the evening before them, for it was to be their first visit to a southern home. They were looking forward with a different sort of eagerness to the journey on which they were about to set out—a journey to the nearly trackless, vast canebrakes of Louisiana. It was a wonderful bit of country into which they were headed, but as yet they knew practically nothing of its wildness and its manifold dangers, nor did they give thought to this phase of their summer's outing, for, the greater the thrills, the keener the enjoyment of the Pony Rider Boys.

Following the return of Tad and Ned, all hands withdrew to their rooms to dress. The other boys finished dressing some time before Stacy made his appearance, strolling dignifiedly into