Uncle Braddock intended to offer to go. But, if so, he must have changed
his mind, for he soon left the village and went over to Aunt Matilda's
and had a good talk with her. The old woman was furiously angry when she
heard of the affair.

"I wish I'd been a little quicker," she said, "and dere wouldn't a been
a red spot on him."

Uncle Braddock didn't know exactly what she meant; but he wished so,
too.

Tony didn't want a large party. He chose four men who could be depended
upon, and they started out that evening.

It was evident that Mason knew how to keep himself out of sight, for he
had been in the vicinity a week or more--as Tony discovered, after a
visit to Aunt Matilda--and no white person had seen him.

But Tony thought he knew the country quite as well as George Mason did,
and he felt sure he should find him.

His party searched the vicinity quite thoroughly that night, starting
from Tom Riley's tobacco barn; but they saw nothing of their man; and in
the morning they made the discovery that Mason had borrowed one of
Riley's horses, without the knowledge of its owner, and had gone off,
north of the mica mine. Some negroes had seen him riding away.

So Tony and his men took horses and rode away after him. Each of them
carried his gun, for they did not know in what company they might find
Mason. A man who steals horses is generally considered, especially in