pace that made a stray policeman wave his club warningly. Soon they
were in the suburbs, and thence the open country came into view, where
truck farms and fruit orchards gave way to green fields of cotton and
corn.

The negroes seemed to be everywhere. At a bridge a couple of black
fishermen bobbed up from behind an abutment, scaring the rear squad of
mules.

The five lead ones pressed heavily upon the one Ralph was riding.

"Look out!" cried one of the darkies. "Yo'se gwine over de bank!
Watch out, I say!"




CHAPTER IX.

Ralph Arrives at Savannah.

The warning was too late to be effectual. It might not have done any
good, anyhow, as under the pressure of five frightened mules, the one
Ralph bestrode was pushed to the very verge of the high embankment
leading up to the bridge.

The boy saw the inevitable catastrophe that was coming. He released
his feet from the stirrups, unwound the halter from the saddle bow and
threw himself on the back of the next mule just as the one he had been
riding toppled over the embankment, down which it rolled clumsily to