Part 3 (1/2)
”Maude--my child--quick!” he said quietly ”Don't be alar ride before dawn”
Maude ell accustomed to obey proencies and perils of frontier life that she said nothing, but rapidly prepared for their start, and in a fewpossessions in the saddle-bags and valise that were strapped to her horse
Just as the Doctor had seen that all was nearly ready, and that scarcely anything more remained to be done than to strike the little tent, Joses ca up
”Well! what news?” said the Doctor, hurriedly
”Injun--hundreds--mile away,” said the plainsood!” he added, as he saw the preparations that had been made
”Bart, see to Maude's horse Doith the tent, Joses; Harry, help him You, Juan and Sam, see to the horses”
Every order was obeyed with the promptitude displayed in men accustomed to a life on the plains, and in a very few minutes the tent was down, rolled up, and on the side of the waggon, the steeds were ready, and all on to drive its two horses, Dr Lascelles gave the word Joses went to the front to act as pioneer, and pick a way unencuo on in safety, and the ca depended now upon silence A shrill neigh from a mare would have betrayed theht have had that result, and brought upon the party, with a result that the Doctor shuddered to conteer, he felt disposed tonow to take his child out with hi in the freedoe of y to some account; and as more, it seeo forward and risk all
”We always have our rifles,” he said softly to himself, ”and if we can use them well, we may force the Indians to respect us if they will not treat us as friends”
And all this while the waggon jolted on over the rough ground or rolled s down the thick buffalo-grass, or s so sound that seeht They were journeying nearly due north, and so far they had got on quite a couple of h, and it was possible that by now, silent as was the night, their cry ht not reach the keen ears of their enemies, but all the same, the party proceeded as cautiously as possible, and beyond an order now and then given in a low voice, there was not a word uttered
It was hard work, too, for, proceeding as they were in comparative darkness, every now and then a horse would place its hoof in the burrow of so Then, too, in spite of all care and pioneering, awheel of the waggon would sink into soainst the side of a rock
Someti ground, and these obstacles becaularly puzzled, and not knohether they were journeying away from or towards their enemies
”I have completely lost count, Bart,” said the Doctor
”And if you had not,” replied Bart, ”we could not have gone on with the waggon, for we are right ast the rocks, quite a ht then,” said the Doctor peevishly ”I begin to think we have done very wrong in bringing a waggon Better have trusted to horses”
He sighed, though, directly afterwards, and was ready to alter his words, but he refrained, though he knew that it would have been iht Maude if they had trusted to horses alone
A couple of dreary hours ensued, during which they could do nothing but wait for daybreak, which, when it cae aspect to that part of the country where they were, though their vision was narrowed by the hills on all sides save one, that by which they had entered as it were into as quite a horse-shoe
Joses and Bart started as soon as it was sufficiently light, rifle in hand, to try and ion fa rides from ranche to ranche in quest of cattle
They paused, though, for a ain a sort of idea as to the best course to pursue, and then satisfied that there was no ier, unless the Indians should have happened to strike upon their trail, they began to climb the steep rocky hill before the, Joses?” said Bart, as they toiled on, with the east beginning to blush of a vivid red
”Way they could find people to rob and plunder and carry off,” said Joses gruffly, for he eary and wanted his breakfast
”Do you think they will strike our trail?”
”If they come across it, my lad--if they come across it”
”And if they do?”
”If they do, they'll follow it right to the end, and then that'll be the end of us”