Part 5 (1/2)
On their arrival Seth handed the still unconscious child over to the wife of the hotel-keeper for an exaestion, as being the al course to pursue, and waited with the sheriff and several others in the bar for the result
Good news had greeted the fighting party on their return The troops were already on the way to suppress the sudden and unaccountable Indian rising
Eight hundred of the hard-riding United States cavalry had left the fort on receipt of theThe hotel-keeper imparted the neith keen appreciation; he had no desire for troubleso his execrable drink when there was fighting to be done--and Louis Roiheim was an Israelite
A silence fell upon the bar-room on the appearance of Julie Roiheim She saw Seth, and beckoned him over to her
”There are initials on the little one's clothing M R,” she said And Seth nodded
”Any nareasy head
”But she's no ordinary child, Seth Not by a lot She belongs East, or irl of so on her but what is fine lawn and _real_ lace!”
”Ah!” murmured the plainsman, without any responsive enthusiasm, while his dark eyes watched the trius were of such consequence ”And has the Doc got around?”
”He's fixin' her up,” Julie Roiheiht, she's alive, but he can't wake her up He says if she's to be moved, it had best be at once”
”Good” Just for one brief instant Seth's thoughtful face lit up He turned to old Louis ”Guess I'll borrow your buckboard,” he went on ”I'll need it to take the kiddie out”
The hotel-keeper nodded, and just then Nevil Steyne, who at that leaned part of the conversation,
”Who is she?” he asked, fixing his cold blue eyes eagerly on the face of the
”Don't know,” said Seth shortly Then as an afterthought, ”Clothes marked M R”
The blue eyes lowered before the other's steady gaze
”Ah,” murmured Nevil Then he, too, paused ”Is she alive?” he asked at last And there was soested a dry throat
”Yes, she is,” replied Seth ”And,” he said, with unusual expansiveness, ”I guess she'll keep right on doing that saain betrayed himself
Nevil seeave him no chance He had no love for this man He turned on his heel without excuse and left the hotel to attend to the preparation of the buckboard himself
On his way home that afternoon, and all the next day, the Indians were in his thoughts only so far as this waif he had picked up was concerned For theof the child herself, and those to whoht hich his childless foster-parents would receive her The bright-faced little woman whom he affectionately called ”Ma”; the ruff voice and kindly heart And his thoughts stirred in hiht of the terrible lot he had saved this child from, for he knew only too hy she had been spared by the ruthless Big Wolf
All through that long journey his watchfulness never relaxed He looked to the coh she was still unconscious He protected her face from the sun, and kept cool cloths upon her forehead, and drove only at a pace which spared the inani And it was all done with an eye upon the Reservations and horizon; with a hearing always acute on the prairie, rendered doubly so now, and with a loaded rifle across his knees
It was dusk when he drove up to the farm A certain relief ca adjacent to the corrals, the sure of Rube s reflectively in the kitchen doorway
He did not stop to unhitch the horses, just hooking them to the corral fence Then he lifted the child from the buckboard and bore her to the house