"Not before to-morrow night. I shall get in by sundown to-day, for it is
all the way down hill; the return will be slower."
"I don't like to see you go away with that cut-throat sheriff."
"I am not alone," said Curtis. "I have two of the faithfulest men in the
world--Two Horns and Crow--both armed and watchful. Don't worry about
me, Jack; keep yourself alert to-night."
The wagon was now standing before the guard-house, and the prisoner was
being brought forth by Crow. Cut Finger, blinking around him in the
noon-day glare, saw his wife already in the wagon, and went resignedly
towards the agent, who beckoned to him.
"You may sit beside her," Curtis signed, and the youth climbed
submissively to his seat. "Mr. Sheriff, you are to take a place beside
the driver."
Winters, swollen with rebellion because of the secondary part he had to
play, surlily consented to sit with Two Horns.
"Crow, you camp here," called Curtis, and the trusted Tetong scrambled
to his seat. "Drive on, Two Horns."
For an hour and more no one spoke but Two Horns, gently urging the
horses to their best pace. Curtis welcomed this silence, for it gave him
time to take account of many things, chief of which was Brisbane's
violent antagonism. "He overestimates my importance," he thought. "But
that is the way such men succeed. They are as thorough-going in
destroying the opposition as they are in building up their own side."
He thought, too, of that last intimate hour with Elsie, and wished he
had spoken plainer with her. "It would have been definite if I had
secured an answer. It would have been a negative, of course, and yet
such is my folly, I still hope, and so long as there is the slightest
uncertainty I shall waste my time in dreaming." His mind then turned to
the question of the mob. There came into his mind again the conviction
that they were waiting to intercept the sheriff at the boundary of the
reservation; but he was perfectly certain that they would relinquish
their designs when they found the sheriff reinforced by three determined
men--one of them an army officer and the agent. He had no fear on that
score; he only felt a little uneasy at leaving the agency.
A sharp exclamation from Crow brought his dreaming to an end, and,
looking up, he saw a horseman approaching swiftly, his reins held high,
his elbows flapping. "That's young Streeter," he said, on the impulse.
"So it is," replied Winters, hot with instant excitement. "I wonder
what's his hurry?"
Calvin came up with a rush, and when opposite set his horse on his
haunches with a wrench of his powerful wrist, calling, in lazy drawl:
"Howdy, folks, howdy. Well, I see you've got 'im," he remarked to
Curtis.
"You've been ridin' hard," said Winters; "what's your rush? Anything
doin'?"
Calvin looked down at his panting, reeking horse, and carelessly
replied: "Oh no. I'm just takin' it out o' this watch-eyed bronco." He
exchanged a look with the sheriff. "I thought I'd ketch ye 'fore ye left
the agency. I'd like a word with you, sheriff; tumble out here for a
minute. You'll wait a second, won't you, Major?"