Dave talked to the lad about the enormity of his offense, but to Dave he
was inclined to defend himself and his action. Next morning, however,
when the party started back to Red Oaks, Erskine felt a difference in
the atmosphere that made him uneasy. Barbara alone seemed unchanged, and
he was quick to guess that she had not been told of the incident. Hugh
was distinctly distant and surly for another reason as well. He had
wanted to ask young Grey to become one of their party and his father had
decisively forbidden him--for another reason too than his influence over
Hugh: Grey and his family were Tories and in high favor with Lord
Dunmore.
As yet Dave had made no explanation or excuse for his young friend, but
he soon made up his mind that it would be wise to offer the best
extenuation as soon as possible; which was simply that the lad knew no
better, had not yet had the chance to learn, and on the rage of impulse
had acted just as he would have done among the Indians, whose code alone
he knew.
The matter came to a head shortly after their arrival at Red Oaks when
Colonel Dale, Harry, Hugh, and Dave were on the front porch. The boy was
standing behind the box-hedge near the steps and Barbara had just
appeared in the doorway.
"Well, what was the trouble?" Colonel Dale had just asked.
"He tried to stab Grey unarmed and without warning," said Hugh shortly.
At the moment, the boy caught sight of Barbara. Her eyes, filled with
scorn, met his in one long, sad, withering look, and she turned
noiselessly back into the house. Noiselessly too he melted into the
garden, slipped down to the river-bank, and dropped to the ground. He
knew at last what he had done. Nothing was said to him when he came back
to the house and that night he scarcely opened his lips. In silence he
went to bed and next morning he was gone.
The mystery was explained when Barbara told how the boy too must have
overheard Hugh.
"He's hurt," said Dave, "and he's gone home."
"On foot?" asked Colonel Dale incredulously.
"He can trot all day and make almost as good time as a horse."
"Why, he'll starve."
Dave laughed:
"He could get there on roots and herbs and wild honey, but he'll have
fresh meat every day. Still, I'll have to try to overtake him. I must
go, anyhow."
And he asked for his horse and went to get ready for the journey. Ten
minutes later Hugh and Harry rushed joyously to his room.
"We're going with you!" they cried, and Dave was greatly pleased. An
hour later all were ready, and at the last moment Firefly was led in,
saddled and bridled, and with a leading halter around his neck.
"Harry," said Colonel Dale, "carry your cousin my apologies and give him
Firefly on condition that he ride him back some day. Tell him this home
is his"--the speaker halted, but went on gravely and firmly--"whenever he
pleases."
"And give him my love," said Barbara, holding back her tears.
At the river-gate they turned to wave a last good-by and disappeared in
the woods. At that hour the boy far over in the wilderness ahead of them
had cooked a squirrel that he had shot for his breakfast and was gnawing
it to the bones. Soon he rose and at a trot sped on toward his home
beyond the Cumberland. And with him, etched with acid on the steel of
his brain, sped two images--Barbara's face as he last saw it and the face
of young Dane Grey.
The boy's tracks were easily to be seen in the sandy road, and from them
Dave judged that he must have left long before daylight. And he was
travelling rapidly. They too went as fast as they could, but Firefly led
badly and delayed them a good deal. Nobody whom they questioned had laid
eyes on the boy, and apparently he had been slipping into the bushes to
avoid being seen. At sunset Dave knew that they were not far behind him,
but when darkness hid the lad's tracks Dave stopped for the night. Again
Erskine had got the start by going on before day, and it was the middle
of the forenoon before Dave, missing the tracks for a hundred yards,
halted and turned back to where a little stream crossed the road and
dismounted leading his horse and scrutinizing the ground.
"Ah," he said, "just what I expected. He turned off here to make a
bee-line for the fort. He's not far away now." An hour later he
dismounted again and smiled: "We're pretty close now."
Meanwhile Harry and Hugh were getting little lessons in woodcraft. Dave
pointed out where the lad had broken a twig climbing over a log, where
the loose covering of another log had been detached when he leaped to
it, and where he had entered the creek, the toe of one moccasin pointing
down-stream.
Then Dave laughed aloud:
"He's seen us tracking him and he's doubled on us and is tracking us. I
expect he's looking at us from somewhere around here." And he hallooed
at the top of his voice, which rang down the forest aisles. A war-whoop
answered almost in their ears that made the blood leap in both the boys.
Even Dave wheeled with cocked rifle, and the lad stepped from behind a
bush scarcely ten feet behind them.
"Well, by gum," shouted Dave, "fooled us, after all."
A faint grin of triumph was on the lad's lips, but in his eyes was a
waiting inquiry directed at Harry and Hugh. They sprang forward, both of
them with their hands outstretched:
"We're sorry!"
A few minutes later Hugh was transferring his saddle from Firefly to his
own horse, which had gone a trifle lame. On Firefly, Harry buckled the
boy's saddle and motioned for him to climb up. The bewildered lad turned
to Dave, who laughed:
"It's all right."
"He's your horse, cousin," said Harry. "My father sent him to you and
says his home is yours whenever you please. And Barbara sent her love."
At almost the same hour in the great house on the James the old negress
was carrying from the boy's room to Colonel Dale in the library a kingly
deed that the lad had left behind him. It was a rude scrawl on a sheet
of paper, signed by the boy's Indian name and his totem mark--a buffalo
pierced by an arrow.
"It make me laugh. I have no use. I give hole dam plantashun Barbara."
Thus read the scrawl!