While the colonel was speaking, Oscar had twisted uneasily about on his chair, waiting with the utmost impatience for him to bring his remarks to a close. At almost any other time he would have plied the officer with questions regarding the class of nomads known as “wolfers,” for he would like to have learned more about them; but he had already found out all he cared to know just then.
Tom was suspected of complicity in some crime that rendered him liable to punishment; and, if he escaped and went to the hills with Lish, he would run the risk of being robbed by him.
Oscar thought it was his duty to warn him of these dangers. He knew that the lieutenant would carry out his instructions with the 108utmost promptness and decision—these regulars waste no time when acting under orders—and not a moment was to be lost.
The colonel settled back in his chair as though he had nothing more to say just then, and Oscar arose to his feet and went into his bedroom.
After slinging on his powder-flask and shot-pouch, and making sure that the little box in the stock of his fowling-piece was filled with caps, he opened his trunk, and, taking from it a sum of money sufficient to pay for the clothes he had promised to purchase for his brother, he went back into the colonel’s room.
There the officer detained him for a few minutes in order to describe the localities in the immediate vicinity of the fort in which he would be likely to find the most game, and to tell him how to shape his course in order to reach those localities. He thought he was doing the boy a kindness; but instead of that he was putting him on nettles.
Oscar listened as patiently as he could; and, when the colonel ceased speaking, he bade him good-by and left the room.
109He bolted through the outer door, and ran at the top of his speed across the parade-ground to the sutler’s store. Fortunately there were no customers present, and so the sutler was at liberty to attend to his wants at once.
Slinging his double-barrel over his shoulder by the broad strap that was attached to it, Oscar quickly selected the articles he thought his brother needed, paid the price demanded for them, and, as soon as they had been tied up in a compact bundle, he hurried to the stable after his horse.
The animal, as before, showed a desire to use his heels, but Oscar, having no time to waste, paid not the slightest attention to him. The curb and the rawhide lasso were both brought into requisition; and, before the vicious little beast was fairly through smarting under the energetic pulls and blows he had received, he had carried his rider through the gate and out of sight of the flag-staff.
The pony accomplished the distance that lay between the fort and the mouth of the gully in much less time than he had accomplished it before; for Oscar made no effort to 110check him, not even when he was moving with headlong speed down the steep path that led through the sage-brush.
Almost before he knew it, the boy found himself in the mouth of the ravine, and there he drew rein and brought his pony to a stand-still.
He now had another cause for uneasiness. Suppose the lieutenant had found Lish at the village, and that the wolfer had said or done something to warrant his arrest! Suppose, too, having placed Lish safely in the guard-house, the young officer should come after Tom, and find Oscar there in the ravine!
Even if he did not suspect him of something—and it is hard to see how the lieutenant could help it when he caught sight of the big bundle that was tied to the horn of Oscar’s saddle—would he not mention the circumstance to the colonel when he made his report, and wouldn’t the colonel have a word or two to say about it?
“Gracious!” exclaimed Oscar; “I’ll be in trouble myself if I don’t look out. What could I say to the colonel if he should ask me 111what I was doing here, and what I had in my bundle? Tom!” he added, calling as loudly as he dared. “If you are about here, show yourself without any fooling. I am in a great hurry, and I have news for you.”
Tom was about there, but he would not show himself. He was lying at the foot of a scrub-oak, on the other side of the ravine, keeping a close watch over his brother’s movements; but not even the announcement that Oscar had some news to communicate, could induce him to stir from his place of concealment. He ............