"How are ye, my lad? We've had a long tramp for ye, and come mighty2 nigh bein' too late."
"Have you been looking for me?" asked the boy, in amazement3.
"Yes, sir, we've been on the hunt for some days."
"How is that?"
Dick Morris briefly4 explained how Colonel Chadmund had received warning through a friendly Indian runner of the projected massacre6 of the cavalry7 escort. Knowing that it was impossible to forward reinforcements to them in time, and that Lone5 Wolf was aiming specially8 to get his hands upon his little boy, he had sent Dick post-haste with orders to intercept9 Tom, if possible, and both had been instructed to secure possession of the lad by any possible means in their power.
After a cautious investigation10 at the outset, when they arrived at Devil's Pass, they found that the massacre had taken place almost twenty-four hours before. The sight was a terrible one, such as made even them shudder11. The horses and soldiers lay scattered12 here and there, just as they fell. The beasts of the forest had offered them no disturbance13, probably because there were more inviting14 feasts elsewhere. But in the warm summer air the bloody15, hacked16 faces were discolored and swollen17 beyond recognition. The hunters rode carefully along, and counted the whole thirteen, and when they found the overturned and wrecked18 ambulance and the dead horse a short distance beyond they were able to hit the right theory. It was in this carriage that young Chadmund had been riding when he was captured, and the scouts19 set out at once upon the trail of the Apache war-party.
It was all easy enough to follow the warriors20, but Tom and Dick were hopelessly puzzled when they came up with the redskins, saw Lone Wolf and his brother warriors, and made the discovery that the boy was not with them. It was a most trying problem to them—the only solution being that they had grown impatient with the boy and put him to death; and yet, as the trail had been followed and narrowly watched, it seemed impossible that such a thing should have taken place without the pursuers finding it out before this. Dick Morris suggested that the captive, by some providential interference, had managed to give them the slip, but Tom could not believe it among the possibilities. If such were the case, there were no means of learning when or where it had been done, and the scouts were as completely cut off from pursuit of the boy as were the Apaches themselves.
In this dilemma21 there was little to do except to make a general hunt for him, keeping all the time within striking distance of the Apaches, as they did not think that the fugitive22 could have gotten very far from them. The hunters carefully secreted23 their animals, and tramped over the mountains and through ravines, gorges25, and woods, until, on this eventful forenoon they discovered Lone Wolf ahead of them, acting26 as though he had detected something particularly gratifying. The shrewd scouts suspected the truth on the instant. The Apache was also searching for the lad, and, guided by a greater knowledge, had discovered him. And so he crouched27 down in the rocks, not knowing that two other figures shortly after crouched behind him. Then, after the story had been told, as the three moved off together, Dick Morris having picked up the rifle which Lone Wolf cast from him as the contest was about to open, Ned Chadmund gave him his version of that terrible attack and slaughter
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CHAPTER XX. WHITE VS. RED.
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CHAPTER XXII. ANXIOUS WAITING.
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