“And so the Blatant Beast was killed after all and by another hand than yours,” said Alison.
“I can’t say that I was overcome with grief,” said Neal, “though it wasn’t a pretty company to stay with. Still, when I looked at ’em and thought their mothers would like them to have Christian burial, whatever sort of beasts they were, I concluded it wouldn’t hurt me to stay long enough to get them underground decently. Then I packed the few things the Injuns had left and came on. I knew if Steve had got away at all, he was likely to travel towards Santa Fé and so I set my face in that direction. But if I thought I had left danger behind me I was mistaken, for the mountains are full of the savagest kinds of Indians and that I got through with a whole skin was more by good luck than good management. I was glad enough to get out of the mountains and down into the valley where it was easier traveling. In one of the little towns I got my first clue to Steve. Not many white people had visited them until the Americanos had come with an army to take possession of the country, but there had been one man not long before the big army came; he had no horse, and from what I could learn it seemed possible that it might be Steve. He had traveled towards Santa Fé, so I went on in that direction. After a time I learned that the army had gone towards California, and it seemed to my mind that my best plan was to follow its tracks, for I argued if Steve had reached Santa Fé he would have been home before that, so I turned west again. Pretty soon I got into a detestable piece of country, all sand up-hill one way and sand down-hill the other way; no water anywhere. My horse and I were about done for when we got over it. Then I struck another desert; about the worst piece of country I ever did come on. One spell I thought my poor horse had given out entirely, and that I’d have to call the search off, but I thought of two girls waiting down here in Texas and of Steve somewhere, perhaps, and I got the pluck to go on again.”
“Oh, you dear boy!” exclaimed Christine.
“Whose prayers were at work that time?” came lazily from Steve; and if Alison did not answer in words she did by going over to Neal and taking her place by his side. He put his arm around her with a satisfied sigh.
“This makes up for all,” he said. “Well, sirs, when I reached the California frontier and came to Warner’s rancho I was about as tickled as a mule after he’s got through a day’s packing. There I got information that made me think I’d find Steve, if he had reached California alive, and somehow I couldn’t get it out of my head that he had fallen in with the United States troops and had followed their fortunes; it seemed the most sensible thing. I kept on a moving till I came across a man who had been with the army on that trip. He remembered distinctly the day they had picked up a man traveling afoot; they had all thought it such an unusual occurrence and we made up our minds between us that it was Steve. He would hardly believe I had come all the way from Texas by my lone; said I was some kind of a fool for trying such a journey, and there were times when I could have agreed with him without a question. Well, sirs, there was nothing to be done, that I could see, but to go back to Santa Fé where most of Kearney’s troops were garrisoned, for my military friend assured me that I wouldn’t be likely to find Steve anywhere else. It was right smart of a journey and I wasn’t particularly set on going back alone, but I managed to strike in with a party going that way, and it wasn’t so bad, though it wasn’t specially funny. After I reached Santa Fé I went right to headquarters where I learned that, sure enough, Steve had been one of their scouts and had been captured during one of those uprisings they got up there in New Mexico, and, although the war was over and peace declared, they had only located him recently in one of the little Indian villages, where there were some prisoners that had been kept over. They weren’t certain whether he was alive or not, but said perhaps I could find out from a Captain Owens who had gone out with a company to bring in these prisoners. I wasn’t very long in finding out, though they said at first he wasn’t there, that he had died on the way. I made up my mind I wouldn’t believe that till I had proofs, and at last I found him.”
“Oh, weren’t you glad? Weren’t you glad?” exclaimed Alison.
“If you mean me,” said Steve from his couch, “use some stronger word.”
“If you mean me,” said Neal, “suppose you ask if I didn’t dance a breakdown, if I didn’t let out a yell that scared the town; if I didn’t pop off a dozen good rounds to let ’em see how glad I was. Well, sirs, I had found my man, about as poor, peaked, skinny, yaller, feeble looking a creetur as you’d care to see.”
“Yes, and what do you suppose was the first thing he said to me?” said Steve. “He said, ‘If I had known what a poor miserable cuss I was lookin’ for, I’d have taken a shorter cut, round by a graveyard.’”
“Oh, Neal,” said Alison reproachfully.