“I am thinking she go to the road. No I know where.”
Unc’ Aaron raised his hands and moved them up and down shaking his grizzly head meanwhile. “Who say yuh saddle dat creetur?” asked the old man, turning a wrathful eye upon the boy.
“The young leddy say me do.”
“An’ yuh ain’t got de sense to tell nobody she gone. My lan’, boy, but yuh is foolish. Whar Mistah Ned?”
“He and the Señor Doctor make to go in the cano.”
“In de canoe? Mebbe dey ain’t gone yet. Trabble dem laigs of yo’n down to de lodge as fast as yuh can mek ’em go, an’ give ’em mah espects an’ ast ’em will dey wait twel I git dar. Hop lively, now.”
Pablo understood well enough to set off on a run and came upon Mr. Pattison and Dr. Selden, to whom he delivered his message.
“What does the old chap want, I wonder,” said Mr. Pattison. “It must be something important. I hope nothing is wrong. We’d better wait.”
“I agree with you,” returned the doctor. “I hope it is nothing about Joanne. I always feel that she is perfectly safe when she is with Unc’ Aaron, as I supposed she was.”
Just then the old man came up panting. “I hopes yuh gemmans escuse me,” he said, “but de little leddy have gone off ridin’ by huhse’f, an’ dey some mighty mean trash ’roun’ dese days. Ain’t lak hit useter be when folks could go over de face of de yearth an’ nobody moles’ dem ner mek ’em afraid. She ain’t use to ridin’ yet, Mistah Ned.”