“I hope you didn’t think I had left you for good?”
“No, sar!” declared the colored boy. “I done knows yeh better dan dat, sar! I knowed yeh’d come back, but I was afeared yeh’d come back too late, sar. Dem Injunses was gittin’ po’erful anxious fo’ dis yar wool ob mine—yes, sar!”
“Well, I am glad to know you thought I would not desert you. I don’t want any of my friends to think I would go back on them in the hour of need.”
Diamond was silent.
The pass was found without difficulty, and they went speeding through it.
“How did you happen to turn up just then, Frank?” asked Harry.
“I was waiting for a chance to come to you, and I saw the chance when that horse and rider frightened the Indians.”
“The horse and rider—where are they?” asked Browning.
“Gone through the pass ahead of us.”
“Mah gracious!” exclaimed the colored boy. “What if dat ol’ debbil teks a noshun teh wait fu’ us?”