"Gabe, you dear old silly!" she said, going over to him. "You might have hit me—or even yourself if you had put that thing off!"
Gabe made no reply. He was too serious, too much occupied, perhaps, with the importance of the thing he had done and the things it would probably lead to in the very near future.
The new day had already begun to dawn when Gabe finally stole quietly out of the cabin and took his way down the path. He had left Cherry sleeping soundly and was himself very weary after his night's vigil. But he knew a full day awaited him, and he was determined to face it with as much courage as his old heart could muster.
Countless times that night he had prayed inwardly for help from somewhere. Even now, as he plodded wearily from the cabin to the trail, he was muttering something to himself that might have passed for a petition to the Heavenly Powers.
And as if in answer to his prayerful mutterings, there came trudging heavily towards him round the bend in the trail just where it left the trees and entered the camp, a man leading a horse by the bridle rein and followed by a tired-looked dog.
"King, boy!" cried Gabe, and could say no more.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
King's first enquiry was concerning Cherry. For reasons which were perhaps his own, Gabe made no reference to what had occurred in the cabin during the night, and after briefly assuring him that she was all right, hastened to ask King where he had been and how he had come to put in an appearance so unexpectedly.
King, in his turn, simply smiled at the old man's curiosity, and asked Gabe to get him something to eat at once. Gabe met the request by pointing to the pile of smoking ashes that now lay where the cook-camp had stood. King made no effort to conceal his surprise. As a result of Currie's warning of the night before, he was prepared to meet difficulty on arriving at the camp. He had not lived for the best part of his life in camps without knowing something of what a man of McCartney's type could do if he were given a free hand with a gang of men. He was prepared to find the men carousing and perhaps fighting among themselves. He expected to find the camp in a state of general excitement. But the heap of smouldering ashes was a concrete result that he scarcely expected.
He looked for a few moments at the smoke rising from the ashes and then turned to Gabe with a questioning look in his eyes. Gabe's reply was brief but effective.