“So I am; where’s uncle?”
“He will be down in a minute; when I awoke, I saw he was asleep, and I concluded 217 not to awake him. You know he had a hard time yesterday and last night, and I took the responsibility of not calling him. The poor man needs rest and it won’t hurt you folks to wait a while.”
The youth dropped into a chair and laughed.
“Well, now, that beats everything! We were worried half to death, and feared something dreadful had happened.”
“Nothing of the kind; we haven’t been disturbed since you and Gleeson went away. If we had, the captain would have been awake.”
The gentleman referred to was heard moving about overhead, and a few minutes later put in an appearance. He scolded his wife in a good-natured way for her well-meant kindness, and adding that no harm had been done, sat down to his morning meal.
The preliminaries were quickly finished, the good-by said, and leaping into his saddle, the captain joined his nephew in a smart gallop northward to camp, where they joined their anxious friends.
And so what promised to furnish a stirring sensation proved nothing at all. It was rare that the Texan allowed his weariness to get the better of him, but it had done so in this case, and none laughed more heartily over it than he.
A brief investigation showed everything to be in readiness, and the sun was not far above the horizon when the start on the long journey northward was made.