It was Jack, the son of his old friend, or rather what was left of the lad.
Then, with the same hard expression on his countenance, the father straightened up in his saddle, and allowed his gaze to roam over the burning sticks, beams and timbers, the most of which was already ashes. He did not spare himself, and, when the survey was completed, he knew that which he dreaded to see with an unspeakable dread was not there, nor anywhere near.
“Yes,” he repeated, casting his eyes around the immediate field of vision, “they have done their work well. The captain, his wife, his little child, and boy are all gone—perished within a few minutes of each other. Why my child is not among them I do not understand. For some cause they have spared him yet awhile, but what hope is there of his mother or me ever seeing him alive again?”
A shout caused him to turn his head quickly, and look to the southward. There they were: five horsemen coming down upon him like mad. At their head, was handsome James Decker, the young lieutenant from West Point, who was getting a further taste of soldiering in dead earnest.
The lieutenant’s companions were veterans, and all had been in the service before he was born. Our old friends Armon Peyser, Budge Colgate and Jack Redfield served creditably during the Civil War, and the leader had already learned something of Mendez, the White Mountain Apache, who was the guide to the party. As for that, both Colgate and Redfield were almost, if not quite, as familiar with the fastnesses of the Apache Mountains as Mendez, for they had been in more than one campaign that led them thither.
It was the lieutenant who uttered the shout that turned the gaze of Freeman to the ridge, on the crest of which they had just appeared. He had recognized the man, and the latter knew him the moment he looked up.
Instead of continuing down the slope to the site of the burned building, the young officer called:
“If you want to join us, hurry up!”
Freeman answered by sending his pony off at a rate which quickly placed him among the eager group.
“I see they’ve been there,” remarked Decker, with a nod toward the smoking ruins.