The husband saw no sign of any living being besides those with him, nor could he form any surmise as to the course to be taken to effect a meeting with his son.
"What will Brinton think? After doing so bravely the work I ought to have done, we left him in the lurch. We are as much lost to each other as if in the depths of an African jungle with miles intervening. I can't help feeling that the top of that ridge yonder would give me a view that would disclose something important."
He debated with himself whether it was prudent to walk thither and obtain the coveted survey. It was little more than a hundred yards distant, and it did not seem that any harm could come to the loved ones whom he would leave but a few minutes.
"I must manage to get my bearings in some way before I can do anything. The sun seems to be off yonder behind the clouds, but really it appears to me as if it were in the wrong place!"
He ended the doubt by striding to the elevation, rifle in hand. Since his faintness of the night before, he felt better and stronger than he had for weeks, and this fact doubtless had much to do with the feeling of self-confidence which now nerved him.
Reaching the crest of the ridge or swell in the prairie, Kingsland was disappointed. The same kind of view confronted him on every hand, and he experienced a repetition of that sensation which often comes to one in his situation: if he could only pass to the top of the next elevation, he would obtain the view he wanted.
But Hugh Kingsland was too wise to yield to the prompting. One precious member of his family was already gone he knew not where, and he would incur no risk of its being further broken up.
He was roused from his meditations in the most startling manner conceivable, the cause being a rifle-shot, undoubtedly aimed at himself. On the summit of the ridge at which he was gazing, and almost at the very point, two Indian bucks suddenly walked up from the other side in plain sight. While they were still ascending, and when only their heads and waists showed, one of them brought his rifle to his shoulder and tried his skill on the white man across the valley-like depression.
Mr. Kingsland did not tarry long enough to reply, but hurried back to the hollow where he had left his wife and child. They had awakened, but were not alarmed at his absence, the wife suspecting the cause. She had brought out what was left of the lunch, and she and Edith were calmly eating when he reappeared, his looks and manner showing that he had made some terrifying discovery.
He quickly explained what had taken place, adding—