Jack mentioned his letter to Mr. Nelson of Squaw Creek, and his wish to go there on the morrow.
“George Nelson is a friend of mine. His youngest gal and my Elsie is real thick. Better hold on till Saturday and my gal’ll ride along with you. She wants to spend Sunday there. My da’ter is doin’ some tradin’ in town, but she’ll be home to-morrow.”
It was now Thursday so Jack signified his willingness to do so, incidentally adding that he would like to buy a horse.
“Reckon I can suit you,” returned Mr. Kurtz with pardonable pride.
But Jack was nodding, and he threw himself on a husk bed, oblivious of everything till noon the next day.
At dinner, he saw Miss Kurtz, who had ridden in from Fredericksburgh on her spirited little mustang. Her dancing eyes and brown, healthy complexion gave evidence of the invigorating atmosphere of the plains and, though somewhat shy, she was a really attractive girl of about eighteen years. Her admiration for Jack was poorly concealed and, as most young men would have done under the circumstances he set about to make himself agreeable. He described Nootwyck, his family, and gave a brief sketch of “Old Ninety-Nine’s” cave and the mine.
“Strange that they found nothing besides the mine!” Miss Kurtz mused. “Do you think that the old man taken there exaggerated?”
“No,” replied Jack, “some one had undoubtedly been in the cave recently, my father thinks, and that the money and jewels were probably carried off by the finder. All the other rare things seen by Benny must have long ago disappeared.”
“It sounds like one of Aladdin’s tales,” she said, deeply interested.
“We thought it such until the discovery,” Jack replied, “but since then I am inclined to think that many of the legends of which that valley is so full may deserve investigation. The Delawares were a noble tribe, unjustly treated, and degraded by the whites who had only themselves to blame for the atrocities that occurred in the early history of the Rondout Valley. The Delaware tongue is the most beautiful of any in the Indian language as the names in our county testify.”