“Isn’t it fine? I begin to feel like a red man myself, wearing it. White Feather gave this to me with his own hands. It looks as if it had been worn a long time but it’s a mighty comfortable rig, especially after a fellow’s had—nothing at all.”
Then Dorothy talked, her words fairly tumbling over each other in her haste to tell all that had happened at San Leon while he was gone. She ended with the question:
“Will you go back with me now, Jim? or with all of us, when we find them! My heart! How glad, how glad they’ll be!”
Jim shook his head.
“I can’t, Dolly, not yet. I’ve got to stay till Alaric comes. Nobody knows when that’ll be, he’s so lazy; and so sure now that I’ll do his work for him. Besides—I’ve got something on my mind. Even if—even if—Well, I shan’t go back to San Leon till I take a peace offering with me. I think—anyway I hope—I’ve—No matter. Where are the others, do you think? How did you get so far away from ’em, alone?”
“I don’t know. But I wish—I wish they’d come. Ah! Hark!”
Dorothy stood up and listened. They could hear a horse moving somewhere, the dull thud of hoofs on soft ground, and a whinny of recognition to Zaraza feeding near. A moment later Silent Pete came into sight, and in another moment had dismounted beside them.
He hadn’t a word to say but stared at Jim with what would seem reproach except for a kindly gleam in his blue eyes. Up and down the lad’s tall form the old man’s eyes roved many times and then he gave one of his rare laughs.
“Fits good, hey?”
“First class! Did you ever wear an Indian costume?” asked Jim.