Ephraim checked Prince so shortly that the animal reared on his haunches, and pushing his hat from his brow regarded the visitor with a sad but grateful countenance. Then he spoke, and his tones were husky with subdued emotion:
“Thanks, friend. I took to you the first time my old eyes lit on you and I’ve leaned on you, in my mind, ever since. There is something ’at worries me, but it’s so slight I shan’t put it into words––yet. I’ve got work to do still for them I love and that love me. Which I might maybe sum up in one small person––my precious Lady Jess. God bless her! Ay, God bless her! From the crown of her sunny head to the tips of her dainty feet, she’s the truest, squarest, tenderest creature the Lord ever sent to lighten this dark world. They all love her, every one of them rough, hard-handed sons of toil whom she calls her ‘boys’; but there isn’t one, not one, can begin to love her as I do. Not one. It is she that makes me still keep a little faith–––There, there! what an old fool I am! But, thanks, all the same, and don’t you forget I’m your own to command if need comes. Shake, neighbor, and may your age be–––Giddap there, Prince! Let’son, lad; let’s get on.”
Ninian did get on, but again silently pondering that here again was something mysterious in this honest octogenarian’s mood. There was an undercurrent of sorrow which, he was sure, was wholly distinct from the anxieties of his mistress and her household, and he wondered what it might be. Surely, for an old man, though wifeless and childless he had much to make him happy. The devotion of the family in which he had lived for so long, his comfortable home, his freedom from care concerning his future––to the young man struggling amidst a crowd of competitors to make a place for himself in the world, it seemed as if the venerable sharpshooter had cause for nothing but rejoicing. However, these might be mere imaginations, and best banished for the present.
Ephraim made straight for the house, and the sound of the horses’ footfalls brought figures flying to the open doors; most welcome of these in the eyes of the two men, the small one of Jessica herself, her head stretched forth as she peered into the night, and the lamplight behind her making a radiance about her golden head and slender gracefulness. But she poised there on the threshold only for an instant, till she was sure what animals these were, then darted toward them with uplifted hands and a cry of delight:
“They’ve come! Oh, mother, they’ve come!––they’ve come!”
Another moment and the reporter had slipped from his saddle and had caught up the little girl, more glad on his own part than he would have once thought possible to have her once more beside him.
“Yes, captain, here we are! But did you expect us––or me? And how could you tell that we were not strangers?”
“Why, don’t you suppose I’d know the step of any horse for ours? And though Nimrod is yours now I know him like––like a brother. Don’t I, dear fellow?” and from Ninian’s clasp she ran to embrace the down-bent head of the thoroughbred.