“Don’t worry. She’s safe enough for the present. Listen to me. Do you remember the horse-racing last year?”
“Course. I remember I got so excited over the horses, and so sorry for the boys that rode and didn’t win. But what of that? Other Mother has gone!”
“I tell you she’s safe. Safer than you or me. Listen. Abel says we, too, will have to ride a race to-day! On Tempest and Snowbird. Even if we win, the money will belong to him; and if we lose—he’s going to sell one of our horses to pay his loss. I heard him say it.”
“But they are ours!”
“He’s kept them all these years, he says. He claims the right to do with them as he chooses. Bad as that is, it isn’t the worst. Though Wahneenah is safe, still she will not be always. You and I will have to ride this race—to save her life, or liberty!”
“What do—you—mean?”
“I haven’t time to explain. Only—will you do as I say? Exactly?”
“Of course.” Kitty looked inquiringly into her foster-brother’s face. Didn’t he know she loved him better than anybody and would mind him always?
“When we are on the horses if I say to you: ‘Follow me!’ will you?”