So it was! Everything that he could ask now, with his story and hers so fresh in mind! He started up the path, but stopped at the turn to look back and wave his hand to the two figures in a confident gesture.
"Luck with you, Sir Chaps!" called the Doge, with all the far-carrying force of his oldtime sonorousness.
"Luck! luck!" Mary called, on her part; and her voice had a flute note that seemed to go singing on its own ether waves through the tender green foliage, through all the gardens of Little Rivers, and even away to the pass.
"Mary! Mary!" he answered, with a ring of cheeriness. "Luck for me will always come at your command!"
A moment later Galway and the others saw him smiling with a hope that ran as high as his purpose, as he passed through the gateway of the hedge.
"It will all be right!" he told them.
With P.D. keeping his muzzle close to the middle of Jack's back, the party started toward his house, which took them almost the length of the main street.
"Prather went by the range trail, of course?" Jack asked Galway.
"No, straight out across the desert," said Galway.
"Straight out across the desert!" exclaimed Jack, mystified.