"The ashes were still warm, and I guess they had left about four hours afore I arrived; so I went on more carefully, knowing that if I threw away my life there was no chance of recovering the gal. I guessed, by the direction which they were taking, they were going to Black Dog's village; and, after going a bit further on the trail to make sure, I turned off, and went round some miles, in case they should have left any one to see if they war followed. I knew where the village was, for I had been hunting near it.
"I camped out on the plains for the night, and next day rode to within five miles of the village, which was among the hills. I left my horse in a wood where there was water, and, taking my rifle and pistols, went forward on foot to the village and arrived there after dark. As I expected, I found the hull place astir. A big fire was blazing in the centre; on a pole near it hung the scalps they had taken, and they were a-dancing round it and howling and yelling. I didn't see any signs of the gal; but as there were two redskins with their rifles hanging about the door of a wigwam next to that of the chief, I had no doubt she was there.
"This wigwam was in the centre of the village, and there were lots of old squaws and gals about, so that I could not, for the life of me, see any way of stealing her out. Next night I went back to the camp and watched, but the more I thought on it, the more difficult it seemed. The second night I catched an Injin boy who was wandering outside the camp. I choked him, so that he couldn't hollo, and carried him off; and when I got far enough away I questioned him, and found that in two days there was to be a grand feast, and Black Dog was then going to take the white gal as his squaw. So I saw as there was no time to be lost. I strapped up the Indian boy and tied him to a tree, and then went back to the village.
"This time the gal was sitting at the door of the tent. I crept up behind, cut a slit in the skins, and got inside. As I expected, there was no one in there, the squaws as was watching her was outside; so I crept up close to the entrance, and I says to her, 'Hush! don't move, your scout Dick is here.' She gave a little tremble when I began, and then sat as still as a mouse.
"Says I, 'I don't see no plan for getting you away secret, you are watched altogether too close, the only plan is to make a race for it. There ain't many horses on the plain as can beat that mustang of yours, and I know you can ride him barebacked. Do you take a head of maize now and walk across to where he is picketed, and feed and pat him; then to-morrow morning early do the same. They won't be watching very closely, for they will think you are only going to do the same as to-night. I have put an open knife down behind you. You cut his rope, jump on his back, and ride straight; I will join you at the bottom of the valley. They may overtake us, but they won't hurt you; if they do catch you, they will just bring you back here again, and you will be no worse off than you are now. Will you try?' The gal nodded, and I crept away out of sight.
"A few minutes afterwards I saw her going along with some ears of maize to where the horses were tied up. Two Indians followed her at a little distance, but she walked across so natural that I don't think they had any suspicion; she fed the horse, and talked to it, and petted it, and then went back to the village. Next morning, before daylight, I mounted my horse and rode to the mouth of the valley, a quarter of a mile from the village.
"Half an hour after daylight I heard a yell, and almost directly afterwards the sounds of a horse's hoofs in full gallop. I rode out, and along she came as hard as the horse could go. Three or four mounted Indians war just coming into the other end of the valley four hundred yards away.
"'All right, Queen May, we have got a fine start,' says I, and then we galloped along together. 'Not too fast,' I told her, 'it ain't speed as will win the race. There is a long hundred miles between us and the fort. We must keep ahead of them varmint for a mile or two, and then they will settle down.'
"For the first five or six miles we had to ride fast, for the redskins tried the speed of their horses to the utmost; but none of them gained anything on us, indeed we widened the gap by a good bit. You see at first they only thought it was a wild scheme on the part of the gal, and the first as started jumped on the first horses that came to hand; it wasn't till they saw me that they found it was a got-up thing. One of the first lot galloped back with the news. But by the time the alarm was spread, and the chase really taken up in earnest, we was a good mile away, and a mile is a long start.
"Black Dog and some of his best-mounted braves rode too hard at first. Ef we had only had a short start they would have catched us, perhaps; but a mile's start was too much to be made up by a rush, and so Black Dog should have known; but I reckon he was too mad at first to calculate. By hard riding he and his best-mounted braves got within half a mile of us when we war about ten miles from the village. But by that time, as you may guess, the steam was out of their horses, while we had been riding at a steady gallop.