"The first party that had started had now tailed away, and was as far back as the chief. It was safe to be a long chase now, and I felt pretty sure as the gal would escape, for her mustang was a beautiful critter, and the Captain had given a long price for it; besides, it was carrying no weight to speak of. I didn't feel so sure about myself, for though my horse was a first-class one, and had over and over again, when out hunting, showed herself as fast as any out, there might be as good ones or better among the redskins, for anything I knew. When we were fairly out on the plains, I could see that pretty nigh the whole tribe of redskins had joined in the chase.
"At first I couldn't make out why; for although they are all wonderful for bottom, some of the redskins' horses ain't much for speed, and many of them could never have hoped to have come up with us. But when I thought it over, I reckoned that seeing I had joined the gal, they might have thought that I had brought her news that the Captain, with all the soldiers from the fort, was coming up behind, and I expect that's why the chief and his braves rode so fast at first.
"I don't know as I ever passed a longer day than that. We went at a steady gallop, always keeping just about half a mile ahead of the redskins. Sometimes I jumped off my horse and ran alongside of him with my hand on the saddle for half a mile, to ease him a bit. The gal rode splendidly; the mustang had a beautiful easy pace, and she set him as if she was in a chair. For the first fifty miles I don't think the redskins gained a yard on us; they warn't pressing their horses more than we were, for it was a question only of last now. Then little by little I could see that a small party was leaving the rest and gaining slowly upon us; I darn't press my horse further, but I began to give the gal instructions as to the course she should keep.
"'What does it matter, Dick,' she asked, 'when you are here to guide me?' 'But I mayn't be with you all the time,' says I; 'it air quite possible that them redskins will overtake me twenty miles afore I get to the fort, but your critter can keep ahead of them easy, he is going nigh as light now as when he started; when they get a bit closer to us you must go on alone.' 'I shan't leave you,' she says. 'Dick, you got into this scrape to save me, and I am not going to run away and leave you to be killed; if you are taken, I will be taken too.'
"'That would be a foolish thing,' says I, 'and a cruel one, ef you like to put it so. I have risked my life to save you, just as I have risked it a score of times before on the plains; ef my time has come, it will be a comfort to me to know as I have saved you, but ef you were taken too I should feel that I had just chucked my life away. Besides, you have got to think of the Captain; now that your mother has gone you have got to be a comfort to him. So you see, Miss, ef you was to get taken wilful you would be doing a bad turn to yerself, and to me, and to yer father.'
"It was a long time before she spoke again, and then she didn't say anything about what we had been talking of, but began to ask whether I thought we were sure to find the soldiers still at the fort. In course I couldn't say for sartin, but, to cheer her up, I talked hopeful about it, though I thought it was likely enough they had fallen back on the settlements. I did some long spells of running now, and got more hopeful, for the Injins didn't gain anything to speak of.
"We war all going very slow now, for the horses were pretty nigh beat. We had crossed two or three streams by the way, and at each they had had a few mouthfuls of water. It wasn't till we were within ten miles of the fort that the Injins really began to gain. They must have felt that there was a good chance of our slipping through their fingers, and they determined to catch us if they killed every horse in the tribe.
"I tried to urge my critter forward, but he hadn't got it in him; and what frightened me more was that the mustang didn't seem much faster; he had trod in a dog-hole when we war about half-way across the plains, and must have twisted his foot. I could see now he was going a little lame with it. The redskins gained on us bit by bit, and were pressing us hard when first we caught sight of the fort about four miles away.
"I had begun to despair, for they warn't more than two hundred yards behind now. The gal had held on bravely, but she was nigh done. Good rider as she was, it was a terrible ride for a young gal, and it was only the excitement which kept her going; but she was nigh reeling on the horse now. Sudden I says to her, 'Thank God! Miss, there are the soldiers; keep up your heart, your father's coming to save you.'
"The Injins saw him too, for I heard the war-whoop behind, and the sound of the horses came nearer and nearer. I spurred my horse, and it was the first time I had touched him since we started, but it wasn't no good. 'Ride, Queen May, ride for your life!' I cried out; but I don't think she heard me. She was looking straight forward now at the sojers; her face was like death, and with a hard set look on it, and I expected every moment to see her drop from her horse.