'They might be Indians,' he added.
'Perhaps,' said Moncrieff, 'but we will risk it.'
So camp was struck and off we rode, my brothers and I forming the vanguard, Moncrieff and Archie bringing up the rear. How my heart beat with emotion when the first horsemen of the advancing party became visible through the cloud of dust, and I saw they were soldiers!
On we rode now at the gallop.
Yes, mother was there, and sister, and they were well. Our meeting may be better imagined than described.
Both mother and Flora were established at the estancia, and so days and weeks flew by, and I was pleased to see them smile, though mother looked sad, so sad, yet so beautiful, just as she had ever looked to me.
Dugald was the first to recover anything approaching to a chastened happiness. He had his darling sister with him. He was never tired taking her out and showing her all the outs-and-ins and workings of our new home.
It appeared to give him the chiefest delight, however, to see her in the gondola.
I remember him saying one evening: