Margaret smiled at her impulsive chattery friend and nodded, “I’m ever so interested in it too,” she replied. “See yonder, in the shade of that big thorny cactus, two Indian women are squatted on the ground weaving baskets. I wish I might buy one. I always adored the Indian things Betsy Clossen had in our room at school”
Then, irrelevantly: “Oh Megsy, do you suppose that you will ever be my room-mate again back in dear old Vine Haven?”
“It’s hard to tell, Babs. It all depends on what will happen. If I am able to go, then our darling Virg will go too.”
“Ohee, how wonderful that would be!” the irrepressible Babs exclaimed.
“Let’s gallop,” Margaret suggested. “Virginia is beckoning to us.”
CHAPTER XLIII—THE LOST MESSAGE.
The enthusiastic Margaret and the bubbling Babs galloped to the place where Winona and Virginia, having drawn rein, were awaiting them. Virg said:
“Winona has been telling me that she did not really have a message for us, that is, nothing that could concern Tom. Red Feather had chanced to capture a carrier pigeon which in some manner had been hurt, and had been unable to continue its flight and deliver the message that had been entrusted to its care.”
“Winona found a piece of brown paper wound about the bird’s leg and securely fastened, but she was unable to read it. It was then that she recalled having heard me say that brother Malcolm and I had often sent messages to each other written in our secret code, and she wondered if the carrier pigeon might belong to us, and so she sent little Red Feather with the bit of brown paper. On his return that night he lost it; he cannot think where, and that is why Winona did not send him again to V. M. Brother and I never did possess a carrier pigeon, and so, of course, the message could not be for me.”
“A pigeon will only carry a message back to its own home place, isn’t that so, Virginia?” Margaret inquired.