The troopers all uttered exclamations when they heard this, and Loring was so anxious to hear more that he forgot he was thirsty, and after holding the canteen in his hand for a moment passed it to a comrade without tasting of its contents.
"Mr. Wentworth acted as though he thought he ought to go with Lieutenant Earle's squad, and when he hears that he will be sorry that he stayed behind," observed Bob.
"Won't he, though!" said the courier.
"I suppose there is no doubt that the tracks were made by his boys?" said George.
"None whatever. How could there be? The Indians have no other prisoners with them."
"They have none that we know of," said George. "But as they visited other ranches, they may have taken other boys captive."
"How do you know that they did visit other ranches?" demanded the courier. "Mr. Wentworth didn't say anything about it in my hearing."
"Nor in mine, either," replied George. "But he did say in my hearing that he had lost not more than half a dozen horses, and the trail shows that they have more than fifty with them."
"Well," said the courier, looking down at the horn of his saddle in a brown study, "if that's the case, the Indians may have—No, they didn't, either," he added, brightening. "Mr. Wentworth told the colonel, in Lieutenant Earle's hearing, that the Indians jumped down on his ranche just after he had finished mending his oldest boy's boots. He put a patch on each one of them just under the ball of the foot, and those patches showed in the tracks."
"Ah!" exclaimed George, "that will pass for evidence."