“I’m going to send a man to make inquiries among the neighbors. That’s all I can do; for I don’t know where to look for him. He may have been killed or carried off by the raiders.”
Uncle John walked into the house with great deliberation, put down the newspaper he had held in his hand during his conversation with Zeke, and then came out and moved slowly toward the corral where one of the herdsmen was at work.
After watching him for a few minutes Ned struck up a lively whistle, mounted his horse and rode away. He did not act much like a boy who had just heard that his cousin had been missing for days, and might be a captive in the hands of the Mexicans. Suppose he was in George’s place! Would his father be so very deliberate in his movements, and would he be satisfied with sending jut a single man to make inquiries among the neighbors?
Ned seemed to be in the best of spirits. He kept his horse in a full gallop, until he reached the top of the swell, and there he reined him in very suddenly, for he caught sight of two horsemen on the other side. Shading his eyes with his hand, he gazed earnestly at them for a few minutes, and then started down the swell to meet them. He recognised one of them as the herdsman who had been sent to assist the drover in driving down the cattle he had purchased of Uncle John, and something told him that his companion could be none other than the long-expected Gus Robbins. We know that it was Gus, and we have already described the meeting that took place between the two boys. We know, too, that Mose rode on to the rancho, to report his arrival to his employer, and that the boys followed him leisurely, talking every step of the way.
“I say, Ned,” said Gus, suddenly, “you live in an awful lonesome place, don’t you?”
“Yes,” replied Ned; “it is very lonely, and that is one reason why I wanted you to come down here.”
“There is plenty of hunting, I suppose,” continued Gus; “but that is something I don’t know much about. I can handle a yard-stick better than I can handle a gun. Is there any fishing, or are there any good fellows to run with?”
“I haven’t heard of anybody going fishing since I have been here; and as for the fellows, I don’t know a boy in the neighborhood.”
“Why, what in the world do you do to pass the time away?”
“I don’t do anything. I just keep still and let it pass itself away.”