He listened intently for a reply, but the only one he received was the echo of his own voice thrown back from the cliffs.
He called again, with no better success, and then, unhitching his pony, he sprang upon his back, and slowly and sadly rode down the ravine.
He turned in his saddle occasionally, to run his eye over the thicket in which Tom had disappeared; but he could see nothing of him, and finally a sudden turn in the road shut the camp out from his view.
The exhilarating gallop Oscar had enjoyed on his new pony had done much to cure his homesickness and banish the gloomy thoughts that had crowded upon him when he saw Leon Parker setting out for the States; but the events of the last half hour had brought them all back again.
He had never dreamed that he would stumble upon his brother in that wilderness, or that he would ever see him in a condition so deplorable.
Tom’s ill-gotten gains, which he had expected would bring him so much happiness, had brought him nothing but misery. He was thinly clad, his pockets were empty, he had often gone hungry, and he was the companion and associate of the lowest characters.
“His case certainly looks desperate,” thought Oscar, glancing at his watch and putting his pony into a gallop, “and I am completely at my wit’s end. I don’t know what to do, and I wish there was someone here to whom I could go for advice. Tom will never be anything better than he is while he remains with such fellows as that ‘partner’ of his, that’s certain; but how shall I get him away from them? That’s the question that troubles me.”
And we may add that it troubled him all the way to the fort; but just as he was riding into the gate a thought passed through his mind, inducing him to turn his pony toward the stable instead of toward the hitching-post in front of the commandant’s head-quarters, as he had at first intended to do. If anybody could help him it was the colonel.
He would not take the officer into his confidence, of course, but he would question him in a roundabout way, and perhaps during the conversation some hint would be dropped that would show him a way out of his difficulty.
Leaving his pony in the stall that had been set apart for his use, Oscar walked across the parade-ground and entered the hall leading to the colonel’s quarters, the orderly, as before, opening the door for him. He was glad to find that the officer was alone. He was engaged in writing, but when Oscar came in he laid down his pen and greeted him with: