"No?"
"No, sir. I've been runnin' away and goin' fishin' and hurtin' my Ma's feelin's and now I wish I hadn't done it. I heard her sayin' this mornin' while she wuz cryin', that you wuz the only man she knowed on earth who could help us. She was afeared to come to see you. And I slipped out to tell ye. I thought if I could get you to come to see us, maybe you could tell Ma what to do and that would make up for my hurtin' her so when I run away from my lessons this week."
The Colonel gently pressed the boys away and rose with quick decision.
"I'll ride right up, sonny, and see your mother."
"Will you, Colonel Lee?" the child asked with pathetic eagerness.
"Just as soon as I can have my horse saddled."
Lee turned abruptly into the house and left the boy dazed. He threw his arms around Robbie, hugged him in a flash and was gone. Up the dusty way to the gate the little bare feet flew to tell glad tidings to a lonely woman.
She stood beside the window looking out on the wreck of her life in a stupor of wordless pain. She saw her boy leap the fence as a hound and rushed from the house in alarm to meet him.
He was breathless, but he managed to gasp his message.
"Ma—Ma—Colonel Lee's comin' to see you!"