Her eyes were brighter than ever; her hair was flying; she was hatless, of course; and altogether she appeared to be in the spirit of the chase.
Up hill and down they dashed, the tireless ponies skimming the ground, it seemed. Had the girls not been in the saddle so much during the weeks they had been at Hardin, they certainly would have been shaken off the ponies’ backs now.
But their mounts were sound and eager, and they kept up with the wild riding Mexicans. There was no yelling, or whooping, as they rode; nevertheless the whole cavalcade was in earnest.
Dorothy was very anxious. She could not really believe that Aunt Winnie had been carried off against her will by Philo Marsh and his crew, yet she could not understand why the lady should have gone of her own free will, either! She surely would have let the girls know before starting. And she was not even riding one of the Hardin horses.
Ned and Nat threatened condign punishment for Philo Marsh when they caught him. When the pursuers overtook the party ahead there was likely to be trouble, and that thought increased Dorothy Dale’s anxiety.
On and on they rode, perhaps not following the same trail as the party which they pursued; but they were going quite as directly into the hills (and to the head of that gorge where the girls had seen the surveyors at work) as were Philo Marsh and his companions. Indeed, the Mexicans with Dorothy knew the way more definitely; so the pursuers might arrive at the goal first.
CHAPTER XXV
A LITTLE MORE EXCITEMENT
The party Dorothy Dale and her companions were following into the wilder section of the great Hardin Ranch, had almost an hour’s start of their pursuers. If they were ignorant of such pursuit they might not ride at top speed; therefore the pace set by Lance Petterby on his pony, Gaby, must bring the pursuers to the river at about the time Philo Marsh struck it. Only Dorothy and her friends were bound to strike the stream higher up and nearer the point where Lance believed the dynamite was to be used by the men working for the big mining corporation.
The puzzle was how Philo Marsh and his crowd could have traveled as fast as they did, with Mrs. White in the party. Aunt Winnie was a cautious rider and the boys and Dorothy were ever complaining of her slowness when they were all out on the range together.