By the time they had prepared the noon-day meal, Clancy saw Darke and Wimple coming back; and in less than ten minutes they threw themselves from their horses a few rods away, and after tethering them, came up with rapid strides.
“What did you find?” asked Clancy eagerly; “any signs of Vinnie or her captors?”
“We found some of the devil’s own handiwork!” answered the scout, a dark, fierce look on his usually pleasant face that the young hunter never saw there before.
“The smoke we saw arises from two burning emigrant wagons that the Indians have plundered and then set fire to!” said Darke. “One man, evidently the guide, lay dead and scalped, his body, with those of three savages who had been shot in the affray, half burned up in the fire! The remainder of the party, which I should judge was not very large, have either escaped or been made prisoners.”
“It is Ku-nan-gu-no-nah’s work!” said Clancy.
“I’ve made up my mind to settle with him purty soon!” said Leander Maybob, sternly. “His time’s most up!”
CHAPTER XVI.
THE PHANTOM RIDER!
Five minutes later the little party was on the move again.
About the middle of the afternoon they halted for a moment’s consultation. Darke was not surprised when the scout informed him that the Indian encampment was not more than a half-dozen miles distant. He had long been anxious to reach the village. The suspense was growing to be almost unendurable to him.
At first, Leander Maybob took little part in the conversation and bent his gaze anxiously every few minutes upon the horizon in the direction whence they had come.