"All right, if you'll have it that way; but what am I to do?"
"Saddle two horses, and wait for Gilbert outside the town, where he will join you after dark," Constance interposed, and as if ordering a squadron of cavalry.
"How far are we goin'?"
"Not far, and you can be back by midnight."
"All right, miss; I'll wait for him behind the grove of mulberry-trees, if he knows where they is."
"Yes," I answered; "and take the mare, if she is in the stable"; and with that he hurried off to get things in readiness for our departure.
When it was time to go, Constance and I grieved as if we were to be separated forever, and thus we were again parted. Going to the place appointed, I found Blott as we had arranged, and mounting my horse we rode away in the shadows of the night, glad to get off so easily. On our way we stayed for supper at the Eagle's Nest, a rude tavern on the edge of the prairie, where Constance and I had often stopped in our wanderings about the country. Blott was in great humor at the table, and as there were no other guests we had the place to ourselves.
"I suppose you know how this tavern got its name?" he at last spoke up, transferring the skeleton of a prairie chicken to a second plate, and helping himself to a quail wrapped about with thin slices of pork.
"No; how did it?" I answered, without looking up.
"Well, on the hill back of the house an eagle has her nest, or did six years ago when we camped here for a week durin' the Black Hawk war; an' that's how it was."