The boy looked at him bravely. "I remember," he said. "But it can't be helped. It's got to be done—and I'm going to do it. I must take food and water. Get it for me, won't you, Father, while I go get Kit?"
He rushed from the house, and found both teams standing by the barn, the third tied, as Sam had left it, to the back of the wagon.
He rapped on the door of the dugout and called loudly, telling the quaking family inside that the Indians were gone and the danger over.
When the door was opened and his mother peeped out he hastened to reassure her.
"But they've carried Nina away and I am going after her," he cried, dashing into the barn, seizing a blanket, and throwing it over Kit's back.
"The Indians—they have carried off Princess?" shrieked Ruth.
He did not stop to answer them; throwing himself across Kit's back and snatching the revolver, the ammunition and the bag of food and water that his father handed up to him, he waved his hand to the family, and before they could utter a protest he was gone, riding at a mad gallop across the plains.
CHAPTER XVII
EAGLE EYE
When Joe had gone, riding madly away across the prairies, Joshua and Hannah Peniman stood looking after his receding figure until it faded into a mere speck and was swallowed up by the immeasurable distance of the plains.