Joe started, and a strange startled expression passed over his face.
"Where was it?" he asked.
"On the prairie, very near his body. Ruth found it there."
"Great heavens! I kicked it with my foot the night of the blizzard! I thought it was a tin can. Nina's dispatch-box! And it has lain all these months on the prairies!"
"God is good," murmured Mr. Peniman. But Joe answered nothing, but stared at his father with distended eyes.
CHAPTER XXV
THE DISPATCH-BOX
When they had brought Eagle Eye home and buried him under the willow trees on the river bank Joe went directly to his mother.
He was seventeen now, and the dangers and hardships he had been through and the responsibilities that had been thrust upon him made him appear much older than his years.
"Mother," he said in a low trembling voice, "have you told Nina—does she know?"