“Oh, I seen the Injuns comin’ jes’ before dark, an’ I rushed the girls in here, an’ got all the guns an’ things I could before the reds got near enough to shoot.”
“Do you mean that a boy and two girls are all there are here?”
“That’s all—me an’ Nellie an’ Kittie—I’m fourteen, Nellie is twelve, an’ Kittie is ten,” answered the boy proudly.
“Well, you’re a plucky lad, and you made a good stand-off, but you needn’t worry any more to-night. Which way did your parents go?”
“Nor’east.”
“Which way did the Indians come?”
“Nor’west.”
“That is all right; I guess they didn’t get your father and mother, my boy, and as soon as daylight we’ll see if we can look them up.”
The scout and his pards spent the rest of the night near the dugout, determined, if need be, to defend the three little children with their last drop of blood.
But their services were not needed, for the Indians had slunk away to find their ponies, and if they succeeded in securing their mounts before light they gave the place where they had met such mysterious disaster a wide berth.