While the young women were talking and laughing on the veranda, the colonel’s voice was heard from within:
“Dell! See here a moment.”
The girl hastened to answer the call.
She found Colonel Grayson standing beside a swinging lamp, the message in his hand and an exceedingly grave look on his face.
“What—what is wrong?” whispered Dell, her thoughts leaping to her mother and the Double D Ranch.
“Don’t be alarmed,” said the colonel. “This news by military telegraph is to the effect that Geronimo, with a hundred and fifty bucks, has jumped the reservation at Fort Apache——”
“I felt sure it would be only a matter of time until Geronimo broke out again,” said Dell.
“But that isn’t all,” pursued the colonel, in a low voice. “The renegades attacked the guard escorting that deserter from Phœnix to Fort Apache, killed them all, and rescued the deserter!”
Dell gasped, and fell back, her blue eyes wide and staring in the lamplight. For an instant she stood thus, speechless and without movement.