“The infernal villain! He was with that young chief? I didn’t see him.”
“But he captured me—slipped on me in the house, after father was killed, and——”
“Your father dead?” He was shocked at the sad news.
“Yes—dead—dead!” She sobbed again. “He was killed by the Blackfeet, and——”
She choked and could not go on.
“Tell me about it,” he urged.
She told him, brokenly, and in as few words as she could.
He was silent a while, his eyes fixed on the trail, and his hearing strained backward in anticipation of pursuit.
“I knew the Blackfeet were rising, and I heard you had been in town,” he said. “So I thought I’d ride out, and have a talk with you and your father; for I thought it wasn’t any longer safe for you to stay out in that lonely place.
“That’s how I happened to meet you on the trail. I saw the Indian coming, driving the two horses; but, truly, I didn’t know then one of the persons riding was you.