“Will you mount, Miss Mary, and ride home?” asked the sailor.
“Thank you—no, I’d rather walk with father. We have not far to go now.”
“Then we’ll all walk together,” said Jackson.
Dick threw Black Polly’s bridle over his arm, and they all set off at a smart walk for the ranch of Roaring Bull, while the troops and cow-boys chased the Redskins back into the mountains whence they had come.
Chapter Twenty Six.
Treats of Various Interesting Matters, and Tells of News from Home.
Dick Darvall now learned that, owing to the disturbed state of the country, Captain Wilmot had left a small body of men to occupy Bull’s ranch for a time; hence their presence at the critical moment when Jackson and his daughter stood so much in need of their assistance. He also found that there were two letters awaiting the party at Traitor’s Trap—one for Charles Brooke, Esquire, and one for Mr S. Leather. They bore the postmarks of the old country.
“You’d better not start back wi’ them for three or four days, Dick,” said Jackson, when they were seated that evening in the hall of the ranch, enjoying a cup of coffee made by the fair hands of Mary.