The old man shut his mouth and opened his arms. Tony sprang into them with a wild cheer that ended in a burst of joyful tears!
The way in which that boy hugged his sire and painted his face all over by rubbing his own against it was a sight worth seeing.
It had been a concerted plan between Tony and Victor that the latter was to keep a little in the background while the former should advance and perplex his father a little before making himself known, but Tony had over-estimated his powers of restraint. His heart was too large for so trifling a part. He acted up to the promptings of nature, as we have seen, and absolutely howled with joy.
“Don’t choke him, Tony,” remonstrated Victor; “mind, you are stronger than you used to be.”
“Ha! Choke me?” gasped Mr Ravenshaw; “try it, my boy; just try it!”
Tony did try it. But we must not prolong this scene. It is enough to say that when Tony had had his face washed and stood forth his old self in all respects—except that he looked two or three sizes larger, more sunburnt, and more manly—his father quietly betook himself to his tent, and remained there for a time in solitude.
Thereafter he came out, and assuming a free-and-easy, off-hand look of composure, which was clearly hypocritical, ordered tea. This was soon got ready, and the joyful party seated themselves round the camp-fire, which now sent its ruddy blaze and towering column of sparks into the darkening sky.
Victor was not long in running over the chief outlines of their long chase, and also explained the motives of the red man—as far as he understood them—in bringing Tony back.
“Well, Vic,” said Mr Ravenshaw, with a puzzled look, “it’s a strange way of taking his revenge of me. But after all, when I look at him there, sucking away at his calumet with that pleased, grave face, I can’t help thinkin’ that you and I, Christians though we call ourselves, have something to learn from the savage. I’ve been mistaken, Vic, in my opinion of Petawanaquat. Anyhow, his notion of revenge is better than mine. It must be pleasanter to him now to have made us all so happy than if he had kept Tony altogether, or put a bullet through me. It’s a clever dodge, too, for the rascal has laid me under an obligation which I can never repay—made me his debtor for life, in fact. It’s perplexing, Vic; very much so, but satisfactory at the same time.”
There were still more perplexing things in store for old Samuel Ravenshaw that night.