“Good night, Peg. I’ll see you tomorrow. It’s been a wonderful day, Peggy.”
“Oh, wonderful, Paul! I won’t ever forget!” sighed Peg, looking so sweet, so wistful, so radiant in the moonlight that Paul, feeling his control threatened by the surge of strange emotions, dug his heel into the pinto and swung him down the lane at a gallop.
Peg stood motionless, watching till she saw him clear the bars, then listened so long as she could hear the pony’s hoof beats drumming far up the road. Then she drew a long breath, gazed round about her as if upon a strange world and smiled up at the moon in a friendly way as if sharing with the man there a delicious secret. Then she put her fingers softly to her lips, looked at them, kissed them gently and went quietly into the house and soon to bed, a happy-hearted if somewhat bewildered little girl. And over all the world the moon rode high, serene in her soft and radiant splendour.
Within an hour there came to Peg up in her bedroom the sound again of hoof beats, hard driven as by dread of impending death. Nearer they came and nearer and with no slackening speed. She sprang to the window. She heard her father go to the door. She could make out the piebald coat of the pinto coming down the lane. Clearing the bars in his stride the pinto came with unchecked speed to the very door. From the saddle Paul hurled himself and fell breathless in the Colonel’s arms.
“Oh! Uncle Colonel!” he gasped. “She’s—done it!”
“Steady, boy. Steady, Paul. Wait! Not a word,” commanded the Colonel, holding the boy with steady hands. “Wait! Not a word! Take your time! Sixty of a count!” The Colonel proceeded quietly counting while Paul, to whom this law of the Colonel was well known to be inexorable, got his breath and quieted his nerves.
“Now then, quietly, Paul! Go on!” said the Colonel in a voice peremptory and calm.
“Uncle Colonel, you see that light beyond the hill? That’s Sleeman’s house. She—Onawata has killed him with her knife and then set fire to the house. I found her all ready to go, with horses saddled and packs made up. They have gone.”
“Who?” said the Colonel sharply.
“Onawata and Peter and—and Tanna. And I——”