“Bagsby and Yank are old hands,” speculated Missouri Jones consolingly. “And the fact that Injuns is abroad would make them slow and careful.”
None of us felt like turning in. We all sat outside on the ground around a little fire.
Toward midnight we heard voices; and a moment later Yank and Bagsby strode in out of the darkness.
“Where’s McNally?” Yank instantly demanded. “Hasn’t he come in yet?”
We told him we had seen nothing of the missing man.
“Well, he’ll drift in pretty soon,” said Bagsby. “We lost him in the darkness not two hours back.”
They set to frying some venison steak. Excitedly and in antiphony Johnny and I detailed the day’s adventure. 230 Both the backwoodsmen listened in silence, but without suspending their cooking.
“They didn’t bother McNally,” Bagsby decided. “They’d drive those hosses away five or six miles before they’d stop; and McNally was with us just a little piece back. He’ll be in by the time the venison is cooked.”
But he was not; nor by an hour later. Then we decided that we must go out to look for him.
“We can’t see nothin’ till daylight,” said Bagsby, “but we can get started back for the last place we saw him.”