The searching party came out of The Rough in the early dawn, and stood huddled together, forlornly silent, on the prairie ridge that sloped gently away to Matchett's Pond. They were foot-sore and disheartened after their long night's fruitless quest.
"Ain't that Matchett's bunch o' cattle rampagin' an' bellerin' aroun' down yander?" demanded Joe Trimble, breaking the silence, and peering forward curiously, "What are they up to? Y-a-a-h!"
He burst into a loud yell and set off running at the top of his speed, discharging his pistol as he ran to scatter the herd.
Swift-footed as he was, however, a woman outstripped him; and by the time the others came up, Jack's mother was kneeling in the grass, and her arms were about her boy.
When Jack, after swallowing a mouthful of water, had revived a little, and the color had begun to come back into his poor pale face, his wound was dressed and his broken leg bandaged. Then he faltered out the story, with his head on his mother's bosom, and his hand held close in his father's strong grasp.
"I could feel the fire in their blazing eyes," he concluded. "I thought I would never see you and mother again, father. And if it hadn't been for Lady— Don't cry, mother, I'm all right now. Why, mother, your eyes are just like Lady's!"
Uncle Gid got up and walked over to where the Outlaw lay panting on the dry grass. He reeled like a fainting man as he went. At his approach the mare threw out her slender forelegs and tried to get up, but fell feebly back, quivering with terror. The old man dropped on his knees beside her, and laid his hand on the whelk that disfigured her flank. "Heaven forgive me for a sinful man!" he cried. "I struck you in anger, Lady; I struck you; and if it hadn't been for you, my son, my only son—" A sob choked his utterance, and he could not finish. But Lady turned her head toward him and whickered softly. She understood!
There was a moment of awed silence.
Then Mr. Pinson blew his nose, wiped his eyes, and stepped forward. "Gentlemen an' Mis' Bishop," he said, with an oratorical flourish. "Lady is a honor to her sect! The female sect, gentlemen an' Mis' Bishop, is ever faithful an' ever true. Lady, notwithstandin' she air a mare an' a Outlaw—"