“I took him right where he lived,” whispered Bob. “I told him he could go back to his uncle, who was all the time worrying about him, with more money than he had stolen, and he agreed to take time to think it over.”
“Yes, and it was all he needed. I shall be sorry to part with Tom, but then home is the place for him.”
So it was settled that Tom Mason was to leave us as soon as he could get a letter to his uncle. We had always treated Tom as one of the family, but somehow we got into the habit of treating him better than usual. But time went on and we didn’t see anybody who was going into Austin to take a letter for him. Meanwhile, we had bidden good-by to Mr. Chisholm and all his friends, and were fairly settled down to our business again. But there was one thing that was different from what it was during Mr. Davenport’s lifetime. Lem and Frank stayed about the ranch now entirely. Bob hadn’t got over his experience with Henderson and Coyote Bill; in fact, Mr. Chisholm was the one who recommended him to keep them always near him, and Bob intended that, if they came to his house, he would give them as good as they sent.
Things went on this way, we repeat, when one day that Frank was busy with some story of his cowboy’s life, we heard a terrible clatter of horses’ hoofs approaching the house. Frank and Lem were on hand in an instant, and, with their revolvers in their hands, went out to see what was the matter, but there was no sign of Henderson or Coyote Bill in the men who drew up at the door. Two of them were soldiers and the other a civilian, and their appearance indicated that they had been through something of a fight. One of the soldiers’ heads was all bloody, in spite of the handkerchief that had been bound around it, and the horse of the civilian seemed ready to drop from a wound in his side.
“Yes, and they’re most here,” returned the civilian. “Can you give us a bite to eat and change our horses for us?”
“Indians!” repeated Bob. “Come in and sit down. You can have all the horses you want. But Indians!” he added with a shudder. “In all the eight years we have been in this part of the country we have never known them to come so far South before.”
“Well, you will hear them coming now if you stay here,” said one of the soldiers. “You had better catch up and go with us.”