“Am I never going to see the last of those men?” thought Ned, as he hurried along, turning every corner he came to, as if he hoped in that way, to leave his pursuers behind for ever. “I can’t stay at that hotel if they are going to stop there. I wish father would hurry up. I shall be in danger as long as I am in this town.”
Ned found a second-rate hotel, after a few minutes’ walk, and concluded to stop there. Profiting by his past experience, he signed a fictitious name to the register, and then settled down to wait as patiently as he could for his father’s arrival. He waited almost a week, and was beginning to fear that he would never come, when one day, to his great delight, he met him on the street. Ned’s first act was to relate the particulars of his two adventures with the ranchemen, and to take his father to task for not settling the matter with them. He never said a word about his cousin’s capture or Gus Robbins’s sudden disappearance, for those little incidents were of no consequence whatever.
“Those men are following me around under the impression that I still have the horse in my possession,” said Ned, angrily. “Why didn’t you tell them that he went off with the raiders?”
“Because I didn’t have the chance,” replied his father. “They never came near my house that night. If they will go back to Mr. Gilbert’s they will find money enough in his hands to pay for the horse and for their trouble, too. By the way, where’s George?”
Ned looked up at his father in surprise. He had never before known him to throw so much earnestness into a simple question, or seem so eager for an answer to it.
“O, a couple of Greasers took him away from us!” said Ned, indifferently. “I’ll tell you all about it by and by.”
“Come around to my hotel,” said Uncle John, hurriedly. “I want to know all about it now. We have a good many other things to talk about also.”
Yes, they had many things to talk about, and it took them a long time to explain matters so that each might know what had happened to the other during their short separation. Ned told a truthful story, but he did not learn so very much from his father in return. There were some things that Uncle John thought it best to keep to himself.