"Why, of course; I can't understand why I did not notice it the moment I saw them!"
It certainly was remarkable that when Fred Linden was watching the three Winnebagos so closely, and when, as I have said, he noticed more than one trifling matter, that he failed to recognize the animals they were riding. All three were familiar to him, and the one he had spoken of as being darker in color than the others, and as having a star in his forehead, was the identical animal owned by his father. Fred, himself, had ridden him more than once.
It should be said, however, that they were the pack-horses, which even when put to their best paces, could not make good speed. Nevertheless, they were of great value to the hunters.
The first conviction of the lad on awaking to the alarming fact, was that his father and the other two men had been killed by the Winnebagos. The thought overcame him so that he leaned against the nearest tree and was on the point of fainting.
"They are all dead, Terry--I know it--we may as well give up, and try to reach home."
Terry was agitated, but not so much so as his friend.
"Why, my dear boy, it's not so bad as _that_," he said feelingly; "do ye not moind that whin the gintlemen go to trappin' and huntin' they turn the horses loose to graze? The spalpeens have coom along and run off with the same."
"Do you think so?" asked Fred, looking up yearningly for the grain of comfort that his companion was able to give.
"I don't _think_ so; I know so; if the gintlemen took the bastes into the cabin and slipt with the same ivery night, as me rilatives do with their pigs in Ireland, why ye might think that they had suffered before the Winnebagos tuk thim away; but they have snaaked up where the animals was grazin', jumped onto their backs and rid off."
This view of the case was so reasonable, that Fred rallied and half smiled at his own faintheartedness. He stood erect and drew a deep breath of satisfaction.
"I believe you are right, but it strikes me that such thieves would have stolen all instead of half the horses."
"They've lift the ither three for their frinds that I make no doubt will be along to take thim, if they haven't done so now."
"You know that the loss of a horse is considered almost as bad as the loss of a man in this part of the world."