"
"Yes?" they cried together.
"Don't ask me the rest!"
They would hardly have let her off so easily if it had not been for the
entrance of Joan who had come back on account of the darkness. Black Bart
went promptly to a corner of the hearth and lay down with his head on his
paws and the little girl sat beside him watching the fire, her head leaning
wearily on his shoulder. Kate went to the door.
"It's almost night," she said. "Why isn't he here?"
"Buck, they couldn't have overtaken--"
She started. "Dan?"
Buck Daniels grinned reassuringly.
"Not unless his hoss is a pile of bones; if it has any heart in it, Dan'll
run away from anything on four legs. No call for worryin', Kate. He's
simply led 'em a long ways off and waited for evenin' before he doubled
back. He'll come back right enough. If they didn't catch him that first run
they'll never get the wind of him."
It quieted her for a time, but as the minutes slipped away, as the darkness
grew more and more heavy until a curtain of black fell across the open
door, they could see that she was struggling to control her trouble, they
could see her straining to catch some distant sound.
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