He thought he had been napping but a few moments, when a peculiar scratching sound on the back of his tepee brought him up sitting, every nerve on the alert.
Tad peered out through the flap. The guard was asleep. He crept back to the other side of the tepee and scratched on the tepee wall with his finger-nail.
"S-h-h."
The warning was accompanied by a slight ripping sound, and he knew the wall was being slit with a knife.
"Paleface buck, come with Jinny," whispered a voice in his ear.
CHAPTER XXIV
CONCLUSION
Grasping the lad by the arm, the Indian girl led him cautiously straight back from the tepee, guiding him in the darkness unerringly, around all obstructions.
After proceeding in a straight line for some distance, she turned and made a wide detour around the camp. He could tell this by the light of the smouldering camp-fires. He dared ask no questions until Jinny had given him permission to speak, which was not until they had left the camp some distance behind them. She paused suddenly and faced him.
"You send Jinny ring?"
"Yes, I promised you."
"You send beads like white women wear?"
"Of course I will."
"Then come. Ponies here. Boy here."
Not understanding her latter words, Tad followed obediently, pa.s.sing around a point of rocks.
"Here ponies. Here boy."
"O Tad, is that you?" exclaimed a tremulous voice.
"Who"s that?" demanded Tad sharply.
"It"s Phil. O Tad!"
"Phil!" cried the lad, grasping the boy about the neck and hugging him delightedly. "They got you too, did they? Oh, I"m so glad I"ve found you! You must tell me all about it, but not now. We"ve got to get away from here. Thank you, Jinny. I shall never forget this. I--"
"You send Jinny beads?" demanded the girl suggestively.
"Indeed you shall have the finest set of beads that an Indian girl ever wore, even if it takes all my money to buy them. Now which way shall we go?"
"Go river."
"Where is it?"
She took his hand in the darkness and pointed with it in the direction where the river lay.
"Yes, yes, I know. Then where?"
"Find white man. He tell um. Jinny not know."
She pressed something into his hand.
"What"s this?" asked Tad sharply.
"Knife. Mebbyso brave catch um paleface buck."
Tad caught the significance of her words instantly.
"No, Jinny, thank you very much. I couldn"t do that. You keep the knife. I shall not need it, but you shall have the beads just the same."
"Ugh! Go pony. Go quick. Braves him follow." She pointed back toward the camp, and, grasping Tad by the arm, hurried him toward the ponies.
"When?"
"Come now," she insisted.
Tad felt a sudden thrill as he heard a great commotion back in the camp.
"We"ve got to hurry, Phil. I guess they have discovered our escape. You run, Jinny. Run back. Don"t you let them know you helped us. Say, what will the chief do if he finds it out?" demanded the boy, pausing sharply.
"Huh. Jinny no afraid chief. Jinny laugh in chief face. Bye."
She disappeared with surprising suddenness.
"Quick, Phil! Get on your pony and follow me. Keep close to me."
"I am on," answered the boy bravely. "It"s my pony, too."
"And so is this one mine. It"s Pink-eye."
"What"s that noise!" asked Phil in a tremulous voice.
"Hi-yi-yip-yah--yah-hi-yah!" rang out the Indian war cry, as the braves threw themselves on the bare backs of their ponies and tore from the village, going in all directions.
Tad drove the spurs in viciously.
"Quick! Quick, Phil! They"re after us."
"I"m coming."
Both ponies sprang away in the darkness, the lads clinging to the saddles, none too sure of the path that lay before them, and riding desperately.