ldn't go any further. He'd
hurt his arm some way--Dad says it's broken--and the pain made him
faint. We found him there--I mean the searchers did, and when he came to
be told them the rest.

"Lem Hunt and Roderick knew exactly where to look. They found the
runaway blacks and captured them, or some of the cowboys did, and they
made a litter of the wagon box, covered it with branches and carried him
out of the woods. They've brought him all the way here for he insisted
on coming. Said he'd be better cared for by Mrs. Roderick than at any
hospital in Denver. He was sort of crazy and they didn't dare oppose
him. That's why they are so slow. But they'll be here soon and he'll be
put to bed. Lemuel says the man'll take a blazed trail the rest of his
life, and will have time to get over his smartness while his bones heal.
But I think it's too bad. I'm sorry for him, and so is Dad. Now, come.
They're going to table and I'm hungry as a bear. Isn't it fine of Mrs.
Roderick to get a meal this time of night, or day, or whatever hour it
is?"

"It wasn't Mrs. Roderick. Alfy was the moving spirit and the other girls
helped. But not one mouthful shall you have till you confess your own
fault. Why did you, Leslie, run away into all that danger against my
wishes?"

"Why, Molly--" began the lad, then checked himself for shame. "Why,
Lady Gray, I couldn't let a girl like Molly ride away alone, could I?
And she would go--just would. And the funny part was--we heard 'lions'
or 'panthers', or something in the woods behind us. We'd stopped to rest
and we thought so. Then we saw the searchers coming back and thought
they were Indians! and the way we took to the woods would make you
laugh. That's how I got to look like this. We might have been in them
yet if little Chiquita hadn't stood like a post right beside the rock
where we'd been sitting. Her being there, and Molly's hat and jacket
that she'd taken off because she was too warm, told the truth. Dorothy
saw the hat and knew it at once. So when Roderick came up and recognized
Chiquita they made another search and found--us. But I tell you, Lady
Gray, I've had all the lecturing I need just now from the other head of
the family. I think Dad would have liked me to ride with him, at first,
but he gave me his opinion of a boy who would 'sneak' off and 'leave his
mother unprotected in a strange house at night.' Just forgive me this
once, motherkin, and I'll be good in future; or till next time,