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Had these three been afoot we might have overtaken them; but Yeates had been lucky enough to stumble upon the black mare peacefully cropping the grass in a little glade; and with this mount for Margery and her tire-woman he had easily outpaced us.
But if our adventure should prove disastrous, Yeates and Uncanoola were to bide their time, striking in when and how they might. Touching this contingency, I drew the old man aside for a word in private. "If aught befall us, Ephraim, if we should be nabbed as we are like to be, you are not to let any hope of helping us lessen by a feather's weight the rescue chance of the women.
After the closest scrutiny, which took account of every broken twig and trampled blade of grass, this prolonged until the rain was falling smartly to wash out all the foot-prints in the dusty road, Yeates and the Indian gave over and came to join us under the sheltering branches of an oak.
Let us also recollect that "Dinky is as dinky does;" that "All is not Shaw that Bernards;" that "Better Yeates than Clever;" that words are so inexpensive that there is no moral crime in robbing Henry to pay James.
At the right moment Uncanoola touched off his powder train and cut in with a clear field for his rescue of Dick and me. Of the complete success of these various climaxings, Ephraim Yeates had his first assurance when we three came safely to the rendezvous; for, after firing his masked battery, the old hunter lost no time in rejoining the women and in hastening with them out of the valley.
I gave the gist of my old patriarch's addendum as well as I could; and thereupon suspicion fled away and my late judges would vie with one another in hearty frontier hand-grasps and apologies, whilst the throng that ringed us in forgot caution and weariness and gave me a cheer to wake the echoes. 'Twas while this burst of gratulation was abuzz that Ephraim Yeates raised a cry of his own.
"Lord!" says Richard; "if Yeates and the Indian come alive out of that " But the outliers closed upon our first line in decent good order, firing as they could; and in less time than it takes to write it down the onsweeping wave of red was upon the Carolinians. We looked to see the militia fire and run, home-guard fashion; but these men of Pickens's were made of more soldierly stuff.
"I reckon ez how 'tis t'other way 'round; we're sort o' camping on the redcoats' trail, ez I allow. Ain't we, Chief, hey?" The Catawba's assent was a guttural "Wah!" and Ephraim Yeates went on to explain. "Ye see, 'tis this-away.
Whilst I was in the storm of it, cursing the lawyer by every shouted epithet I could lay tongue to, a miracle was wrought and Richard Jennifer and Ephraim Yeates pushed their way through the ever-thickening ring of onlookers; the latter to range himself beside me with his brown-barreled rifle in the hollow of his arm, and my dear lad to fling himself upon me in a bear's hug of joyous recognition and greeting.
Then, when we were at our wits' ends, and Yeates and I were casting about how we could compass the bringing of a doctor from the settlements, the fever took a turn for the better, of its own accord, or for Uncanoola's physickings, we knew not which, and at the end of the third week Dick was up and able to ride again, this time without the forked stick to hold him in the saddle.
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