Simultaneously Obed White and Edward Fulton advanced, shook hands and
laughed.
"You kept me here waiting in this gully at least half an hour," said
Obed. "Time and I waited long on you."
"But no longer than I waited on you," said Ned. "Why didn't you think of
whistling the tune sooner?"
"Why didn't you?"
They laughed and shook hands again.
"At any rate, we're here together again, safe and unharmed," said Ned.
"And now to see what has become of the Panther."
"You'd better be lookin' out for yourselves instead of the Panther,"
growled a voice, as a gigantic figure upheaved itself from the arroyo
eight or ten yards behind them. "I could have picked you both off while
you were standin' there shakin' hands, an' neither of you would never
have knowed what struck him."
"The Panther!" they exclaimed joyously, and they shook hands with him
also.
"An' now," said the Panther, "it will soon be day. We'd better make fur
our horses an' then clear out. We kin tell 'bout what we've seen an'
done when we're two or three miles away."
They found the horses safe in the brushwood, Old Jack welcoming Ned with
a soft whinny. They were in the saddle at once, rode swiftly northward,
and none of them spoke for a half hour.
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