"It's a woman that's ridin'," said Smith at last, "an' she's carryin'
some sort of a bundle before her."
"You're shorely right, Deaf," said Karnes, "an' I think the one walkin'
is a black fellow. Looks like it from here."
"I'm your way of thinkin'," said the Panther, "an' the woman on the
horse is American, or I'm mightily fooled in my guess. S'pose we ride
ahead faster an' see for shore."
They increased the speed of their mustangs to a gallop and rapidly
overhauled the little party. They saw the woman trying to urge her horse
to greater speed. But the poor beast, evidently exhausted, made no
response. The woman, turning in the saddle, looked back at her pursuers.
"By all that's wonderful!" exclaimed Obed White, "the bundle that she's
carrying is a baby!"
"It's so," said Smith, "an' you can see well enough now that she's one
of our own people. We must show her that she's got nothin' to fear from
us."
He shouted through his arched hands in tremendous tones that they were
Texans and friends. The woman stopped, and as they galloped up she would
have fallen from her horse had not Obed White promptly seized her and,
dismounting, lifted her and the baby tenderly to the ground.
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