Tom _was_ about there, but he would not show himself. He was lying at the foot of a scrub-oak, on the other side of the ravine, keeping a close watch over his brother’s movements; but not even the announcement that Oscar had some news to communicate, could induce him to stir from his place of concealment. He felt so heartily ashamed of himself that he did not want to meet his brother face to face again, if he could help it. “I can’t waste any words on him. There are his clothes, and when he wants them he can come after them,” said Oscar, pitching the bundle down behind the rock Tom had described to him. “Now then, I don’t know whether or not I shall have time to do it, but I’ll take the risk.” So saying, Oscar drew from his pocket a diary and lead-pencil, and dashed off a short note to his brother, using the pommel of his saddle for a writing-desk. The pony was as motionless as the rock beside which he stood. Probably he thought—if he was able to think at all—that Oscar had ridden into the bushes in order to conceal himself from some enemy who was in pursuit of him. At any rate, he showed the training he had received at the hands of his Indian master. The note ran as follows: DEAR TOM: Here are the clothes you need. I am sorry I cannot see you again, for I should like to ask you some questions in regard to a certain “affair” that happened last summer; and in which you and Lish, the Wolfer, are supposed to have been engaged. If you had anything to do with it, you will know what I mean, and you had better dig out of here without the loss of a minute’s time. Go off somewhere among white folks; begin all over again, with an earnest resolution to do better, and, as soon as you are able, make amends for what you have done. But first drop Lish, as you would drop a hot potato. You will never amount to a row of pins so long as you have anything to do with him or men like him. I have as good evidence as I want that he will rob you before the season is over, as Frank Fuller and Eben Webster robbed Leon Parker. If you had no hand in that “affair,” whatever it may be, come up to the fort as soon as you have read this note and put on these clothes, and I will do everything in my power to give you a start. In either case drop Lish. It would be better for you to work for nothing and board around, as you did in Denver, than to associate longer with him. For prudential reasons, Oscar signed no name to the note; and, indeed, no signature was needed to tell Tom where it came from. He read it over hastily, and bending down from his saddle, he thrust it under the string with which the bundle of clothing was tied up. “It isn’t as emphatic as I wish it was,” thought he, “but I have no time to re-write it, and I don’t know that I could make any improvements in it if I should try. I would much rather talk to him, and I wish he had——”