Arizona -- Fiction; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Fiction; Western stories
And Jonas threw his arms around Enoch with a sob that could not be
repressed.
Enoch put a shaking hand on Jonas' shoulder. "So you found your bad
charge, old man, didn't you?"
"Me find you? No, boss, Miss Diana, she found you. Here she is!"
Diana dropped from her horse, slender and tall in her riding clothes.
"So Jonas' pain is relieved, eh, Mr. Huntingdon! Are you having a good
holiday?"
"Great!" replied Enoch huskily.
"I told Jonas it was the most sensible thing a man could do, who was as
tired as you are, but he would have it you'd die without him. If you
don't want him, I'll take him away."
"You'd have to take me feet first, Miss Diana," said Jonas, with a
grin. "Where's that Na-che?"
"Here she comes!" laughed Diana. "Poor Na-che! She hates to hurry!
She's got a real grievance against you, Jonas."
Two pack mules lunged down the trail, followed by a squat figure on an
Indian pony.
"This is Na-che, Mr. Huntingdon," said Diana.
Enoch shook hands with the Indian woman, whose face was as dark as
Jonas' in the moonlight. "Where's your camp, Mr. Huntingdon?" Diana
went on.
"Just a moment!" Enoch had recovered his composure. "I am with two
miners, Mackay and Field. To them, I am a lawyer named Smith. I would
like very much to remain unknown to them during the remaining two weeks
of my vacation."
Jonas heaved a great sigh that sounded curiously like an expression of
vast and many sided relief. Then he chuckled. "Easy enough for me.
You can't never be nothing but Boss to me."
But Diana was troubled. "I thought we'd camp with your outfit
to-night. But we'd better not. I'd be sure to make a break. Are you
positive that these men don't know you?"
"Positive!" exclaimed Enoch. "Why, just look at me, Miss Allen!"
Diana glanced at boots, overalls and flannel shirt, coming to pause at
the fine lion-like head. "Of course, your disguise is very
impressive," she laughed. "But I would say that it was impressive in
that it accents your own peculiarities."
"That outfit is something fierce, boss. I brung you some riding
breeches," exclaimed Jonas.
"I don't want 'em," said Enoch. "Miss Allen, Field calls me Judge.
How would that do?"
"Well, I'll try it," agreed Diana reluctantly. "I know both the men,
by the way. Mack, especially, is well known among the Indians. What
explanation shall we make them?"
"Why not the truth?" asked Enoch. "I mean, tell them that I slipped
away from my friends and that Jonas tagged."
"Very well!" Diana and Jonas both nodded.
"And now," Enoch lifted his game bag, "let's get on. My partners are
going to be worried. And I'm the cook for the outfit, too."
"Boss," Jonas took the game bag, "you take my mule and go on with Miss
Diana and Na-che and I'll come along with the rest of the cattle."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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