Hardy and the girls.
When they approached the rest of the party fell back, to allow Mr.
Hardy and his sons to ride forward and have the pleasure of the
first meeting to themselves. Needless is it to tell with what a
feeling of delight and thankfulness Mrs. Hardy, Maud, and Ethel
received them. After the first congratulations the girls observed
that Mr. Hardy had his arm bound up with a handkerchief.
"Are you hurt, papa?" they exclaimed anxiously.
"Nothing to speak of--only an arrow in my arm. Old Hubert has got
the worst of it: he has had one through the calf of his leg."
"Poor old Hubert!" they cried. And Hubert had some difficulty in
persuading the girls that he could wait on very fairly till he
reached home without his being bandaged or otherwise touched.
"And how did it all happen?" Mrs. Hardy asked.
"I will tell you all about it when we have had breakfast, my dear,"
her husband said. "I have told our friends nothing about it yet,
for it is a long story, and one telling will do for it. I suppose
the animals have got back? How many are missing?"
"Lopez came in from counting them just as we started," Mrs. Hardy
said. "He says there are only four or five cattle missing, and
about a couple of hundred sheep; and, do you know, in addition to
our own horses, there are a hundred and twenty-three Indian
horses?"
"Hurrah!" the boys shouted delightedly, "That is a triumph; isn't
it, papa?"
"It is indeed, boys; and explains readily enough how it was that
there was not the slightest attempt at pursuit.
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