When it does come send the word." Ned judged from Roylston's manner that dark days were ahead, but the merchant did not mention the subject again.

At the end of a week, when they were amply supplied with everything except horses, the Panther decided to take Ned and Obed and go on a scout toward the Rio Grande.
They started early in the morning and the horses, which had obtained plenty of grass, were full of life and vigor.
They soon left the narrow belt of forest far behind them, maintaining an almost direct course toward the southeast.

The point on the river that they intended to reach was seventy or eighty miles away, and they did not expect to cover the distance in less than two days.
They rode all that day and did not see a trace of a human being, but they did see both buffalo and antelope in the distance.
"It shows what the war has done," said the Panther.

"I rode over these same prairies about a year ago an' game was scarce, but there were some men.

Now the men are all gone an' the game has come back.