Stretched on the cot drawn close to the fire lay the body of a man whose face was haggard in the extreme. His eyes beaming with expectation, glittered intensely as the fair one appeared.
“I know it!” he exclaimed. “Ef I hev lost one big bonanza, I’ve found another; an’ one, too, all in one share. Jennie! Jennie! come an’ tell me thet the long-lost claim hes come back to Old Jack!”
The girl did not hesitate, and the next moment her gentle face was pressed to the rough cheek of the old driver.
“I know it would come,” said Maverick Joe, feelingly. “Old Jack has found the big bonanza. Captain Tom would have hired him to hunt down his own child, ef Rosebud hadn’t interfered.”
It was a scene from which the rough Vigilantes withdrew, and when the last one had departed, they left the twain there with lip glued to lip.
When the party returned to the cavern they found Jennie--Myra no longer, that being the name by which Captain Harry knew her--seated beside the cot holding the dead hand of Bonanza Jack, her father.
His tale had been told; she knew all, and she told Harry that with his last breath he had thanked fortune for preserving his life until he had found his child.
Here we must put aside the pen; but not until we have informed the reader that Maverick Joe, now a veritable gold-bug, has just arrived from the West to witness a wedding ceremony, and to give the blushing bride away.
And if somewhere in the fashionable assembly the interesting face of a young Indian is seen, we may be sure that he is the gallant Red Crest of our canyon romance.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Terror, the Outlaw, by James Jackson