his Daddy Chip.

CHAPTER 17. "LOST CHILD"

"Djuh find 'im?" The Old Man had limped down to the big gate and stood
there bare headed under the stars, waiting, hoping--fearing to hear the
answer.

"Hasn't he showed up yet?" Chip and the Little Doctor rode out of the
gloom and stopped before the gate. Chip did not wait for an answer. One
question answered the other and there was no need for more. "I brought
Dell home," he said. "She's about all in--and he's just as likely to
come back himself as we are to run across him. Silver'll bring him home,
all right. He can't be--yuh can't lose a horse. You go up to the house
and lie down, Dell. I--the Kid's all right."

His voice held all the tenderness of the lover, and all the
protectiveness of the husband and all the agony of a father--but Chip
managed to keep it firm and even for all that. He lifted the Little
Doctor bodily from the saddle, held her very close in his arms for a
minute, kissed her twice and pushed her gently through the gate.

"You better stay right here," he said authoritatively, "and rest and
look after J.G. You can't do any good riding--and you don't want to be
gone when he comes." He reached over the gate, got hold of her arm and
pulled her towards him. "Buck up, old girl," he whispered, and kissed
her lingeringly. "Now's the time to show the stuff you're made of. You
needn't worry one minute about that kid. He's the goods, all right. Yuh
couldn't lose him if you tried. Go up and go to bed."

"Go to bed!" echoed the Little Doctor and sardonically. "J.G., are you
sure he didn't say anything about going anywhere?"

"No. He was settin' there on the porch tormenting the cat." The Old
Man swallowed a lump. "I told him to quit. He set there a while after
that--I was talkin'' to Blake. I dunno where he went to. I was--"

"'S that you, Dell? Did yuh find 'im?" The Countess came flapping down
the path in a faded, red kimono. "What under the shinin' sun's went with
him, do yuh s'pose? Yuh never know what a day's got up its sleeve--'n
I always said it. Man plans and God displans--the poor little tad'll be
scairt plumb to death, out all alone in the dark--"

"Oh, for heaven's sake shut up!" cried the tortured Little Doctor, and
fled past her up the path as though she had some hope of running away
from the tormenting thoughts also. "Poor little tad, all alone in the
dark,"--the words followed her and were like sword thrusts through the
mother heart of her.