A WEEKLY PUBLICATION ——2_ _©-—~ DEVOTED 10 BORDER LIFE }

Issued Weekly. By subscription $2.50 per year. Entered as Second-class Matter at the N. V. Post Office, by STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Ave., N. Y.
Copyright, 1909, by STREET & SMITH.

 

°

No. 445 — NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 20, 1909. Price, Five Cents |

 

veceeed

Following a loud report, Buffalo Bill and his two
and he and his pinto disappear over the bank amid a cloud of smoke and rocks.

 
 

 

 
 

 

   

  

A WEEKLY PUB

 
 

DEVOTED TO BORDER LIFE |

 

| Issued Weekly. By subscription $2.50 per year. Entered as Second-class Matter at the N. Y. Post Office, by STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Ave., N.Y.

Copyright, 1909, by STREET & SMITH.

 

~

eS Beware of Wild West imitations of the Buffalo Bill Stories. They are about fictitious characters. The Buffato

Bill weekly is the only weekly containing the adventures of Buffalo Bill, (Col. W. F. Cody), who is known ail

over the world as the king of scouts.

b)

 

No. 445.

BUFFALO BILL IN

OR,

NEW YORK, November 20, 1909.

Price Five Cents.

THE BAD LANDS:

_ A BRAVE ATTEMPT TO PREVENT A WAR.

 

By the author of “BUFFALO BILL.”

 

CHAPTER I.
BUFFALO BILL’S DIFFICULT MISSION.

In answer to Buffalo Bill’s report of certain iniquity
he had unearthed in the Gallatin Valley, and the discov-
ery that various tribes of Sioux were massing in the Bad
Lands and raiding ranches and herders far and near,
came an order to him from the authorities in Washing-
ton to get in touch with Sitting Bull himself, if possible.
To the scout’s knowledge of Indian characteristics and
customs and his well-known sympathies for the red man
were intrusted a difficult mission of peace. He was to
undertake to persuade the tribes to voluntarily abandon
the Black Hills, where valuable gold deposits had been
discovered, to the advance of white progress, and take
up their abode on lands selected for them by the govern-
ment in Indian Territory. It was the plan of the gov-
ernment to gather the various tribes in peaceful com-
munity there and provide for their sustenance by annual
appropriation.

The powerful Sioux chief had refused to comply, and
every resource of the goverfment was being exhausted
~ to bring about the desired end without resorting to arms.
_ Buffalo Bill and his pards had awaited orders at what
is now the respectable city of Livingston, on the Yel-
lowstone River. Skibo had gone south to the valley of

the Little Popo-agieto take part in the house warming

of his friends, the Staffords, and Nick Nomad had re-
turned to Virginia City on business of his own.

On receiving his orders, Buffalo Bill had at once sent
word to Bozeman, where Nomad and Skibo would next
report, for them to follow the Yellowstone, stopping at
the military posts for instructions. Then, with Wild Bill
and Little Cayuse, he himself began the journey down
the Yellowstone. a

At that critical period of the country’s Indian history
it was destined to be one of the most dangerous and
thrilling of the scout’s career. Everywhere the Sioux
were retaliating for their wrongs, fancied or real, upon
the white settlers. The young warriors, aroused by the
call of the great chief, had accepted it as a general license
for plunder. They had spread over a territory with a
radius of hundreds of miles, and struck swiftly and re-
lentlessly, ever replenishing their mounts from the best
of the herds they raided.

To Buffalo Bill had been awarded a herculean task.
With.the daring Wild Bill Hickok and the faithful Cay-
use, he set forth to meet a foe which one thousand
mounted soldiers could not have hoped to subdue. But

_with peace in his mission, the brave plainsman hoped to

accomplish that which rifle ball and sword could not do
—the pacification of the tribes without bloodshed.
Scarce a day’s ride to the east the scout came upon the

 
   
  
 

  
  
 
  
  
 
  
   
  
  
 
   
  
  
  
   
 
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
   
 
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
     
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
  
  
  
  
 

is

  

 

falo Bill.

2 THE BUFFALO

smotildering dugout of a settler and about the mutilated
bodies of the settler, his wife, and children, and on the
stazing lands near the carcasses of the slaughtered stock.

The bodies of the human victims of the red man’s fury
were buried by the scout and his pards, who went on into
a little ravine, where they camped for the night. They
did not build a fire because of the evident proximity of
blood-mad foes and the danger of a surprise.

The scout himself took the first watch, while his com-
panions rolled in their blankets for a snatch of rest after
a long day in the saddle.

It was a moonless, starless night, and the light wind
seethed through the dead grass drearily, portending a
storm, before which the night prowlers were silenced.
On a little hillock near where the horses were picking
out the green things from the sear, the scout stood
silently, smoking his pipe and studying. his surroundings.
He fully realized the difficulties of his undertaking, and
was at the same time aware that none of his superiors
at Washington could in any measure grasp its possibili-
ties. It was easy enough to tick off a message to a man
two thousand miles away to hunt out the reputed head of
a hostile people scattered over a territory as large as
France and Germany combined, and convince this leader
of the error of his ways, but its accomplishment was a
far different matter.

But Buffalo Bill never offered excuses or demurred.
Knowledge that his superiors were ignorant of the mag-
nitude of their demands did not deter him from an at-
tempt to obey. What he had accomplished only went
to headquarters. a

The scout suddenly jerked the pipe from his teeth, and
bent. forward, fixing his gaze on a point to northward,
where the sky line was lighting up.with lurid flashes,

For a moment the scout stood thus, and then bounded
back to his companions, and shook them roughly.

“Out of it, pards!’ he said; “there’s work for us to
the northward.”

He was away again, jerking the lariat pins from the

ground and cinching the saddles upon the horses,

In two minutes the three had gathered their possessions
and were galloping toward the red glare which seemed
several miles across the uneven country. :

Twenty minutes’ sharp riding showed the scout that
they were much nearer the fire than they had supposed.
As they rode out on the rim of a basin they saw below
them the full tragedy they had feared. Pulling in their
horses, they could now hear the yells of red murderers
at their work and see them darting about in the light of
burning buildings, haystacks, and farming implements.

From a little hillside beyond now came a spit of flame,
followed by the report of a gun.

“Some of the ranch folk are still alive and making a
stand-off from a dugout, I should say,’ observed the

Laramie man.
“Ves, so I see, but the Indians are going to drive them |

out—see those fellows coming over the hill, They will
scrapeithe gravel off the top of the dugout and set fire
to it,” said the scout.

“There are only about twenty of the reds,’ observed

Da :

“And there are only about three of us,” answered Buf-
“But something must be done or the settler
and his family will be murdered,” he went on. “Let us
drof-back behind this swell and ride farther north, then
swing in behind those fellows who are preparing to fire

BITT, STORIES. ~ : :

the dugout, and charge... [Ef we can’t stampede them we
can at least give them a touch of heart failure.”

“My fingers are itching on the trigger, pard,” said
Hickok. one

In thé rear of the little hill on which three Indians

‘could We seen digging away the gravel and thatch, while
other warriors were yelling, shooting, and dancing about
the burning buildings to distract the attention of those
imprisoned in the dugout, the scout and his pards. ap-
proached more cautiously. They climbed to within a
few rods of the three reds before the scout, drawing
two revolvers, drove the spurs to Bear Paw’s flanks, and
dashed forward. .
The ted men, taken wholly by surprise, were run down
by the flying horses without a shot, and the animals, leap-
ing the sharp embankment, like a cyclone swept across
the intervening space, and, before the red warriors in the
firelight could see what was approaching from the dark-
ness beyond, they were greeted by a deadly volley as
the three daring horsemen swept through and over them
and disappeared in the darkness beyond.

The scout had so planned the charge as to strike the
group of Indian ponies, and among them the pards madly
galloped, yelling like demons and shooting right and leit.

In a moment the little animals were scurrying away
across the prairie, and the scout and his pards saw to it
that they were hustled far, and widely scattered, before
they began a wide detour that took them back toward
the scene. a

The Indians had been so completely demoralized by the
sudden onslaught that.they did not recover from their
surptise until the ponies were far away in the darkness
and the.sound of their hoofbeats was rapidly lessening
in the distance. Then the warriors scarcely knew which
way to turn. Their first move was flight beyond the fire-

‘light, where they momentarily expected another mys-
terious and avenging force to spring.

The sounds of yelling and shooting had ceased; the
fire had burned itself down to glowing brands, and the
lowing of frightened cattle echoed here and there when
Buffalo Bill, Hickok, and Cayuse for the second time
approached’ the back side of the mound in which the
dugout had been made. a

Leaving Hickok and the Piute with the horses in a dip
of the hill where they were safe from surprise, the scout
made his way noiselessly over the hilltop, approached
the door of the dugout, and spoke: |

“Hello, there, within!”

- A boy’s voice answered:

“Whois itr”

“A white friend; the Indians are gone.”

“*Tain’t no Injun trick to git us out?”

“No,” answered the scout in his kindliest voice; “a
party of us have come.to save you from the Indians, but
if you are all right and comfortable perhaps you had
better stay there till morning. Was anybody hurt?’

“No, not that we knows of—ye see, there’s. only Nellie,
an’ Kittie, an’ me; dad an’ mom has gone to a weddin’
up to Jenkinses’ ranch, an’ we’s afeared that mebbe the
Injuns got ’em.”’

“How did you happen to be in the dugout?’

“Oh, I seen the Injuns comin’ jes’ before dark, an’ |
rushed the girls in here, an’ got all the guns an’ things I
could before the reds got near enough to shoot.”

“Do you mean that a boy and two girls are all there
are here?” = e :

  

 
vs

 

THE BUFFALO.

“That’s all—me an’ Nellie an’ Kittie—I’m fourteen,
Nellie is twelve, an’ Kittie is ten,’ answered the boy
proudly.”

“Well, you’re a plucky lad, and you made a good
stand- off, but you. needn’t worry any. more to-night.
Which way did your parents go? oe

“Nor’east.”

“Which way did the Indians come: ”

“Nor’west.”

“That is all right; I guess they didn’t eet your father
and mother, my boy, and as soon as daylight we'll see if
we can look them up.”

_ The scout and his pards spent fe rest of the night
near the dugout, determined, if need be, to defend the
three little children with their last drop of blood,

But their services were not needed, for the Indians
had slunk away to find their ponies, and if they suc-
ceeded in securing their mounts before light they gave
the place where they had met such mysterious disaster a
wide berth.

In the morning a bright, manly lad and his two hand-
some but shy little sisters came forth from the dugout.

“Too bad to bring up such children here!” exclaimed
Hickok to the scout, but the boy overheard.

“Tt was dad’s cough,’ said he apologetically. “Uncle
John gave us the ranch, an’ dad an’ mom thought we
could live here a few years till he gets stronger, an’ then
go East, where the girls an’_me c’n go to school.

“But I guess dad an’ mom ll be *bout discouraged now,
with no house to live in an’ some of our cows an’ sheep
killed,” he ‘went on chokingly.

The great-hearted Buffalo Bill cleared his at be-
fore he spoke, and then he said:

“Well, my boy, you must cheer up your dad ahd mom.
They have what is worth far more than home and live
stock—three noble children. If your father is il! you
must come to the front. You have shown that it is in
you—I mean pluck and resourcefulness. Don’t ever for-
get to be honest and always guard your father and
mother and sisters—not only their lives, but their hap-
piness. Sometimes kind words are life savers. Don’t
forget to always have words and looks of cheer for your
father and mother, and to jealously watch over the purity

of the names of your sisters.”

The lad’s eyes shone with the light of a new determina-
tion.

“Say, mister,” he began, “I was such a eG last night
that I cried when the girls did, because we thought how
bad dad an’ mom’d feel ‘thout any home, but I ain’t goin’

to cry no more as long’s we're all alive—an’ if dad cn

get better we'll be all right.”

The scout did not wish to dampen the lad’s courage,
but he determined to tell the father to take his family to
some of the larger settlements until the Sioux had been
quieted.

““Were your father and mother to Pele this morn-
ing?” he asked.

-Ycce sll. Say, Tey) do you care if I ask what your
name is?”

“No, my boy; ine name is oo. sometimes called
‘Buffalo Bill’ ”

The lad started back and gasped:

“Why, you’re a scout! I’ve read lots about you in the
papers that Uncle John sends us. Mr. Cody, would you
shake hands with me?”

BILL STORIES. | 3

: The ‘scout mates heartily as he grasped the boy's
and.
Ele’s the tight oe Cody,’ observed Hickok. Be
“What is your name?” asked the scout.
“William Fisher Corey.”
The scout and Hickok laughed.
“His initials are the same as yours, Cody,”
mie man said.
ee I guess we'll have to call him ‘Little Buffalo
te?
The boy was delighted, and his sisters shouted:
Helle, iittle Bultalé: Bill”
The boy stood back, and admired the scout for a mo-

the Lara-

_ ment, and then said:

“T wish my dad was as big an’ strong an’—an’ hand-
some as you be.”

The scout blushed at the frank admiration of the boy,
but laughingly turned it off and suggested that they

‘round up the scattered cattle of the settler.

 

CHAPTER II.
A TRAGEDY OF THE PLAIN.

A lonely shack left by Northern Pacific surveyors, on
the rolling prairie perhaps one hundred and fifty miles
east of Gallatin, showed evidence of habitation in the

early morning of a balmy summer day. Ten rods away,
in a sag almost hidden by sage brush, a pair of Indian
ponies grazed peacefully.

Two men came out of the hut, climbed the highest
ridge at hand, and scanned the horizon~ carefully, then
went back to start a little fire and prepare bréakfast.

“T can’t understand how you got away from the fort,
Price,” said one.

“Basy enough, Ike,” returned the other. “Remember
the crook-fingered ’breed, Pete, who got nabbed for the
stage raid down toward Virginia City two years ago?”

voure.

“Perhaps you may remember that I fixed it with the
judge, and he got off light ?”

“Um-h’m.”

“Well, Pete was at the fort caring for the horses of
the officers. He knew me first glimpse, but he didn’t let
on, and when he got a chance he slipped me out with a
good mount, a sack of grub, and a belt full of guns.”

“Pete sort o’ squared his bill, eh?”

“He did, and if you ever see a»chance to slip Pete a
favor, Ike, on my account, I hope you'll do it.”

“Bet wer Hie, lo will, Price, but ! never did [ike that
Canadian polecat, though. ke

‘We're all in the same box, Ike—any of us would
knife the guard for a run and take the chances of deco-
rating a rope. But most anything goes in this wild
country—it’s every man for himself and the co take
the hindmost.” ‘

“An’ the man that’s slow with his gun is the rear man
evety time, I notice. Eh, Price?”

“You hit the bull’s- -eye, Ike, but you haven’t said it all.
I reckon I’ve got to keep my gun ready, and be quicker
than | greased lightning till I get out, of this territory.
Every man- jack, red and white, seems looking for my
scalp, except a few like you and Pete.”

“Keep a stiff upper lip, old man.

29

T’ny with you, and

 
 

eo | | THE BUFFALO

the liveliest ghost ‘Buffalo Bill and his pards ever run up
against. I want just one more whaek at that crowd.”

“T hope you get it, Ike, and redeem your reputation.
Your giant powder seemed hoodooed over Bozeman
way.” :

“T’ve got a new lot in my bag, and it’s good for a free
ticket for the whole bunch of trail hunters, if I can get
a chance to put it under *em.”

“T hope you get the chance, but I want first and most
to get as far from these Yankton Sioux and Crows as
possible. I want to hit south and make Laramie City
before I stop. Then I propose to prance in a different
harness for a while.”

“Do you know which way Buffalo Bill went after the
round-up ?”

“Yes, I was particular to keep my ears open till I was
sure of the course he was steering. He went to Helena
to rustle the boys up there.”

“What do the soldiers think of Cody?”

“Oh, they think he’s a wonder, and they swear by him
in seven languages.’

“Between you and me, Price, he is the only man this
side the hot place that could have done you and your
gang up in such short order.”

“And the only man who was too sharp to be caught by
your quick-trip tickets,’ retorted Price.

“Til get him yet,” said Ike. ce

“T hope you will, as I said before, but when you do

will you please send me word, for [ want a chance to

help pick up the pieces.”

“Tt either ‘of his ears is lett whole fil. send it fo
_you— Roaring rattlesnakes! see there!”

The cause of the exclamation of “Bloody Ike,’ for it
was none other than the ex-miner, was the sight of two

 

red men léaned well forward on flying ponies. The In-

dians} were drumming incessantly the sides of the ani-
mals in attempt to get more speed out of them, while
three hundred yards in the rear came a tall, gaunt horse,
with long, regular bounds that were gradually lessening
the distance between him and the ponies. On the back

of the horse sat a broad-shouldered, bewhiskered man °

with eyes fixed on the red men and ready rifle across his
knees, Coin

Now both Indians turned in the saddle and blazed
away at their pursuer, who neither hesitated, changed his
course, nor lifted his rifle.

The Indians began hurriedly to reload, working their
heels at the flanks of their ponies the while, with the
motions of a wooden monkey on a stick. ;

The trio were only half a mile away to the northward

and rapidly going east. The watchers at the shack
amused themselves by comments on the race, but admired
the cool determination of the white pursuer, who glanced
neither to right nor left, as the Indians again turned and
emptied their rifles at him, | :
- Presently the red men. tried different tactics—they
swerved, one to the right and the other to the left, and
each belabored his pony with renewed vigor, each pos-
sibly hoping to gain fast enough so that the grim rider
behind would take up the pursuit of the other.

_ This was apparently what the pursuer had been look-
ing for, for his heels now went up, and the length and
rapidity of the stride of the powerful horse increased.

Rapidly now the distance was annihilated. But the In-
dians were pulling apart, and he must soon select be-
tween them.

BILL STORIES.

‘Then the rifle which had laid idly across the white
man’s knees jumped to his shoulder, Por an instant it
was held there, a part of the bobbing pantomime, and
then a yellow spurt left the muzzle, and instantly one of
the Indians threw up his arms, and with a wild yell
pitched from the back of his mustang,

The white man’s rifle dropped across his knees again,
and the great horse swept harder and closer on the trail
of the other red man. a

Pursued and pursuer now tore away into the south-
east, the relentless white man sitting unmoved as the
Indian frantically loaded and fired at his pursuer. |

And at last, with pursued and pursuer like ants on the
sky line, Price, the former Indian agent in the Gallatin
Valley, and his guilty companion, Bloody Ike, saw the
close of the tragedy. :

There was a sudden halt of the pursuer, a rigid erect-
ness for an instant, a white puff, and the second Indian
plunged from the back of his staggering pony, but no
sound of shot or death yell came back over the -inter-
vening distance.

They had witnessed one of the many tragedies of those
wild days in the great West—the days of an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth; the days when revenge was
as sweet as ever and recognized in this ungoverned
region as the right of man.

Slowly the bewhiskered white rider came back over the
trail, and noting the presence of human beings at the old
shanty rode down to greet them with:

“Well, what ye doin’ here?’

Price’s first thought was of an insolent retort, but, re-
membering the other’s decisive way of settling disputes,
softened his manner, and said:

“Resting after a hard day-and-night ride.”

“Where be ye goin’ ?”

“Working south, now, across the Yellowstone.
up to hunt down a horse thief Sioux, but lost him.”

“How many horses did he get?”

“Two, but we want to settle with him more than to
get the ponies.” © \

“Well, thar’s a couple o’ ponies I reckon you c’n have,
an’ welcome; their owners won’t need ’em any more.”

- “What's the cause of the falling out you had with the
reds?”

“Devils raided my corral last night and shot my father
—they won't shoot any more fathers.”

“You better take the ponies.”

“T don’t want anything that ever belonged to one of
the red skunks.”

The stern ranchman rode away, and Price somehow
felt relief as those keen, dark eyes turned toward the
settler’s home and stopped boring under the skin of these
fugitives from the law. | :

Bloody Ike rode out and captured the ponies, and then
the two men set off southward, leading two animals not
their own. They hoped with these’ extra mounts to
make better time in their flight from the territory where
they were too well known for their own comfort. Even
the Indians who were friendly with the whites had no
use for Price or his gang unless it were to provide amuse-
ment at some torture party.

That was what Price feared, but he preferred to take
his chances of escape through a country swarming with
hostile red men to standing trial for his misdeeds. with
a array of evidence against him provided by Buffalo
f THE ¥ % i

Came

Ay

   
  

 

Be

  
      
   

Wy

 

 

  

THE BUFFALO

@

Price was doubly glad that the grim ranchman was
a stranger to him. There were some of these plainsmen
who did not seem to understand a joke, and if they knew
the joke was on Uncle Sam they might insist on his—
Price’s—company back to the military camp.

But Price’s relief at getting off so easily was not long-
lived, as we soon shall see.

 

CHAP LRR TT,
INTERESTING ACQUAINTANCES.

Grizzled old Nick Nomad, solitary representative of
law and order on an expanse broader than the eye could
span, was making his lonely way eastward in what he un-
derstood to be the wake of his pards. He was talking to
himself, possibly, but his conversation was directly ad-

dressed to Hide-rack, the horse that the famous old trap-

per and trailer loved better than any he ever bestrode.
“Now, look hyar, Hide-rack, yew cantankerous ole

heifercat, don’t ye reckon it’s "bout time ter pitch our’

tent an’ eat our doughnuts? We've plodded on middlin’
plenty sence sunup, an’ sez I, Nick, ole boy, yer tummy
is makin’ love ter yer backbone. What yer say, Hide-
rack, ye ole rye-an’-Injun mix-up ?”’

Nomad’s pet names might not have appealed to ears
more refined than Hide-rack’s, but the sound of his mas-
ter’s voice andthe kindly pats on his neck that accom-
panied them lifted the tired ears of the courageous ani-

-mal, and he briskly increased his pace.

“Waugh! Hide-rack, thet’s jest like ye—better arter a
sixty-mile run than ye wor at ther start-off. Yer ther
clear f
. “By ther great horn spoon an’ granny’s ole tin ladle!
Ef thar hain’t er c’ral a-loomin’ up ez big as life right off
here whar ther moon is goin’ ter come up sometime,
mebbe. D’ye hyar thet, Hide-rack? The’s fodderin’s

 

an’ comp’ny ahead. Boom ’er up, ole hoss pard; we wants

ter make er showin’ when we lite.”

Probably Hide-rack did not catch the full meaning of
his man pard’s words, but at about that time his animal
instinct served notice that creatures of his kind were
nigh, and, raising his head, the horse, too, saw the human
habitation with all its suggestions#pf feed and rest.

The tired animal lifted head and tail, and, as Nomad
expressed it, “set sail fer ther c’ral lickerty split.”

Old Nomad dashed up to the ranch, or, rather, the
home of a stockman who had brought his family to the

» plains, and shouted: .

“Whooee! in thar—ye all dead, er on’y jes’ nachally
givin’ ther reds er chanst ter jump in an’ gobble ther
hull kerboodle ov ye?”

A tall, dark, broad-shouldered man with piercing eyes
and heavy beard stepped to the door.

“Well,” he said, “I: don’t know who ye be, but yer

welcome as long as ye behave yerself.”

“Waugh! Who ever hearn tell 0’ ole Nick Nomad
doin’ anything else but behavin’? Stranger, yer better
look ergin. Mebbeso ye can see a ombray what is some

tired an’ more er less hungry—mostly more.”
“Climb down, old Nick Nomad, or the Old Nick his-

_seli—neither of ye'll ever be turned away from Jasp

Avery’s door hungry.. Git down, old man, an’ come
right in; I’ll tend to yer hoss, same as if he be my own.”

    

 

BILL STORIES. ae | 5

“Jasp Avery, I likes ther way ye holds yer mouth an’
swings yer under jaw. So off | comes, an’ hyar’s my
hand.” .

Nomad went with the cowman, and saw that the
“faithful” Hide-rack didn’t accept an opportunity to
plant a pair. of steel-shod heels in the anatomy of the
stranger who was offering hospitality. Hide-rack had a
natural antipathy for strangers, and after the usual in-
troduction they generally retained a dislike for his man-
ners.

Inside the home of the herdsman Nomad was intro-
duced to “Father Avery,’ who was lying on a rudely
constructed lounge and emitting occasional groans.

The story of an attack by Indians the previous night
soon came out, and Nomad heard of the climax with sat-
isfaction.

The younger Avery explained that he had foreseen
trouble with the Indians and had sent his wife and chil-
dren to Fort Sarpy a month previous. His cowpunchers,
four of them, were all far back where they had gone
with the stock to find better grazing. He and his father
were alone, but they were well fortified and had plenty
of rifles and ammunition.

The house had been constructed with an eye to pos-
sible hostilities, and resembled a miniature fort, out of
which led an underground passage to a dugout that
was concealed underground and vtntilated by an open-
ing into an almost impenetrable thicket of willow and
sage brush.

The arrangement was well calculated to give a strong

band of attacking Indians a warm reception and a mys-

tery to wind it up, if they overpowered the settler and
set fire to the ranch house

In his story of riding down and disposing of the In-
dians, the younger Avery mentioned the two white men
he had passed on the plain. He said he didn’t like the
looks of them. |

Old Nomad was instantly interested, and demanded a
description. Within five minutes he was convinced that
Avery had held conversation with the escaped Price and
the supposed-to-be-dead Bloody Ike.

“T’d bet Hide-rack ergin er grasshopper them’s ther
fellers!” he declared. “An’ by ther harnsome whiskers
o’ my Aunt Hannah’s billy goat I wish Buffler was here.”

“Who's ‘Buffler’?’ demanded Avery.

“Why, Buffler Bill, ther king 0’ ther plainsmen’ an’ ther
whitest man thet ever threw er leg over a saddle. He’s
my pard, Buffler is, an’ he’s actin’ fer ther gov’ment out
here ermong ther redskins. [Pm on ’is trail sence day
*fore yistidy f’'m Bozeman. ”Twas thar they tol’ me Price
hed ’scaped. I c’n see er hole in er ladder,/an’ thet
same is as how Bloody Ike warn’t blowed up, nohow,
an’ he worked some scheme ter git Price out o’ ther
hole.’

“Who is ‘Bloody Ike’?” asked Avery.

“He’s ther onerariest polecat south 0’ Canady, an’ he
travels with er bag o’ blarstin’ powder, an’ is allers ready
ter touch et off when ennybuddy runs up ergin ‘im per-
miscous.”

‘“What’s his last name?”

“T hain’t never hearn tell—et’s jes’ “Bloody Ike’ over
in ther Gallatin country, an’ et fits.”

“Td like to know if it’s Ike Peltier, who used to do
ther blastin’ in the Ten-nugget Mine. Ii ’tis I’d give

ten o’ my best hosses to be alone with im about a min-
ute.”

  
6 | | "= WHE BUFFALO

“Waugh! Id like jes’ erbout ther same time with
thet pardner o’ his. But, say, Neighbor Avery, yore eyes
aire some better’n gimlet holes, I take et—what du ye
call thet thar percession "bout five p’ints ter ther north 0°
yer upper haystack ?”

“It’s a party on hossback—one, two—eight, little an’
big, makin’ this way.”

“What d’ye reckon, neighbor ?”

“T ain’t no guesser’ hintity’ forca record, but Tim
willin’ to predict it’s some rancher over east that’s been

raided by Injuns an’ makin’ for some other ranch or the
nearest settlement with what's left.”

Half an hour later old Nomad*was dancing merrily
and waving his old slouch hat as Buffalo Bull, Hickok,
Little Cayuse, a sickly-looking man, a woman, a boy,
and two girls rode up. é ”

It was the Corey family, whom Buffalo Bill had offered
to accompany to some spot more secure against the at-
tacks of roving bands of Indians, or, rather, bands mak-
ing for the Bad Lands to join Sitting Bull’s war party.
They were warmly greeted by young Avery and his
father, and invited to take up their home there for the
present.

Avery assured his visitors that two or three men could
defend the place against ten times their number of hos-
tile red men, and that he would call in his cowboys and
herds to closer quarters.

Corey’s herd with two cowboys were working that
way and would reach the section sometime the next day.
Avery promptly suggested that the herds be consoli-
dated and at least one of the cowboys left always at the
ranch for the protection of te: non-combatants.

This arrangement gave vast relief to the Coreys, who
had been. thoroughly scared by the attack upon their
home, and it also relieved the minds of Buffalo Bill and
his pards, who disliked to leave the woman and children
exposed to the venom of the first outfit of red marauders
who happened to cross that way. —

The scout accepted the hospitality of the rancher for
the night, and with his pards set off early next morning
on the trail of Price and Bloody: Ike.

“Little Buffalo Bill’ pleaded hard to be allowed to
accompany the scout, but was denied’ by his parents and
advised by the scout himself to remain to guard his
mother and sisters.

Suddenly awakened to a new responsibility in life, the
boy became the superior of his father in manly qualities.
Of perfect physical condition and good mental balance,
William F. Corey had been awakened by a crisis from
the slumber of youth to the cares of young manhood.
He realized the inefficiency of his father, who was
weakened by long illness and worry for the future of his
loved ones. a ,

And the father, too, suddenly became aware that he
had a stout staff to lean upon.

Before the scout and his pards shook hands all around
and set off toward the Yellowstone, they were urged by
all to return, and the, younger Avery declared that as
soon as he could arrange his affairs, so that he could feel
everything at home was snug and tight, he would gladly
give his services to the scout until the uprising should be
ended.

This offer Buffalo Bill said he might be glad to accept
later, and thanked his hosts for their kindness and hos-
pitality.

   

 
    

¥

 

BILL STORIES.

CHAPTER IV.

THE MYSTERY OF THE GULCH.

“Waugh! What is this hyar percession, anyhow—er
march ter ther grave o’ ther red man’s granddad, or er
Quaker meetin’ ?”

Old Nomad had broken the stillness after a long
silence as the scout and his pards made their way south
after crossing the Yellowstone. ,

“T say, Buffler, hain’t sumpin *bout due ter drap? Ef
this hyar Hide-rack ’u'd tumble down an’ sling me erbout
four rod I’d git up feelin’ better. I tells ye, this hyar
lack ov ’citement’s gittin’ on my nerves purty nigh orful.”

The scout had been riding silently, making a careful
study of his surroundings, and with the instinct -of his
calling calculating on the possibilities of this wild coun-
try as the site of a great battle.

Little Cayuse was in the lead, following readily the
trail left by Price and Ike in their flight. —

“Pye been thinking,’ began the scout quietly, pulling
Bear Paw down to a walk and giving all the animals an
opportunity to puff, “that perhaps within the next few
hours we will find excitement enough to satisfy even
your cravings, Nick.” ,

“Thet’s ther tork, Buffler! Hyar’s yer mutton when
yer needs timber fer sumpin ter a

Nomad stopped suddenly, having been interrupted by
a strange happening. They were now in a vast tract
of broken, well-nigh verdureless ridges, with here and
there stretches of sage brush and occasionally clumps of
stunted cottonwood or willow in the low places between.

Cayuse’s pinto had gained some distance on the other
horses, and, as the trim little Piute’s feather was dis-
appearing beyond a ridgetop, his companions saw his
arms suddenly thrown above his head, and instantly there
came a heavy report, accompanied by shaking of the
ground, and a cloud of smoke arose above the crest of
the hill.

“Thunder, Buffer! Ther papoose is done for!”
yelled Nomad, driving the spurs to Hide-rack’s flanks,
and dashing ahead.

“Took out, Nick!” cried Hickok, sending) his own

 

steed to the left sharply to reconnoitre the position, as

Buffalo Bill had instantly galloped away to the right.
If Nomad heard he’ did not heed, but, drawing his re-

volver, he dashed up the ridge and over the crest at

whirlwind speed. But the trapper had barely reached
the highest point of the hill than there came the report
of two rifles, almost together, and the scout and Hickok
saw the brave old Nomad reel in the saddle for a mo-
ment, then throw up his revolver, and bang! bang!
bang! as he plunged from sight down the other side.

Swinging into the gully between the ridges from dif-
ferent directions, Buffalo Bill and the Laramie man were
,uzzled by the fact that neither a man nor a horse were
in sight.

They rode toward each other, half expecting momen-
tarily to discover fragments of the bodies of Little Cay-
use and Navi. Where old Nomad had faded to was a
problem beyond solution at present, for he had disap-
peared as if he had dropped from the face of the earth.
The sounds of firing had ceased, and not even distant
hoofbeats could be heard.

‘They rode toward each other rapidly, determined to

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

\

reach some solution of the mystery, even at the expense
of disappearing as suddenly as their pards had done.
When barely ten rods separated them, both Buffalo

' Bill and the Laramie man discovered that the character

of the geological structure had changed suddenly. Where
the ridges they had crossed in the last half day’s travel
had run in a general east-and-west direction, here they
were confronted by a series running the other way and,
as it were, becoming a part of the first formation, with
outcroppings of granite in the higher land to the south
of them.

Two of these north-and-south ridges approached and
butted into the long, high mound they had crossed, and
between them was a narrow and rapidly falling cafion
running away to the south, its walls ever growing
higher and more rugged and broken by. sharp angles of
solid rock. The bottom seemed to be a bed of sand that
had washed in from the slopes above.

The first drop to the bed of the cafion was ten or
twelve feet, and there the sand plainly showed where
horses and men had plunged into it and then floundered
out and gone on.

Wild Bill was about to plunge his horse over the brink
in pursuit of his missing pa when Buffalo Bill held
up a warning hand.

“One moment, Hickok,” he ad “Do you see where
the trail was mined at the head of the little cafion 2”

“Sure, and both Cayuse and Nomad went oyer the
brink Nere. |

“Yes, but they were not killed, or, at least, if they
were, they and their horses were dragged away in short
order. Now, figuring that they are both alive and in
their right minds, they are all the force necessary to fol-
low directly after these villains. There must be an out-
let to this cafion somewhere, and when these fellows flow.
out on the plains or into the bottom lands of some river
they are likely to turn to right or left in their flight”

“I think I see your ‘plan, pard,’ said Hickok. “You
think it best for us to scout along the rim on either side?”

Precisely.

“All right; here goes,” and the Laramie man dashed
away along what was then sometimes called a “hog-
back,” or long, low ridge of land.

The scout galloped down on his side, and the novel
chase was on,

Occasionally the scout or Hickok rode up to the edge
of the cafion and peered into it, hoping to catch a glimpse
of their pards or the fugitives,

For miles a stern test of the speed of their weary
horses was made, but they had not discovered hair or
hoof of the four men and four horses they believed were
galloping down the course of the dry gorge.

The only time lost was the occasional trip of one or

the other to the rim of the gorge to glance along its bed.

At sunset they seemed to have come out on a height
of land which fell off rapidly into a beautiful valley.

Tired horses plunged down the receding slopes of
the cafion’s sides, and soon Buffalo Bill and his pard sat
with the noses of their mounts together,

They had bounded the pathway down which the ae
tives and their own pards had fled. And over the green
and smiling grazing lands to the southeast of them for

miles there | was not a moving thing the size of a coyote.

The scout slipped from his saddle and walked up the
gorge for a lew rods,

THE BUFFALO BILL STORIES.

 

    

Then he returned and said: ‘
“They have not passed out of here.”

Hickok whistled. “What do you make of that?” he
asked.

“Well, they had not more than five or eight minutes’
start of us, and we have ridden hard; we may have
gained something on them in two hours’ riding. :

“Correct: Suppose we ride up the cafion a piece, and
then dismount, and give the horses a chance to blow?”

“It’s a good notion, Hickok. I think we have those
fellows jugged. I am confident if Nick and Cayuse are
not too badly wounded that Price and his man will never
get by them. I should sooner think they would find some
favorable angle in the gorge where they are screened by
the rocks and make a stand, believing we are all behind
them in the cafion.”

“As we would have been if it hadn’t been for the

shrewd head of one W. F. Cody, in the service of Uncle
Sam.”

/ The scout gave no heed to the praise of his pard, but
rode up the cafion, studying carefully the odd formation

and the opportunities for scaling the sides.

“Do you remember our little climb in the cafion behind
Fremont’s Peak?” he asked of the Laramie man,

“Do 1 remember it? Why don’t you ask me if I re-
member those lizards and the hair-raising yell of the
crazy man in the cave? J wonder if you remember the
greaser who knocked you over with a bullet and then
jumped into a hole a thousand feet deep? I think I do
remember some things about that trip, pard, and they
make me shudder every time they come to mind—espe-
cially those crawly things and about ten million bats.”

“Here’s a good place to halt,” said the scout. “We are

hidden here from a straight half mile beyond, and can
rest, and eat a bite, and perhaps smoke a whiff, while .
the game possibly walks into our trap.”
. Darkness dropped like a vast filmy blanket, and the
silent watchers heard only the impatient, movements of
the horses, anxious to get back to,the slope below the
cafion’s outlet, where the grass looked green and in-
viting. At last the scout said:

“I fear, Hickok, that our plans have slipped up some-
where. I think it would be well for one of us to take
the horses back to the grazing lands and the other stroll
up the canon,to see what has become of our pards. Per-
haps they were hurt worse than it seemed.”

“That is the way I look at it, pard, and the one who
goes with the horses ought to remain near enough to

_the cafion to keep informed as to who goes and comes.’

“Very well, you look out for the horses, and I’ll see if
I can discover what has become of our pards.”

Wild Bill Hickok soon had the horses hitched out
where they could graze upon the green, moist grass, and

then moved back where he could both hear the feeding

animals and any man or horse that should pass out of

‘the mouth of the cafion.

The scout had moved away in the darkness up the soft
bed of sand and gravel, on the alert every instant for any
sound of those whom he had expected to come that way.
But he was destined to be deeply disappointed and mysti-
fied, for the light of another day revealed a state of af-
fairs wholly ae

 

  
») direction.

g | THE. BUPFALO

S CHAPTER V.
NOMAD’S STRANGE WEAPON.
When Little Cayuse? rode from view of his com-

panions he had suddenly come in full view of a pair of
horsemen, leading two,ponies, galloping down the gully

which opened at Navi’s feet. As the Indian youth looked ©

for the most favorable spot from which to make the leap
to the sand below, he discovered a fuse spluttering in the
dead grass and almost under Navi’s feet. Cayuse jerked
his heels to the pinto’s sides, and the little fellow bounded
ahead and over the brink just as the explosion came. At
the bottom both boy and pony were buried in the shower
of sand and gravel which followed the explosion, but
neither was injured.

As Cayuse and Navi scrambled out of the sand into a
settling cloud of dust which hid them from view and
probably saved both from becoming the target of the
- fugitives, old Nomad burst into view over the crest of
the hill and through the smoke and dust. :

Both the outlaws fired at the trapper, one pinking the
flesh at the point of his shoulder. But old Nomad had
been waiting too long for excitement to hesitate at the
first smell of powder. Driving the spurs to-Hide-rack’s
sides without a glance at the trail he was taking, the
trapper found himself flying through the air, or, rather,
a veil of dust, to land in a heap with the surprised Hide-
rack. Over they went, the rider luckily escaping injury
from the flying feet of the excited and struggling horse.

By the time Nomad had regained his feet he could see
Cayuse just rounding an angle in the wall fifty rods
away.

“Waugh! Hide-rack! Yip-yip-yar-r-r!_ Git out ov
it, ye heifercat! What ye rollin’ round hyar in ther
sand fer? Ye hain’t goin’ ter let thet aire red-blooded,
no-’count Navi beat ye, be ye?”

Hide-rack shook his head, and little sprays of sand
flew out from each ear. .
~ “That’s ther stuff! Git ther sand outer yore ears, an’
mebbe ye c’n hyar me murmur. Mebbeso I mought shake
my head ef ther aujience don’t object, an’ then I could
make out if theys any more explosions.

‘Waugh! Ther next time I goes in gswimmin’ I hopes
ther water won’t be so rily. Ugh! Gut sand enough
in my crop ter make er estridge boozy. Shirt feels ’zef
*twas made er sandpaper. By ther tarnation ten spots!
I b’lieves ther pesky lead peddler teched me—ther’ seems
ter be mud on thet thar left shoulder er mine. How-
somever, I cyant bother ’th thet when the’s more due
me an’ er plumb good chanst ter clect up. _

“Waugh; Hide-rack! Don’t ye think ye better shake
yer heels er bit! Mebbe the’s sand in yer butes, ’cause
why ye don’t ketch up ter thet redskin varmint down
front.”

By the time Buffalo Bill and Hickok had discovered ~
the cafion, old Nomad had reunded the bend in hot pur- ~

suit of the flying Navi. |

Price and his partner were making the best time pos-
sible, and apparently hoped to outstrip their pursuers. If
they knew the locality they could hardly have selected a
better place in which to traverse a long stretch of coun-
try without the possibility of being oberved from any

Little Cayuse was determined to keep the fellows in
view at any cost, and took long chances of an ambush

so

  

BILL. STORIES.

as he darted around sharp angles at the top of Navi's
speed. Cayuse trusted to Pa-e-has-ka to do the rest if
he—Cayuse—could only perform the task he had been
given. . Se

The Indian boy did not turn his head, but he knew that
Nomad was closely following, for he heard the trapper’s
cries of encouragement to his steed. NC

Cayuse’s black eyes shone as he patted Navi's neck
and said:

“Tide-rack all same heap clumsy pile bones. No
ketchum Navi.”

After an hour’s hard riding in a straight-away stretch,
Cayuse saw the fugitives for a little while, and just as
they were approaching an angle one of the ridden ponies
fell. Both horse and rider rolled over and got up in-
jured, for both limped. They passed the corner out of
view slowly, and a moment later Cayuse saw a man
with a rifle come into sight again for a moment and then
jump back. :

Little Cayuse halted and waited for Nomad.

“Hain’t gittin’ bashful, be ye, Cayuse?” greeted the
trapper. :

Cayuse told what he had seen.

“Waugh! Le’s try ‘em out, boy. Ef they’s thar an’
see us make er dash ’zif we’s goin’ ter ride ‘em down,
they'll like ernough try us er shot ‘fore we gits too nigh.
- “One, two, go-o-0!” yelled Nomad, as they dashed
away at full speed.

“Vip-yip-yat-r-r!’”’ he yelled, as they tore along.

The men in ambush heard the oncoming charge and
peered out, Then, as Nomad had predicted, they each
tried a shot. eae E

“Thet tells ther story, papoose—they’re thar an’
waitin’ fer us,” said Nomad, pulling up and turning in
close to the wall where both he and the horse were
screened from reach of probable sniping. Little Cayuse
also pulled ‘in out of range, and the two conferred,

“They've stacked ther cyards ergin us, pard,” said
Nomad. “’Tain’t no use ter play when tother feller
hol’s all ther trumps.”

It was decided to await darkness, now scarcely more
than an hour distant, and then attempt to steal up to
the enemy’s position.

Nomad had a plan for surprising the rascals, and he
proceeded to put it into execution, setting forth his in-
tentions to Cayuse as he worked. He began by taking
off his shirt and tearing a sleeve out of it.

“Ugh!” erunted Cayuse. “Nomad plenty crazy prairie
dog. Him cut off Hide-rack’s tail, mebbe.”

“Looky hyar, yer Piute papoose, ole Nick hain’t shot
so fur fm ther mark uv common sense ez some little
Injuns I’ve seen, ner I hain’t goin’ ter whittle off Hide-
rack’s tail, nary one. Ye see thet hoss needs is rudder
ter steer with, but ole Nick don’t need this aire shirt
sleeve fer much er northin’, fur’s I know—rn it’s gittin’
whar et needs er soak in ther river, anyhow.”

“Plenty dirty,” observed Cayuse, whose. disgust at
Nomad’s slovenly ways was proverbial among the pards.

Nomad tied up one end of the sleeve, and then began
filling it with sand.

“Heap fool war club—kill ’im easy?” asked Cayuse.

“Naw, I hain’t goin’ ter kill ’im easy; I’m goin’ ter
fool ?im ’th this an’ then kill ’im good an’ hard ’th this
ole Nancy rifle er mine.”

“Mebbeso him think rattlesnake,” suggested Cayuse.

“Mebbeso him think ’tis er fool Injun,” retorted

  

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

THE BUFFALO

Nomad, imitating Cayuse’s voice, manner, and words as

he kept on with his work.. |

Little Cayuse improved the time in brushing the sand
out of his raven-black hair and reéstablishing his shining
braids and feather.

“Thar, Cayuse, thar’s ther dyed-in-ther-wool ketchum-
nappin’,’” announced Nomad. ie

“Wuh? All same tie um round mouth make um stop
holler?’

“You mean, is it a gag?”

S\N

“See hyar, Cayuse; I don’t want no more o’ yer in-
sinooations bout my shirt bein’ dirty. Mebbe thet thar
dummy’ll save yer er shot in ther ’natomy.” —

“Ugh! Bullet heap better.”’

If Cayuse suspected the purpose of old Nomad he
kept it to himself, and pretended to think the trapper
pard’s mind was wandering.

As darkness settled fast they completed preparations
by tying the horses to a jutting rock, then Nomad shoul-

dered his mysterious weapon and crept along close to-

the inner wall. Cayuse followed near. a
Nomad and Cayuse knew that if the men in ambush
suspected they were creeping along the wall a shot might
pot both of them, but they were\taking the chances be-
cause they were aware it was Buffalo Bill’s wish to re-

‘capture Price and his partner in crime.”

At any instant they might expect a flash ahead and

feel the sting of a bullet.

»

 

CHAPTER VI.
ANOTHER MYSTERY MET.

For three hours Buffalo Bill plodded through the loose
footing in the dismal gully. The rim along both sides
was outlined against the heavens, but in the shadowless
realms between the high walls the darkness could be felt,
almost. The scout feared he might pass the men he was
seeking. On the other hand, if they attempted to escape
under cover of darkness he would stand two chances to

« their one of hearing them first. He might pass them,
‘and he might walk into the very muzzle of their rifles.

Suddenly the scout paused and listened.. He could
hear something moving a couple of rods ahead, so he
crouched low and waited. He hoped if it were men ap-
-proaching on horseback that he would be able, by looking
up toward the light of the sky, when they were near,’to
discover who they were.

He heard the movements continued, but they came
no nearer.

At last the scout could curb his impatience no longer,

and began to make his way stealthily toward the sound.
Inch by inch he approached, lifting his feet noiselessly
and softly setting them down in the yielding mass. Then
he felt that he could almost reach the thing that was
causing the slight rustling; he discovered that it was a
pony.
Carefully reconnoitring the situation, the scout found
the animal was anchored to a point of rock and was
hungrily attempting to find a nip of green along the
wall. a

Passing this one, the scout came upon a group of
three others, their heads tied together in such manner
that they could proceed in no direction.

 

BILL STORIES. oS a

The scout believed that he had come upon the four
ponies of Price and Ike, and felt sure the human por-
tion of the sextette must be near. He determined to
ascertain, even at the risk of making of himself a target
for their bullets. os :

Pressing between the ponies, the scout struck a match,
and, so holding it behind the neck of one of the ponies
that it would not throw its light in his own face, he
scrutinized the place thoroughly for a rod of two.

He was behind an angle in the wall, and beyond that
perhaps the outlaws were hidden.

As the light flickered and went out, he caught a
glimpse of something that caused a chill to run down his
spine, and genuine grief touched his heart.

There beyond the angle, on the sand almost against
the opposite wall, lay the arm of a man—and Buffalo
Bill recognized the familiar stripes and colors of old
Nomad’s shirt. '

Even Buffalo Bill for the moment was overwhelmed
by the catastrophe. His brave old trapper pard had gone
across the divide, as he had often wished to do, in active
pursuance of his duty. The scout feared, too, that Little
Cayuse had met disaster, as appearances would indicate
that Price was having matters all his own way, and from
some crevice in the rocks was awaiting opportunity to
wipe out others of the party in search of him,

Well, there was more than one could play at the wait-

ing game. The scout slipped behind the ponies, and
seated himself in the sand, his back against the wall.
He proceeded to make himself as comfortable as pos-
sible.
The ponies were tired, hungry, and uneasy. They
pulled each other about after a time, and attempted to
nose along the walls in search of water or herbage. The
scout remained quiet, with his ears strained for every
sound of interference by their owners, but no such sound
came to him.

The dreary hours passed, and the gray light of morn-
ing at last began to reveal the nooks and corners of the
gully, yet the scout stirred not.

Presently he could see his surroundings distinctly, but
nothing indicated the presence of any human being other
than himself. The ponies were still pushing and pulling
each other in futile atternpts at progress toward food and
water,

For half an hour the scout awaited the movement of
those whom he suspected were watching for him. With
ready revolver, he kept an eye constantly on the jutting
rock which marked the turn in the wall.

At last the critical moment arrived. He saw a slight
shadow which indicated the movement of some one be-
yond the angle moving slowly up to it, and then just a
curve of a human face as it pushed slowly by the corner,
taking in every inch of the way as the eye swept around
the corner where the scout awaited with eye glinting
along his shining barrel.

“Pa-e-has-ka !’

The exclamation was one of surprise mingled with
relief, |
Little Cayuse stepped into view and hurried toward
the scout, who arose quickly and extended his ‘hand.

“T feared you had made your last trip with me, little
ard,” he said. ~ :

“Ugh! Me ’fraid bad men get away. Keep eye on
rock all night, make um listen.” —

“What happened to Nomad?”

  
 

lo oe THE BUFFALO

“Sleep ketch, am? 4

“Poor old Nick!” murmured the scout.

“Ugh! Make um snore, scare pony.”

“Tow did it happen?” —

“All same lie down, no put um head in bag.’

“What do you mean, Cayuse?” demanded the scout
somewhat sternly. He had begun to note the twinkle
in Cayuse’s eye, and failed to reconcile the Piute’s quiet
levity with the seriousness of the occasion, -

“Mean Nomad heap tired; stick head in sand; meb-
beso crazy.”

The scout began to have hopes that somehow his fears
had been groundless. : :

“See here, Cayuse,” he began, with a little laugh,
“what are you driving at? Hasn't Nick met with an

accident?” And the scout advanced around the corner -

far enough to view the grewsome relic lying against the
opposite wall. !

“Wuh; him fall down hole, git ears full sand; sand in
hair; sand in eyes; sand in nose—mebbeso eat um bushel
sand.” |

“What is that?” asked Buffalo Bill, pointing at what
he had taken to be an arm of the trapper.

“Nomad call it ‘ketchumnappin,’ me call um ‘fool war
Club.

The scout’s spirits rose.

“Where is Nick?” he asked.

“Over by Hide-rack. Him snore keep Navi ’wake.”

“Well, now where are the bad men?’

Cayuse shook his head dubiously.

“Me go ketch um, find Pa-e-has-ka.”

“T guess they have slipped us somehow, unless Hickok
has done better than we have. But let us arouse Nomad
and see what he has to say about his ‘ketchummnappin.’”’

The scout and Cayuse.approached the sleeping trapper,
who had rolled up against the wall near Hide-rack. The
horse was in no pleasant temper. He wanted grass and
water, and he had been hitched to a bare rock all night.
His head hung low, but he turned to look menacingly
with ears laid close, as his friends came near.

Buffalo Bill began throwing sand at the ill-tempered
horse’s heels, and the latter responded with vicious kicks
and squeals as he danced about, aiming his steel-shod bat-
tery at the scout and Cayuse.

Old Nomad reared up wildly from sound slumber,
waving his arms and shouting:

“Whoa, thar! Consarn ye! Whut ye doin’ ov, ye old
gander? Tryin’ ter kick up er rumpus an’ make me think
I’m bein’ ’tacked by thirty-leven Comanches an’ fourteen
greasers all in er bunch? Quit it, ye ole ‘heifercat,
‘fore I fall on ye, tooth an’ nail, an’ smite ye, hip an’

thigh.”
The scout laughed, and the trapper crawled out, cau-
tiously watching the light heels ef Hide-rack the while,
and muttering :

“’Pears ter me thet hee-haw soun’s nachal. Hah!
Buffer! I might a-knowed ’twas yore work, a-stirrin’
up ther varmint.”

“The first thing I want to know,” began the scout, ‘‘is
what that stuffed sleeve is for.”
The trapper blushed behind his whiskers and. th
grime of perspiration and alkali dust. But he recovered
quickly, as

“Thet thar is er surpriser. I planned ter creep up on
this side ther rock an’ throw ther ketchumnappin’ ercross:
_ on tother side, so’s ther vilyuns c’d hyar et. I reckoned

   

BIEL STORIES.

they’d fire at ther fust thing they heard move in the dark,
an’ then, fore they had er chanst ter think er git their
ears open, I jes’ cal’lated ter jump round ther corner an’
nab um.”

“How did it work?”

“Didn’t work,” grunted the trapper disgustedly.

“Did you throw it?”

“Uh-huh.”

“What did they do?”

“They throwed some consarned ball o’ powder, an’
ha’r, an’ stuff thet flared up an’ showed my ketchum-
nappin’ sound ersleep. An’ me’n Cayuse hed ter hedge-
hog back inter ther darkness right lively, whilst they
wuz poppin’ erway at us some cautious.”

“You didn’t try it again?” i

“None whatever wuth mentionin’.”

“Well, they’ve slipped our net, and they did it so neatly
that we don’t know how they carried it out,”

The pards returned to the angle in the wall, and at
last discovered that Price and Ike had scaled the wall,
probably early in the night, and had*made away on foot
toward the southwest. By leaving their stamping ponies
to deceive the watchers they had made a clean and safe
getaway.

The pards now hastened out to the mouth of the
cafion with all the horses to join the Laramie man.

But once more they were disappointed. Wild Bill had
disappeared with both his own and Buffalo Bill’s horse.
They found where the animals had cropped the grass
for a time during the early part of the previous night.
Now, out on the broad plain as far as the strong eyes of
the scout or of Cayuse could reach, there was no sign of
man or beast in any direction. oat

The scout was puzzled. Something had happened of
importance to draw Wild Bill from his post of duty.

The scout’s first business, however, was to allow the
horses to graze, then he would move on toward a river
which showed like a silver thread in the greenish-brown
plain in the distance.

Buffalo Bill believed it must be the Big Horn River,
but he had never been in this part of the country before.
He was impressed by the magnificence of his surround-
ings. He had visions of broad, cultivated fields, peaceful
herds, and busy villages in this beautiful expanse where
now roamed the Indian, the buffalo, and the coyote.
The very immensity of it all impressed him. And yet he
knew that beyond the threadlike river the grazing lands
rapidly degenerated into the barren shale and_ useless
acres of the Bad Lands, where only sage brush and cac-
tus grow, and these of a sickly sort. :
aie wonders of irrigation were then unborn for the

est,

CHAPTER VII.
HICKOR OUTWITTED BY A THIEF.

Sitting silent as a spectre, listening to the grubbing
teeth of the horses a few rods distant and for the sound
of any approach down the gully on the other side, Wild
Bill Hickok observed a ball of fire shoot up into the
southern sky in the distance. It burned brightly for a
moment and then disappeared. Immediately far in the
east another sprang up, and then the west responded,

 

  
 

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oo 2) SEE BUBEALO

: but to the north Hickok could not observe over the

higher land.

The Laramie man knew this to be some sort of Indian
signals, but of course could not pretend to understand
their meaning.

Shortly the signals were repeated, this time much —

nearer on all sides, The significance was that the coun-
try swarmed with redskins, ‘and that he was in the centre
of a vast tract on which there were an outer and an
inner circle of hostile outposts.

Hickok became absorbed in his surroundings, and won-

dered why he and Buffalo Bill had not discovered some
evidence of these war parties when they had studied the
plain before night. He decided that the surface must be
more uneven than it looked from this commanding posi-
tion. He heard only the occasional ’snarl of a prowling
coyote and the whispering breeze in the dead husks of
the weeds.
_ And then he suddenly realized that he no longer heard
the grubbing of the horses. He listened intently for
some moments, but if the horses were still there they
had satisfied their hunger, and were quietly enjoying the
rest after a hard day’s work.

From the gulch came no sound, and at last the Lara-
mie man stole cautiously down toward the spot where he
had left the horses. He found the place easily enough,
but both animals were gone.

“That is odd, not to say mysterious,’ muttered Hickok.
“T never had a horse slip his lariat before.”

He searched for the pins, and at last found one—with

a short piece of the riata en attached. [le felt of the
end—1t had been cut.

The Laramie man clinched he fists in silent fury.

“A sneaking red thief has crawled right up under my

nose and stolen my horse and Buffalo Bill’s,” he ground
between his teeth.
. To think of retaking the horses was next to a hopeless
task. Perhaps they had been gone halt/an hour—long
enough for an Indian to have Ted them beyond hearing
and then galloped several miles.

“What will Cody think?’ was the thought uppermost
in Hickok’s mind. “He'll think I went to sleep and let
the redskins get away with the horses without so much
as ‘by your leave. ”

And then the plainsman’ s mind was settled.

“Tl bring those horses or Pll never come back,” he
said in a low tone, for all the Laramie man’ s determina-
tion was aroused. \

He tore the lariat pin from the ground, pulled the
piece of rope from. the pin, and stuffed it into his pocket.
He then searched for the other, found it, and served it
in the same way.

“T won’t leave those telltale things behind,” he said.

At first Hickok attempted to pick up and follow the
trail, but in the heavy pall of darkness he found that
impossible, as he knew beforehand it would be. Then
he started toward the nearest point where a signal light
had flared. He proceeded carefully, aware that at any

moment he might blunder upon a group of, silent sav-

ages in the grass. Once@ja whirr at his side caused him
to bound away from a cactus, where he had disturbed a
rattler. .
Frequently he stumbled in the open doorways of
prairie- dog villages, and at another time a wriggling
thing under his foot felt as large as a cat. It was prob-

ably a bull snake, which, cloyed with its early evening : Pay of his warlike neighbors had not troubled his

  

BILL STORIES. : IL
a we been taking a nap in the pathway of the lone
plainsman,

After probably two hours of this, Hickok seemed to
have reached the rim of a little valley, for there, seem-
ingly far below him, were the twinkling fires of an In-
dian encampment.

“So here is where they were beginning a Fone, of-
July celebration,” thought Hickok. “Very good; we'll
slip down that way and see what they’ve got besides fire- -
works. Mayhap they’d enjoy some firecrackers and a
little parade.”

Hickok approached the encampment with exceeding
caution. He wished to locate the ponies of the warriors,
for he had no doubt it was a war party, to see if his
horse and that of Buffalo Bll had arrived.

He made an entire circuit of the camp, so near that
he could hear the sentries greet each other in low, gut-
tural phrases.

Again he began the circuit, this time within the circle
of the guard, “On his previous trip around the camp ‘he.
had crossed a small stream. When he came to it again
he turned down its bank and approached within three ~
rods of the nearest fire. There he saw a dozen warriors
sleeping in their blankets and one sitting with crossed
legs, smoking and staring into the embers.

“Hickok crept noiselessly past the fire, and followed the
stream. It was as he had hoped—below the camp on
the little stream were the horses. They had grazed along
the bank, and now were huddled together in groups of
three or four with crossed necks and heels outward, a_
trait which seems to have been handed down from the
days when the wild mustangs thus grouped themselves
for defense against the snapping wolves that came to pull
them down.

Hickok carefully worked among the ponies, but found
no trace of the animals belonging to himself and~Cody.
He successfully passed the sentry, and once more found
himself on the open prairie.

He decided, as it must be well along past midnight, to
seek some good hiding place before dawn, and there re-

~main during the coming day. He had food, and water

was at hand. He thought the stream might furnish
dense thickets farther down, and so followed it, coming
to a sharp turn where the brook tumbled over the rocks

_ to become part of a river twenty feet below.

Hickok thought he had come to the Big Horn, but
later learned it “to be only a good-sized. Haba y of that
wildly picturesque river.

On the bank near the junction the plainsman entered a
dense motte of small timber. He knew he was well be-
yond sound of the Indian camp, and was screened from
view by the sharp hill he had descended. So he started a
little fire, and made a dipper of strong tea. By the light
of the fire he prepared a hiding place by weaving the
willow sprouts and sage brush into the thick growth
about a spot he had selected for the purpose. He looked
carefully about for signs of snakes among the rocks, but
found none.

His nest ready for the coming day, the Laramie man
ate heartily, smoked a pipeful of tobacco, and lay down
to rest just as the first streaks of dawn began to show
in the east.

It was late in the afternoon when Hickok awoke, re-
freshed and ready for action. He had slept the sleep of
the weary man who is in perfect physical condition. The

f

  
 

12 | THE BUFFALO

dreams. He was sorry to have caused his pards anxiety,
but this could not be helped, and there was no use crying
over spilled milk,

He arose and carefully reconnoitred his position be-
fore leaving the thicket. Then he moved to the edge of
the timber, and looked across the plain in all directions,
except to the northwest, which was hidden by the higher
land.

Selecting. the largest cottonwood which grew in the
loving embrace of a willow, he clambered up where he
could look over the brow of the ridge.

A surprise awaited him. The Indian encampment had
quadrupled in size. The little valley looked like a village
of a large tribe.

But a sight that stirred him more was far out on the
plain to the westward. There he first saw a madly gal-
loping cluster of horsemen. There were half a hundred
Sioux making all haste to the westward, as if life de-
pended on covering the ground at breakneck speed,

Hickok instanly picked out two of the larger animals
in the lead, and knew them to be the gallant Bear Paw
and his own brave horse. He looked for the object of
this wild flignt, and saw, far away, a herd of buffalo
crossing a ridge toward the sinking sun.

“Good enough!’ he exclaimed aloud. ‘““To-night
they'll gorge themselves with buffalo meat and celebrate
the event. Now, I can see where Hickok gets in his fine
work and lights out with a couple of good horses—or
gets a tickle of bullets in his ribs in the attempt.”

The Laramie man remained in the tree for an hour,
watching the chase, and, when the surprised buffalo
finally found themselves surrounded by yelling redskins,
their pitiful attempts at escape and their maddened
charges on the enemy were almost useless.

Hickok clambered down, and once more inspected his
erub bag, Another little fire provided tea, and as the
sun was going down behind the distant hills he again
climbed the tree and watched the procession of return-
ing hunters.

rT he night settled overcast and as dark as Erebus. The
Indian fires burned up in red glare, and many signals
were sent up, evidently telling other encampments of the
rich haul of the party that day.

It was an ideal night for the work Hickok had in
hand; the darker the better, and he felt in prime condi-
‘tion for the undertaking, He saw that his revolvers
were loaded and in the best condition, and then filled his
water pouch, for he knew not when he would again find
the thirst-relieving liquid. His knife was keen.

Two-hours after dark the feasting and dancing were
under way, The red warriors provided meat for some
time to come, indulged in much speechmaking, and one

chief aroused great enthusiasm. Hickok did not. know

this man, and could not well get near enough to hear
what he said—too many fires were burning, and the odor

of cooking meat was wafted out to him, telling that the -

feasting and revelry would last throughout the night.

Hickok knew where to find the horses this ttime, and
had no trouble in passing the guard, who was all eyes
and ears for the camp.

But the first difficulty to overcome was an extra guard
that had been posted over the stolen horses. These. were
apart from the ponies, prebably because Bear Paw ab-
solutely refused to associate with the Indian mustangs,
and he usually emphasized his dislike in a way that made
it unsafe for the smaller animals,

#

BILL STORIES.

The two horses were lariated on the bank of the little
stream opposite the others and farther from the camp
fires. ‘This was fortunate in itself for the Laramie man,
but the Indians had taken the precaution to post a sep-
arate sentry by them.

\.The buck sat with his face to the firelight a few feet
from the horses. He was smoking and now and then
mumbling to himself, probably disgruntled comments on
his ill luck at being unable to partake of the night’s fes-
tivities.

In their anxiety to begin the sport the Indians had
given their ponies scant time to graze, and the latter
were out of temper and quarrelsome. They bit, kicked,
and squealed in a continuous hubbub. This noise as-
sisted the Laramie man to carry out his plan.

He crossed the brook, and crept silently toward the
unsuspecting guard. From behind clumps of sage he
picked out his “way and crawled nearer and nearer.

The buck was viciously sweeping the weeds about him
with the muzzle of his rifle.

“Till vent your temper a bit presently,” thought the

Laramie man, creeping nearer and ready for a spring at
the slightest turn of the Indian’s head, which was out-
lined against the firelight beyond. :

A silent bound, a dull thud, and the buck rolled over
without a moan. The Laramie man’s revolver butt had
descended true and hard.

Hickok acted quickly. He cut the lariats of the horses,
hitched Bear Paw’s line to his own saddle, and was just
swinging into the saddle when there was a surprised
“Uh!” behind him, a shot, and Buffalo Bill’s right
bower darted out upon the plain like a whirlwind, with
the whole Indian encampment behind him in wild tur-
moi

CHAPTER Viti,
IN THE SIOUX CAMP,

Buffalo Bill examined the ground closely where he
and Hickok had tethered the horses the previous even-
ing. He went over the ground inch by inch in search of
a clue to the cause of the Laramie man’s disappearance.
He knew that only some extraordinary eccurrence would
have called Hickok from the place before his—Cody’s—
return.

At last he found one of the hitch pins where Hickok

had thrown it, several rods from the space the horses
had grubbed.
_ “That is rather peculiar,” he said. “I don’t understand
why Hickok should have thrown the pin away, and if it
was the work of Indians I don’t see how it came here
unless the horses were scared, and jerked the pins from
the ground, and dragged them till they fell from the
lariats. And again there are no tracks of horses in this
direction, nor did the horses kick up any soil, as they
would have done at the start- off, if frightened. 3

He continued his search patiently, and was rewarded
at last. *

“Ah!” he exclaimed, “I have the key. Here is a moc-
casin track in a sandy spot, and close beside it the 1m-
print of Bear Paw’s barred shoe. I think some thieving
red saw us put out the horses, and after dark sneaked up
and quietly led them away. It is evident that Hickok

discovered they were gone and has attempted to follow

 

 

 

 
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SN IIE RAPS, eo pe Nie, ae Be ee

—_

NS WON No STB SER

 

a

 

 

THE BUFFALO

them in the night, although what he expected to accom-
plish in thedarkness is more than I can relly”

“Trust Hickok ter know what he’s erbout, Buffler.
I’m er-gamblin’ ther’ll be things er-happenin’ ‘mong ther,
redskings ef Hickok don’t git er whack et them thar
hosses.”’

Cayuse had been following the trail left by the horses
as ithey were led away, and from fifty rods away he
shouted: !

“Bear Paw go all same rabbit.”

“Which way?” called the scout.

Cayuse pointed to the west.

“That pesky Price an’ ’is pard went that way, LOOs
suggested Nomad. “Mebbe Hick’ll meet up with ther
varmints an’ square ‘counts. with ’em.” :

“7 think,” said the scout, “that we had better let the
ponies graze for an hour or so and then make back into
the cafion and wait for darkness and Hickok.”

“Veve hit ther nail fust time, Buffer. One er two 0’
us mought be takin’ er nap right now ergin er time O°
need. TI feels et in my bones thet thar’s doin’s er-comin’
our way good an’ plenty.”

“That is good logic, old pard. You and Cayuse go up

the gully a short distance and catch a wink while T watch

the ponies. I want to study the country for a while this
morning, and I'll take first watch. After the animals are

satisfied Ill lead them in out of the way of prying eyes

and take a snooze myself.”

Cayuse objected to Cody’s taking first watch.

“Meno squaw,’ he said.

“Not by a jugful,” assented the scout, “but we wapt
you to be at your best to-night. I think there is an In-
dian encampment near, and after dark I want you to
wiggle into it and find out all there is to know.”

The Indian boy was pleased at the scout’s evidence of
confidence in him, and submitted with a grunt of satis-
faction,

’The scout had hoped by a careful study of the plain

to discover some evidence of the location of the encamp-
ment which he believed must be near, and he was not
disappointed,

Scarcely an hour had passed before he saw a’ large
party of horsemen far to the south moving westward.
They came into view now and then as they passed over
the higher points of the rolling plain. He saw them
quite distinctly as they forded the river, and then for a
time they disappeared, to come into view again after half
an hour, showing that they had crossed quite a re-
spectable valley. |

Again they went over a ridge, and were seen no more.
The scout decided that the party had either stopped in

this valley or that it was so broad that the horsemen

were beyond teach of the human eye when they reached
the far side.

“To-night,” he said aloud, as he arose to collect the
lariats of the ponies, “we'll move down into that coun-
ity and see what we may discover.”

It was dark when the scout awoke, and for a time
he could not think where he was. Then he remembered
finding Nomad-and Cayuse sleeping in the gully, and
that he had tied the ponies together, and sat down in the
shadow of the precipitous wall to wait a while before’
awakening either of his pards. |

He now recalled guiltily that he had slept at his post.
He moved over to where Nomad and the Piute had lain.

BILL STORIES. : ! 13

Both were gone. He groped his way to where he had

left the ponies, and they, too, were gone.
“Tt’s one on me,” chuckled the scout. “The pards are

giving the ponies a chance to graze, and are letting me _

have my nap out.”

“Pa-e-has-ka sleep plenty sound,’ said Cayuse at his
elbow,

The faithful Piute had’ remained by the scout.

“Where’s Nomad?’ asked Cody.

“Him go fill um up ponies,” answered Cayuse.

They found Nomad readily enough where he had been :
since sunset. He had found a buffalo wallow and had
eiven the horses all the water they wished. They had
grazed their fill and were now enjoying a rest.

“Thar’s strange doin’s off west’ard, Buffler,” said the
trapper, who sat on the ground smoking and observing
the changes in his surroundings as night advanced.

‘What's up, Nick?” asked the scout.

“Seel” exclaimed the trapper. ‘““Thet’s what's up.
They’ve been er-shootin’ up them air rockets ever sence
‘twas dark ernuff ter see um, an’ ’way off in ther south
ernother passle o’ ther varmints hev been answerin’ ov
rem? :

The signals were coming up in the direction Buffalo
Bill had seen the party disappear in the morning,

“Tust what I thought,” said the scout. “There is a
large war party over yonder; I saw them go there this
morning.”

“Waugh! Buffler, this ’mences ter look like life was
wuth livin’ er dyin’, ary one. Snarlin’ catermounts! 1
feels et in my ole bones thet ther fur’s goin’ ter fly ‘fore
these sage brushes git ter be plum trees.”

“Tet’s be off,” said the scout quietly, selecting the best
pony by going among them and feeling of their heads
and ears for intelligence and their bodies and legs for
endurance.

“Petter turn the other two loose, hadn’t we, Nomad?”
he asked.)

“Shore we don’t want no extra hosses ter bother with
—_them’s my notions,” answered the trapper.

Buffalo Bill removed the lariats from two of the
ponies, and giving each a sharp slap sent them scurrying
out on the plain.

“T hope they'll get a good rest and take on fat before
the Indians pick them up,” he said.

The scout and his party struck the valley to the north-
ward of the encampment, and came to the little stream
which Hickok had found the previous night. Ina thicket
they left the horses and moved down toward the
twinkling fires.

When near enough they saw that it was a special occa-
sion in the camp, and they kept close to the stream be-
cause of the growth along its banks. They saw the
dancing, and heard the shouting of the warriors, and
then they drew near enough to discover that it was: the
celebration of a successful buffalo hunt.

For some time they watched the animated night scene,
and Cayuse was just stealing away intending to enter the
heart of the camp to hear what was the gist of the
harangues, when there was a commotion only a few rods
from them down the siream, followed by the report of a
rifle,

Instantly the scene in the camp changed from riotous
hilarity to one of consternation and excited inquiries.
Everywhere there were shouts and running about.

The scout heard the pounding of horses’ hoofs, and

 
 

14 oo ‘THE BUFFALO

then out on the plain came a taunting laugh, followed
by a shout in a well-known voice:

“Come on, you yowling devils, if you wish, but I bid
you a cheerful good night!”

“Wild Bill!’ ejaculated the scout and Nomad in a
breath.

There was scurrying to the ponies, and a yelling mob
rode off in pursuit, but soon gave it up and returned.

By the time the excitement was over and explanations

made, Little Cayuse had wormed into the heart of the
camp, had donned a Sioux headgear and blanket, and
stolidly sat with some of the elder warriors as they
smoked and awaited the speeches of the chiefs.

Cayuse understood enough of the Yankton Sioux
tongue to follow the trend of comment, and his presence
seemed to arouse no suspicion. as

Buffalo Bill remained concealed in the thicket by the
stream, and awaited events, and events came all too
rapidly for comfort.

Suddenly the pards heard a dull thud and a grunt be-
hind them, and realized that an Indian had jumped the
stream and was coming through the thicket directly upon
them,

The scout touched Nomad as a signal to remain quiet,
while he half arose.

As the Sioux’s next step would have brought him in

* contact with the scout, the latter straightened to his full.

height and grasped the red’s throat. si

The Indian was large and powerful, and though taken
wholly by surprise put up a tremendous fight. He could
not let out the warning yell that gurgled in his throat, but
the sound of the struggle in the small growth attracted
the attention of a group of bucks at the nearest fire.
Snatching up brands, these fellows ran to investigate.

“Snarlin’ catermounts an’ ther ring-tail heifercats,
Buffler, ther hull kerboodle’s bruk loose kerwallop!
Knock ther red on ther head an’ git yer guns!”

The scout bent his antagonist backward, and with a
blow of his fist put the savage temporarily out of com-
mission.

“Back across the brook, Nick, and then leg it up river
to the horses!” he said, crashing through the brush and
leaping across to the thick growth on the opposite bank.

For Nomad it was hard to resist a volley at the on-
coming reds, but orders were orders when they came
from Buffalo Bill, and he bounded after his leader. - =

_ The Indians plunged into the thicket and found the
buck just regaining his senses and yet unable to compre-
hend his condition. A few paused to question lim, while
others scurried about in the willows, looking for some
sort of enemy. aa

The scout and trapper made good time up river, but
suddenly saw outlined against the sky, on the bank above
them, several horsemen. Instantly they crouched low
and waited. To continue up river they must pass almost

_ at the feet of these horsemen who seemed to be waiting
»for them or else watching events below.
_ “They are all about us, Nick,’ whispered the scout.

“Waugh!” returned the trapper. “One on ’em got his
goozelet squoze till I’m gamblin’ he cyant chew buffler
gravy ter-night, nohow.”

The torch bearers were coming nearer along the
stream, apparently having discovered the tracks the pards
had made-in jumpins: across.

Then from above them came a

: guttural query in a
shout to those beating the bush. us

BILL’ STORIES.

“Te asked what the fuss was about,” whispered the
scout. *S

The pards could make out seven men on horseback,
for the other five were grouped about two of them, and
it could be seen that both the latter wore hats instead of
feathers. .

Then one of the men spoke to the other in good Eng-
lish: ,

“Tt looks like our finish, Ike, down in that gang of
red cutthroats.”

“It is Price!” whispered the scout,

“An’ Bloody Ike,” added the trapper.

 

CHAPIER Dy
CAYUSE SENTENCED TO DIE AT STAKE,

Straight out upon the plain, Hickok, astride his own

horse and leading Bear Paw, fled. He had little fear of ©

being overtaken, and soon discovered that the Indians
had missed his course entirely and were passing south of
him. He decided to circle northward and go back to
the mouth of the long gully, in the hope of learning
something of his companions.

Nearing the stream again, some distance above the

Indian camp, the Laramie man was suddenly startled by

a shrill whinny, and he instantly knew it to be the call
of Navi to his friend Bear Paw.

,. Wild Bill jerked up the heads of his horses so sud-
denly that both desisted from the response which they
were ready to give. :

The Laramie man made haste to investigate, and so
confident was he that no other pony could imitate the
neigh of Navi that he took long chances of running into
an ambuscade. Wild Bill was a man who was ever ready
to take chances.if anything was to be gained thereby.
If there was but one in a thousand he would take that
one—and Wild Bill’s “luck” was phenomenal.

The horses made straight for. the copse where the scout
and pards had-hidden their animals. Hickok dismounted,
and looked over the horses to discover who was paying
the Indian camp a visit.. Then he laughed to himself:

“So Cody came on an Indian pony, and without a
saddle. Must be Price’s animal. Wonder what they
have done with Price and Ike while the entire family of
pards is away.”

Hickok now heard greater commotion toward the
Sioux camp and saw bucks running with firebrands

‘toward the fringe of cottonwood along the stream.

“Aha! I guess some of the pards have missed a step
somewhiere,’ mused the scout. “Perhaps I had better
drop down that way.”

To think was to act with Hickok. He left the horses
with the others and hurried away, hoping to connect
with his pards. He felt sure that if Buffalo Bill or any
of his comrades had been discovered and were making
a getaway that they would naturally follow the timber
to the spot where they left their horses.

Hickok came toa little bluff that ran down sharply
to the brook and was about to clamber along its base
to the thicket beyond when he discovered that its sum-
mit was occupied by several mounted men.

The Laramie man paused. To pass over the open

space might expose him to the full view of those above

 

 
 

   

THE BUFFALO

at any moment, should a torch suddenly flare above
the thicket. Yet he had no doubt some of his pards
were’ hiding in the brush and perhaps confronted. by
the same dilemma.

Hickok chuckled as a scheme presented itself.

“Perhaps those fellows think they are going to sit
there, like a turtle on a log, till the harvest moon, but
I doubt it,’ he muttered.

He hurried back until he was on the other side of
the bluff, and had the horsemen outlined against the
light of the fires beyond; then he quickly but quietly
climbed up behind the group, one of whom was shouting
to those with the torches.

. Hickok heard a white man speak and recognized the

voice of Price. He had crept to within a scant rod of.

the heels of the ponies, whose heads were drooping alter
a long run.

Suddenly Hickok launched himself on hands and feet
at the very heels of the ponies, emitting at the same
time an uncanny cross between a bark and a growl and
switching vigorously at the animals’ heels with a long
withe he had brought for the purpose. ;

The effect was surprising to the riders, to say the
least. ‘They had no sooner heard the slight rustle be-

hind them than they were startled by the mad snarl-

ing that might have been made by a half dozen cata-
mounts and a grizzly or two thrown in. Then their
ponies nearly leaped out from under them in a mad
dash to get away. |
The frightened mustangs dashed down the hill,
plunged across the stream, and, before the surprised

torch’ bearers could guess at what was happening, some

of them were bowled over by the stampeded ponies. —

In the midst of the hubbub, Wild Bill gave the signal
of the pards from the top of the mound. Instantly he
was answered by the scout from the ravine, and a
minute later the pards had clasped hands and with
Nomad were hurrying toward the hiding place of the
horses. ‘ ; Ms

When well beyond earshot of the redskins, Nomad
turned on Wild Bill. :

“See hyar, Hick, I don’t want you never ter dew
northin’ like thet ergin. Ov all the caterwaulin’ lun-
kumsluices, an’ snarlin’ molwallopuses thet ever scared
a Injun’s hair white, yer ther plumb wust. Why, when
thet thar tarnal kihootin’ begun I thort er sidehill
lounger, w’th feet ez big ez bundles o’ hay, hed bruk
loose an’ wuz go’n ter gobble ther hull potan’ kittle ov
us. What d’ye.mean by such kerryins on, anyhow,
Hick?” ue a

The scout and Hickok were laughing quietly at old
Nomad’s badinage, and the trapper wound up with:

“T was so mightily scart thet 1 plumb fergut ter leave
my address with ther feather pates. Cyant seem ter
eit.over thet yowlin’ nohow.”

“Where is Cayuse?’ asked Hickok, when they had —

come up to the horses.
“TTe’s er-callin’ on ther big Injuns,”.answered Nomad.
“T think we had better wait here a while for Cayuse,
and then if he doesn’t come we'll take his pinto with us
and leave the odd pony for him if he shows up here
after we are. gone.” OE ee :
“Which way do you intend to move?” asked Hickok.
“IT guess the. long gully is about as satisfactory as
any,’ answered the scout. .
"J think I can beat it, and right under the Indians’

BILL STORIES.

“misgivings regarding Cayuse’s escape.

"I5

noses,” said the Laramie man. He then described the
place where he had passed the night before.
“Good grazing and convenient to water?” asked the
scout.
“Neyer Detter” \
“T have another plan, then,” said the scout. .
UV Name ai ee u
“You and Nick take all the horses and repair to your
castle and I avill await Cayuse. I am anxious to know
what is the object of all this chin music.”
At midnight Cayuse had not returned, and the scout
once more approached’ the encampment, having some —
He feared the
daring boy had been overzealous in his work and had
fallen into the hands of the red warriors. Cody realized
that on such occasions as this a prisoner would receive
short shrift at the hands of these red men on the way
to war. ; ae
The scout wished to learn where Sitting Bull himself
could be found. He did not expect to find the famous
chief with this war party, but farther south; but hoped
Cayuse would learn much from the conversation of the
chiefs and the harangues of the silver tongues,
Were Sitting Bull present Buffalo Bill would not
hesitate to walk boldly into camp. But the scout did
not care to take a long journey to the presence of the
chief in the company. of the red men. He did not like
their food or their manner of serving it. fo
Slowly and cautiously the scout worked nearer the
fires, where the festivities were going on as if there
had been no break. Confident in their numbers and
knowing that no strong government force would be

“in that part of the country, they cared little for the

annoyances of prying settlers who might come to seek
revenge for the loss of stolen stock or the murder of
a family.

Suddenly, before the scout the tall form of an Indian
appeared as if by magic. :

The scout would have sprung upon the red man to
check any outcry, but was halted by a whispered word:
“Long Hair?” :

“Yes,” answered the scout. ;

“Tt is good—how ?”’

The Indian extended his hand and the plainsman
grasped it. :

“How!’ he said, “White-man-runs-him ?”’

_ “Why does Pa-e-has-ka walk into the arms of the red
foe?” ,

“To learn why the red man is a foe,’ Buffalo Bill
answered quickly. ae

“The red warriors gather because they have been
robbed,” said the Crow trailer.

“But they are murdering and plundering innocent
people who know nothing of treaty rights, as they go
to join their chief.” ae ie

“‘Pa-e-has-ka knows that there are no dead Indians on
the white man’s ground, but there are many dead white
men on the Indian’s land.”

“Very true, because even when the red brother comes
on the white man’s land to steal he is forgiven, but when
the weak white man goes to the red man’s hills to dig
gold or to the red man’s valleys’ to raise corn, he
ie Geis ci a

“Pa-e-has-ka knows the Indian agents keep good
blankets and give us bad; they feed good meat to the

white children and rotting bones to the red papoose.”’

 
 

ey oo | Me BUFFALO

“And because a white rascal steals from the red men,
the dusky warriors turn’ and slay innocent white squaws
and little babes. _What-man-runs-him, ifthe red war-

riors do not turn back and await a peaceful settlement

of the dispute, it will mean the death of hundreds of
both red and white men, and nothing will be gained.
Who is in command of this party ?” -

“Rain-in-the-face.”

“Where is Sitting Bulls a8

“Big Horn Cafion.”

“Is this force going south now to join ‘Sitting Bull?”

“Not till the snows run into the rivers again.”

“What are the red warriors going to do till then?”

“Make the white man sorry he came to the red man’s”

country.”

“Can you lead me to the camp of Sting Bull?”

“Not yet, Pa-e-has-ka—there are many white brothers
to warn. Does Pa-e-has-ka remember the beautiful
knife?” oe “

The Indian pulled the shining pearl-handled blade
from its sheath, and said: .

“Since Pa-e-has-ka gave knife to his red broer me
swear to be friend to palefaces, always.’

“When will White-man-runs-him lead me to the

tent of Sitting Bull?”

“When the moon hides its face again——

~The Indian was interrupted bya commotion among
those about the fires. There was a scurry and much

- running about, followed by shouts and then hideous
yells.

The Crow warrior listened and then said:

“Catch spy—mebby torture.”

The scout grasped | the Indian.

“Find out for me,” he said earnestly and sternly, “if
it is a Piute boy. If it is, it is Pa-e-has-ka’s loved pard,

99

and he must be saved i: Pa-e-has-ka has to give his

own life.”

“Me come back,”
swiftly.

Buffalo Bill awaited impatiently as the minutes length-
ened into hours.

At last there was a eS rustle and White-man-runs-
him appeared.

“All same so many prisoners,” he began, holding up
three fingers. “So many palefaces’—holding up two
fingers—and so many Piute boy’’—one finger.

‘“Palefaces have paper talk from Sitting Bull, no die
yet. Piute die at stake when sun looks over hills.”

he

said the Crow, and need away

 

CHAPTER X,
THE RESCUE OF LITTLE CAYUSE.

In our hours it would be daylight, and, as the sun
appeared above the eastern hills, the Indian celebration
was to have its climax in firing the pile of dry wood
that was to torture Little Cayuse.

The scout had heard the words of White-man-runs--
him, and his jaws snapped together with a grim deter-

mination to save his little pard—but how?

In the war party were several hundred well-armed —

and well-mounted warriors. In many cases their rifles
‘were superior to. those of the white soldiery, for agents
were in Canada and the East, Davie the ee long-—
range arms. :

‘discussing the situation and prospects. -

tack must be made.

BILL STORIES. | ao /

To endeavor to take the prisoner foreie would be
suicidal, foolhardy. But the scout would make some
attempt—that was a foregone conclusion.

Buffalo Bill left the Vier and moved le the
camp. He studied it from every point of the compass,
learned the exact lay of the land in all directions, and
then went down to the junction of the stream and river
where Hickok and Nomad were snugly hidden. He told
them of the prospective fate of their little Indian pard,
and a plan he had partly perfected.

The scout hoped that within the next hour or two the

enthusiasm of the red men would wane and that many »

of them would go to sleep. Then it was that he pro-
posed to mount Bear Paw, move as far into the camp
as possible, and then charge through among the fires
like a whirlwind, snatching the tied-up Little Cayuse as
he went. Once on the plain, with Bear Paw papeiored,
he would laugh at pursuit.

It was a desperate undertaking, with small chance of
success, but if any one could do it, that man was the
daring Cody, the peerless rider, and he was aware of
his chances.

Hickok and Nomad were to be ready, ae on the
plain, leading Navi, to check the first mad rush of pur-
suit, and then wheel in behind the scout for a long run.

Every man talked as if the attempt were to be a com-
plete success, but in his own mind each foresaw the
grim possibilities of failure.

Nomad thought a better chance of winning lay in a
triple charge, two of the riders shooting right and left
among the Indians, while the third snatched the pris-
oner, and made off.

Hickok had a still different plan and one that ap-
pealed strongly to the scout. It was for a stampede of
the Sioux ponies just as Buffalo Bill was making his
daring dash, and confuse the red men by an attack
in two quarters at once. This plan had the advantage,
also, if successful, of delaying pursuit.

The scout decided that all had b€st ride out on the
plain to the eastward and get ready for the attempt,
which should be made an hour before daylight.

Buffalo Bill, made one more reconnaisance of the
camp and managed to learn the exact location of Little
Cayuse, lying like a bundle of wool in the firelight, near
the tepee of Rain-in-the-face; then he went back to
his companions and everything was made ready.

This was the plan: Hickok was to remain near the.

pony corral, which was on the stream below the en-
campment. At the signal, he would attempt to stam-
pede the herd across the stream and out on the plain
to the southwest. The scout and trapper were to ride

-eut to the east of the camp, where Cody would begin

his cautious approach.. At the momient he put the spurs
to Bear Paw, he gvould emit a wild yell, and plunge
among the fires and sleep-dazed Indians. At the same
instant old Nomad would begin a mad dash along the
outside, shooting and yelling like a fiend, also heading

“tor ie west side of the stream, where both would fall

in with Hickok. If the latter succeeded in stampeding
the ponies, all the pards would devote themselves to
scattering the animals.

Well out on the plain, the three pards were quietly
In two hours

the darkness would begin to lift. In one hour the at-

 

 

 

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THE BURY ALO

While they talked in low tones the quick ears of the
scout ‘detected a sound farther out on the plain. e

“Sh\” he cautioned, “some one is approaching~ on
horseback. J heard a horse snort.”

Passing Bear Paw’s rein to Nomad, the scout made

his way quickly and noiselessly in the direction of the

supposed intruder,
Three horsemen were approaching cautiously, appar-
ently studying the twinkling camp fires, which could be
seen in the lower valley. They were coming directly
toward him, and Buffalo Bill crouched low and awaited.
He knew that when near enough he could distinguish
white from red riders against the light cf the sky.

Then “sh! sh! sh!’ he hissed, and the three horses
were pulled up sharply and a voice said, in a low tone:

‘Hello, there!”

“Easy, Avery,’ said the scout, moving up to the side
of the latter’s horse. “It’s a big war party of Indians
and they are all alive. Who have you here?”

“Tittle Buffalo Bill’ and a big coon, who ‘calls him-
self Skibo, and says he is your pard.” ,

“Good!” exclaimed the scout. “I am glad to see you
all. He shook hands with the delighted cdlored mart,
and the no less pleased boy, William IF. Corey.

“T am heartily glad to gee all of you, but you have
arrived at a time when you ought to be miles away,
especially if your horses are tired.”

‘Whey &te dresh,’? declared Avery, “for we rested
five hours since dark and came to investigate this fire-
light. I expected ‘twas Indians, but I hoped it might
be you.” . HN os

“How did you happen. to come?” asked the scout. .

“Why, the negro came along, desperately anxious to
connect with you, and wouldn’t give me no peace till I
agreed to try to follow your trail. Then the lad
wouldn’t give me no peace till I agreed to let him come
along—so here we are, an’ I’ve done my part in find-
in’ vert

“Tt’s one chance in ten thousand that you ever found
us. But time flies, and our plans are to be carried out,
anyway.”

He briefly explained the situation and the plan of
rescue. ao

“Can’t I help?” asked the boy eagerly, “I brought
my bugle.”

“Can you blow the call?” asked the scout, seized with
a new idea. :

“Yes, sir; uncle says I can do it as
bugler.” :

“Good! my boy, you shall perform the lion’s share.
I will revise my plan. Hickok shall proceed as arranged
before. I will creep down the brook to the edge of the
encampment. The bugler shall be posted out from
the northeast side, Avery to remain with the bugler and
give off commands in a loud voice. Nomad and Skibo
are to go to the southeast side near the river, and when
the bugle sounds they must shout loud commands to im-
aginary soldiers and gallop along the front with all the
clatter possible. While this is going on Hickok will
start the horses, and I will rush into camp and release
Cayuse. In the excitement of expectant attack the ruse
will work-without a shot.”

The scout now felt so certain of victory that he was
almost jubilant. Over it all was the glamour of the
gamble with death, which the war horse feels in battle.

well as an army

BILL STORIES.

‘”

Every man of the party was on the raw edge of fool- :

hardy daring. They would rescue the faithful little
Indian pard if they had to fight Sitting Bull’s entire
force of braves.

The critical moment came at last, and to the boy from
Avery’s ranch had been allotted the honor of opening
the ball.

“Could this youngster perform his part?’ that was
the question the scout asked himself.

Most lads would have been unable to blow out a candle
at such a tense moment, and Buffalo Bill realized the

tremendous nervous strain upon one so young, but he.

knew the metal of this lad was of far different quality
from that of the average boy. :

The scout had crept down until barely thirty feet
separated him from the dying embers of the nearest fire.
About it were grouped a score of braves, some smoking
and wearing out the hours of darkness, others asleep
with heads curled on crooked arm. ae

Near the tepee of the chief the fire also had sunk to a
few glowing coals, but the scout could make out the
form of Little Cayuse, and a couple of guards near him,

‘On the lower side of the field, braves were settiing a
post and bringing fuel for the torture pyre.

The scout tightened his belt, and looked to his revol-

vers. He was ready... :

Then the still air of the early morning quavered in
the clear, far-sounding notes of the bugle, and across
the plain rang the “Forwar-r-d! March!” in stentorian
tones. Again, far to the southward of the bugle call
came other hoarse commands and the sound of galloping
horses.

The Indians sprang up and darted hither and thither
in consternation. Everything was in confusion.

Some of the braves kicked out every ember of fire,
for that would make targets of the red men to the
white soldiers beyond.”

At the same moment pandemonium broke loose among
the ponies. There were yelps, barks and screams, and
the jumping, shorting and squealing of frightened mus-

tangs. Away they scurried, and the dazed braves offered —

little resistance.

Buffalo Bill bounded in among the Indians, and, in :

the darkness and their demoralized. state, they knew
not but that he was one of them. He found Cayuse, cut
the Piute’s bonds, and lifted the boy to his feet, when he
heard a startled grunt at his elbow.

Like a flash the scout wheeled and sprang sidewise, in
time to avoid a vicious drive from a knife. He whipped
out his own blade, and steel met steel. The Indian was
Buffalo Bill’s own height and a powerful fellow, agile
as a cat, and skilled in the use of the weapon in hand.

The tumult about them and the gloom prevented in-_

stant discovery by the braves at hand. One buck came
near enough to see the struggle and sprang at the scout
:

~

 
 

18 se | ee BUERALO

with a tomahawk, but he met a club from Little Cayuse,
who was now on his feet, that stretched him out.

Like tigers the scout and his antagonist lunged and
parried, the steely muscles of the scout pressing the
other back, yet neither sure of himself, because of the
darkness.

In avoiding a terrific co the scout stepped back,

caught the red man’s blade on his own, and as the brave |

came on of his own momentum, almost into Buffalo
Bill’s arms, the latter shot a quick blow with his left
fist that caught the red on the point of the chin, and
the battle was over.

» “This’ way, Cayuse,” said the scout, as he bounded
over the fallen Indian. But before he had covered ten
feet he sprang almost into the arms of three or four
warriors coming that way. It was too late to turn back,
and like a battering-ram the scout shot ahead. His arms
worked like piston .rods, and the surprised Indians fell
before the onslaught.

“Come on, Cayuse,” he called, and darted out the way
he had come. Cayuse was at his heels as they came
‘ to the brook.

A little farther up they found Bear Paw and Navi
tethered, and a moment later Avery and the boy, followed
by Hickok and old Nomad, galloped up.

The scout remembered, the lone pony hitched in the
bushes near by, and released the animal, which followed
them as they raced away after Hickok.

Wild Bill was having the time of his life, out on the
plains, with the herd of Indian - ponies darting like
mad things before him.

“When ther redskins wake up they'll wonder whar
‘we come from an’ whar we went,” chortled old Nomad.
“On’y one trouble w’th that, Buffler, “twarn’t long er-
nuft. Ef we c’d er hed ‘bout twenty-four hours jes’ ez
excitin’ mebbe the’d been some sassifaction in: et.”

“Golly! Mars’ Billyum, Ah reckon dey t’ought de
reg lars am right at de back doh, wen dey hear dis
gemman swell out ‘is chist an’ sing out: “Git inter line,
dar, yer goor fer nuffin’ brack possum eaters!’ Dat’s
what Ah said.’

“Now, boys,” said Buffalo Bill, after they had come
up. with Hickok, “don’t fool yourselves with the notion
that it is all over but the shouting, for it isn’t. It is
almost daylight, and we are on the open plain with three
hundred throughly aroused red men on our trail as soon
as it is light enough to see. It is up to us to put as
much distance between ourselves and the Indians as pos-
sible before light. To the west lies a heavy range of
hills, which we ought to make in three hours’ hard rid-
ing. Are you all good for it?”

“Ay,” came the chorus. :

When the sun arose the scout’s party had passed quite
a range of hills, and if the Indians were in pursuit they
were nowhere visible.

 

BILL STORIES, : ee /

“Ef the’s ary game I like ter play at, et’s er hide-an’-
whoop scramble with ther reds,” piped Nomad.

“Plenty whoop,” suggested Cayuse; “some hide, more
fight. Pa-e-has-ka all same
and nowhere, hit like grizzly, kick all same Hide-rack,
Injun think um heap bad medicine.”

“Did yer hev er beauty fight er gittin’ ther papoose,
Buffier ?” asked Nomad.

“Oh, there were one or two got in the way, but they

“were so scared they couldn’t Agni, Gs answered the scout |

modestly.

-“Shore; ther pesky varmints wor so scairt they a
laid down an’ stuck up their feet ter be tied—thet’s jes’
like them air Sioux,” sarcastically snapped the as
because the scout made so little of his exploit.

To turn the conversation, Cody said:

“Here’s a good place to make an attack and I move
we make it—on-our haversacks.”’
. “Hooray!” sang Hickok, “I second the motion.”

CHAPTER Xf,

BUFFALO BILL SAVES THE LIVES OF TEN.

During the darkness and excitement of the expected —

attack, while the Sioux were pulling themselves together,
the prisoners were forgotten. Price managed to slip his

‘bonds, and released Bloody Ike; not that he had any

particular love for the ex-miner, but because misery
loves company, and rogues cling together in adversity.

The pair found some blankets and arms, and mingling
with the braves worked down the stream until they came

to the motte of timber at the river bank. They pre- ,
_ ferred to remain prisoners among the Indians to being

captured by the soldiers, which they momentarily ex-
pected to charge on the Indian encampment.

‘The Indians, too, believed that U.S. Cavalry bay
awaited daylight to charge. That explained why the
red men had failed to follow Cody and his party.

Scduts were hurriedly sent out to investigate the po-

sition and number of the enemy, and reported that they
could not find any troops, Daylight revealed the great
plain, instead of bristling with U.S, soldiery, as barren
as the evening before,

The Indians were mystified. They had, heard the
bugle call, the giving of orders, and the galloping of
officers’ horses. Spies, too, had been in the camp by
the dozen, according to the reports of those who had

come in contact with Cody, and the ponies had been

stampeded and scattered over the plain. :

The Indians felt great relief that the army had van-
ished, but they held a superstitious presentiment that
the paleface riders and walkaheaps might drop from

the clear sky, or arise out of the ground at any moment.

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Braves were sent out to round up the ponies, and a

~ council of the chiefs decided that it would be better

to move to the hills and find some spot where such a sur-
prise would be impossible.

Price and Bloody Ike hid in the timber until they
heard the Sioux move away; then they came out and
searched the camp ground for food. Some pieces of
buffalo meat were found and broiled over the coals, and
eaten without salt.

“Pretty tough lug for you and me, Ike.”

Ike growled his discontent. He felt that if he had
refused to mix up with Price he would not be in such
desperate circumstances. To be landed in the middle of
a hostile country, with nothing but enemies on all sides,
was no joke. To be there without a mount was doubly
serious.

Although the distance to the hills looked short, Hiece
men knew that it was a long and‘tiresome journey to
those unfamiliar with pedestrianism.

Price noted that the Sioux traveled in a southeasterly
direction; he decided to proceed west, hoping to be able
to find a remote ranch, from which they could steal food
and horses. Almost any horse would be a relief from
this leg-wearying march.

And thus it came about that late that night two tired
and hungry men, searching for a hiding and resting place
among the bluffs and gashes of the ever-changing hills,
came over the rim of a basin, to see a cheerful fire at its
bottom and a group of men sitting around it. ~

“Good!” almost shouted Price. “A party of gold
seekers, who have crossed“from the Black Hills. They
are prospecting these hills and are no doubt well sup-
plied with provisions, and horses. Perhaps we can ‘an-
nex—with your knowledge of mining and my knack of
tickling human nature.”

“Safer to steal it and/keep away from these fellows.
If they lose a couple of horses and some duffle, they’ll
lay it to the Indians.”

“But this doesn’t look like an easy place to sneak out
of, with a horse attached.’

“Thats 80; puu Mm, that case we'd. bette™ annex the
grub, an’ wait for a better show. If ye mingle with
these fellows itis just so many more who know where
we are, and if any soldiers meet up with them and ask
for you, they'll connect.”

“You're tight, Ike, but Par so hungry I don’t be-
lieve I can wait to make a good steal.”

“Leave that to me. You stay up here in the rocks
an’ chew your boot leg, while I go down to look things
over. I hope I get a grab at the powder supply.”

Bloody Ike crept over the rocks and around the pit-
falls of the broken buttes, and. slowly made the descent
toward the flickering camp fire. He wondered how
horses ever had been landed where he could see them

BILE STORIES. ce "9

beyond the fire. In his opinion such horses must have
wings. Ile, himself, had no flying machine, and he was
minus much cuticle from his head to his heels.

The ex-miner was weary and half famished, and with
the slipping and sliding among the jagged corners he
would have looked, in daylight, like a candidate for a
hospital. He was “Bloody” Ike, indeed.

But he was bent on mischief, and determined to ac-
complish it. He cared naught who these men were, or —
what they represented—it was their food he was after,
their horses, if possible, and last, but not least, their
powder, if they had any.

He crept close to the peaceful camp where ten men
sat around a cheerful blaze, smoking their pipes and
relating stories of the trail and the mines. The party
was made up of Buffalo Bill and his pards, Avery and
the boy, and three miners with whom the scout had con-
nected in the foothills. Phe miners were glad to meet
English-speaking men, after several months in the wilds,
where the only human beings they had seen were In-
dians. ,

Buffalo Bill was glad to avail himself of the know!l-
edge these men had of this part of the country.

The rock-bound fastness of the camping place rec-
ommended itself to him as a headquarters while in that
part of the world, and combined good water supply and
grazing for the horses, where they could not be stam-
peded. The miners had six mounts, and had improvised
a trap at the only entrance to the high-walled “dip,”
where a horse could enter or depart.

A man could scale the cliffs, if he had his nerve tle
him, but no animal with hoofs, unless it be a mountain
goat, could expect to enter or leave by any other source.

In other ages great clefts of rock had dropped from
the cliffs above and formed dark caverns and numerous
hiding places, where one familiar with:them might defy
an army to dislodge him. Here the miners had ar-
ranged their lodges and had little fear of attack by In-
dians.

As Bloody Ike stole nearer onde nearer, he gasped with
surprise. He recognized Buffalo Bill and some of his
pards. Several times in the past he had made use of
the most devilish means he could devise to put them out
of the way, and he had yearned for one more oppor-
tunity.

“Oh! for his powder and-fuse! Yoo

But there might be a chance—he could see shovels and
picks leaning against a rock near the fire. Some of
these men must be miners and if so they would be apt
to make use of pewder or explosive in some form.

Ike was near enough to catch some words of the con-
versation when the men arose, knocked the ash from
their pipes, and going back under the side of a,great
leaning rock, rolled in their blankets and said good
night. +

“Saw,

 
 

26 ve Pe BUPFALO

For a time—a long time, it seemed to him—lIke
waited until he felt sure the men were all asleep, and
then he began a quiet investigation of the place on his
own hook.

The fire had sunk away to a few embers, the flickering
blaze from which cast fantastic and dancing shadows
on the rocks and walls. Indeed, the stealthy figure
might have been mistaken for a part of the fitting pic-
ture painted by the fire gods.

Ike found food and regaled himself and stuffed his
pockets for his guilty partner-on the rim aboye—and
then, “Eureka!” Here werg,two cans of blasting pow-
der—and a fuse! a big coil of it!”

A devilish plot began to form in the abnormal a
matter of the bad man’s brain.

Here were some of the men he hated most; here were
stores of provision and good horses, In this stronghold
he and Price could hide until search for them should be
exhausted—ii there were none having a prior claim—
and here, at his hand, were the means of jumping the
claims of those who came before and taking posse
of all.

How easy it would be—all that seemed necessary was
to attach the fuse—so; and place the keg under the side
_ of this pile of rocks—so; and softly pull some of them
into a position around and on top of it—so.

The mass of loose stones and blocks of granite, that
had been cleared from the almost level. floor of the

camping place, lay in just the right position to be hurled

in their deadly mission, full upon the sleeping men.
“Yes, how easy it would be!”

All he would have to do would be to find a match in
his ragged pocket—scrape it lightly over his trousers
leg—so; and apply it to the end of the fuse.

Oh, yes, his nerve had always stood him in good stead
—when he lighted a fuse he always stood over it after
other men had fled, to see that the fuse was well fired
and not going out.

How easy! It lighted the first time! It was running
splendidly! He had cut a generous length of fuse to
give him ample time to get well beyond the terrific
“concussion, which would follow in a few seconds.

He must go,

With the agility of the experienced mountaineer he
darted over the rocks, caught up the other can of powder
and some of the provision bags, and sprang away into
the shadows and disappeared among the rocks.

Buffalo Bill was restless. He was not given to visions
or presentiments, and did not believe in forerunners;
but when a decaying molar got its tantrums and began
to put in the kicks of a wild horse, it disturbed his slum-
bers.. He bore the pain as long as possible and then
crawled out softly, that he might not ood his com-
panions.

 

BILL STORIES. - os

The scout had determined to try the solace of his pipe.

‘As he approached the almost lifeless coals of the even-
ing’s fire he was surprised to see a man arise from the
dense shadow of a pile of rock and dart away,

He at first thought it was one of the miners, but the
apparent haste and stealthy step aroused the scout’s sus-

picion.
He stepped along and peered behind the rock pile to
see if there might be others. re

He saw only a little sparkling point of light that ~

would hardly have burned a baby’s finger.

But the scout stared in horror for an instant, then
bounded over the rocks like a madman.

He tore at the spluttering spark with®his bare hands,

but it was already beyond the grasp of his fingers under

the rock pile. |

It was crawling away rapidly... its single baleful eye
snapping defiantly at its pursuer.

Buffalo Bill plunged his hands among the rocks and
tore them away with insane fury.

He hurled them right and left, at the same vee shout-
ing:

“Turn out, be Get behind the rocks!

Then he came to the powder can.
and he saw the fatal spark, but where the fuse was at-
tached he could not see.

He grasped the can with both hands and Ppped it
from its surroundings,

The sputtering light clung to it.

Like lightning he raised the can above his head and
threw it far out over a chasm that yawned a rod away.

A roar and blinding flash in mid-air told how near
the scout had been to being too late.

- The concussion threw him and others who had jumped
up at his shouts, from their feet.
injured. )

Torches and lanterns were lighted and a search of the
camp begun.

“It’s the work of Bloody Ike, the powder fiend,” de-
clared Hickok, and the others agreed with him.

“He ha® got away with your other can of powder
and the coil of fuse,” said the scout to tle miners,

“And every can of that powder is worth a small
fortune, ‘way out here,” mourned one of the men.

“1 didn’t suppose there was a devil bad enough, in

existence, to attempt to kill ten men in cold blood,’ said
Hickok.

“Tf it’s Ike Pelletier, who once handled the explosives
in the Bridger range mines, he’d murder a regiment for
a hundred dollars. And I’d give twice that to get next
to him for a few minutes,’ said Avery..

“Well,” said the scout, “I am convinced that he is in ©

this basin now—he can’t be far off, for I saw the man
who lighted the fuse running away—and we must hunt

in

A blast!”
He felt its: rind)

But no one was .

 

 

DW 0) eee

cc
era roe,

 

 

the villain down and see that he pays the penalty for
his crimes.”

“That is all right from your standpoint,” said Avery.
“You represent the law. But I represent justice swift
and sure, with no chance for a slip-up. If I see Ike
first, you will never take him back for trial,”, |

“Didn’t you see him that day at the surveyors’
shanty?’ asked the scout.

“Yes, I saw both men, but I didn’t recognize either of
them, yet I thought the one with whiskers resembled
some one I had known.”

“If you have a bullet for him, there must be a story
behind it?’ suggested one of the miners.

“There is, but it is too long to tell to- night, besides,
we've got to capture the scoundrel.”

CHAPTER X11,
THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR.

When Bloody Ike reached the top of the basin, where
Price was waiting impatiently, and consumed with ¢uri-
osity, he was out of breath and unable to express his
feelings, but he shook his fists, waved his arms, gasped
and choked in impotent rage. —

“Did you get any grub?’ asked Price,

Ike pulled bread and meat from his pockets.

Price fell to and kept his mouth so full that he could
not ask questions until Ike had had opportunity to re-
gain his wind.

Ike’s first words indicatinig a state of reason, after’ a
broadside of oaths and imprecations hurled in the direc-
tion of the lights which could be seen* moving about
down below, were:

“We've got to get out of here.”

“Can’t we hide among the rocks somewhere until they
give up the chase?”

“They'll never give up the chase—who do you sup-
pose is there?”

“No; who?’

“Buffalo Bill and his pards.”

The: Gevale : |

“Worse than that: Buffalo Bill is ten devils and a
million imps when he is on a man’s trail, curse him.
I’ve tried over and over again to blow him to kingdom
come, and he defeats me every time. He bears some
sort of a charmed life and it’s no use for me to buck
up against 7im.”’

“What was the blow-up?’

“A can of blasting powder that ae to have lifted
the whole bunch of them into next week, but that long-
haired representative of Uncle Sam and the hot place
jumped out just in time to see the fuse, dig the can out
of the rocks and throw it into a chasm before it ex-

THE BUFFALO’

BIL’ STORIES 7 | ar

ploded. Oh! if it only had gone off in his hands, in-
stead of three seconds later!”

“Pretty bold thing to do!”
_ “Curse him, yes, He isn’t afraid of man or deyil, and
it is his everlasting readiness to act and take the chances
that wins. If I’d been ten seconds later he’d probably
pumped me full of lead, into the bargain!’ i

“He’s a bad man to buck up against; I’ve found that
out, Ike.”

“Well, I said we’ve got to get out of this place, and
the sooner we go the better—are you ready?’

“Which way shall we go—out across the plain again?”

“Great Scott! no. They’ve got horses and would pick
us up as soon as light. We've got to stick to the moun-
tains, where a horse can’t go, and keep out of sight—
and keep goifig. Id rather have old Split- HOOF, himself,

on my trail than Buffalo Bill.”

“We can’t live in these mountains long—thére isn’t
so much as a catamount to eat.”
“We'll have to go hungry, then, for I’m going & keep

as far from Cody as possible.”

“You seem to have got a new Po ee of ae
scout.”

“Well, you’d have, if you had seen him lift that can
of blasting powder above his head when he was expect-
ing it to go off every second, and throw it farther than
I could throw a ten-pound weight. I tell you a man
that’s got nerve and strength like that is too many
for dike.’

“All right, lead the way; I feel better after eating, ©
but I’m so tired and sore I can’t go fast or far. I wish
you'd got hold of more grub.”

“T did, and a can of powder, and started with them,
but when I saw Cody dig out my blast and throw it away
I lost my nerve and dropped everything. I knew then
it was no use for me to try to do him, and all I thought
of was getting as much space between me and him as
possible.”

“Vou are gone bad, aren’t your” said Price.

The pair clambered away over the rocks, slipping and
sliding in the darkness and muttering bitter anathemas
because of their misfortunes.

In their case, as in all others, the way of the trans-
eressor is hard. If the hardships are not physical and
apparent to the world, they are mental, and the one who
defies the laws of God and man is undergoing torture
which he is too great a moral coward to admit. The
tight way is not only the best way, but the easiest way,
and if reward does not come in dollars and cents, it
comes in the satisfaction of knowing that one has done

“his. best.

Price still held to ie nerve, while Ike’s had been
shattered by one incident—the demonstration of a brave
mam that he has no fear to do right, whatever the con-
sequences.

 
 

  
   

22

Price was suffering physical torture and readily ad-
mitted it to his partner in crime, but he had not weak-
ened to a degree that would cause him to admit, even
to Bloody Ike, that he feared for the future, other than
for its physical discomforts.

“Took out!” cried Ike, who was in the foe suddenly.
He clung to a stunted evergreen and saved himself from
plunging down a dark chasm, which yawned at his feet.

But his warning came too late for Price, ‘whose totter-
ing condition sent him headlong.

As he felt himself going ‘into the black depths below,
the former Indian agent and gambler, who had bled
more tenderfeet than any other bad man of Bozeman,
uttered a wild cry of despair.

But Price’s last hour had not-come. After a fall of
- not more than ten feet he landed in a deep pool of ice-
cold water, and went down, down, till his head seemed
‘bursting. before he reached the top again.

-Gasping and thrashing about, calling wildly for help,

_ and begging Ike to save him, Price raised a pitiful howl
, that irritated Ike.
“You make more noise than a gang of scared young
ones,” said Ike. “If you don’t shut up I won’t bother
to pull you out. Buffalo Bill’s gang can hear you all
over the mountain.”

Price continued to plead, and, striking a match, Ike
was able to see his way down the rocks to where he
could reach his struggling companion.

That ended their journey that night, for Price ab-
solutely refused to proceed in the darkness. He was
shivering and exhausted, his teeth chattering and his
courage ebbing out with his strength.

Ike groped about until he found a gash in the gully
they had been pursuing, where a thick growth of stunted
spruce and fir had found footing.
rocks he started a fire and Price hovered over it in an
_ attempt to warmyvhis body and dry his clothing.

Ike lay down to sleep, and declared with half-sup-
pressed anger that he didn’t care what happened.

Standing over the fire, until he choked from the smoke
of it, and slapping himself to increase the blood flow,
Price almost fell over and his knees knocked together
from some cause other than cold, when a voice beside
him said: a

“Indian agent cold now; be hot enough in next world.” :

_ “Wh—who’re your”

“Me -White-man-runs-him, friend of honest palefaces;
hate thieves and liars.”

“Do you know Buffalo Bill?”

“Him a man in wore him white friend of
red men.’

“Do you know where he is?”

“Wuh; him in mountains; mebby find te cut-
throats, ane um back to be hung.”

THE BUFFALO/ BILL STORIES.

ir a pocket in: the |

    

“For how much money will you take us out of here

~ and show us the way to Laramie?’

“Me not trade with white thief. Buffalo Bill take you
Iarainre =
“If I would give you one hundred ponies, wouldn't |
you get us:out of this placer”
“Much as the red man loves these hills and plains, he
would not sell his services for it all, to the white thief

who stole the lives of squaws and papooses,’

“Won’t you procure us food’ for money?”
“Tf the red chief had the rotten meat you have given,
his red brother, he would sell it to you.”

“See!” cried Price, attempting to awaken pity in the _

heart of the Indian, “I shiver and die.”
“Tf the red chief had the rags you have given his
braves for blankets, he would burn them that the sight
might rekindle the fires in the paleface robber’s blood.”
Price said no more, but held his trembling hands in
the feeble blaze and waited. All his offers were spurned,
and he knew that any further appeal would be useless.
“T go, paleface dog,” said the Crow trailer,

same fire and shrivel, and squirm, and burn with you.”

“Don’t tell Buffalo Bill where I am!’ gasped Price
feebly.

“Buffalo Bill’s heart oe big and soft.
riors hate the agent with the forked tongue.

The Indian vanished and Price sank down by his little
fire, broken and disheartened. In a short month he had
come to this from a position of importance in a respect-
able community. Then he spent money right and left
and lived in luxury, with henchmen to do his bidding ;
now he was freezing, starving, and men of all races
turned their hands against him.

When Bloody Ike awoke at daylight, wee told him a8
the visit of the Indian.

“Ves, the red sneak has gone after a posse of grunters
to capture us. I hope we are taken by a different party
than the one which nabbed us before; perhaps a) yout
pretended letter from Sitting Bull would go again,” said
tie.

“No, this White-man-runs-hitm..seems to be awake
to the trick, for he said ‘paper lie’ would burn with us.”

“Excuse me! if they are going to talk fire before they
take us, I, for one, am not going to be taken easily. The
sooner we get out of this part of the country the bet-
ter. We had better keep to the rocks as much as pos-
sible, so the trailers can’t follow us. And another
thing we must remember, is to keep well down in the
gullies and dark places, where Buffalo Bill’s party can’t
see us, if they are on the watch from the heights.”

At mid-forenoon Price was exhausted and unable to
stagger any’ farther. So they descended into a deep
cafion where the gloom at that time of day was like

Sioux war-

and. the™
‘stern red man waved his arms to signify all around him.

chute
shall come again, and your paper lies shall hang over the —

 

 

    
  
 
   
    
 
 

   
  
 
 
    
     
 
   
  
  
  
 
  
  
  
   
  

 

 

 

 

 

elim Ee Pd ee Ss ha TIO

   
 

 

THE BUPRALO

evening, and there found a brook and in it sizable eray-
ling.

They had neither hook nor line, but by damming the
brook, at a narrow pla¢e above, Price and Ike allowed
the water to run from a pool below and then picked up a
bounteous roast of the little fishes.

The prospects of relief from hunger somewhat cheered
these fellows, who were getting a foretaste of torment,
even before they had departed the terrestrial sphere.

Both men became quite cheerful as they hastened up
the gully in search of material that would ANS age,
the influence of fire.

They found some dry-kye and pitchy knots, which

promised a fire that would seem friendly and at the same

time cook the precious little pile of fishes,

As they made their way back to the spot chosen for a
camp ground, and from whence their smoke could
not be seen in any direction, they were quite cheerful,
and chatted together in low tones, for they had not yet
overcome the fear that enemies were lurking near.

But when they came to the opening in the rocks what
a surprise and disappointment awaited them.

A large grizzly bear sat munching their fish with
apparent approval and satisfaction.

CHAPTER Xi.
A SUCCESSION OF SURPRISES.

It was agreed to leave two of the miners to guard the
camp and horses, and that the other eight should set out
in search of Price and Bloody Ike. Little Buffalo
Bill was to go with the scout; Avery and Hickok went
in another direction; Nomad and Cayuse took up the
search together, and Skibo and the third miner made
up the fourth party.

It had been decided to thoroughly scout that portion »

of the mountains and if possible “put the kibosh” on
the pair of rascals who were not only a menace to any
community, but a pest when turned loose in the wilds,

_ preying on man and beast, without mercy and in most

dastardly manner.

‘The miners were delighted at discovering their other
kee of powder and the bags of food stuff where Ike @d
dropped them. ‘The cost of packing, food, tools, and
powder into this wild territory was disheartening.

“What shall Ah do wiv dem human alligators, if Ah
comes up to um in de mountings an’ dey hee ter be
brung in, Mars’ Billyum ?” C
“Use them as you did the bull at Cooley’s ranch—
take them by the horns and twist their heads off,” inter-
cupted Hickok. :

“Bring them in, Skibo, if not alive some other way,”

answered the scout quietly. 4

»some, brave, and honest boys.

‘bound gulch,

BILL STORIES. Cae

“Vah, on dat’s what Ah wiil, Mars’ Billyum; if Ah
gets one 0’ dem lily-white han’s ob mine onto um, Det
what Ah will, Mars’ Billyum.”

“Never mind the color of the hands, so long as they
are honest,” said the scout. —

“Them’s my sentiments,’ piped Nomad.

As soon as it was light enough to see, the four par-
ties were searching every nook, and in accordance with
Buffalo Bill’s orders, were making as little noise and dis-
turbance as possible. This was observed for the double
purpose of hiding their movements from the men they
were after, and to avoid attracting the attention of stray
bands of Sioux, who might be in that territory.

The scout and young Corey made directly west into
the heart of the hills. The boy was in the seventh
heaven of the real thing in happiness. To have been
selected as the companion in this man hunt, by the fa-
mous scout himself, was honor enough for one boy.
That Buffalo Bill-chose the lad because he wished to
see that no harm came to him, did not occur to the boy.

The scout found the wiry legs and toil-hardened body
of the boy could stand the hardships of mountain. climb-
ing ds well as any man. Indeed, young Corey bounded
from rock to rock with the agility of a monkey and was
as sure of his footing and as fearless.

Unlike most boys, whose faces are shining with hap-
piness and whose minds are overflowing with enthu-
siasm for the work in hand, young Corey was quiet and
almost wordless except when a question was addressed to

&

him by the scout.
_ Cody liked this trait—it was : the inherent strong point
in the character of a good scout.

It was a delightful day in the cool, ek hills. The
air was laden with life-building ozone, and fairly pun-
gent in its light and bracing purity. s

The scout, himself, felt the joyous effect of the day
and companion. What whole-souled man can say that

he does not enjoy the presence of a clean, pure-minded

And Buffalo Bill always loved strong, whole-
He thoroughly liked this
manly chap and determined to see that he was returned
safely to his parents and sisters,

youth ?

They paused for lunch, where a little mountain stream
eddied listlessly in a sandy-shored basin, in a rock-
Tt was cool and shadowy there, with the
odor of the pines and other evergreens which eked out
a stunted existence on the almost bare rock.

The boy had produced a fishhook and line, and
caught a fine string of trout and grayling, and these
were broiled over glowing coals, to be seasoned with salt
and pepper from the scout’s pocket case.

Can a boy imagine anything’ more dehchitak than
camping in the open with a man whose daring exploits
are being read by the whole world?

 
 

KY

24 THE BUFFALO

Any boy might expect an adventure at any moment

from the very love of adventure to get in Buffalo Bill’s
way. And to young Corey it came with such sudden-
~ ness as to almost take his breath away.

After, eating, the scout stretched out in the sun to
seek council with his pipe, and the boy could not resist
the temptation to once more try the trout. “Perhaps
I'll get a few for supper,” he told the scout.

He had caught several trout and was trying to lure
a big fellow from a gloomy retreat under the side of a
rock, when the boy felt instinctively the presence of
danger. He glanced up and his eyes were fascinated
by what he saw.

Not fifteen feet away was a mountain lion, with eyes
fixed upon him, and his whole sinuous body in motion,
with the appearance of a cat about to spring upon a
bid, 3 | ;

The boy’s riflé lay by the camp fire, but his revolver
was in his belt, and his hand moved swiftly toward it.
Then he remembered that Buffalo Bill had said they
must make as little noise as possible.

_. He would not fire a shot, even to save his life, for
had not Buffalo Bill, in substance, ordered otherwise?

He drew his sheath knife, gripped it firmly, strained
every muscle to resist the shock that he knew was soon
to come, and awaited the spring of the panther.

The animal rocked its body from side to side, worked
its claws in and out as its feet caressed the rock, and its
whiskers twitched in Soran of the feast in pros-
pect. ;
The boy saw the beast creep nearer and nearer, then
- move more rapidly and poise itself for a spring.

_ And then there was a sharp, whiplike report, and the
animal leaped/ straight up into the air, to fall back
writhing in death agony.

“Why didn’t you pull your gun, as you started to do?”
asked the scout..

“I remembered that you didn’t want us to make a
noise,’ answered the boy.

Buffalo Bill extended his hand and said:

“You area brave lad, and I admire your courage and

nerve, but I want you to remember that all rules must
give way before a menace to human life—either your
own oF that of another. Use your best judgment, al-
ways.” .

Late in the afternoon the scout and boy had passed

to the western slope of the range of hills and saw be-

fore them a valley, green and luxuriant, perhaps ten or

twelve miles broad, and banked on the west by another
range of mountains that looked high and forbidding.
They stood out upon the high, bare rock and admired
the beautiful land before them, as yet almost unknown to
civilization, Only the trapper and miner and a few
- yenturesome herdsmen had sought this wild country.

- foothills.

   

BILL STORIES.

About a mile out upon the plain) was ‘a small herd of

cattle, and a solitary horseman watching them.
haps half a mile up the valley could be seen a- ‘Trude ~
hut, and about the door a woma, and several small chil-
dren.
‘Even as they looked, a party of horsemen appeared on
the plain to the southward, coming out from a gash in the
It took Buffalo Bill less than half a minute to
decide that they were Indians and that they had seen the
herd of the lone rancher and were bent on mischief.

The scout wondered if the herdsman would see them
in time to take measures for the defense of himself and
his family. The herd was probably as good as lost..

There were about ten of the red riders, and they rode

straight for the cattle, boldly and without attempt to.
conceal” their presence. They were scarcely three miles
away.
Yes, the herder saw his prospective visitors and_be-
gan hustling his stock toward the cabin, which sat at
the base of a little round-topped hill where the creek
made a sharp turn around it.

At first the scout was puzzled. He could not imagine
what safety there would be to the herd in closer prox-
imity to the building unless the settler hoped to shoot
from behind his cabin walls and keep the reds away from
the herd. But presently he made out a narrow passage
between the hut and the creek which seemed to be an
entrance to a natural amphitheatre on the river side of
the hill. '

It was an anxious time for theawatching scout, for the
Indians were gaining rapidly and the cattle would run
here and there and pause to grasp a mouthful or two
of grass.

Then, when they were nearer, the brave wife, in spite
of the oncoming terror, whose yells could now be heard,
‘ran out and assisted in rounding the stock into the little
inclosure. a,

- Before it was done the Indians were firing rapidly
and bullets must have sprinkled closely about ue plucky
herdsman and his helpmeet.

The settler slipped from the saddle, sending his mount
in with the stock, and while the woman darted into the
cabin, he dropped upon one knee and took deliberate
aigg at the oncoming, yelling, shooting horsemen.

“Crack! went the rifle, and one savage pitched from
‘the saddle. The settler did not move and the riders
came on, broken up somewhat by the dodging, riderless
horse.

“Crack!” a horse and rider plunged into the grass.

“Crack!”? another riderless horse, and then the red
men wheeled and galloped the other way, to get beyond
the rahge of that unwavering repeater. ©

But a fourth was lifted from the saddle before they
were beyond range. '

  
   

i

 

Per 3

 
—

THE BUFFALO

There the Indians paused to holg council. It had
been a costly exploit for them. he was undoubt-—
edly dead and so was a pony. Two red men who had
been wounded were~crawling away in the grass, and
the one who rode the dead pony- was evidently seriously
hurt, for he lay quite still.

The settler stalked calmly back and fob in front
of his little castle, and the wife now made her appearance
in the doorway with children clinging to her. She
passed her husband another rifle, and took the one he
had to replenish the magazine.

Buffalo Bill admired the fortitude of these hardy
frontier folk, but he told the boy that in the darkness
when the settler could not see to make shots count, the
Indians would charge on the little cabin, murder all the
inmates, and drive off the stock. That was all the red

men were waiting for now, the cover of darkness. :

That the settler and his wife realized it was seen by

the actions of the woman, who began carrying water

into the cabin from the river and apparently storing it
in barrels and tubs. She also labored unceasingly with
heavy blocks of wood, which probably were to be used
as a barricade. And lastly, she carried pailful. after
pailful of water to the thatched roof and soaked it down
thoroughly.

The Indians watched the labors of the “white squaw,”
and now and then A forth derisive yells, but they kept
well, beyond. reach of the rifle in the hands of the man
who so calmly faced them. They knew, also, that the
settler was well armed, for the woman now brought out
several rifles and leaned them against the cabin in silent
proclamation of their readiness for battle.

As the shadows lengthened in the little valley the
woman once more gave the roof of the shanty a gen-
erous wetting down, removed everything movable to the
interior, and the settler retired to the doorstep with a
barricade of logs in front of him.

fe hope the will not attempt to remain there after
dark,” said the scout to his boy companion.

“Why not?”

“Because the Indians can approach to within a few
rods before he can see them and then one mad charge
and all is over, before he can shoot twice.”

“He ought to go inside and barricade the door and
shoot from where they can’t ee at him, hadn't he?’

asked the boy.

c ves.

Cant we belp, thea Pe

“We'll certainly try, as soon as it is dark enough so
they cannot see our approach.” :

“Good! I hoped we could, for I am afraid morning
would find the cabin burned and the settlers all mur-
dered?’

- When it was quite dark the two “Bills” moved quietly

? oe #

BILL STORIES. | 25

nearer the little cabin by the mound, expecting every
moment to hear the thunder of pounding hoofsand the
yelly of the savages as they bore down to overwhelm

“the little stronghold.

The scout obtained a position to suit his taste and then
lay upon the ground to await the opening of hostilities.
At the proper moment he and the boy would SUE ts the
redskins by taking part in the circus.

Suddenly the expected. signal yell came and the
charge was on. Nearer and nearer the ponies thun-
dered and then out from the stone chimney of the cabin
shot a rocket that lighted up the scenery for rods around.

The Indians struggled with their ponies in ane
but before they could pull up:

“Crack! bang!” came two shots almost as one, and
two saddles were cee The settler and his wife had-
both scored.

“Give ’em a patting shot, boy,.to let ’em kwow the
settler has friends,’ said Buffalo Bill, as he sent a pony
tumbling by the light of another rocket that soared up-
ward from the chimney. The boy ke cae a horse
and rider. cs

This must have surprised the settlers almost, if not
fully as much, as it did the Indians, but a surprise was
also coming for the scout and the boy themselves.

As the Indians fled in dismay little spurts of flame
appeared in the grass as they darted by, and “bang!
bang! bang! poppity bang!” rang shot after shot.

And then above the other tumult arose the voice of

-old Nomad:

“Thar! ye tarnation helgomonian Hefei take thet
atween yer teeth an’ take ther kinks out ov et! What

-yer kihootin’ round hyar for, anyways, disturbin’ honest

critters, an’ keepin’ ther babies erwak?”

The scout laughed. It was apparent that from some
commanding position in the mountains old Nomad and
Cayuse had seen the danger of the settler and his family,
and had hastened thither.

CHAPTER XIV,
THE SCOUT VISITS SITTING BULL.

The Indian band—what was left of it—was gone, not
to return. The braves had good cause to believe that
the settler had a small army of men hidden behind every
hillock and every clump of sage brush.

The settler came out to thank the scout and his pards
and to express his wonder at their presence. _ It seemed
to him almost as if they had dropped from the sky to
his assistance. He said it was the largest band_of In-
dians he had ever seen in the valley and he had tived
there six years, and had twice before been attacked by;
red marauders.

 
 

26

That he was watchful and prepared for them, the scout
had seen, but he cautioned the settler to be doubly care-
ful in future, for the Sioux were on the warpath ‘and
were centring in the Big Horn country. This valley
was out of the natural - course, but some tribes might
send delegations this way.

The settler had made a trip to Fort Phil Kearney the
previous year and was well supplied with the latest in
arms and ammunition.
herd was increasing, and he easily provided vegetables
‘ for his family by cultivating along the bank of the
creek. Buffalo and antelope were plentiful and fish and
“fowl an everyday dish. He would not be driven out;
he had come here to live and rear his family, and only
death would drive him out. He and his wife and chil-
dren loved the wild, free life.

Of such were the builders of the Weel tideay and
brave, and determined. They blocked out the frame
-of the vast and rich country that can feed nations.

Buffalo Bill made himself known and introduced his
pards and the boy. He also told the settler of the miners
in the mountains to the east—his neighbors. An invi-
tation was sent to them to call at the settler’s cabin and
partake ofan old-fashioned Eastern dinner.

The scout assured the settler and his wife that he
would gladly bear the message and could promise an
early visit from the miners, who appeared like honest
and respectable men. / a
_. Letters were hastily prepared to cea to friends in the
East, and then the pards were persuaded to remain at
‘the cabin till daylight, when they could make much easier
progress across the mountains.

At the first streak of day a bounteous repast was
spread by the settler’s wife, and all did honor to it.

Good-bys were said, and the pards left the settler
guarding his herd with rifle across his knees, and keen
eyes constantly scanning the plain.

The scout determined to return directly to the moun-
tain retreat of the miners and hear the reports of the
other parties before continuing the hunt.

He was anxious to capture Price and Ike, and he was
just as desirous of getting in touch with White-man-
runs-him, who had promised to guide him to the head-
quarters of Sitting Bull himself, somewhere along the
Big Horn Cafion. — :

The scout had little fear of the red trailer disappoint-
ing him, for he knew Indian traits so well. He also
_ knew that it would be useless to hunt for White-man-
runs-him, and felt quite confident the trailer would
show up by the allotted day on the next moon, but he
wondered where the Indian could be spending the time,
meanwhile.

Several days passed and the search for Price and Ike.
‘was: still unrewarded. The scout and his pards had

He was prospering, he said; his

scoured the mou

*

 

Tut: BUFFALO BILL STORIES.

nigens for miles in every direction un-
availingly. If the*outlaws were there they a a safe
hiding place and food supply.

But the search had brought its reward in one way, bor
the miners had discovered gold and a lead that promised |
fortune. They were happy, in consequence, and already
were talking of the joys of returning East with money

to pay off mortgages, buy homes, educate children, etc.

It was such as these who blazed the trail—men driven
to face with grim determination the hardships of such
a life, by the necessities of loved ones—wives or aged
parents, who needed homes; children who deserved op-
portunities in the future.

One morning very early an Indian stalked into camp,
much to the surprise and alarm of the miners, at first.

“How?” he said, and sat by the fire without another
word.

Buffalo Bill had not arisen on his blanket, but came
out, extended his ae said “how,” and sat beside the
Indian.

Neither spoke until breakfast had been prepared and
eaten and the pipes had been lighted, then the Indian
asked: |

“Is Pa-e-has-ka ready?” :

“He is, White-man-runs-him,” the scout answered.

“It is good,” said ‘the Indian, pulling steadily at his
pipe.

At last the Indian arose and said:

“Come.”

“How far?’ asked the scout.

“Two suns.”

“With ponies?’ =

(One sia.”

“We will go with ponies,”

“Good,”

Cayuse saddled Bear Paw and brought out the pony
that had followed from the plain, for the Indian.

White-man-runs- -him examined the pony carefully
“and expressed pe with:

“Fleap good pony.”

- “Yes,” answered the scout; “he is a very good pony;
he is yours.”

“Ueh!? erunted the Indian, once more going over the

said the scout.

handsome little animal, and then swinging upon his back

with evident satisfaction.

Buffalo Bill’s pards were left in the hills and con-
tinued to prosecute the search.for Price and Ike, while
the scout rode off to visit Sitting Bull, near Big Horn
Cafion.

That Buffalo Bill’s a retview with the bowed iohiet :
of the Dakota nation was fruitless is a matter of history.
The Napoleon of the Sioux would hear to no terms. He
was defiant. He said his people had been robbed, and
now the Great Father at Washington had demanded the
land on which they lived. The white man with the

 

 
 

 

ee

THE BUFFALO

pick and shovel, and with traps and gun were killing off
and driving the game and fur from the red man’s hunt-
ing grounds. They would move no more. If the red
man was to be driven from the face of the earth it must
be done with bullet and steel.

The Indian chief would listen to no argument or ap-
peal.
ting Bull, held the same views and determination. Both
recognized and proclaimed the friendship of Pa-e-has-ka,
the Long Hair, to their followers, but they were obdu-
rate. Pa-e-has-ka’s tongue was straight, and he did not
know of all the crooked tongues of his people. If the
Sioux were to be moved let the white soldiers come and
move them.

Such were the replies to the scout’s entreaties Hoe the
red man and the white brothers. He would have averted
war, but they would fight, and such must be the report
of Buffalo Bill to the Great Father at Washington.

The scout shook hands with Sitting Bull sadly, and.

the immobile countenance of the chief expressed less of
his emotions than did the warm pressure of Pa-e-has-ka’s
hand.

_ The return to the heavy hills along what is now known
as Pryor Creek, or rather to the range lying between that
river and Beauvais Creek, was without incident, and
nothing but the most friendly feeling was expressed by
the Indians met. These parties frequently asked for in-
formation concerning the whereabouts of the headquar-
ters of. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Spotted Tail, Red
Cloud, and others. They were little bands of braves con-
tributed by tribes far and near going to the aid of the
uprising organized by Sitting Bull.

The bloody war which followed in the newt few
months is well within the memory of the present gen-
eration, and it behooves all well-regulated boyish minds
to familiarize themselves with that important part of our
nation’s history, but which it is not my province to re-
lateu,

 

CHAPTER XY.
CONCLUSION.

‘As the sun sank behind the gray haze of the moun-
tain peaks that backed the purple of the foothills of the
Great Continental Divide, two men stole down to a
roily creek and sought something floatable on which to
cross.

This pair, pitiable in haggard faces and half-clad

forms, and staggering with the weakness which long

journeyings and hunger had wrought, furtively studied
the narrow radius of the crooked gash the creek made
in the plain. That they feared pursuit any observer
would have said; that hope was tow and endurance on
its last legs was evident.

Crazy Horse, who had combined forces with Sit-_

BILL STORIES, 27.

Crouching there, their hollow eyes eagerly seeking
means of placing ad slight barrier between them and
their expected pursuers, they saw a lone Indian paddling
bis caneeup the-cycea

They crouched among the willows and waited.

“Shall I knock him over?” asked one, fingering his
rifle trigger suggestively.

“Not yet; let’s try to hire him to put us over, or, bet-
ter still, take us far down the stream.”

“Good! and perhaps he can procure food for:us.”

The Indian was hailed and came ashore for parley.
He was a trapper, a probable outcast from some tribe,
and was ready for barter. Yes, he would take them
down the creek. “Food heap plenty—much fish and
prairie dog.” »

The Indian didn’t want money—he had been swindled
—pbut he wanted rifle “heap bad.” So they struck a bar-
gain. He was to paddle them down as far as the Big
Horn and there deliver to them the canoe for one, of
their rifles.

The Indian had plenty of pemmican and was willing
to trade for powder and ball. The trade was eagerly
made, and the half-starved men fell to.

“Even biltong tastes good if a man is hungry enough,”
said one, as they rode down the sluggish current.

“Ves, it does, Ike, but I’m tired of this dodging and
starving existence. I think I'll give in and take my
medicine.”

“A blamed fool you are, if you do, Price. We have
just got over the\ bunch. We have something to eat
and a canoe. In the canoe we can paddle up the Big
Horn nights and hide along the shore days, until we
are out of the territory, where we are known. Then, if
we can’t put up some sort of a yarn that will give us
a start Vee are not as sharp as our friends have always
counted. ts.’

The Indian shot a glance of a geeare at the pair,
but said nothing. /

Where the creek poured into the Big Horn a sharp
turn to the right was made after the Indian had been
landed, and Price and Ike began the tedious journey up
the wildly picturesque river, knowing little of what it
promised, other than that it found its source hundreds of
miles to the southwest, flowed northeasterly, and by fol-
lowing southward they would have a blazed trail toward
settlements where their names had never been heard.

If this precious pair had known much that they later
found out they would as soon have paddled their canoe
over Niagara Falls as up the Big Horn River.

That. night they paddled until well toward morning
when, worn and weary, they sought the bank and ae

shelter for the day.

An hour later red hands parted the willows and a
pair of black eyes peered through at the sleeping men.
The bushes sprung back into place noiselessly and a
a

 
 

 

   

    

28

   

satisfied “Ugh!” escaped the red man’s lips as he hurried
away. |

Late in the afternoon two large canoes came up the
river and four men pulled them up beside the one which
had been carefully hidden there in the morning. The
occupants of the last canoes were Buffalo Bill, White-
man-runs-him, Hickok, and Skibo. a

The Indian took the lead and a moment later. the
fugitives were aroused to find themselves once more
prisoners. They were disarmed, securely bound, and
loaded, one in each canoe, and the oe run Sa the
Big Horn begun.

The remainder of Buffalo Bill’s party, with all the
horses, had headed back to the Yellowstone, where the
scout hoped to join them in the next few days. His
plans were to run down the Big Horn to the junction of
the Yellowstone, where he had information that a de-
tachment of U. S. Cavalry, on a scouting expedition,
were encamped. If he was lucky enough to find them
there he would turn over his prisoners to them and then
pull up the Yellowstone to join his pards. He hoped, too,
to receive orders in possession of the cavalry officers
from headquarters, and to forward his report of Sit-
ting Bull’s answer.

Fortune favored and he arrived the night before the
cavalry orders were to return to the spot near the
present Miles City, where Fort Keogh was established.

As he had expected, he received orders that sent him
once more into the far country, and his mission, though
of a far different nature, led to a series of, adventures
rivaling any in his experience.

The officer in command of the detachment was glad to
receive the prisoner Price, who had once slipped through
the army’s fingers, and that Bloody Ike would receive

just deserts, after a civil trial, there could be no doubt.’

. But this particular detachment could not well fore-
see rapidly approaching events, which not only robbed it
of its prisoners, but several of its officers and men of
their freedom,

Buffalo Bill’s present beddi to offer Sitting Bull and
his chiefs one more chance, had been obeyed, and his
report was on its way to Washington,

Before the scout took up his next work, he determined
to return to Bozeman, and on the way to pay a visit
to the Averys and Coreys, and see that the boy, “Little
Buffalo Bill,’ was safe with his parents. .

2 xk * ok * x 7K

Old Nomad, Caytise, Avery, and young Corey ex-
pected to make the trip to Avery’s ranch in three days,
but in a set-to with a small band of Indians, the trapper
was knocked from the saddle by a bullet and Hide-racle
galloped*away with three Indians in pursuit.

The trapper was not seriously injured, the bullet just
_ grazing along the scalp, but he felt deeply the loss of

- THE BUFFALO

 
   
    
  

BILL STORIES. (

his famous horse. Nomad determined to recover the
horse, if possible. He ordered the party into camp im-
mediately, in a rock-bound gully, which could be easily
defended, and then, on Bear Paw, set out alone to recover
his horse.

It was late in the afternoon when the trapper parted
from his comrades, and he promised to be back before
daylight the following morning, whether he recovered
Hide-rack or not.

The trail of the Indians was easy to follow until dark,
and soon after the trapper saw a camp fire and guessed
that the Indians had camped. . He approached cautiously
and saw that the reds had built their camp fire in the
mouth of a little blind cafion, into which they had suc-
ceeded in heading Hide-rack.

Apparently the horse had given them so much trouble
to capture him that they had turned their poines in to
make his acquaintance and perhaps soothe his ruffled
temper.

But Hide-rack had’ evidently decided to form no new
acquaintance. As Nomad reached a position from which
he could command a view of the pocket, his “horse pard”
was just in the act of making an impression on the
ponies.
of heels that seemed shooting out in all directions at
once. é

The Indians, fearing for the legs if not the lives i :

their ponies, rushed in to take a hand.

Then old Nomad broke loose with a wild:
_“Yip-yip-yar-r-r! Hide-rack, give it to ’em, ole hoss!
Don’t let no dirty redskin put a hand onto ye! Soak
fem, gle pardlc:

And Hide-rack, in response to his master’s voice,
did ‘soak ’em.’”’ He rushed at the Indians like a mad
thing, biting, striking, and kicking.

Before they could get out of the way the horse laid out
two of the red men and was pursuing the third, who ran
like a deer straight through the camp fire, with the
vengeful Hide-rack only one jump behind.

The savage dodged among the rocks and escaped,
while Hide-rack capered up to Bear Paw with a we
of delight.

“Ye kicked ther tarnal stuffin’ outen um, didn’t ye, ole
pard:” yelled Nomad in high one as he cantered back
across the plain.

It was the fourth day when Nomad’s party reached
Avery's ranch and found all well, and no Indians had
been seen for several days.

Two days later Buffalo Bill, Hickok, and Skibo ar-
rived, to rest a bit before continuing their labors.

‘tHe END,

The next number (446) will contain “Buffalo Bill and
the Boy Bugler;
Mountain.”

The impression they got was of a vicious pair ’

or, The Mysterious Girl of Sacred |

   
  
  
  
   
    

   
  

 

 

 

  

 

 

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THE BUFFALO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW YORK, November 20, 1909.

 

' TERMS TO BUFFALO BILL STORIES MAIL SUBSCRIBERS.
(Postage Free.).
Single Copies or Back Numbers, 5c. Each.

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How to Send Meney—By post-office or express money order,
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by currency, coin, or postage stamps in ordinary letter.

Receipts—Receipt of your remittance is acknowledged by proper
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credited, and should let us know at once,

STREET & SMITH, Publishers,

Ormonp G. Smtr; :
79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City.

Grorce C. Smitu, lp POPTHERUTS:

 

 

The Trappers of the Spring Creek. |

 

Before I had finished writing this headline I began won-
dering where my. old mates now are!

Ah! how many miles divide us, and what interesting yarns
we might spin about the sport and discomforts we have
known since last we met! :

Old Ned Hind comes uppermost in my thoughts—dquite a
hunter’s name, I should say—and a thorough hunter he was;
I have camped with a good many, and a more “all round”
and sensible trapper than Ned I never knew.

And then there was Fat Charlie—or, as we more fre-

quently called him, “The Wolverine,” which was but an-
other name for the glutton. He was not fat: on the con-
trary, he was as thin as a whipping post; but he was a splen-
did hand with the knife and fork, and so, in spite of his
cadaverous appearance, he was still Fat Charlie to us.
_ Apart from his capacious appetite, which no one of -us
really begrudged him, he was a good enough fellow, honest
in speech_and bright as the day that broke above us, His
opinion about this or that thing in nature was such that you
could make a note of it, if only plain facts would suit you.

I remember he had one singular want—he was no bush-

man. He couldn’t find his way through a mile of strange

country without whistling and cooeeing himself hoarse, and
it was one of our stock jokes that he ought never to sleep
alone, for wear he might wake up to find himself lost.

But, alas! I expect he has long since found the bearings
of most points around Spring Creek, for, smart hand as he
was at wallaroo snaring, a little bush maiden managed to
snare him, and he has for many years been settled down
to married life and a “selection” on the Rekia Flat, below
our old camp.

Charlie’s marriage reduced our number to three: Ned
Hind, Natty Barson, and I.

Natty Barson was not “natty”; he was a dirty little scare-
crow, and why we tolerated him at all I shall never properly
understand. -

   

 
  

 

BILL STORIES. 29

But he had one rare virtue quite as fully developed as
any of our own,’he was singularly persistent, and I don’t
know that we could have driven him from the camp. He
was wise in knowing our weak points, and he measured
himself against the little bit of charity we had in our natures.
Just as an ancient magistrate forgave a prisoner who could
read and write—so, I think, we often forgave Natty a good
many things because he could do neither. We naturally
supposed he had parents, but we heard little of them, and
even Nat himself seemed half dazed about the matter. He
had a quick ‘“news-in-a-nutshell” way of talking sometimes
about “the old Dart”—“his old man’—his wife, “a native’—
both “humped it” to the Turon—‘“buttoned” on a “pocket” —
he had a “bid” for a “prospect’—all “duffers’—couldn’t
“touch down’’—‘‘old man” went over to the “valley’—the
“kinchin alone’—on the road with ‘‘bluey’—a hunter by
chance—might be worse—which went to show that his
father came from the old country, and married an Australian
woman, that they both humped or walked to the Turon—
first gold field—and bottomed or sunk on a pocket—of gold.
Nat himself became a boy digger—quite a usual thing in the
absence of schools in the eariy days—but didn’t find any-
thing, Then his father went to the “valley’—the digger’s
name for California—and left the boy alone. He took to
the road with “bluey’—his blue blanket—and eventually
became a hunter.

There was no occasion for us to doubt any of these per-

sonal facts, for surely Nat’s over forty years of life in the

bush and digging country meant that many a strange un-
varnished tale was left untold.

Ned Hind, Charlie, and I had found him “hatting,” or liv-
ing alone on a creek, rubbing out an existence by catching
lizards, iguanas, and snakes for the fat they contained, fell-
ing or climbing trees for bush honey, and hunting wallaroos
and other ground game, common in the ranges round, and,
more out of compassion than for our personal convenience,
we offered Nat a corner of our hut on the Spring Creek.
To be honest, I think we often regretted it; in fact, I know
we did, and many a row and “shindy” took place over this
“fourth party.” .

But now I am glad he was one.of us, for he seems, rough
‘and unkempt little scavenger though he was, to complete the
picture as I look back at it.

The region of Spring Creek was not an ideal hunting
ground. It was just as outlandish a place as one could hope
to find.

There may have been fifty “settlers” within a hundred
miles of it, but certainly not more, and there was no town-
ship, so that we had to make and mend for ourselves, and
when we had nothing to make and mend with we did with-
out.

Fortunately, we didn’t need many clothes, for, of all the
hot cockle shops man ever camped down in, I think I might
“empty my pannikin to that one.”

Hunters, like most other men, take more pleasure in
dealing with the good points of any place than in recalling
discomforts and failures. We did manage to make both ends
meet on Spring Creek; but the place itself was certainly a
Paulure.:

Ned used to call it “the wrong end,” and he wasn’t far
out. Everything in nature looked worn and dejected, and
the leaves of the burned-up gum and wattle trees hung list-
less and languid over all the melancholy scene.
30 “ | THE BUFFALO

We had picked our way into this no man’s land, for the
sake of catching the wallaroos and gray «wallaby abounding
in the ranges round the creek, which—save the mark !—was
a fraud and a delusion.

I don’t know if it ever was a creek, but certainly not in
our time. It was only a long gully, starting at the junction
of two stones, and picking its way between them down to
the Rekia Flat below, a distance of well on to a dozen miles.

There were two or three little water holes along this so-
called creek, but the water was always sluggish and filthy,
owing to the leaves and rubbish continually finding their
way into it, and, as if that wasn’t bad enough for hard-fed
“hunters, it was frightfully brackish; a very general failure
with the waters of back-country Australia.

As we were unable to keep our horses in this dry and
gtassless country, our opportunities of getting provisions
were extremely small, and with the exception of a couple of
sacks of flour, and some ammunition which we laid-in at the
Start, we were obliged to fall back on native materials for
food and other necessaries. ma j

Then all our hunting had to be done on foot, which was
not comforting in such a trying climate. In the absence of
water we had to drag about all day long with a few kurra-
gong leaves, to keep off thirst.

The kurragong is the “bushman’s fountain.” These trees
assume many shapes, but the best known is a small conical-
shaped tree, with a smooth and pretty trunk, and leaves pre-
cisely similar to common ivy. On tapping the tree, palatable
and refreshing water can generally be drawn forth, and the
leaves, when carried in the mouth, emit a starchy substance
which keeps off thirst admirably. Australia, taken as a
whole, is very deficient in such necessaries. Edible roots,
fruits, and seeds are few and poor. Probably the best known
to the bushmen and boys are the native cherry and the gee-
bung.

The native therry, like the yew berry, has the stone out-
side. It is of a pale yellow color, in shape like an egg, with
the stone projecting from one end. The tree closely re-
sembles a little compact growing pine.

The geebung trees are but a few feet high, and their
needle-like leaves hang in soft-sighing tassels all round the
branches and stem. The latter has a papyrus-like bark,
which peels off like pink blotting paper, and will, in fact,
answer very well for that purpose. The berries grow in
clusters round the head of each tassel. They are like small
plums, but quite round and green, till they leave the tree,
when they turn white as if scorched. Before they fall from
the tree they are frightfully bitter and unwholesome, but
when they have been on the ground a day or two, the flavor
is only so bad that the bushboy usually throws up his head
and exclaims: “Oh, Moses!” A nasty—sickly bitter-sweet
—lump of alum taste fills your mouth, and a dry-up-your-
blood sort of feeling comes over you on tasting them for the
first time. But where a bone may be a banquet, a handful
of geebungs are a welcome dessert, and many a weary mile

did we fag on the off-chance of finding a tree and a pocketful ©

of berries.

The most delicious product indigenous to the Australian
bush country is the manna. It is formed from the saccharine
juice of various kinds of gum trees, which exudes through
the bark toward the close of summer, and there crystallizes
all over the boughs of the trees into little fragments exactly
like snowflakes. The crystallizing process takes place at
night, and for two or three hours of the early morning the

manna continues to fall to the ground, where @t soon dis- ©

solves and disappears, unless collected into a bottle or jar,
when it will keep for weeks. It has a rich, spicy flavor, and
a delicate eucalyptine scent. (Faddist doctors prize and
recommend it to their fanciful patients—who pay high prices
to bush children for it.) ..

Besides the domestic bee, which has taken possession of all
_ the desirable parts of the continent, there are many native

BILL STORIES. | oo

bees which furnish little luxuries to the bush people. One
tiny little creature, no larger than a house fly, makes a cell
like a coarse female sponge, fills it with honey, and then
persuades a little silver-bodied spider to spin a tough web
all over it, when it actually has the audacity to sting the
spider to death. Careful study of the habits of the spider
and the bee lead to the conclusion that the spider annexes
the honey bag for itself, and the bee, needing more protec-
tion of its store against flies and birds which eat honey than
it can make itself, allows the spider to spin the web, and
then kills it, and retakes possession !

A small blue fly, or kind of stinging ant, makes a nest of
clay like the bowl of a tobacco pipe, and fills it with a ginger-
bread-like substance, which bush children are very fond of,
and call “honeybread.”’

These, with the chewing gum from the wattle trees, nar-
doo seeds, and bilivans, are the only vegetables and deli-
cacies of importance scattered over the great lone land of
the South.

But, to compensate us for the many privations and dis-
comforts of Spring Creek, we often had splendid days hunt-
ing wallaroos and wallabies. The wallaroo might easily pass
for a kangaroo, as it is very similar in shape, the only notice-
able difference being that its limbs are shorter and stronger
and the fur much darker in color. (During our residence in
Spring Creek, we caught a wallaroo of deep-glossy black,
covered with white spots—quite an unusual freak; it is now
in a museum in Berlin.) The wallaroo furnishes excellent
food, and formed the staple article at our camp.

A bush fire preceding our arrival had burned all the
undergrowth’ from off the ridges and slopes of the ranges,
and so the wallaroos were forced into the long strips of
scrub, following the ravines, when it was comparatively
easy and pleasant sport to snare and shoot them. Making
regular excursions to all the proven gullies, and between
whiles strolling round in search of rare birds and animals
which had hitherto escaped our guns, added a little variety
to life, and when our efforts were unsuccessful or uninterest-
ing, some unforeseen entertainment occasionally presented
itself,

One evening, as we were returning from a wallaroo hunt,
we caine upon a large iguana fighting with a black snake.
The snake, which had evidently been the attacking party,
had bound itself two or three times round the iguana’s body,
and was making desperate efforts to bite it in the eyelid
and in the soft flesh about its mouth, the iguana being invul-

“nerable in every other part.

We were so interested in the fight that we moved quite
close to the combatants, who were so furiously engaged that
neither seemed to notice us. After a lot of backing and
forwarding on the part of the iguana, it managed to fix one
of its hind claws on a coil of the snake and drag it under
its body, when the other hind claw was brought into play,
and, finding the scratching and clawing decidedly uncomfort-
able, the snake tried to take himself off. But the iguana
held him fast. Then the snake began to struggle and puff
itself frightfully, as the iguana «with his long wiry nails tore
away at its victim, and literally stripped it into shreds, so
that not six inches of its entire length remained intact. We
were so excited by the pluck displayed by the iguana—which
is quite harmless to man—that we let him take himself off
to a big tree, which he climbed up with perfect ease, and
there, on a safe perch, looked knowingly down on us—his
victim and his battlefield.

I have never seen an iguana bitten by a venomous snake,
but am assured by many experienced hunters and bushmen
that when this takes place it immediately leaves its an-
tagonist and discovers an antidote, be the country ever so
bare of vegetation. :

What this antidote may be, all effort has so far failed to
discover. It has the effect of’ producing violent sickness,
then torpor, from which the animal wakes perfectly recov-
ered. Could the specific of the strangely gifted 1guana be
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discovered, a boon of everlasting value would be conferred
upon ‘the human race.

Although the iguana is closely allied to the lizard, there
is a great difference in the movements of the two animals.
The iguana moves so quickly that one can trace nothing more
than a gray line on the ground as the funny creature sweeps
past with its head thrown back in the air, while most of the
larger lizards are dreamy and slow in their movements—so
much so that the bush people speak of the “slick ’goana”
and the “sleeping lizard,” and this last.is a favorite title for
any dull boy—just as tall youngsters are regularly dubbed
“native companions,’ as they are supposed to resemble the
bird of that name (the Australian stork). {
oddities in the region of Spring Creek, the lowan—or lowan-
lowan—as the natives call it, deserves mention.

It is a bird about the size of a large fowl, with slate-blue
and black feathers and a short steel-blue bill and legs.

It does not use its wings easily, but can run like a red-
shank. The curious trait of this bird is the way in which
it builds its nest. Choosing a gravel or sandy spot on some
lightly timbered ridge, a lot of birds club together and
scratch a hole four or five feet broad agd as many deep,
piling the contents of it all round the edge in regular quan-
tities. When the laying season arrives, the birds return and
place leaves, soft twigs, and grasses which will ferment
in the bottom of the hole, and on this they spread a layer
of sand or gravel. Here the birds lay their eggs and cover
them over with more grass and sand, and this process is
repeated till the hole is filled with alternate layers of eggs
and grass, Their next step is to pile the former contents of
the hole over it, so that the nest appears as a large conical
mound, Twigs and vines are stuck and twined about its
base and sides to give it an unimportant appearance, and so
it stands for fourteen or sixteen days, At the expiration of
this time the birds comé and scratch the pile down to within
a few inches of the top layer of eggs, which soon hatch out
and the young lowans take themselves off with two or three
mothers,

Then the birds remove the sand and grass down to the
next layer, and they in turn come out. This manceuvre is
repeated till the bottom layer is reached. :

To the naturalist the strange fact is that the eggs first
deposited do not hatch out first, but as the heat is ‘much
greater on the top, owing ‘to. the heat rising and the hot sun
playing on it all day long, this probably explains why the
process of incubation is slower with the first laid than with
the last eggs. - ale

The lowans are very shy, and we had the misfortune to
find on making our second or third visit to the various nests
that the birds, conscious of discovery, had smashed the eggs
and abandoned the nest for the season.

If undisturbed, they use the same mounds year after year,.

or a nest may be forsaken for years and then inhabited
again.

It is a popular belief among bushmen who have not fol-
lowed up the habits of the lowan that by some subtle law
the first-placed eggs force their way to the surface and
hatch first, but this is not true; after continuous and careful
observation it is safe to say that the eggs placed last come
out first, and that the birds remove the material between each
layer,

Taking an intérest in these native curiosities, and resort-
ing to all sorts of methods to keep body and soul together,
we passed a round year on the Spring Creek—until the
long-cherished belief that “the game was not worth the
candle” got the better of us, and we made preparations to
leave it to Heeli aedin, J) 8

Our old mate—Fat Charlie—came to our assistance with
his one horse and dray to shift our belongings to the nearest
township, where there was an auction of the spoil) and, our
pockets once more lined with jingling gold, each displayed
his individuality, and the three trappers parted company—
probably to meet no more.

Among the few.

 

THE BUPPALG.] BIL STORIES, : x 31

VICTIMS OF MESCAL HABIT.

 

The constant spread of the use of mescal as a narcotic
among the Indians grows alarming, and must soon demand
widespread attention, with a view to discovering some rem-
edy for this pernicious habit, and some check to its growth.

Mescal is the product of a certain cactus which has long
been used in various ways among the Mexicans as an intoxt-
cant, under the name of pellote. The form in which it is
used by the Indians is the mescal button—a kind of bean,
very bitter to the taste, whichis sometimes chewed and
sometimes brewed in a kind of tea. When taken in either
way, it produces mild and delightful hallucinations of such a
positive character as to place this plant in the same rank with
hasheesh, opium, or any other of the famous drugs which
have produced for men the joys of an artificial paradise.

-The Kiowa Indians of the Rio Grande are said to have

used the mescal button from time immemorial for the pur-

pose of producing a beatific state of mind in connection with
certain of their religious..ceremonies. . Gradually the prac-
tice has spread northward from tribe to tribe. The Poncas
and some of their neighbors in the Indian Territory and
Oklahoma took it up, and soon counted many worshipers of
this strange god. ‘Thence, it extended to the Omahas and
Winnebagoes, among whom it is at present constantly gain-
ing new adherents; and now the practice is acquiring a foot-
hold among the Sioux. The tribes which have longest used
it have, in the ardor of their devotion, sent missionaries to
introduce their wonderful new medicine among other tribes,
and wherever it becomes known, its allurements prove irre-
sistible. Clubs are formed for social indulgence in this nar-
cotic, and for mutual participation in the rites and cere-
monials, which always accompany its indulgence for the pur-
pose of giving to it a religious character. In some cases the
students returned from Eastern and other boarding schools
have become mémbers and promoters of these clubs, _

The meetings usually are held in the afternoon. After the
mysterious ceremonies in acknowledgment of the secret
power of the strange divinity have taken place, the buttons
are passed around for chewing, four or five to each member,
and the tea is brewed and drunk. Only the noyice experi-
ences any nausea or unpleasant: sensation, and this soon
passes off. There ensues only ‘a blissful feeling of lassitude,
accompanied by a delicious sense of happiness and peace. All
thought of care or trouble or enmity roll away, and the dey-
otee is possessed by the feeling that all men are brothers,
and all the world is good. Meanwhile, his sense of vision is
powerfully affected, so that he sees changing and beautiful
harmonies of color in everything upon which his eyes rest.
This lasts throughout the night and until sleep comes next
day, when the effects pass off, and he gets up and goes away,
without any feeling of depression or other unpleasant results.
And throughout this saturnalia of the senses and orgy of
vision, the mind itself remains clear, and the devotee is a
self-possessed spectator of all his hallucinations. One other
effect of this remarkable drug must be noted in this brief
summary. ‘The mescal takes away all desire for alcoholic
drink, : ee

It is no wonder that the mescal habit appeals strongly to
the simple mind of the Indian. No doubt in many cases the
effect which appeals to him the most powerfully is the one
last named. He loses the desire for whisky, which he knows
has been his undoing. Whether the means justify the end
is a question he is little likely to ask. Just what steps may
best be undertaken to counteract this pernicious habit are
not at once apparent, but the practice is assuming such pro-
portions as to require some action. However slight may be
the physical effects of the habit—and they do not appear
from brief observation to be either’ rapid or serious—the
moral effects are obvious, for these must be the same as
those which follow from any form of the drug habit; and |
from these, at least, it is the religious duty of the friends of
the Indian: to try to save him... = a i
 

 

 

 

 

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know all there is to know about him.
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162—Buffalo
177—Buttalo
210—Buffalo
211—Buffalo
213—Buttalo
214—Buffalo
217—Buffalo
219—Buffalo
223—Buffalo
224—Buffalo
225—Buffalo
226—Buffalo
228—Buffalo
229—Buffalo
230—Buftalo
232—Buffalo
235—Buftfalo
236—Buffalo
237—Butffalo
238—Buttfalo
239—Butfalo
240—Buffalo
241—Buffalo
242—Buftalo
243—Buffalo
244—Buffalo
245—Buftfalo
246—Buffalo
247—Buffalo
248—Buffalo
249—Buffalo
250—Buffalo
251—Buffalo
252—Buffalo
2538—Buffalo
254—Buffalo
255—Buffalo
256—Buffalo
257—Butffalo
258—-Buffalo
259—Buffalo
261—Butffalo
262—Buffalo
263—Buffalo
264—Buffalo
265—Buffalo
266—Buffalo
267—Buffalo
269—Buftfalo

Bill’s Canyon Cache.......0
Bill in Morenci ....
Bill’s Blind Lead.
BillisSacritices (ene
Bil’s Diamond Hunt........
Bill’s Avenging Hand.......
Bill’s Cheyenne Comrades....
BillaswSLoUxXeMOes ee es
BillisiHlonida Hoes ssiacieices
Bill’s Grim Climb.
Bills Red hnemy. eee
Bill on a Traitor’s Track....
Bill’s Air Voyage....
Bilis Death a Rarustea eee
Bill’s Kiowa Foe.......
Bill’s Wyoming Trail....
Bill’s Apache Round-up......
Bills) HiePaso. Pardee. a
Bill on the Staked Plains....
Bulls Border said. ee:
Bilkis*Bravestabwehteen nieces
Bill’s Heathen Pard..... steer
Bill’s Dakota Dare-devils....
Bill’’s Arapahoe Alliance.....
Bill on Special’ Service.....
Bill on a Treasure Hunt....
Biliiciisost= Quannyve eye wae C
Bill Among the Comanches...
Billsss Stockade Sieze. sem
Bill’s Creek Quarrel........
Bill Among the Pawnees.....
Bill onga Aone Eunmg cece oe
BIST Way ominicednraila esos s
Bill and the Redskin Wizard..
Bill’s Bold Challenge..... eve
Bill’s Shawnee Stampede.....
BillSaNViorst Moc. eae e e
Bill on a Desert Trail.......
Bill’s Rio Grande Feud...
Bill in Tight Quarters....
Bills Daring Rescue......
Bill’s Treasure Train..... rere
Bill Among the Blackfeet....
Bill’s Border Beagles........
Bill and the Bandits in Black..
Bill and the Indian Tiger....
Bill on the Deadwood Trail...
Bill in the Cafion of Death..
Bill and the Robber Ranch

coeee cee

eoececeseeece

cece sece

eee ce

EGimiogia

270—Butffalo
271—Buffalo
272—Buffalo
273—Buffalo
274—Buffalo
275—Buffalo
276—Buffalo
277—Buffalo
278—Buffalo
280—Buffalo
282—Buffalo
283—Butffalo
284—Buffalo
285—Buffalo
286—Buffalo
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289—Buffalo
290—Buffalo
291—-Buffalo
292—Buffalo
293—Buffalo
295—Buffalo
296—Buffalo
297—Buffalo

If you want an
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Bill in the Land of Wonders..
Bill and the Traitor Soldier..
Bills Dusky) Mnailens ose
Bill’s Diamond Mine.........
Bill and the Pawnee Serpent..
Billise scarlet) Hands. ie a0
Bill Running the Gantlet....
Bill’s Leap in the Dark......
Bill’s Daring Plunge..... as
Bills Ghosteraid aaa. eievete
Billgs Canip- finest i) seen
BileUnp va sStumpees ee ee
BpllgsSecret hoe aes ine ie
Bills Master-stroke........
Bill and the Masked Mystery.
Bill and the Brazos Terror...
Bill’s Dance of Death.......
Bill and the Creeping Terror..
Bill and the Brand of Cain..
Bill and the Mad Millionaire.
Bill’s Medicine-lodge........
Billgine Penile cay ey ails eea 8
Bill in the Death Desert.....
Bill in No Man’s Land......
Bill’s Border Ruffians.......

CVOVLOT CTCTVONVOVOTON OT OU OTOUOT ON ON AAA AAA ANA MAA MUM MMT MUM TOO OT OTT OL LOT OLN ST OTONOTONOTOVOTNOTEN

CVOTOT

OVO

 

5
5
5
5
5

298—Buffalo
299—Buffalo
300—Buffalo
301—Buffalo
302—Buffalo
303—Buffalo
3804—Buffalo
305—Buffalo
306—Buffalo
307—Buffalo
3808—Buffalo
309—Buffalo
310—Buffalo
3811—Buffalo
312—Buffalo
313—Buffalo
314—Buffalo
315—Buffalo
316—Buffalo
318—Buffalo
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341—Buffalo
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349—Buffalo
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864—Buffalo
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368—Buffalo
3869—Buffalo
370—-Buffalo
371—Buffalo
372—Buffalo
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374—Buffalo
375— Buffalo

y back numbers of our weeklies an
Postage-stamps taken the same

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Bill’s Black Eagles.....ce.e. 5
Bill’s Desperate Dozen...... 5
Bill’s Rival ectelci ele) cranes
Billiss Tee, Chaseeanns sti. 6
Bill and the Boy Bugler....
Bill and the White Specter..
Bill’s Death Defiance.......
Bill and the Barge Bandits. .
Bill, the Desert Hotspur....
Bill’s Wild Range Riders....
Bill’’s Whirlwind Chase......
Bill’s Red Retribution.......
Bill Haunted sieieleaenars
Bills, Hicht tor ites).

Bill’s Death Jump

Bill and the Pit of Horror...
Bill in the Jaws of Death....
Bill’s Aztec Runners..... oierene
Bill’s Dance with Death.....
Billisibiery Hyena sone ee
Bill’s Mazeppa Ride....... 66
Bill in the Land of Spirits...
Bills’ Gypsy Band: .. .). Breet
Biles Maverick ww. ne ene
Bill, the White Whirlwind...
BillsMGoldwrunters.. ee
Billvine Olds Mexico... scan.
Bill’s Message from the Dead
Bill and the Wolf-master....
Biles Wivings Wondermes so.
Billgsm@riddeneGoldenis 40m 5
Bills Outlawasirailes aes sa
Bill and the Indian Queen...
Bill and the Mad Marauder..
Billisielice sBarnicaden me.
Bill and the Robber Blk....
Bilis Ghost: Dances. se oes.
Bilis Peace=pipe saa oe oe
Bis; Red Nemesis... nn
Bill’’s Enchanted Mesa......
Bill in the Desert of Death..
Buliss Paya Strealc ee
Bill on Detached Duty......
Bill’’s Army Mystery.......
Bill’s Surprise Party...
Bills. Great Ridev en... aks
Bil’s Water Trail..... eranehels
Bris Ondealvot Wires. 4...
Bill Among the Man-eaters...
Bill’s Casket of Pearls...... 5
BillseskyesPilotec i.
Bis Totem 2 eo etnias
Bill’s' Flat-boat Drift........
Billone Deckw ae ee
Bill and the Bronco Buster...
Bill’s Great VOUMG=(pin eae
Bins ePledsentecu.. 2: aoe
Bills’ Cowboy, Pandy.) 9.5 08)
Bill and the Emigrants......
Bill Among the Pueblos.....
Bill’s Four-footed Pards......
Bills) Protéséin7 ee See
Biles ePick=tpecn see
BIT SEIOUESt Meee Aan ores
Bill’s Waif of the Plains....
Bill Among the Mormons...
Bilis Assistancen ns ssn. anne
Bill’s Rattlesnake Trail. .

Bill and the Slave-Dealers..
Bilesi ounOne) Aust. eee
Biles Girl Pardes eee
BrlsetronwBnacelets cena ees
Bills Ranch Riders es ses B
Biles eMalcice Ianiate ame as 5

HAMA MAA AN MAO NTN ON OT OT OT OV ON OT OT OT OV OT OU OT ON OU OV OT ON OTON

CLOLOUOT

 

Bilisi saderAmulete ees 4.

d cannot procure them from your newsdealer, they can be obtained direct
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Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
BilliseeHUSse yess eyeteliel cies
Bill Overboard......
BillissoRingeas - crs. 0. 3
Bill’s Big Contract.

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Bridge of Fire..
Pay-streak .. ; e. e A .

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Bill and Calamity Jane... 11. 5

Billick dePardan ss slehisieeiic’c
Bill's Desperate Plight......

Bill’s Fearless Stand.....

Bill and the Yelping Crew... 5 |
Guidines ands aise i.

Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s Bluff

Billisieprackers.0.
BilleseDutch Pardes... oo.
Bilvand@ihey BravoOuw. 2...
Bill and the Quaker:.......

Queer Quest.....,
Prize ‘‘Getaway’’..

Scare Players coe.

Bill’s Package of Death.... 5

Bill’s Treasure Cache....
Bill’s Private War.....

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Hurricane Hustle..;... 5 |

Bill and the Trouble Hunter. . 5
Bill and the Rope Wizard... 5

Bis aniesta gash thas fol
Bill Among the Cheyennes..,
Bille Besiesediea sn nO. ators
Bill and the Red Hand.......
Bil’s Tree-trunk Drift......
Bill and the Specter.........
Bill and the Red Feathers...
Bi Smrcinom Strokeme naa)
Bill, the Desert Cyclone....,
Bill’s Cumbres Scouts.......
Bill and the Man-wolf......
Bill and His Winged Pard...
Balltat Babylon: Bar... 2...
Brlleseizone, Armiste e .
Bill and Old Weasel Top....
Bill’s Steel Arm Pard......
Bill’s Aztee Guide:...... Biers
Bill and Little Firefly......
BilliniatherAz tee Cityes.. ..
Bills Balloon Escape......
Bill and the Guerrillas......
Bills Border War eres
Bill’s Mexican Mix-up ......
Bill and the Gamecock

Bill and the Cheyenne Raiders
Bill’s Whirlwind Finish....
Bills Santa, He Secret. 2. 2°.
Bill and the Taos Terror. .
Bill’s Bracelet of Gold....
Bill and the Border Baron..
Bill at Salt River Ranch...
Bill’s Panhandle Man-hunt,
Bill at Blossom Range.....
Billsandediuniperssoes see...
Bills Binal) Scoopesc.... hes
Bill at Clearwater........
Bills Winninoe Hands: cc.
Billesev@inen Glavin esos
Bitise Commadesenss 2.0. cr bod
Bill in the Bad Wands......
Bill and the Boy Bugler....
Bill and the Heathen Chinee.
Bill and the Chink War....
Bills Chinese: iWhase.. os...

 

 

upon receipt of the price in |

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RO OF OVOL OV OL OL OT ON Ol eg CLOT ON CN OTOTOT EN OVEN

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