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

No. 44 __NEW YORK, OCTOBER 14, 199. Price, Five Cents

ies
ER

aU
Oe
Sn

“Buffalo Bill and his three pards watched the two ‘disguised villains unearth the bottles of spring
water, at sight of which their Indian allies were thrown into a terrific rage.

 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

f

Issued Bey. By subscription $2.50 per year. Eniered as Second-class Matter at the N. Y. Fost Office, by STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Ave., N.Y. {
Copyright, 1909, y STREET & SMITH.

 

{=~ Beware of Wild West imitations of the Buffalo Bill Stories. They are about fictitious characters. The Buffalo
Bill weekly is the only weekly containing the adventures of Buffalo Bill, (Col. W. F. Cody), who is a all .

over the world as the king of scouts.

 

%

No. 440.

NEW YORK, October 16, 1909.

Price Five Cents.

 

BILL’S FINAL SCOOP:

OR,

Tim Benson, the Tiger of the Hills.

 

> By the author of “BUFFALO BILL.”

 

CHAPTER I.
' TIM BENSON’ S CLEVERNESS:

foe of Tim Benson a on the town and on the trails.

_ Therefore, whene Hank Elmore, stage driver, swung
his horses round in front of the stage station, and bawled

. out, “All aboard fer Calamut Wells! !” the response was
disappointing.

A woman stepped out of a station, closely veiled, and

= carrying a large hand bag. Elmore dropped from his high

seat and handed her into his vehicle. Both Elmore and
the spectators knew that she was Miss Vera Bright, re-
cently a chorus singer at the local theatre called the
Casino.

“ Nobody else wantin’ to take passage in this hyer
hearse?’ demanded Elmore, swinging: round on his high-
heeled boots. “Tim Benson ain’t goin’ to——”

A belated little man pushed his way hurriedly inioaeh
the crowd.
 “P’m going,” he said, and ran up to the coach.

“Hop | inside, er on ther seat with ther driver, jest as

ye like,” cried Elmore.
He swung on round, glowering at the crowd.
“As I was sayin’, thar ain’t no need fer ary gent hyer

what is wantin’ to travel over this trail to-day to be
afeard o’ Tim Benson. I *know he’s a rantakerous gun
man, what shoots first and does his explainin’ about it
later ; and that he has conducted more hold-ups than ary
man whatever was in this town; but he’s got sense. He
don’t hold up no stage when thar’s nothin’ to be gained
by it. To-day I ain’t kerryin’ no gold dust, ner treasure
o any kind—ceptin’ the lady, gents, 0’ course!—so, I
know he won’t bother me. He allus knows when treas-
ure is goin’ out, an’ when it ain’t; an’ he was never
knowed to come fer an empty stage. How he knows
when it kerries treasure I reckon is his business. So—
who’s goin’ over the trail with me ter-day ?”

When nobody else showed a desire to accompany him,
Hank Elmore climbed to his high seat, swung his long
lash, yelled at the horses; and the stage bounced and
jolted away over the cobblestone street, into the Calumet
Wells trail.

“Tt’s gittin’ so that women have sure got more sand
than the men!” was his mental comment, as he thought
of his female passenger. “But I wonder why she’s pikin’
out of Blossom Range?”

The man who had entered the stage was apparently
thinking the same thing; for he began to question her.

“Tye seen you at the Casino,” he said, his tone one of

 
THE BUFFALO

: flattery. “Good show they’ve got there! I understood
that you was’to stay another week.”

She had lifted her veil after entering the stage, and

now gave him a close look. ee
~ It was easy for him to see, in returning the look, that
_ she had once been younger and fairer. She tried to hide
the ravages of time by a plentiful use of paint and pow-
der. Yet her features were good, though faded; the in-
dications were that she had once been a. very beautiful
A ae
“T don’t think I know you!” she said, as if that were a
sufficient answer. : 0
She observed that he was a small man, with a face
clean shaven, and a quiet, even unassuming, manner. _
“Oh, I reckon it ain’t any of my business,” he admit-
ted, “if you put it that way. It’s no loss, if you don’t
know me. But I’ve seen you a number of times. I
s’pose you're on your way to Calumet Wells?”
“Yes,” she said, but indifferently... _.
“And beyond that, of course; for that ain’ no proper
PSOMIIN DIAC. ia Le
/ “Yes, I’m going beyond there.” —
“To Hrisco?. 7
“Perhaps.” ee
She drew back into her corner of the stage. But she

found it hard to stay there, for the pitching vehicle now

and then projected her out of it, once almost into the
arms. of the man before her. a ee
“I-—I beg. your pardon!” she cried.
“Dont mention it.” He laughed. “’Tain’t the first
time I’ve had a lady throw herself at my head.” oe
“It’s a poor joke!’’ she declared. But she laughed, too.
He began to talk to her again, then; and presently
( began, ofice more to ask: questions, § 2
“What you got in that big hand bag?” he queried.
“What should I have in it? My clothing, of course.”
Suddenly the expression of his face changed, and she
knew him-—knew that this little man was Tim Benson
himself—Benson, the terrible desperado and road agent:
and she knew she had nothing to expect from him in the
way of favors. — hoc Pa ae
She started up with.a little cry, but a jerk of the stage

threw. her back against the cushions, while the rattle
ofthe wheels. over. the. rough trail drowned her cry so /

that.it. did not reach the driver. aa eta le a
“That’s all right,” said Benson; “I see you know now
who T-am!” oe a ee
“Yes, but——” ae aU ae ;
“Justa little trick. 1 have, by which I fool both my
friends and my enemies. It’s easy, when one has the
gift, and knows how. Just draw up a few facial lines

here, and a few others down there, elevate your brows,

squint your eyes a little—just a littie!—change the ap-
pearance of your hair, and the thing is done. Nothing
easier.” a st
He ran his fingers through his hair, hiding his face
with them for the fraction of a second: then looked at
her. The change was so complete that again she would
not have recognized him...
“Easy enough, when you know how, eh? But it takes
a lot of practice. I worked at that for years before I
could get it down fine. But you needn’t be startled; and,
particularly, I advise you that it would be foolish for you
to call out to the driver. It could do you no good; and
mgut cause his sudden demise.” le
She sat staring at him, fascinated, terrified. _

9

BILL ‘STORIES.

“Perhaps you'll be willing to tell me why you’re leay-
ing Blossom Range now *” he added.

Suddenly her eyes blazed.

“T thought you were gone!” she gasped,

“And that, because of it, your work there was done?”

oved?

She was silent a moment or so, still staring at him.

“Couldn’t we be friends hereafter?” he asked.

“No,” she told him, the fire in her eyes increasing,
“Vou know what I have sworn to do?” Her voice trem-
bled.

“FHand me over to the hangman, or kill me yourself,”
He laughed. “It isn’t a nice resolve for a woman to
make,”

“Tf I had known you were going on this stage!” she
panted.

“Ah! My dear girl, in that you have a lot of com-
pany. A great many people would have been glad to
know that I was going on this stage.” :

“They said you had left Blossom Range.”

“OF course, I wanted them to think that. I could have
stayed longer, but I didn’t care to.”

“T know why.”

“Perhaps you can guess.”

“You knew that Buffalo Bill would get you, sooner or
later, for the murder of John Ward, and for other crimes
too numerous to mention,”

“Well, Cody can make himself very unpleasant, you
know. He is out of town this morning; and I was told
that he was out along the trail looking for me. He left
Wild Bill in the town, though, to keep watch there. I
saw Hickok in the street; but I’m sure he didn’t recog-
nize me, any more than you did.”

He looked through the little window on that side.

“Hello!” he said. “This old hearse has been doing
some tall traveling since we hit the trail. Either that, or
we have found each other such pleasant company that
time has fled faster than either of us was aware. |
prefer to think it is the latter.”

He looked at her again, as ‘if musing.

‘I want to say to you that if at any time you are very
much tempted to sing out your discovery of who I am to

_the driver, better not do it.”

He pulled a tevolver from his pocket, and laid it on
the seat by him, with the muzzle toward her.

“Oh, I’m not going to use it,” he told her, when she
shrank back in evident fright. ‘Not unless Cody ap-
pears in the trail, as I’m half expecting him to do; then
I may use it on him. It’s a funny thing, the way he has
been able to keep tab on me. He couldn’t find me, yet he —
seemed to know all the time about what I was doing.
It’s my opinion that he heard I meant to leave the town,
and thought I would walk. If so, it was a foolish idea;
- Ee cuen to know I never walk when good riding can

€ had. ;

He looked at the hand bag again, lying on the floor of
the stage at the woman’s fect.

Anything else in that but your clothing?”

“Nothing !” aa

Her voice was weak from fear of him. __ |
“You seem to be scared. Well, you needn’t be! And
Pil say that it doesn’t become you, as a woman who has
Sworn against me all the terrible things you have. How
re going to carry them out, if you wealxen like
nat:
Tie reached over, and pulled the bag across to him. .

Sy,

 
THE BUFFALO

Then he cocked his revolver on the seat beside him.

“This revolver will go off and do you irreparable
damage,’ he said, his voice hardening, “if you try to
interfere with me now. You know, of course, that I’m a
desperate man. Please don’t forget it.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked. |

“Well, as it may not look proper for us two to be rid-
ing this way together, I’m going to make the thing re-
spectable, by changing myself into a woman. See? If
youll watch me, you'll see how it’s done. Where is the
key to this thing?”

. she hesitated; then, trembling, she gave it to him.

He unlocked the bag and tumbled the contents out on
the floor of the stage. :

“I ought to have a mirror Ah, thanks, here is
one !—and it would be better if I had a steady floor un-
der me. Yet needs must, when the devil drives. I’m

teally expecting my friend Cody to appear now soon; and

I must be ready for him.” |
_ He chuckled, when he saw face powders and paints.

“Just in my line,” he said.
them, and the clothing as well. In fact, I’m ready to con-
fess right now that I knew you were to go out in this
_ Stage, and laid my plans accordingly.”
“You're a—devil!” she gasped.

“Thanks, my dear, for the pretty compliment
_ He pulled a dress out of the heap, looked it over
quickly, and began to put it on, over his clothing.

“Just the fit,” he told her. “Vm a small man, you see.”.

He worked quickly.

“I see that you’ve got a roll of false hair that is beau-
tifully blondined; T’ll thank you for the loan of it a
while.” f

She stared at him in terror; then, in fear, she gave it
to him. =

“You see,” he said, as he got to work, “that I wear my
hair long; so I can use this little headgear of yours very
readily. I'll take those hair pins, too, if you please.”

He looked into the hand mirror that had been in her
bag; then pinned the false hair in place.

Having completed this to his satisfaction, with glances
now and then into the mirror, he took up her powder
and puff, and began to dab the powder over his face.

“IT took the precaution to have a clean shave before I
started,” he explained airily, but quietly; “so this will
work all right.” .

The whip of the driver was cracking from the top of
the stage, and the wheels were jarring heavily, so that
the stage pitched about; yet the pitching did not seem to
discommode him. He worked quickly and\with skill. On
his cheeks he put some of the paint which the woman
had applied so liberally to her own; he looked at her
sharply from time to time, then consulted the mirror.

To her amazement, she saw that he was transforming
himself into a clever counterfeit resemblance—that his
features were becoming marvelously like hers, even to
the heavily laid on paint and powder. Besides, he had a
- wonderful facial ability, enabling him to twist his face
into a fair counterfeit presentment of hers.

_“T’ve sometimes thought I made my mistake in life in
not going on the stage,” he temarked casually. “As
you've had experience, you may be able to judge of that
better than I can. “This road-agent business is horribly
dangerous, as you may guess; and it isn’t any fun to be
breaking jail one week, and running away from Buffalo
Bill the next; which you know has been my. awful lot.

a

“T thought you’d have.

BILL STORIES: : :

- Yet there is still a lot of fun in it, and whole worlds of

keen excitement. And what is life, if it is barren of
excitement ?”’

He had brought into the stage a small hand bag; which
now, after he had made the desired changes in his ap-
pearance, he opened. From it he took the contents, and
transferred them to her hand bag.

_ Again he looked out of the window; but though his ~
eyes were turned on the landscape speeding past the
stage, his ears were keen; for when in desperation she
moved, with the wild intention of trying to get his re-
volver, he lifted it from the seat beside him, and pointed
deat her. .

“I wouldn’t try it, my dear!” he said, in his smooth
voice. Oe i

He looked again at her. She had dropped once more
back against the cushions, with a gasp of terror.

“You see, I should hate awfully to be compelled to
shoot you!” he explained, in a cold-blooded tone that
made her shudder. “It would be bad for both of us; and
bad to muss up the stage, you know; it’s really a very
good stage, and newly recushioned. So you understand
how I feel about it,”

“You are a devil!” she gasped again.

“Only a man determined to protect himself at all
hazards. I wanted to look out and see if we aren’t
reaching the vicinity of Stag Mountain. In the cafion,
just beyond it, as you doubtless know, there have been a
lot of stage hold-ups lately; it may be we will meet
trouble there. We are nearing the place right now. Our
Jehu above seems to be laying on the whip a little more
heavily, and I judge that he is thinking of that place, too.
He has been through a good many of the hold-ups.- I
should think, by this time, he would be so used to them
that if they did not happen he would miss them as a bit of. -
fun.”

She did not answer.

“But Dl say this. If we are held up there, you sit
still right where you are. Otherwise, this revolver might
go off in your face. I shouldn’t hold myself responsible
for the consequences.”

The tall peak of Stag Mountain came into view.

Benson closed the woman’s hand bag and dropped the

‘key into his pocket. Then he lifted the skirt of the dress

he had put on over his clothing, and hid the revolver
somewhere under it.

“We're comin’ to ther place,” Hank Elmore bellowed
to them, leaning down from his high perch so that they
could hear him. “But I don’t reckon we'll meet up with
any trouble to-day.” i

He cracked his whip over the backs of the horses, and
the stage lurched and bounded into the gorge that swung
past the hill, and on into the cafion noted for its many
hold-ups.

As if to bolster his courage, he began to sing.

CHAPPER TIE
_,. BUFFALO BILL'S HOLD-UP.

Matt Shepard, county sheriff and keeper of the jail at

. Blossom Range, bounced quickly into the room occupied

by Wild Bill Hickok, at the Eagle House.
“Excuse me!” he said. “But if what I hear is so, Tim
Benson has got out o’ the town!”

 
 

4 THE BUFFALO

Wild Bill, who had been sitting comfortably by the win-
dow, came to his feet with a jump.

“Do you reckon it’s so?” he asked.

“They say he took the stage; that he was the man that
was seen to git on. It was only after the stage had pulled
out, that Barney, the stableboy, decided that the one man
who went as a passenger was Benson. Barney has got
keen eyes, and I’m bettin’ his guess is the truth. If so,
Benson fooled me complete.” ,

Matt Shepard, thick shouldered, square jawed, deter-
mined in manner, turned back to the door, when he had
delivered this. :

“T thought I’d tell you,’ he said. “I’m goin’ to git
some men together and shack right out after that stage.
Benson has fooled me so many times :

“And may be fooling you now,” the man from Laramie
reminded.

“You mean this guess of Barney’s may be wrong?”

“Tt’s just what I mean. Who else went in the stage?”

“Vera Bright.” .

“Wow!”

“But I’m guaranteein’ that she didn’t know that the
man who climbed into the hearse with her was Benson.”

“Where is Miss Bright going?”

“On her way to ‘Frisco, I heard. She’s had enough of
the game here, since Benson and his pals captured her
and held her a prisoner with your Dutch pard. That
broke her all up, even though Cody did snake in the
whole bunch afterward, with the exception of Benson,
and they’re now in jail. She told me only yisterday that
she believed Benson had got out of the country, and she
was goin’ this morning.”

“She swore she’d have him hanged, you know, for
killing her lover, John Ward!’

“T know that; but her grit failed her; and, any way, she
thought the game was up here, if Benson had cut out.
I reckon she’ll find out her mistake, if that was really
Benson who took the stage with her.”

“Tt’s a queer thing, if they’re there together.”

“But just like Benson. Nobody can ever tell what
he'll do. He’s sharper than tacks and slipperier than
eels. But that stage is humpin’ right along—Elmore is
driving, and he makes things hum when he’s on the box.”

“Yes, that’s so.”

Wild Bill came out of his room, following the sheriff,
and locked the door behind him.

“What you goin’ to do?” Shepard asked.

“I’m going to get. word of this to Buffalo Bill as fast
as I can.”

“Where is he?”

“Out on that very trail, and looking for Benson.”

“You follow the stage, as soon as you can get your
men together! I'll shack out alone.”

Wild Bill went down the stairway to the lower.floor
three steps at a jump; then ran out to the stable, at the
ear of the hotel, where he kept his riding horse.

Before the slower-moving sheriff was well out in the
street, Wild Bill had his horse ready, and was in the
saddle.

He struck at once into the Calumet Wells stage trail,
galloping out of the town; but he did not stick to it long.
The appearance of the dust in the trail told him that the
stage had passed that way not long before. _

“TIL want to pass round the stage without Benson
imowing it, if the scoundrel is in it,” was his thought,
“and so get word to Cody. It will take some hot riding

 

 

BILL SLORIES.

to do it, but I’ve got an animal here that can go. Shep-
ard is a slow mover; so he won't get this far out within
an hour, if then; for he will want to get a lot of men
together, with horses, and that will take time. The stage

' will be at Stag Mountain long enough before the sheriff

can get anywhere near it. That would be just the place
for Cody, if I can get the word to him in time.”

So Wild Bill swung out of the trail, turning off to the
tight, and rode at a swift gallop.

Occasionally, as he drove his horse on, he consulted his
watch, and looked at the rising peak of Stag Mountain,
estimating the probable time the stage would get to that
point. ;

Having left the trail, he did not see the stage at all.
But he came abreast of Stag Mountain in a remarkably
short time, and swung on around it, keeping to the path
he had chosen.

“If Cody suspects that Benson may try this trail, in an
effort to get out of the town, I’ll find him near the other
end of the cafion, was his conclusion. “‘I’ll look for him
there, at any rate.”

The man from Laramie, knowing of his pard’s plans,
judged so accurately that, when he came again into the

stage trail, just beyond the cafion, he saw first a rifle -

poked at him over the bushes, then the head of old
Nomad appear. ;

“Waugh!” the trapper bellowed at him. “I war jest
on ther p’int o’ pumpin’ lead at ye. Better swing back
on them reins. Buffler’s in hyar.”

Buffalo Bill and Baron von Schnitzenhauser, the
Dutch pard, rose out of the bushes and stepped into the
trail, where Wild Bill had brought his panting horse to a
halt.

“News!” said the man from Laramie.

“T cal’lated et, soon’s I seen ‘twas you!’ said Nomad.

“Tim Benson is coming in the stage, so I was told.
Shepard gave me the word; and though it is just a guess,
I straddled my animal and brought it to you.”

“And the stage is due here at almost any minute,’ was
Buffalo Bill’s comment.

“Ves, I reckon it is. I rode like the devil was after
me, for I was bound to git here first. Shepard is to fol-
low it with a posse; but it'll take him half a day, likely,
to turn round a few times and get under way.”

“Uff idt iss drue,” said the baron, “l gan see some
bromise of a varm dimes goming. Dot Penson iss a
fighdter.”

“Anybody with him?’ the scout asked.

“Yes—and it’s a funny thing! Vera Bright is in the
same stage.”

“Waugh!” Nomad whooped. “Thet actress woman.
But she’s his inemy.”

“As I understand it, she didn’t know he was to go, and
perhaps didn’t recognize him; he’s got a wonderful way
of changing his appearance—never saw anything like it.
The only thing I’m afraid of is that a mistake has been
made, and he ain't in the stage with her at all. She went;
that’s sure. And a man went—a small man, about the
size of Benson; one of the stableboys says he knows it
was Benson. Now you Know all I do.”

“Budt ve vill haf to do some mofing kvick,” averred
the baron. “You vill pe hearing dot ‘stage in apowet fife
minudes.”

You ll have to look out for Benson’s revolvers,” the
man from Laramie warned. “He’s quick with the trig-

 

 

 

 

EF Gh ee a ie ee eI ee
 

 

 

 

THE BUPEALO

get, and he will shoot if cornered. We've got to get the
drop on him.”

Buffalo Bill took charge of the situation, and led his
friends at a run toward the cafion, which lay like a black
gulf on the southern side of the low peak called Stag
Mountain.

Through the cafion the trail ran, and because the cafion
was dark, with bushes growing on each side, it had for
many months been a favorite place for hold-ups. Benson
had used it in that way a number of times himself.

Hardly had the scout and his friends got into position
in the bushes in the cafion when the rumble of wheels an-
nounced the approach of the stage.

They soon afterward heard the snapping of Elmore’s
long whip, and the voice of the driver. He was singing,
to give himself and his passengers assurance. Elmore
always got nervous when he came to that spot. Though
he had been in a score of hold-ups and never injured, he
expected that each would be his last.
another way for the stage, he would have taken it. There
was a bridle path, which Wild Bill had followed; but
though it was wide enough for a horse, oe stage could
not get through it.

Elmore’s bellowing voice was wafted ahead of him
into the dark-walled confines of the cafion:

“The red-headed mati from Santy Fe,
Held aces four, an’ then some more;
He got my wealth away frum me,
An’ I am sore—I’m mighty sore!”

The stage came in sight, lurching down into the
cafion. Elmore swung his whip, making it crack like a
pistol.

“The son-of-a-gun from Santy Fe,
Came back an’ took my red-headed wife!
Fer that I forgive him full an’ free,
Fer everything else that he done to me,
IT liked to ’a’ died when she lived with me!
An’ now I shall spare his life!”

‘The pistol-like report of his whip sounded again. _

“Giang!” they heard him yell. “Git through this hyar
brimstone hole, fast as ye can. Whoop! W ow! Go on,
there!”

Bouncing and rocking, the stage plunged down into the
darkness; then came in sight, near the end of the cafion,
still bounding and rocking.

Hank Elmore, thinking he was through, or nearly so,
and safe, broke out in song again.

But suddenly his singing changed to a howl, his foot
was jammed automatically against the heavy brake, and
he pulled back on the lines.

“Whoa! he yelled.

Out of the bushes on each side weapons ‘had appeared,
making him think that it was another road-agent hold-
up; though itt an instant he saw that the men were Wild
Bill, Buffalo Bill, old Nomad, and Baron von Schnitzen-
hauser.

“What in the name o’ Sam Hill!” he yelled, in his
amazement, as he recognized them. “Gents, this is——”

“Just keep your seat and steady your horse,’ Buffalo
Bill shot at him. “We won't trouble you. The man we
are after is in the stage.”
“Wow!” said Elmore.
sup tor:

“Tf we aren’t mistaken, you're pulling Benson along 1 in
-your old hearse to-day,’ the scout told him.

 

“Ts that so? What’s he been

 

 

e

If there had been |

Bil STORES 5

Elmore catne near falling out of his seat.
“Bub-Benson! But—say, it cain’t be.
ain’t——”’ :
Buffalo Bill advanced on the stage, a revolver in each

hand, paying no further heed to the stage driver.

“We think you're in there, Benson!” he called out. “so
you might as well step right out and surrender. We
know you're a big little man, and a mighty good pistol
shot; but there are four of us here, and we can do some
shooting, too. So, even if you downed one or two of us
you couldn't get away. And it would go mighty hard
with you. Better come right out like a little man and
surrender.”

But there was no reply to this.

“Hold your revolvers on the stage doors,” the scout
commanded. “If Benson jumps out and tries to get
away, down him. He has given us enough trouble.”

He stepped to the door of the stage on his side, and
boldly drew it open with his left hand, holding a revolver
in his right. :

7 You “might as well come out, Benson: [here is)
woman in there. Miss Vera Bright; but, of course, she
knows that we mean no harm to her, We're after Tim
Benson.”

There was a rustling sound; then a woman—or what
they took, in the rather dim light, to be a woman—caine
out of the stage, carrying a hand bag.

“You-—you sc-scared me so!”

“No harm will be.done you, Miss Bright,” said the
scout. “But there is a man in here; and we want him.”

The scout put his head in at the stage door, and saw a
form lying back amid the cushions.

“Hello!” he said. “What is this!”

The next moment he had leaped into the stage, after
calling on his friends to keep a close watch.

A woman lay unconscious against the cushions of the
coach, the scout saw at once.

He stooped over her, the light not so good that he
could see her face clearly ; but a feeling that something
was wrong came to him.

“Stop that woman outside!’ he yelled.

He turned to get out of the stage.

At the same instant Nomad yelled something.

“Stop her!’ Buffalo Bill shouted.

Nomad began to run after the supposed woman.

“She is'hikin', Cody,” he announced.|

“Then shoot her! For that woman must be Tim
Benson!” |

The trapper’s revolver roared the next moment.

“Waugh!” he howled. “She’s gittin’ away, Buffler!”

The scout flung himself out of the stage.

All he saw at that first look was the skirts of the sup-
posed man, as they whipped out of sight behind a rock,
and Nomad lunging in that direction.

“I'm afraid we're tricked,” said the scout to Wild Bill
and the baron. “But you stay right here; some woman is
in the stage, or else Benson. We will know directly.”

Then he sprinted after Nomad.

Pee

CHAPTER TL:
AFTER BENSON'S ESCAPE.

The disguised man was out of sight, amid the rocks

that lined the cafion, by the time. the scout and the trap-

per reached the spot where last they had seen him.

 

 
 

;

6 - THE BUFFALO

“Waugh!” Nomad roared, staring around. “Was et a
man, er a woman? Anyway, ther critter hes kited.”
~ The scout ran on, looking about, hand on ready revolver,
prepared to shoot, and expecting to be shot at. The
rocky sides of the cafion were bush-grown, and there
were little crevices and cracks making off from it on
the right and left. These were dark, and made darker
by the bushes, The outlaw had all the advantage. He
could lie hidden; and when he felt safe, he could climb
softly up the broken and ragged cafion wall, or sneak
away along the rifts. Twenty men would hardly have
been enough to make a prompt and thorough exploration
of the many hiding places.

Buffalo Bill turned back, meeting Nomad, who had
been following.

“Er clean giterway!” the trapper howled:

“It looks it, Nomad. But we'll go back to the stage
and see what we have there.” .

Instead of answering, Nomad whirled as if on a pivot,
swinging his revolver round, and sent a shot plunging
and roaring into one of the side gorges. At the same
time he followed the shot by rushing into the place.

“Did you see him?’ ’ Buffalo Bill called, following the
trapper.

“T heared him—er her!’

But the sound did not come again.

What was heard next was a plunging of the stage
horses, then the bounding and rattling of the stage, ac-
companied by a roar from Hank Elmore, commanding
the horses to stop.

“T reckon ther hosses hez tuck et inter their heads ter
make a break, too,” commented the trapper.

He and Buffalo Bill rushed into the gorge, searching
for the author of the sound they had heard. But they
unearthed nothing, and by and by came out.

“We might’s well give et up, Buffier,’ the trapper ad-
mitted ruefully. He was-in a fuming rage. “This is
tough luck. Whoever thet was made a clean giterway.
Looks like er trick o’ Benson’s.”

Hastening back to the spot where Wild Bill and the
German had been left with the stage, they found the
stage gone, and those who had been with it.

“This is a beastly mess!” Nomad-whooped. “Even so
big a thing as a stagecoach slips right through our fin-
gers. But I reckon thet Wild Bill. an’ ther baron aire
chasin’ arter et.”

They followed, also, hurrying at a run along the trail.

When they camé out of the cafion they saw the stage
and horses.a quarter of a mile away. The German and
Wild Bill had apparently overtaken the stage, and then
had turned back, for they were coming toward the
cafion. The stage driver, after wrapping the lines round
a tree by the trail, came also toward the cafion, hastening
to overtake the man from Laramie.

“Might’s well wait fer ‘em ter git hyer,’
Nomad. “I’m plum winded.
Benson, ther kyote got away.”

“T believe it was Benson, in spite of the woman’s
clothing. Circumstances suggest it.”

“And Wild Bill said thet et war him.”

When Wild Bill came near he swung his hat and
whooped:

“Did he get away?” he demanded.

“Plum made ther through trip,” Nomad answered, his
face an angry red. “I ain't goin’ ter say hard things 0’
Buffler fer lettin’ et happen; but ef so be ye’re willin’ ter

suggested
But ef we war follerin’

2

BILL STORIES.

plant yer boots under my coat, 1 aa _objectin’, and shell
think yer done right. Ef't war Benson,”

‘Was it a woman who was left in the stage?” the scout
asked.

“Tt was Vera Bright.”

“You're sure of that 2”

“There’s no doubt whatever, pard. We brought her
round, and she talked with us. She’s in the stage yet,
but weak; we left her there and come hoppin’ back,
judgin’ that you was needin’ help. She told us that Ben-
son had taken her hand bag , got clothing and other things
out of it, and made a change i in his looks, while he was in
the stage with her; and that she was too frightened to
make an outcry. He said to her, too, that he was
expecting: you to appear, and that he would fool you, and

sget away.

“Et’s what he has done, ther ornery skunk!” cried
Nomad. ‘But et’s jest like Benson.”

‘Fe iss like der flea,” put in the baron; “vhen you haf
got him, you gan loogk vor him at some odder blaces al-
readty.”

“He’s certain a mighty smart un,” commented the
stage driver. “I was tur’ble oneasy as I driv up ter ther
cafion, but I’d ’a’ been throwin’ fits ef I had guessed thet
Benson was the little gent ridin’ in my hearse.”

“Benson knew that the town and the trails were watched
and covered, so he had to make use of some scheme to
get out at all; and, of course, he wanted to get out,” said
the scout. “I wonder where he will go now?”

“Could we trail him?” asked the man from Laramie.

_“That’s to be settled, after we try it.”

“Then you mean to try it?”

“T certainly shall do everything to keep him from get-
ting out of the country. After he leaves this rocky sec-
tion and puts his foot on softer ground he has got to
make a trail, and I see no reason why we can’t find it
and follow him. It will take time; but if no rain comes
to wash out his tracks, we can do it.”

‘No rain in sight now,” said Nomad. “Et don’t rain
down in this kentry enough ter make a man reckle’t what
a good rain seems like.”

A sound came from the direction of the horses, that
the stage driver had tied to the tree.

“Wow!” he howled. “‘They’ve broke that hitchin’
strap, and thar they go, cuss ’em!”

The horses had broken away from the tree, and were
going down the trail at a tearing gait, dragging the stage-
coach, which swayed and bounced on the rough places, as
if it would go over.

The excicd stage driver started after them on foot, as
if he thought he could overtake them in that way.

“No use to run your lungs out in that style, Elmore,”
the man from Laramie called out to him. “Our horses
are right here. You can straddle the back of one of “em,
with the reg’lar rider, and get there a heap quicker.”

The scout and his pards hurried to get up their horses,
which were hidden out in the scrub.

But by the time they had done this the stage had
bobbed out of sight. By and by they even ceased to hear
it; though, before the sounds of its flight ceased, a
crashing sound reached them, much as if ‘the stage had
been overturned.

“That girl is shore gittin’ a run fe her money, ” ob-
served Nomad ; “thet is, ef she likes fast goin’ in an ole
stagecoach. Tm hopin’ she ain’t hurted none what-
ever.

 
 

 

THE BUFFALO

They were quickly galloping along the trail after the
stage.

When they came in sight of it they saw what had
happened. Scared by shadows at one side of the way, the
horses had swung out of the plain road, then had vainly
tried to get past a big bowlder by going one on each

side of it; the result of which was that the pole of the

stage had struck the rock, breaking the pole, bringing the
horses to a violent stop, and tumbling the stage over on
its side. In addition, the horses had snarled themselves
in their harness with a perfection that rendered them
helpless.

Hank Elmore was aghast when he beheld the damage.

“TY wonder what et done fer ther woman?” was No-
mad’s query. “I don’t see her stirrin’ round, and ef she

ain’t eternally smashed, I sh’d think thet she’d git outer

ther ole hearse.”
hana eucsoney
scious agvin.,’

(Rene dnen of a thing creates a habit,’ said the man
from Laramie, with a laugh on his lips. “I’m hoping it
won't be so in her case; as unconsciousness would be a
bad habit to cultivate.”

They galloped up to the stage an the tangled horses.
But when they had done so and looked into the vehicle,
they were struck with amazement.

The woman was not im the stage!

“Wow! What’s ther meanin’ of et?” Nomad ces

“Uff she had peen sbilt oudt alongk der vay ve musdt
haf seen her,” said the German.

va URat cushion has fallen, and maybe she is crumpled
up under it,’ Buffalo Bill suggested.

But she was not under the cushion; nor was she in the
stage at all.

Hank Elmore, fuming and Browne was trying to
get his horses untangled.

“This trip puts ther kibosh on any I ever took,” he
erowled. “I have been through hold-ups a- -plenty, but
this is wuss than any of ’em, fer me, One o’ you fellers

that’s got a sharp knife lend a hand yere; this hawse has
- twisted ’leventeen bowknots 0’ leather round his forrud
laigs, and I cain’t untie none of ‘em; we've got ter do
some knife work, I reckon,”

Wild Bill sprang to his aid, and the recalcitrant har-
ness was hacked away.

After making certain that the woman was not in or
near the stage, the scout requested Nomad and. the
baron to look for trails near by, then turned about and
retraced his way, leaning over from the seddle, search-
ing carefully.

A whoop from Nomad stopped the scout and brought
him back. :

“V’ve found tracks,” said the trapper, “but they ain’t
hers; look like a stizzly bar’ s; but thet cain’t be, fer a
stizzly don’t w’ar shoes.”

The scout flung himself out of the saddle; and, leav-
ing Bear Paw standing i in the trail, he hurried over to the
spot occupied by the baron and Nomad. Wild Bill and
Hank Elmore were still unsnarling the stage horses...

said the baron, ‘‘dot she iss inkin-

The trapper pointed solemnly to some tracks that he

and the baron had found.

“Erbout big ernough fer a grizzly,” said Nomad, “an
ther feller thet made ‘em shore shuffled along jest like a
bar; yit I reckon ’et war a man, ‘count o ther shoes.
I never yit heerd thet blars war addicted ter ther oe
habit.” .

BILL STORIES. = 7

ihe oe were large, showing they had been made
i shoes of the biggest size. As ‘the trapper stated, the
wearer had progressed with a shuffling movement, as was
to be told by the fact that where the ground was soft the
tracks were long-drawn, indicating that the feet had slid
along, instead of being well lifted. ‘

“Der kvestion vot me unt Nomat haf peen asking,”
said the baron, “‘iss, Dit he haf der vomans?”

‘We couldn't tell, Buffler; fer, ye see, though them
tracks sink purty deep, it may be bercause ‘ther feller: was
a purty good weight hisself; ther size o’ them feet inder-
cates a big man.’

“We'll see if we can pick up the trail of the woman,’
said the scout. “That is, if she leit the stage at this
point, and not before it reached here. . It ‘seetins to me,
though, that she could not have got out of the stage, the |
aS “it was tearing along, until it made its stops right

ere,

“What would she want ter leave it fer?” aked Nomad,

“She iss Vera Bright,’ said the baron.

“By which the baron means, I judge,” the scout ex-
plained, ‘that she has been little better at times than a
comrade and friend of outlaws, and perhaps i is not to be
trusted to do the honest thing in this case,’

“Vot [am tinking iss dot” perhabs she ditn't vant to
seen you, Cody. She might haf a reasons.’

The scout was searching for tracks of the woman.

Soon he found them—off on the right; small tracks,
going in the same direction of the large ones.

“Now, which were made first,” he hed “the: wom-
an’s, or the tracks of the big feet? You can see that
both are fresh.”

“Tdt gidts me,’ the baron confessed.

T ikewise, hyer,’ said Nomad. “Was she follerin’ ther
man, er was he follerin’ her; er was they travelin’-inde-
pendent? Ther only way ter find out is ter overtake ’em,
Pereckon.’’

The horses had been released from the tangled hae
ness, and the disgusted stage driver was tying them: to
some trees. Wild Bill walked over to the place where
Buffalo Bill and his pards were discussing the trails,

oh ve been hearing your talk,” a e And I- ae
you re up in the air,’ Ao

The scout admitted it.

“What. you going to do?’ :

“Follow these trails, and see what became ae ae
woman first, Then try to pick up the trail left by Tim
Benson. I suppose there is no doubt the fellow was
Benson ?” :

“Miss Vera Bright declared he was Benson.” ~

“Budt can she pe trusdted?” asked Schnitzenhauser.

“T think so, in that,” Wild Bill told. him. “She was
scared, and she seemed to be speaking the truth. Yet [
can’t understand why she left the stage here, unless the
jolt she got when the stage hit that rock unsettled her
mind a bit.”

Buffalo Bill followed along the trail of the woman.

“It’s a thing we've got to find out,” he said.

 

CHAPTER LV.

GORILLA “FAKE,

Tim Benson, having by some clever and careful climb-
ing, got out of the cafion gorge, and to the high ground
beyond it, was hastening along, hurrying so rapidly to-

 

 
    

8 | THE BUFFALO

\

We .
put distance between himself and the men he feared that |

he had not stopped even long enough to remove the wom-
an’s dress he wore, when he was brought to a sudden
and gasping halt by seeing a revolver poked at him over
the top of a bush.

“Try ter draw a gun, and I'll down ye!” came in warn-
ing from behind the bush.

Benson's hands, going involuntarily to the revolver he
carried, stopped on touching the dress, which at the mo--
ment he had forgotten he was wearing.

“Hands up!” repeated the fellow behind the bush.

Grumbling, and still ready to fight, Benson complied ;
he did not believe the man who spoke was one of Bufi-
falo Bill’s followers, which increased the likelihood that
the man was an outlaw, like himself.

“Come out of that, and let me see you!” he said.
“Likely I know you, if you’ve been herding round here.”

The man came out, with his revolver leveled.

As soon as Benson saw him he dropped down with a
breath of relief, then began to laugh, as an understand-
ing of thesituation came to him.
ing to laugh at.

“Tl jest take that there hand bag
other vallybles ye’ve got about ye.”

“Wow! Gorilla Jake!”

The man stopped with a grunt of surprise, but still
kept the revolver pointed at Benson.

“It’s funny, eh ?? he said. “Well, explain it, so’s I can
laugh with ye.’

The fellow was a very giant, so far as stature went;
but he seemed an immense ape, or gorilla, rather than a
man. His arms were so abnormally long that the one

~which hung down at his side extended to: his knee. His

legs, by comparison, were short. His body was long; his
shoulders big and thick. His head was small, with cun-
ning, apelike eyes, set in the midst of a hairy face. His
clothing was rough; his hat, a brimless thing, crowded
down so tightly on his skull that the small size of his
head was clearly shown.

“Who—who do you think I am?” Benson gasped.

“T reckon you're ther woman what let out the screech
when I come up to the stage over thar, after it whanged
into the rock. I looked in at ye; then you give out that
clippin’ yell and streaked it:
sech a jump. And run! Well, you was runnin’ like a
locomotive. J seen you had a hand bag, and that the
stage held nothin’; so I piked out and follered ve. Now,
Til take the hand bag.”

Tim Benson stared at the apelike man before him.

“When was this?” he asked.

“Waal, I'm figgerin’ that you know that jest as well as
I do. Ill thank ye fer the hand bag.”

“Was it this hand bag?”

“I'm sayin’ it was. Hand it over.”

“See here, you're fooled.”

“Not on yer life, I ain’t. When ye hand that bag over,
simply ¢ git rid of all yer other vallybles, too; fer T w ant
‘am. How you knowed I’m called Gorilla Jake, I dunno
but it don’t make much difference. I’m him: Knowin’ it,
—_ ought to know that I’ve got an impatient temper.”

Tim Benson stood up, smoothed out his facial muscles
and threw off the dress he had drawn over his clothing.
Then Gorilla Jake saw that he had a man to deal with.
When fuller recognition struck him like a blow in the

tace, he fell back.
- “Benson!” he howled.

.’ he said, “and any

 

Yet the man-saw noth-

IT never see-a female make ©

 

BILL. STORIES.

 

“Needn’t yell it. There’s men on my trail; and they'll
be on yours in a minute, if they ain’t already. You know
‘em, too—Buffalo Bill and his crowd.”

Gorilla Jake looked around, with a startled air,

“Was that the crowd that was up by the canon?” he
asked.

“You're speakin’ it.”

“Gee-whittaker !’

“But you needn’t holler it.
here soon enough, without that.
here?”

“What. air you?
fens:

Tim Benson stood up, listening for sounds of pursuit.

“Let’s hunt a safe hole somewhere; then we can talk
things over. It may be a lucky thing for both of us that
weve met.”

“Not fer me—if you’ve got Buffalo Bill’s crowd fol-
lerin’ ye!”

But the apelike man followed Benson when the latter
set out to seek a safer stopping place.

It was found by and by, in a hole, after a careful climb
across a rocky slope.

“There’s a few bushes growing in the crevices here,’
said Benson, “and they'll help to hide us; while this po-
sition, away up here, gives us such an outlook that
Cody’s crowd can’t come on us easy without us seeing
them. So we can talk things over.”

Gorilla Jake dropped down inside the hole with Ben-
son.

“First,” said Benson, “what brought you here?’

“T might answer by sayin’ my feet,” the apelike man
answered, spreading his mouth in a horrid grin; “but that
wouldn’t be explainin’, would it? So I forks over the
information that I was on my way to Blossom Range,
and was keepin’ out of the reg’lar trails simply as a
matter of habit.”

“Any sheriffs chasin’ you?”

Gorilla Jake hesitated.

“Not this trip.”

“The last I heard of you,” said~Benson, ignoring the
hesitation, “was when it seemed you was going to hang
for killing Nat Spargo, over in Valley Falls.”

Codie: Jake drew up his huge shoulders.

“T got out o’ that,” he explained, “by makin’ the jury
believe that I done the thing in self- defense; but it was a
close squeeze.’ e

“What is your lay now?”

“Seems to me that I’m doin’ all the explainin’!” the
apelike man objected. “But, never mind—I'll git my
whack at you when I’m through. Jest now I was goin’
to Blossom Range, where I thought I might find some O°
my old pals. But the chief reason was the Utes, that’s
livin’ jest north of it.”

He pulled a package from his pocket.
displayed a number of brown tablets.

“Good trick,’ he said; “I paid fifty dollars fer the
recipe tellin’ how to make ’ em. I never need to go road
agentin’ no more, to git all the cash I want. Feller that
I bot ught the recipe of was a Chinaman. Ordinary, I
take the drugs in their raw state, and mix ’em in whisky.
But over in Virginny City I ‘eae a drug-store man
what made it up in that shape fer me; and I “kin kerr y a
lot of it in a small compass.’

He held one of the brown tablets up in his fingers.

“Contains jest two grains,” he said. “Let a man mix

They'll be hoppin’ along

And what was you playin’ woman

Opening it, he

 

 

 

What are you doing

 

 

 

 
 
     

| 3

rR Lf mm =

Sey gna cys or pape Ao ee rae

tn:

Tho
 

 

 

Start an Injun at it

Sivaes BUFFALO

one o’ them in his whisky, and then let him drink if; ae
he’s jest got to have more. After that, I’ve got him. It
makes him see visions and have the howlingest happy ole
time, with adventures in clear joy, such as never was; all
fer a few cents. One tablet will do that. Give him
three; and he gits wild. Give him four er five, and he’d
kill his best friend fer a dollar. Give him as high as ten,

and he jest lays down and don’t know nothin’ fer twenty-
four hours straight.”

Tim Benson became intensely interested.

He took the tablet and looked at it; felt it, smelled it,
then tasted it.

“Not much taste to it,” he remarked.

“Tt’s the effect what does the work.”

“You've tried ’em yourself?”

“Not any fer me, thank ye! Jf I did, I’d simply be
eatin’ ’em all the time; and it would be the end of me.
It gits the best of ’em, after a while, if they don’t stop it;
and they can’t stop it so long as the stuff is to be had.
, and first‘he’ll trade ye his gun; then
he'll pass over his ponies and his blankets ; final ly he'll
give ye his squaws, if ye want ‘em.’

“He might murder you to get the stuff, I should
think.”

“Tt don’t work that way. When he’s the wildest, he’s
still got sense enough to pertect the man what furnishes

him his means of happiness, sos lié/kin git more. See?
So I always feel safe.”

“Ts it an opium compound ?”

“Thar’s opium in it, and Indian hemp; them’s the prin-

Thar’s another thing called woolly
But

cipal ingrediments,
loco; an’ some jalpasca, which comes frum Ceylon.

—shucks, d’ye think I’m goin’ ter give ye ther recipe of
how to make this ?”

- g0es with me!

~ money in my direction.

Tim Benson sat staring at the little ee.

“How many you got of them?” he asked.

“More’n enough to set a hundred men crazier’n a band
0’ bobcats.”

“That’s good! i

“See hyer,” snarled the apelike man, ce one his fang-
like teeth. “Seems to me I’m doin’ all the talkin’—an-
swerin’ all the questions! You ain’t opened up any infor-
mation about yerself, thet I’ve noticed. No hawe bizness
{2

“I was just thinking.”

“Didn't I notice it.
ins

“T think we can make this stuff highly useful.” __

“T’m doin’ that already; it’s highly useful, to pull
That’s a secrit | ain’t goin’ to
sheer with nobody. Besides, you said we would have a
confidential ixchange of information per sonal. Pve laid

I want you should do some oe

my. cards on the table; put down yours.”

“Oh, I see!

“Prezackly.”

“It’s short—but not sweet. As I told you, Cody.and
his crowd are off over there somewhere, looking for me.
I came in the Calumet Wells stage from Blossom Range
this morning. In the stage with me was a woman, that
you don’t know—a show ‘girl, who goes by the name of
Vera Bright. I thought a good deal of her at one time;
in fact, me and a gambler and road agent by the name of
John Ward ran a close race for a snug place in her a
fections. She allowed Ward was a better looker an
myself, and he won out.”

“I know him.”

You want to hear my story.”

_ the town, called Juniper Joe”

BILL STORIES. : :

“You mean that you once knew him. Right now he is
dead.”

“Wow! What did he die Olt:

“A bullet out of my pistol.”

The apelike man edged away, staring at Boa

“Does that hit you in a tender spot?” :

“Not p’ticklerly; he wasn’t no friend of mine.”

“T’m glad of it. This woman [’m telling you about
never forgave me for killing Ward; though, as I look at
it, it was Ward for the graveyard, or me. He would.
have killed me, only that I got him first. 1 had a pal in

“Vve heard of him, too. He was a Slim Jim with a
bad record.”

“T’d done some work at another place, and also round
Blossom Range, that had set Buffalo Bill and his gang
hot after me. They was crowding me so close that I
knew I had to disguise.”

“You was allus good at it.”

“I tried a new dodge. Getting into communication
with Juniper, we cooked up what we thought was the
real thing for a deceiver. I came into the town dis-
guised as a woman, and married Juniper Joe, with half
the town of Blossom Range attending the wedding.”

“Woosh! ‘That was goin’ some.’

Tim Benson laughed over the recollection.

“It fooled everybody for a while, even Cody and his
crowd. But just then John Ward, crazy with jealousy,
got into the game; which accounts for his wiping out, as
above mentioned.” Me

“He was a fool!”

“Tt looks so now; though as he i is lying under : six feet
o’. sod, I don’t know what he thinks about it. Anyway, it
started this woman into the game, and she began to help
Cody’s crowd. Juniper had been jailed for having a
hand in the killing of Ward. I disguised myself, fooled
the jailer, Matt Shepard, and got him out, If we had
been smart right then, Juniper and I would have shaken ~
Blossom Range and quit the game. . But we didn’t have.
sensé enough; we wanted to try for a few more hold-ups,
and finally wanted to crack the bank, so that we could go
away with our jeans lined with money.”

“Nobody ever knows when he has enough of the stuff,”
the apelike man commented, wagging his hideous head.

“Yhere: had come a fellow to Blossom Range about
that time who started up in a cabin on the hills back of
the town, and was called by the people the Fool of Folly
Mountain.”

“T reckon I don’t know him.”

“T’m sure you do! But let me explain. He was gam-
bling at Gopher Gabe’s saloon every night, and a cleverer
hand with the pasteboards I never saw. He claimed that
he was as bad as the worst of us; by throwing out hints
he made us believe that he was road agenting, and that
the cabin where he was pretending to assay ores and the
like, was all a blind. Well, we took him into the gang;
and thought we was doin’ a fine thing. We went to his
cabin one night, to complete cur plans for cracking the
bank safe. It was the finish. Cody and his crowd was in
there, and had us surrounded before we knew it; and
right in with them was this Fool of Folly Mountain,
holding pistols on us.”

“Woosh! That was the kibosh. Who was the feller ?*

“He was Wild Bill Hickok, Cody’s pard!”

The apelike,man fell back with a gurgle of amazement.

“That was awful!” he gasped.

 
 

10 THE BUFFALO

“Tt caught all of the crowd but me. I knocked the
jamp from the table, and got out through the window,
with bullets chasing me.’

“What happ ened to Juniper Joe and the others?”

_ “They’re right now in jail at/Blossom Range, in charge
of Matt Shepard, the sheriff; and every one of them Is
going to be hung.”

“Wow! That’s tough,” gurgled Gorilla Jake.

“I was crowded so close, and then spied on so thor-
oughly that 1 had a time of it, to keep from being taken
myself. The stage trails, the hotels, the streets, every-
thing, was sealed up,as you may say; and | was inside.
I wanted to get out; for I had a feeling that I would be
caught if I didn’t. So-I disguised, and made a bold try.
This morning I went down to the stage and got in
boldly.”

“Disguised as a woman?”

“No. In man’s clothing, but with such changes as
made it likely I wouldn’t be recognized..For instance!’

He twisted the muscles of his face, then turned on
Gorilla Jake, showing so great a facial change that he
seemed altogether another person. Gorilla Jake started.

vow re all right, Benson!” he gasped.

“The woman didn’ t knew me w hen I got into the stage,
until T permitted her to, later. She had a hand bag,
clothing in it. Before that I had found out that she
nt to leave town in the stage. I knew she would
some of her clothing with her; and, being addicted

is to paint and powder, I figured she would have

of that, too.”
re been lookin’ at that paint on yer nose and cheeks.”

“That’s where I got it. I told her who 1 was, and
threatened to shoot her if she cried out.
one of her dresses over my clothing, pinned this mop of
hair onto my head over my own hair—it’s hers; and
painted myself up with paints and stuff taken from her
hand bag.

_ “When Cody did the thing I expected him to do—held
up the stage—I stepped out with the hand bag. As he
knew the woman would be in that stage—I suppose he
knew it!—he thought I was the woman, and I passed out
without trouble. While they were poking into the stage
for me I made a hike, and got away, though I was shot at
and chased. I had choked the woman, and left her in
there unconscious.”

The apelike man sat staring in admiration at the mas-
ter villain.

“You're shore a wonder!” he ejaculated.

The compliment pleased Benson, and he smiled.

“T got away, as I said; then I met you.”

“Jest so. Well, I heard a rumble and noise in the trail,
and saw the stage down there, with the horses snarled.
Looked like nobody was in it, er that they was all dead;
so I slid down to investigate. When I poked my nose in
at the stage door thar was a woman layin’ on the cushions.
T reckon she thought I was the devil, fer which I ain't
blamin’ her; I never did count much with women, ner in
a beauty show.
stage, and fair flew; and she come in this direction.

“About that time I thought I’ heard men frum the
cafion, and I kited; fer I didn’t want to meet ’em. I run
over in this direction, and then I heard you. Thinkin’
it was maybe somebody that had follered me, I got behind
that bush. It was my intention, if the man was alone, as
1 thought, to hold him up and rob him. Buf it was you.”

“So we understand each other.”

$

i

0

8) 5 4
i me fo
3 o Be

eo et)
ae)

ws

ow

Then [I put on _

She let out a yell, jumped out of the.

BILL STORIES.

“Ves: now we understand each other.”
“Got any plans now?”
“T told you I was goin’
Utes.”
“Better keep out of the town right now. As for the
Utes, I want to talk with you about them.”

into the town, then to the

CHAPTER V.
SA OE EEN DLS EE Pa ACN

Throughout their talk Tim Benson had not been at
ease, owing to his fear that Buffalo Bill’s party might
come upon him unawares.

Now he got up and crept stealthily away, after telling
the apelike man that he wanted to look round, and
would be back in a minute.

When he returned he had news.

“T got a look at ’em,”’ he announced,
out there.”

“Wow!
straighter.

“They’ ve found the woman that you scared away from
the stage—the woman I was telling you about—and
they’re taking her back to it. I reckon they'll send her
on to Calumet Wells with Elmore, or back to Blossom
Range.”

. Ww ho’s Elmore?”
ank Elmore is the stage driver.”

7

a !

“from that hill

Ye did?’ said Gorilla Jake, sitting up

a

“e

ce

Be OQ

s they've got the woman off their hands they'll
be rs ee folledin’ our trail.’

“They ll find it hard work. trailin’
rocks.”

“I guess you don’t know Cody. He can smell out a
trail just like a bloodhound. He'll find it.”

“Then I reckon we'd better be goin’ on.”

“Yes, aiter weve had a few more words.
you were going into the town.”

wit was my calc lation,”

“But you didn’t tell me who is after you !”

The apelike man stared again—and the clever road
agent saw that in his guess he had hit the bull’s-eye.

“*Who said any body. was after me?” said Gorilla Jake.

“Your manner told me. Who is it? Perhaps I can
give you some information,”

The apelike man looked round, then at Benson.

“Might’s well tell it, I s’pose. I was follered by them
cussed Betts brothers.”

“Jim Betts and Bill Betts, the Great Combination?”

“Edzackly. I see you know ’em.” ~

“Only too well. I saw ’em no longer ago than last
night.”

Gorilla Jake stood up with a jump.

“But there’s no use getting scared about it-here Fas-
sured the crafty road agent. “It was down in Blossom
Range that I saw *em.’

Gorilla Jake sat down, his great frame shivering.

“I might’s well tell ye ‘the whole of it.”

“I think it will be better, if you do,” said Benson, who
had lied in saying he had seen the Betts brothers in the
town; the truth being he had not seen them there or any-
where else recently, thous -h he knew who they were, and
feared them almost as much as he did Buffalo Bill.

us acrost them

You said

 

 
 

-join forces.

it. I’ve heard them Utes have got some

“THE BUFFALO

“JT put a knife into the superintendent of the Goliath
Mine, at Soda Springs,’”’ Gorilla Jake explained. “Hard
luck had mé*by the throat, and I was tryin’ to git the
cash that was in the safe at the mine office. The Super-
intendent was in the office, and we come together. He
gripped me; and to git free I knifed him. It was only
ten days ago. The thing made me pick up my feet and
git out 6’ that in a hurry. A reward was offered fer me
alive er dead, by the mine directors, and it put the Bettses

hot on my trail; but I thought [ had shook ’em off.”

Benson concealed the feeling of satisfaction which this
gave him.

“You won't dare to go into the town now, at any rate,”
he said.

“No, I reckon not.’

“And Buffalo Bill will help the Bettses, of course.”

“He allis does,” Gorilla Jake admitted, “when they
happen ter be workin’ in the same territory.”

“So it looks to me that the best thing we can do is to
And since you’ve told me about those tab-
lets, and that you intended to go to the Utes, an idea has
come to me.’

“T was goin’ to sell the stuff to the es but Pve got
to have whisky as a basis, to soak the things up in; that’s
why I was goin’ into Blossom Range—to git the whisky.
Can’t do nothin’ without it. I doctor the whisky with
the tablets. A red jest naturally likes the stuff, anyway ;
put that dope into it, and you couldn’t pry him away from
it with a crowbar. He'll trade everything he’s got: fer
cold dust, and |
know they’ve got furs and pelts. So that was my lay.
I thought I’d be safe there for a time, and that maybe

the Bettses would git tired, or lose the trail.”

Tim Benson sat thinking over this, forming his crafty
plans. He knew now that Buffalo Bill would “get” him
unless he could hurl a force against the scout’s party and
crush it. That force might be the Utes.

“T’ve got the whisky,” he announced, “and I'll go in

with you in this thing; it will make for the safety of

both of us. I’ve been using the Ute village as a hide-out
on more than one occasion, and have found it a mighty
good place. But Cody has brought up Matt Shepard, the
sheriff, with a posse, and gone all through it, more than
once recently. And hell do it again. The Utes are

afraid of the sheriff and his posse; though without that

posse backing’ him they wouldn’t stand it. Iron Bow
told me the last time I was with him that he couldn't
hide me again; he’s afraid Shepard will lug him off to
the Blossom Range jail. So it’s not that the old scamp
ain’t willing enough to hide me; and he wants the whisky
I give him for it.”

“Where do ye Bee this whisky? Git it in the town
every titie:

“T used to. Lay 1 had a burro load cached in, the
hills, as a ting to fall back on, if I wasn’t able to get it
in the town. Ye see, I didn’t dare take it all to the Utes
at once, and didn’t want to. The most of it is in that
cache now, in bottles.”

“Wow! 1?

“How does it hit you?”

Great!”

“My idea is this; and you can tell if it will work, Give
enough of that stuff of yours, in that whisky, to a lot of
the warriors, and get them into a bloody humor; then

make them think that Buffalo Bill’s crowd is out here to

“BILL STORIES. = ee 11

make trouble for ’em. It ought to send them out against
Cody’s gang red-headed.”’
The apelike man gurgled what he oy thought

~ was a laugh.

“Ted do it.”

‘Then, the thing is easy. If the stuff will do that we
can simply wipe that crowd off the face of the earth.”

Gorilla- Jake stood up and looked across the rocky
land.

“How fur is it to that whisky cache? Seems to me I'd
like a drink myself. But with no dope in it; none o’ that
dope fer meh’

“The cache isn’t far from the Ute villave.””.

“Tf the reds has found it thar’ll be an empty cache
when we git thar.”

“TI don’t think they could find it.”

“I reckon we ought to be movin out of this. MH I
understood you, after Cody’s crowd put that woman back |
into the stage they're likely to come this way, follerin’
our trails.”

i ihey re-sure-to:

He stepped farther out, still looking about:

Suddenly he turned and dived back. As he did so a
bullet plunked against a rock right over his head.

“Gee-whiskers!”’ he sputtered. “That was .a close
Cae:

No rifle or revolver report had becndee.

“They ain't in the town, you bet!”

His apelike face had changed in a moment to an ashen
white, showing terror. He pointed a shaking finger to
a silvery trickle on the rock, where the heat of the bul-
let’s compact had melted the lead.

“See that!” he said. “It’s from Bill Betts’ rie. i

Tim Benson was not a little startled.

“You saw Bill Betts out there?’’ he asked

“T seen the swish of his umbreller; then that came at
me

Sweat began to stream out of his face.

“Take a look out, and see! It was over by that big
tock, But look out fer yerseli”

A good deal puzzled, Tim Benson crept to the edge of
the hole and looked out. After staring hard he failed to

locate the umbrella.
“T don’t see anything,’ he called back in a whisper.
“Mebby she’s circlin’ !’”

oHee .
7\ see that yun dome know much about ther Betts

brothers, Jim, hes a ‘tall, eanclin’ deller;. while ius
brother is little; that’s Bill. And Bill he does the female
lay.” :

“T see. One of my little tricks—plays woman.”

“Where they ain’t known they purtend ter be husband
and wife, and air gin’rally quarrelin’ about all ther time,
jest to fool folks. The woman—lI’ve kinder got inter
ther habit o’ callin’ Bill a woman!—don’t carry any
weepins that anybody knows of, but she is allers packin’
about with her a big gray umbreéller. It’s her rifle; an
air gun, that shoots wicked, yit don’t make a sound that
you can hear ten yards off. She whanged at me jest now
with her air gun. Which shows that she seen me. And
o’ course she’s crawlin’ up. Ain’t thar no way ©’ gittin’
out 0’ this infernal hole without rushin’ out thar?”

 
  

  

‘THER BUFFALO

“T don’t see her, or the umbrella,” Benson declared.

Gorilla Jake ventured to creep ont at Benson’s side.
As soon as he could see across the rocks he dropped
down, dragging at the sleeve of his companion.

“Thar! Thar!” he said, shivering. “Don’t yer see it?”

“Blamed if I do.”

“That, gray rock off: thar; looks-jest like a gray rock,
anyhow. It’s her umbreller. She’s squattin behind it,
waiting fer me to show myself. She’ll hold us hyer till
Cody’s crowd comes up. It’s her game. She thinks she
has got me in a i hole, and now she has plugged up the
hole.”

Tim Benson saw the “gray rock,” when Gorilla Jake
pointed it out to him; but even then could hardly believe
that the gray object was not a rock.

“Tf it’s an umbrella, a bullet through it ought to get
Bill Betts,” he said.

“Which goes ter show that you don’t know her.. She
is layin’ off to one side, prob’ly, wi’ a rock coverin’ her,
er coyerin’ her head and shoulders, so a bullet through
ther umbreller wouldn’t git her.”

He worked a little higher, even at a risk. and tried to
look round. He was perspiring profusely, and his gray
eyes glittered; while his lips, drawn back, revealed his
fanglike teeth. More than ever he resembled an ape or
gorilla, rather than a man.

Tim Benson was not slow in perceiving the desperate |

character of the situation. Bottled up in the hole by that
deadly air rifle, what was to hinder the pretended woman
from keeping them there until Buffalo Bill’s party could
come up? That would mean Benson's capture, as well
as Gorilla Jake’s.

. He drew back his head and studied the stones at the
rear of the hole. Then he looked at the long arms of
the man-ape, and his powerful shoulders. Benson him-
self was a small man; but this giant at his side might do
the thing he could not. He could furnish the brains
which Gorilla Jake lacked, and the man-ape could furnish
the muscle which he lacked. It was, it seemed, a fortu-
nate combination,

“If you’ve got the courage, Jake,” he said, “there’s no
reason why, with your strength, you can’t push those two
stones out of the way back there. It would furnish us a
means to get out of this hole.”

Gorilla Jake stared at the stones, licking his hairy lips.

“If she didn’t pot me while I was doin’ it!’ he Ob
jected.

Benson looked round again.

“Here, we can up-end this stone,” he said,
screen you from her bullets while you turn the trick. But
we've got to be quick about it.”

“Quick’s the word! Cody’s crowd is comin’: T know

it by the way she jest sets down thar behind that um-
Dreller.?

 

 

“and it will -

Bier STORIES,

They up-ended the stone, a thing easy to do when the
man-ape applied his immense strength to the task.

Believing that this would screen him, Gorilla Jake
now attacked the stones at the rear of the nest, which
Benson pointed out. It was a wonderful exhibition of
brute strength; the muscles on his arms and shoulders
corded themselves up like knotted ropes, his breast
heaved up and down convulsively, sweat rained from his
face; but he moved the heaviest of the stones, and with
a great surge of his writhing body threw it to one side.
The next, which had lain under it, was not so difficult,
and a hole had been opened.

Through it they pulled themselves;
bodies down the slope on the other side.

They now had the rocky hill between themselves and
the terrible “woman” with the umbrella.

Gorilla Jake bounded to his feet like a huge ball of
live rubber. 3

“Now fer the tall hills!’ he panted.

“Yes; this is our chance. Poke your nose at that peak
over there, and keep going. I'll try to hold you in sight.
I guess we can give that crowd the slip even yet.”

Then they began to run, with the peak as their first
objective point, being careful to keep to rocky and hard
ground.

then ‘slid their

 

CHAPTER? Vik;
THE BETTS BROTHERS.
Tim Benson was right in saying that the rocky slopes
crossed by him and Gorilla Jake would not detain Buf-
falo Bill, or throw him off the scent,

But the difficult character of the work slowed his
progress, even though he had with him such wonderful
trailers as Nick Nomad and Wild Bill Hickok.

As for the baron, he did not waste time in trying to
spell out the tracks—which he could not see at all with-
out assistance, and hardly then—but contented himself
with looking ahead and around, thereby performing a
most useful service, as it would not have been advisable
for all the eyes of the party to engage in trail searching.

While doing his part of the work, the baron saw a man
duck down suddenly behind a rock.

“Vot iss?” he gasped, stopping dead in his tracks.

“Jes’ now it’s a fool Dutchman squawkin’ too loud!”
Nomad flung at him,

“Budt I seen somepoty.”

This attracted attention.

“What did yer see, Schnitz?
ohn

“A man.”

“Benson, I reckon. Whar was he?”

“Budt idt vos nodt Penson. He iss a liddle veller.
Dhis vos a dall man, unt he vos vearing vhiskers !”

Buffalo Bill and the man from Laramie began to ask

Don’t stand thar gog-

  

questions. “Ki

   
 

 
 

 

 

  

“Righdt py dot\ rock pehint I secn him, yoost now. He
vos so dall like ve iss vearing sdilts, unt he haf longk
vhiskers like a sbinach.”

“Which don’t prove et wasn’t Benson,’ Nomad ob-

jected. “Thet feller kin change his looks more thar any
actor thet ever helped ther bloodhounds chase Eliza.
When we last seen him he was wearin’ one o’ Miss Vera
Bright’s dresses and doin’ ther woman act. Benson is
tale cote.

“Budt he couldn’t make iieclnt so dall as dot, ees
he, mitout sdilts 2” ‘

“Waal, who’s ter know he warn’t w’arin’ stilts?’ ud
Nomad, determined to meet all objections, for he was
sure that the man seen could be none other than Benson.
_ But a minute later he was undeceived; the man ap-
peared in full view for just a second, then jumped back
ehind his rock.

“Waugh!” Nomad whooped now, rubbing his eyes.
“Tet thet-ain’t ole Jim Betts, I’m er: Piegan.”

“Right-o! None other!” chimed in Wild Bill.

Buffalo Bill had discovered the same thing.
stepped out, so that Jim Betts could see him clearly.

He

Thereupon the hidden man appeared again; this time
coming toward them with tremendous strides of his long,
birdlike legs,

“Thunder and carry one!” the man from Laramie ex-
ploded. “What’s Betts doing here?”

“When he iss arrifed he vill exblandion idt,”
the German.

suggested

Jim Betts came up rapidly, i small head outthrust,
his spinach whiskers floating in the breeze.

“Howdy !’ he called, yet he did not speak loud.
out after the same man we air?”

7 You
“If you are after Tim Benson, we are,’ the scout told
him,
Greetings followed.
“We ain't after him,” said Betts;

66

we're after Gorilla

Jake, fer knifin’ the mine superintendent at Sody Springs,

Thar’s a big reward out fer him, dead er alive; and
wherever a reward floats its invertation thar me and Bill
is mighty cert’in to be found. We been trailin’ him fer
hetter’n a week. He’s been p’intin’ his nose toward
Blossom Range; but we rounded him up, arter a fashion,
in these hills, this mornin’, an’ air now lookin’ fer him.”

“Did he wear big boots?” asked the man from La-
ramie,

“Yoost so peeg as vot a grizzly beat years?” added
the German.

“Waal, he does. He's a sart 0’ grizzly, too; er, ruther,
human ape. If ye ever set eyes on him ye'll never fergit
him,”

Jim Betts took from his pocket a soiled reward -ad-
vertisement, which gave a very, accurate description of
Gorilla Jake; then the scout recalled who the man was.

THE BUFFALO BILL STORIES. oe ae

 

‘of pleasant recollections.

 

  

  

“Then you know he’s a troublesome citizen,’ said
Betts. “When I seen you comin’ along hyer I couldn't
make out who ye was; so I dodged behind that rock.
Then I tuck the risk of showin’ myself, knowin’ that if
you was friends, and recognized me, you would come on.
Brother Bill is out hyar some’eres.”

“Waugh!” Nomad’s face was wrinkling with smiles
“IT recomembers yer brother,
all right. He’s ther female. Bill still w’arin’ skirts
now ?” he asked.

“Not this trip; ‘tain’t necessary. But he’s got his ole
umbreller with him. I prefers pistols and rifles m’self;
but Bill he says give ‘him ther ole umbreller. It’s a won-
der the way ther thing will shoot, an’ ther way he kin
shoot it.”

“You've seen those big tracks near here?” the scout
queried, after explaining further about Benson. ‘We
lost them.”

“Yes,” said Betts.

“We're follerin’ purty near by guesswork now,” No-
mad admitted. “Yit I cal’late we're p’intin’ right.”

“Waal, I’m powerful glad t’see ye!” Betts asserted
again. “Was your man goin’ in this same direction?”

“Vot a kvestion!? exclaimed the baron. “Uff nodt,
vouldt Puffalo Pill pe going dhis vay?”

“Then we'll go on together,” said Betts. "T Tikes to
keep within clus hailin’ distance o’ Brother Bill, as he’s.

_a master hand to git into trouble when I ain’t nigh to

advise him.”

“An’ Bill says,’ Nomad reminded, “that he has con-
tinyul got ter look out fer you, ter keep gs frum gittin’
inter trouble.”

“Jest his idee o’ humor,” Jim Betts asserted airily.

They were moving on together, across the stony land.

‘Half an hour later they came in sight of Bill Betts;

crouched near his gray umbrella gun, watching the hole

where he believed Gorilla Jake lay concealed.

When he saw his brother and the men with him, he
stared; then he lifted his hand, on recognizing them.
After that he closed the umbrella part of his.gun, and
slid backward, rising to his feet as soon as he felt safe.

In a minute or two he was before them.

“Glad to see everybody—Cody specially!” he cried,
making an all-inclusive bow. “But right now I ain’t got

time ter tork, Right off thar is a hole what Gorilla Jake

is hidin’ in, an’ another man what's a stranger ter me.
hidin’ with him. DPve been holdin’ ’em in thar by slam-
min’ away now and then with this ole air gun; and I’m
afraid they may make a break fer other cover unless we
close up on ’em quick.”

They “closed up” on the hole amid the rocks, near the
crest of the ridge, following Bill Betts. He began to
sing out for the occupants of the hole to “surrender,” as
soon as he was near enough.

      

“Ive heard of him, but never seen him,” he explained. ,

   
  

  

‘14 : THE BUFFALO

“Might’s well come right out o’ that and save trouble,”
he warned. “I has got Cody and his crowd backin’ me
now; and if we're forced to charge ye somebody’s goin’
to git hurt mnighty bad. What do ye say? Goin’ to sur-
render peaceable, er do we have to come fer ye on ther

rune °

Nomad, obeying a motion from Buffalo Bill, had
hitched back, and was now circling round the base of the
ridge, to get on the other side.

But at a risk, the scout took a shorter cut to knowledge.

“Your men may not be in there,” he said to Betts.

He stood up quickly, inviting a bullet, and saw the hole
made when Gorilla Jake heaved aside the stones.

“The nest is empty ! he shouted; and started toward

it with drawn revolver.

“Iss dot so-o! howled the baron, tumbling right after
him. “Den ve haf peen wit-oudted!” He meant out-
witted.

The others followed.

“Thunder and carry one!” exploded the man from Lar-
amie, as the deserted hole in the rocks was reached and
he looked about.

Bill Betts was stupefied.

“May I be doggone!” he said. “I reckon I’m about
forty different kinds of fools, fer not suspectin’ that. But,
ye see, I didn’t suppose them rocks could be lifted; fer-
gittin’ that Gorilla Jake is a ae steam engine, when
it comes to strength.”

He began to look about on the other side of the ridge,
searching for the tracks of the fugitives there, a work in
which he soon had plenty of assistance.

CHAPTER VII.
BENSON AND THE MAN-APE REACH THE UTE VILLAGE.

Having made their successful getaway, Tim Benson
and. Gorilla Jake covered the distance to the whisky
cache in record time.

The whisky was in flat, pint bottles, and it was vile
stuff. Still, Gorilla Jake celebrated the opening of the
cache by swallowing the contents of one of the bottles.

Only about half the bottles were removed, the others
being carefully concealed again. The men divided those
taken, distributing them to the best advantage on their
persons, after “doctoring” them with Gorilla a s tab-
lets.

Before they started on for the Ute village they did
their best to obliterate all traces of the cache and of their
visit to it. Also, in approaching and leaving it, they
blinded their trail with great care.

“Tf Cody finds this trail he'll be doing hope. work,”
said Benson. “I don’t think he can do it.”

 

 

BILLe STORIES.

Gorilla Jake’s brutish face had flushed under the in-
fluence of the liquor swallowed, and his gray eyes, were
glittering. He still shuffled his steps with half-dragging
feet, and swung his long arms clumsily ; yet his” courage
was improved, and he walked more erect.

“T reckon it’s a good thing fer you,” he said, growing
boastful, “that I met you jest as I did.”

“T judge it was a good thing for both of us,
parried.

Though Benson had not touched the whisky, his face
had a peculiar look, and one that was not pleasant. All

” Benson

the facial masks he assumed at various times were now

laid aside, so that his real self was more than usually
well revealed. It-denoted cunning; but also a fear that
had begun to approach terror. It showed, too, a lack of
mental balance. Some of Benson’s “feats” had often
made his friends say he was “crazy,” though in its literal
sense they did not mean it. If they had beheld him now,
though, they might not have thought him crazy, they
would have seen that he was desperate. And desperation
carried to an extreme is but a form of insanity, in that it
leads men to do things which in ordinary moments they
would not dream of attempting.

No greater proof of Benson’s decided list toward in-
sanity was needed than the step he had decided on, and
was now bent upon carrying out. A man normally bal-
anced would have seen that its end was more than
threatening. For, even granting that he induced the
Utes to destroy Buffalo Bill’s party, that could not be
the end of it. Other men would be sent, backed by the
power of the American Government. A perfectly sane
mind would have known that he could no more combat
and destroy them all than the old woman could sweep
back the sea.

Benson justified his plan to himself by the thought
that if he had to “go under” he could send Buffalo Bill
ahead of him to the land of shades.

A question was voiced now by the man who looked so
much like a great ape that Benson had a real scorn of
his mental ability:

“Don’t ye reckon it’d be best if we jest dropped this
hull blamed thing and purceeded to put distance between
us and these hyer people?”

Benson stopped, his face white and nervously troubled,
his brows lowering.

“Weakening, are you?” he snarled.

“Not edzackly, but

“Then, swing along. In an hour or less Cody’s crowd
will pick up our trail in spite of all we’ve done, and will
be follering it. I ain’t any notion to be caught by cin,
out here.” y ie

A cluck of anger sounded in the throat of the apelike
man. He did not like the tone in which this was said to

 

him. But he “swung along,” following hard at Benson’s

heels, -

   
   
   
   
  
  
  
  
 

 

 

eee pp eel

Ww

     
 

  
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
 

   

 

THE BUFFALO

)

On gaining the edge of the village, they were met and
opposed by warriors. But Benson stood his ground,
“Tell Iron Bow that Little Eagle comes, with his serv-

ant, bearing gifts for the chief and warriors, and wishes

to see him,” he said, making his communication in Ute.

‘Iron Bow, the chief, was already approaching, drawn
by the hubbub. He arrived inno pleasant humor ; and he
stared in a forbidding manner at ne apelike man with
Benson.

“Tittle Eagle knows,’ said the chief,
well for him to come again to the Ute village. Iron Bow
is his friend; yet the chief must think of his people.”

“Little Eagle,” as Benson was known to them, had.
been forbidden to visit the Ute village, because Buffalo
Bill and the sheriff had come there several times looking
for them. That this was likely to get the Utes into trou-
ble has been already mentioned.

“I don’t know what ye’re a copieced Gorilla Jake,
“but I don’t like the looks o’ things hyer.”

Benson gave this no heed—he did not even look at.

Gorilla Jake, but merely smiled upon the frowning chief

and truculent warriors; then he fished: from a pocket one

of the bottles of “doctored” whisky. »

“I and my servant have come with gifts for the chief
and warriors,” he said smoothly, as if he had not heard
the objections of Iron Bow. “Here are bottles of the
white man’s fire-water, which my brothers like so well.”

He tried to pass them around; but the eager Indians,

forgetting their angry growls, clutched and crowded so
that it was soon a case of “first come, first served.’

Iron Bow, deeming a scramble beneath his dignity,

“that it is not.

  

‘

raised the bottle given him to his lips, after which

sounded a hollow “gurgle-gurgle,”
slipped down his throat.

as the tempting liquor

peace. :

“My servant has more,” said Benson airily, having
passed out all that he had. “But you must not fight for
it, and you must not make such a squabble over it that
you may break the bottles. It is very good fire-water,
as the chief knows.”

He turned to his ‘ ‘servant,” and Gorilla Jake’s pode
and shirt began to yield up “doctored” bottles.

As many as thirty warriors, and the chief, got enough
of the powerful and poisonous stuff to fit them for mur-
der within half an hour, Are

 

CHAPTER VIII.

MATT SHEPARD AND THE MASSACRE.

_ Instead of driving the stage through to Calumet Wells,
Hank Elmore had turned his horses about in the trail,
and, with viciously cracking whip and jumping horses,
 heook it at a bouncing gait back toward Blossom Range.

He was almost the only Indian»
there permitted by others to drink his bottle empty in

         
 

BILL STORIES. S ie

 

Elmore was undeniably scared. Aside from that, he
wanted to be the first with the news into Blossom Range, :
and talk the thing over with his cronies there, as he had
talked over every hold-up in which he had ever been
engaged, -Elmore disliked hold-ups, because of the dan-.
ger; but when they were past he got great glory and
satisfaction out-of the fact that he had been in them.
Sometimes he told marvelous stories of his courage and.
prowess, but that was only when no one could contradict
him.

With his hore jumping along the trail and the old
“hearse” rocking like a catboat in a gale, Elmore was
suddenly taken aback by the supposed discovery that he .
was in for another hold-up, even though he had in the
stage only the scared woman who answered to the name
of Vera Bright. He stabbed his boot against the brake,
and surged back on the lines with a pull that threatened
them, weakened, as they were, with splicings and tyings.

But, instead of road agents, the men. who came into
view were Matt Shepard, sheriff and jailer of the county,
with a body. of men behind him, some mounted and others
on foot. Heavily armed, they had looked peculiarly
brigandish, |

“Oh, it’s you, is it?” yelled Elmore, much relieved. .

“Who did you think it was?’ demanded Shepard, while |
his men swarmed up behind him,

ee !? answered Elmore laconically. “See any-.
thing o’ these hyer knotted lines, gents? See that trace
over thar thet’s been cut and then tied together ; and that
back band that has been served the same way? Y’ don’t”
notice, I reckon, that this hyer harniss is hangin’ ter-
gether with strings. Ef you did, you’ wouldn’t ask has
I been in a hold-up.”

Shepard and his backers were immensely interested.

“Who was the hold-up gents?” he demanded.

Then Elmore was able to ture one of the few ae of
his life.

“Buffalo Bill. and his crowd !” he yelled. “Wow!

~ Would ye ’a’ thought it?”

But after that he explained what he meant, while the
men from Blossom Range crowded round the stage and ©
looked at the cut and patched harness and the scratched

- horses.

“So the lady i is inside! ” said the sheriff

She came to the door, very pale and large- -eyed, She
corroborated the story of the stage driver, and was able
to add details of her own from personal observation. o

“Cody is follerin’ him, then,” said Shepard. “It’s a
game we want to git into. Which way did Benson go?”

“Buffler said he’d be mighty certain to rack out fer.
the Ute village,” Elmore explained. ee goin’ thar.
to git him. Buffler tole me to_tell yer.”

Shepard cons. lted a few moments with his followers.

“T reckon we'll save a whole heap of time,” he said,

¥
-. the ground. They seemed in a fanatical rage.

 

16 THE BUFFALO

‘Sf we cut right acrost the hills hyer and head straight
fer the Ute village. No use in us goin’ on to where
Benson got out of the stage, as we couldn’t do nothin’
there; it would be a foolish waste of time.”

—The men agreed with him.

“So we'll hit it up for the Ute village. If Benson has
taken refuge there ag’in we'll snake him out, and I'll
handcuff old Iron Bow and land him in jail for harboring
him.”

Hank Elmore drove on toward Blossom Range, having
added interesting details and additions to the story he
meant to tell there, while the sheriff and his posse set off
across the hills by the shortest route, the Ute village their
objective point.

In spite of the fact that some of them were unmounted
they made good progress, not being hampered by the
necessity of picking up and following an obscure trail.

The time was past noon when the Ute village was ap- -

proached. Afar off they had heard Indian howling.

A quarter ofa mile from the village, when they were
most unsuspecting, they were struck by a blind charge
of warriors, of a kind they had never experienced or
heard of, and for which they were totally unprepared.
Shepard had expected to walk up to the village, summon
Iron Bow, demand Benson, then search the tepees, as he
had done before.

Instead came this wild charge, the Ute warriors rising
out of a nest of rocks and pouring down on the posse
without warning. They were led by a small painted and
feathered figure and a very giant of a man who seemed
more like a wild animal than a man, though he also wore
Indian paint and feathers. Iron Bow was there, too,
transformed into an Indian maniac.

The screeching braves did not stop even when revol-
vers were emptied at them. Rushing on the horsemen,
they caught them by the legs and pulled them bodily to
The fall-
ing men were shot and hatcheted. Those who at first, in
fright, pulled their horses round, got away. The others

fell, dead or wounded, or captured. Not even the horses.

were spared; for when there seemed no white men to kill
the Utes began to slay the animals. It was not a rout, it
_ was annihilation.

Matt Shepard had been shot from his horse, a bullet
passing through his body; but. he still lived when he
struck the ground, and did not lose consciousness.

With such horror as he had never felt, he witnessed the
terrible massacre of his followers. A groan which the
sight drew from him told the warriors.that he was not
dead. One of the braves, thereupon, jumped at him with
a lance, to run him through.

But the small painted chief, whom Shepard had no-

ticed at the beginning of the charge, leaped in, caught the
lance, and turned its point aside, so that it drove into the

BILL STORIES.

ground; then he shouted angrily to the other Indians,

who were crowding round to finish the white prisoner.

When it seemed that the Utes would kill Shepard, the
small man, yelling something, pulled a whisky bottle
from beneath his blanket and flung it out from him.

The drug-and-whisky-crazed warriors made a com-
bined rush for it, and in a minute were fighting among
themselves for its possession.

The small man whom Shepard thought.a chief stood
now before him. Close behind the small man came that
other painted figure, that had such a marked resemblance
to a wild animal.

The little man spoke in English, and Shepard recog-
nized the voice of Tim Benson.

“Vou know me?” said Benson.

“Yes, I know you now,” pet admitted; “It ex-
plains things.”

“Glad you see a great oe
last long.”

“T know it,” said Shepard; “T don’t reckon T can live
half an hour. I’m bleeding inside.”

“You were coming to the Ute village’ to get me?’

“Yes; there’s no use denyin’ it. I’d have done it, but
for this treachery.”

But you aint going to

“Ts it treachery for a man to protect himself?”

“We won't argue it—I ain’t got time! But the white
man who will furnish whisky to Indians had ought to be
tortured as well as hung.”

“Where is Cody?”

“T don’t know.”

“He ain’t right out there?”

“Perhaps so; I can’t say as to that.”

“Well, I'd like to send you to him with a message, say-
ing that the thing that has happened to your crowd is
going to happen to his. Ill admit that when we jumped
down the hill here we thought—I did—that it was his
crowd; and if I hadn’t been mistaken in it he would be
where you are now. I’d like to send that word to him.”

Shepard did not answer. He still looked courageously
at the man who was disguised as an Indian, but a gray-
ish pallor was stealing over his face.

The Indians had squabbled for the whisky, had ye
lowed it, and now came rushing back. They were howl-
ing for the blood of the white man.

“Take him!” said the outlaw. :
" He stepped aside, drawing the apelike man with him.

It was the end of Matt Shepard, one of the bravest of
the sheriffs of the Western border.

The panicky survivors encountered Buffalo Bill’s party.

The shooting and eee had been heard, and ne scout
Lad hastened.

=

i
|
:

bi
W.

th

 

 

Bere og Se

 
 

 

 

 

 

‘ THE BUPPALO

“Better go back!” said Shepard’s deputy, whose name
was Dugan. “Shepard’s dead or wounded, and the hull

‘bilin’ that ain’t killed was captured, ceptin’ them that’s
with me. They'll wipe you clean off the slate, if yey so

there.”
‘The other men with Dugan said much the same thing.

Then they went on, riding and running in the direction +

of Blossom Range.
‘The hubbub of the Indians had died out.
Buffalo Bill took stock of the situation before 7
on. The thing had a bad look.
“Tt’s Benson’s work, of course,” he declared.
“Benson’s and Gorilla Jake’s,” said Jim Betts. “They
j’ined forces, ye know; fer they war shore together in
that hole what Brother Bill thought he had blocked.” ~
“They have given the Indians whisky.” >
“Hangin’s too good fer sech varmints,’ Nomad de-
clared. !
“T reckon, Cody,” suggested the man from Laramie,

“that we’d better find out just how the land lies ahead |

of us, before we try to do much.”
“How’re ye goin’ to git Benson, if he’s with the Utes,

Bill Betts.

But they did not spend time discussing the situation
uselessly. Under Buffalo Bill’s guidance they moved
forward toward the point where the Indian attack had
fallen.

When close upon it, the scout and the man from Lar-
amie went on, leaving the others to await the result of
their inspection.

The evidence of the bloody work of the crazy Ute
warriors was plentiful and appalling. But sy did not
find Matt Shepard, alive or dead.

“He was wounded, the boys decscane said Hickok,

“and I reckon they hauled him into the village. They'll
be torturing him next. The ite Tm a is that I

could get Benson by the heels.”
They were so close upon the Indian ve that Bey

had used the utmost caution in reaching the battle

ground, and they could see right into the village, when
they cared to take the chances of discovery to accomplish
it. The Utes were making a lot of noise, and seemed
engrossed in dancing and yelling.

“Well, what shall we do?” asked Wild Bill.

“T was just thinking of sending to the town for help.

~ While our messenger is gone you and I might do some-

thing. [f ae is in the hands of the Utes we want
to know it.”

“And if Benson is there we want to get him.”

“Right. I think he will be either i in our hands or dead
before this thing ends.”

‘Who can we send to the town; no one will wank to
go? We've left our horses, and it will have to be some
one afoot. Besides, will anybody come out against the

- located.
and the Utes air out fer that kind of fightin’?” asked -

BILL STORIES. bo | 17

\
\

Utes now, when they hear the story those fellows will
teh 3
As there was no possibility of penetrating into the
village while daylight held, the two scouts and friends’

back-tracked carefully, and delivered their report.

CHAPTER hee
WR Tes FOR WHISKY.

While ee around that afternoon, Buffalo Bill
came upon “sign,” which led directly to the discovery of
Tim Benson’s whisky cache. Wild Bill Nomad, and Bill
Betts were with him at the time.

Though Benson and the apelike-man had blinded the
trail there, and had taken every. means to conceal the
cache from the Indians, the trained eyes of the scout and
his friends enabled them to find it in a comparatively
brief period.

“Waugh!” Nomad grunted, when the cache had been
“I reckon Benson’s been hidin’ some of ther
gold from his hold-ups right hyar.”

That was the first and most natural conclusion. .

“When we've gophered down to it,’ said Wild Bill,
“we'll know whether he’s been hiding anything. What-
ever it was he may have taken it away.”

“T’m bettin’ thar’s gold down hyer!” Nomad reiterated.

When they had gophered down and came upon the
concealed whisky bottles they were amazed. Yet they
did not fail to understand why they were there. Buffalo
Bill had known for some time that Benson bought the
good will of the Utes by providing them with whisky.

“Waal, this hyer is a disapp’intment ter me,’ Nomad
admitted. “Fer right now I warn’t seekin’ no red likker.”

“Might sell the truck in town, though, for a good deal,”
said Bill Betts. “It'd be a cute ins to do, to keep the
reds frum gittin’ it.”

Wild Bill laughed over this naive view of the proper
method to remove temptation from the Utes.

“Nighabout half enough fer a burro load,” remarked
Betts, as the bottles were lifted out, one by one, and .
placed on the ground. “Benson expected ter continner
in the whisky bisness with the Utes fer some time, 2
ther looks.”

“This sand hyer has been distuched quite recent? S
averred Nomad, whose old eyes were still of the keenest.

“Right-o!” Wild Bill agreed. “Here is where the Utes
got the courage which enabled them to charge and wipe
out the sheriff’s party.”

“A man what will oe whisky to pizen reds oer to
be hung,” Bill Betts added. “But what air we goin’ ter
do with the stuff, if we don’t take it to town?”

Buffalo Bill had been considering the possibilities De
the discovery. Now he spoke:

 
 

 

8

whisky here, which he has used from time to time in in-
fluencing the Utes; and that this last Ute outbreak was
caused by it. If so, it occurs to me that he will come back
here soon for more of it. Now that he has started in, he
will have to keep the Utes drunk in order to control
them; otherwise, they might sober up, get scared over

what they have done. and be ready to make peace and

surrender him. He has got to block that; and to do it

he must get more whisky. He will come for it here.”

“Right ye air, Buffler!” said Nomad. “Which means
‘et we kin we ie him right hyer, and rake him in when
he does come.’

“Test so,” said Bill Beas. “And if Gorilla Jake comes
_ with him, why, I kin rake him in. Me and Brother Jim
_ is after that reward.”

The bottles lay on the ground, an imposing array.

“Enough to stock up a barroom,”
them covetously. “Thar ain’t any reason, gents, why we
can’t jest shift this cache; and, then, when we go to the
town, take the stuff with us and sell it thar. Whisky will
sell in a town like Blossom Range, when nothin’ else
would, and it allus brings ae prices. We e'd divvy on
the stakes,” |

Buffalo Bill was mentally ee up another plan.

“As I said,” he remarked, “Benson will have to keep
the Utes intoxicated in order to ee them. But
suppose he fails to do so?”

“Then he'll bust,” said Betts, ne was busily Sede

in reckoning up the value of the whisky, marking in ns
sand and using a sliver of rock for a pencil.

“K’rect !” commented Nomad, bending over him; but
whether Nomad meant to approve the idea or agreed
with the result of Bill Betts’ figures was not apparent.

“Suppose,’” said the scout, “that some of the Indians
should be with Benson when he comes to get the re-
mainder of his whisky here?’

“Wow! We c’d rake ’em all in!” Ngee ee look-

ing up. a
- “But if we happened not to be right here, what would
happen?”

“Why, we wouldn’t rake ’em in,” Nomad admitted,

“T see you don’t get my idea. It is just this: The In-

dians would be angered, perhaps would think Benson —

had fooled them; then things would look bad for Ben-
son.”

“He might trail to the other cache, and chew the ie
jest what had been done, and so save himself: for the
_ Utes couldn’t blame him, when they saw how it had

happened,” said Betts.

“I wanted to bring you round to that,” Te scout con-
fessed, “so that perhaps you would agree with my ideas
on the subject.

this whisky and fill the bottles with water from the
stream over there; then restore them to the cache!” _-

   

   

BILL STORIES.

  

THE BUGPALO

“Everything indicates that Benson cached a lot of

said Betts. eying

My suggestion is that we empty out

“Waugh! !” Nomad blurted, but not in approval.

“Throw away. all this good and es Bedee aC cried
Betts.

“lt isn’t ours to sell in the first place,”
scout ; “but if we can accomplish something we will take -
it anyway, and drain it out into the sand. Considering
the use it is being put to, we have oe em ik:

“But———” began Betts.

“You have already admitted that if we ie the ott
somewhere else the Utes may get it. If we turn it into
the sand they can’t. That’s a point to be considered.
But the chief thing—the chief object to be gained—is
that it will anger the Utes against Benson, if he brings
them here, or sends them here, and they find that the
whisky bottles hold nothing but water. If he angers
them, his influence over them is lost; particularly we can -
count on that, when the influence a the whisky they have
had has died out.”

Wild Bill put out his hand impulsively.

“Buffalo Bill forever!’ he said. “I was willing to
agree with Bill Betts and Nomad, that it would -be a
wicked waste to turn all this whisky out; but you’re right
about it. We might not be here when Benson comes for
the stuff, which he will do sooner or later; and if he’
comes with a lot of Utes we sure couldn’t grip him, even
if we were here. But if he brought ’em, and then they
got their mad up because the whisky was gone and the
bottles filled with water, Mr. Benson would sure be,
right off, in the hottest kind of trouble.”

Buffalo Bill further elaborated his idea, but the gist of

what was said has already been given.
Only one change was made in the plan when they came.

to carry it out. The whisky was emptied into the little | a

stream, instead of into the sand, for the reason that the
odor of the liquor in the sand might betray too much.
Then the bottles, filled at the stream, were restored to
their hiding place.
pains were taken to obliterate every trace.

The time lacked yet two hours of sunset when the work
was completed, and Buffalo Bill’s little party drew back’

_ into the brush, in the midst of the rocky ground sir-

rounding the cache, where they ‘ “bogged” down, waiting
to see what would happen.

Buffalo Bill’s wish still was that Benson would come
out there alone, or accompanied only by Gorilla Jake, and
the rascals could be captured.

ee M

HOW tt WORKED,

If Buffalo Bill had been blessed with the gift

prophecy he could not have given a more accurate nie
cast of what would happen.

argued the 7

 

When all had been done, careful

 

   
    

an

tal
   

fog

eee Se,

Paty t CDea CD OD.

 

UQ om

CD SOD SO SD

 

 

THE sBUBFALO

For no more than half an hour had gone by when
Tim Benson appeared, creeping out of the bushy covert
of the hillside, in company with the gigantic, apelike
man, and a score of Ute Indians, with them the chief
himself, old Iron Bow.

It was plain that many of the Indians, if not all, were
under the influence of liquor—their reeling walk showed
it; yet they maintained, in spite of this, their characteris-
tic Indian silence when on dangerous ground, and they
proceeded across the open sand*to the site of the cache
without making much noise.

The two who led the way, though they were painted
and feathered like the Indians, it was easy to see were
white men. The scout and his pards knew that the
small man was Benson; while Bill Betts was equally sure
that the apelike figure was Gorilla Jake. .

‘We've got the proof o’ all yer surmises, Cody, right
hyer in a nutshell,” Betts whispered. “Benson and Jake
has been dopin’ the reds.”

He did not know. how accurately the word “dope” de-
scribed just what had been done.

“T figger thet I could drap that skunk Benson right»

frum hyer,” said Nomad, fingering his revolver. “But
*twouldn’t do. Bersides, we don’t want ter start “no
killin’; we want ter ee him, so’s he kin git his
desarts at ther hands o’ ther hangman.”

“And I'd hate ‘to see Gorilla Jake killed,” said Betts,
“as it would cut me and Brother Jim out o’ that reward.
Still, we might be able to perduce his body, even if he
was killed; and the reward is fer him dead er alive.”

It. was a characteristic of the Bettses that they kept
their eyes on the main chance, and in all their clever bor-
der detective work thought more of the offered rewards
than anything else. If it was a defect, it was forgiven
by their friends, who knew the terrible chances they
sometimes took to bring some ruffian to justice. They
earned all they got.

“T don’t suppose, Cody,” said the man from Laramie,
the old reckless light so often seen in his eyes flaming
there once more, “that we could charge that pizén crew
and get Benson and the other feller? If you say the
word, I’m ready to try it.”

“We might do it!” the scout admitted.

“Wow! Then you’re willing!” and Hickok drew out
his revolver. |

“But I didn’t say that it would be wise to make the
attempt. One or more of us might be killed, and that
wouldn’t pay, you know.”

“Tf we charge with revolvers cracking and every man
Jack of us yellin’ to beat the band those reds would run,
and I know it.”

Buffalo Bill was not so sure of it that he was willing to
take the risk.

“Now we'll see some fun,” whispered Nomad, as the

     
   

BIL STORIES:

Utes and their guides came up to the cache which con-
tained nothing but whisky bottles filled with creek water.
“It'll be like deprivin’ children of their-promised candy.
They won’t be willin’ to stand et.”

‘They saw Benson and the apelike man stop, and Ben-
son point to the ground. The Utes swarmed round the
spot, forgetting their caution, and talking, with furious
gestures. 5

“Plenty stung up with excitement, when they thinks
they’re goin’ ter git er drink!” Nomad commented.

“They'll be stung up a heap more when they discover
that they ain’t goin’ ter git none,’ said Bill Betts.
‘Woosh! Wouldn’t I jes’ like ter turn my umbreller gun
loose on them varmints now.”

He pushed the singular weapon out in front of him.

“T reckon that would be too much like murder,” urged
the man from Laramie; “they're heathen brutes, but still
they’re human.”

Benson seemed to be iiliae to the Utes.

They were too far off to get the words; but they saw
Gorilla Jake drop down and begin to scratch away the
sand with his huge, clawlike hands. He went into the
ground with the rapacity of a scared badger. |

The excited Utes stooped over him, getting in his
way; and there was a great chattering, sHOrGue that they
had lost their caution.

Buffalo Bill was beginning to think that an opportunity
to charge and capture Benson was being presented, when
Gorilla Jake flung out a bottle.

One of the Utes pounced on it; and so great was his
eager haste that he did not look at the contents, but broke
off the neck of the bottle with a blow of his brown fist
and stuck the broken bottle to his mouth.

He gave a choking howl of astonishment and grief

when his mouth filled with the luke-warm water; then

he held up the bottle, gesticulating furiously.

Gorilla Jake was flinging out more of the bottles, all of
which were being seized on. But the yell and the jabber-
ing words of the disappointed Ute neverthless drew at-
tention. y
' The Utes discovered suddenly that the bottles held
tepid water instead of whisky. Benson made the same
astounding discovery, and so did Gorilla Jake, The
thing was at first incomprehensible. /

‘Benson spoke to the apelike man, who delved deeper
and flung out more bottles. But these, too, contained
only water.

The Indians were yelling in their excitement. They
were angry, too, as if they thought that the white men
with them had worked the trick. Knives and hatchets
flashed in the red rays of the now declining sun.

“A Kilkenny cat fight,” gulped Nomad. “Now’s ther
time, Cody, ter wade right inter them.” —

  
 

20 THE BUFFALO
Buffalo Bill drew his revolver, and was about to give
the command, when a score more of Ute warriors ap-
peared on the scene, coming from the direction of the
village. Apparently, having been left behind without a
knowledge of what was to be done, they had suspected it,
and followed. — :
“Not now; it would be foolish to charge now!” the
. scout whispered.
“Waugh! Nomad growled.
et a while ago!”
“That’s what. 1 said,”
umbrella gun, a
He lifted and sighted it. The handle of the umbrella
was the gun, the umbrella frame and cloth being mere
deceptions.
“Give the word, Cody, and I can sure sting ‘em up
some, and they won’t-know who’s doin’ it.”

“Yer had ought to done

avowed Bill Betts, fingering his

But Buffalo Bill did not give the word. Twoscore or
more wildly excited Utes too much resembled a hornets’
nest for him to want to poke them up in that way. Buf-
falo Bill was noted for his courage, but that does not
mean that he was noted for recklessness. A good many
people mistake the one for the other. Nor was he in-
human. :

The Ute recruits were soon yelling quite-as much as
those who had arrived at the cache with the white men.
What was being said could not be made out, but it was

apparent that warm remarks were being directed to Ben- -

_son and Gorilla Jake. Benson could be seen, surrounded
by Utes, waving his arms as if trying to explain the
thing,

Conditions changed with startling suddenness, Ben-
son’s words seemed to take effect. The Utes swung out
from that centre of turmoil, and began to make a search
about the deceptive cache in quickly: widening circles.

Tt was plain to the scout and those with him that they
would have to get back to avoid trouble. The Indians
were in a murderous mood. And to‘try results with
more than forty Utes who were in that ugly mood would
be not merely foolhardy, but an invitation to hasty death.

The Utes were rapidly widening their circles, running
round and round like hunting dogs that have lost a game
trail. Apparently Benson had convinced them that other
white men had tampered with the cache, and they were
now furiously resolved to pick up the trail of these inter-
lopers and properly punish them for such an outrage.

Buffalo Bill gave the order to retreat.

“I hates ter go,” Nomad declared.

“No wuss’n I do,” said Betts. “I wouldn’t be keerin’,
if only I had oe Jake by the slack o’ the neck, fglan’
him along with me,’

Buffalo Bill and the man from coe dropped be-
hind to hide the trail; a work which they so thoroughly
accomplished that the retreat was effected quickly and

‘safely.

BL STORIES.

From the top of a tree on a hill some distance off, as
the sun was going down, Buffalo Bill saw the Utes
streaming back toward their village, the two white men,

with them. The Utes were howling like drunken mani-

acs.s
}

 

CHAPTER XI.
RETRIBUTION.

Jim Betts had set out shortly after dark with the in-
tention of hastening to Blossom Range that -he might
hurry assistance to Buffalo Bill’s small party. Through-
out the whole afternoon the hope had been held that a
strong force would appear from the town, to avenge
the death of the sheriff and his men, but the help had not
come. Jim Betts had been selected because his legs were
long and he was a rapid and tireless walker. No horses
were to be had, as those of the scout’s: party were too
far away.

But a wise man makes sudden cae in plans
when there seems reason for so doing.

Hence, instead of striking straight out at his best gait,
Jim Betts did not go toward the town at all, after he had

proceeded less than half a mile in that direction, but

turned toward the Ute village.

The reason was that he had seen a stadowe, skulking
form moving in that course that he believed to be Gorilla
Jake.

Jim Betts, quite as much as his brother Bill, was moved
most strongly by considerations touching his pocket; he,
too, wanted the reward offered for the arrest of Gorilla
Jake. If he could get the ape-man soonest by following
him now and pouncing on him it was what he wanted to
do. Perhaps he could, he thought, make the capture and
take Gorilla Jake right on into the town with him.

The thing was too tempting not to try, and he slipped
off through the darkness in hasty pursuit of the skulking
figure.

The man he was following was really Gorilla Jake, as
Betts made sure when the Ute village was approached.
He had not been able to come up with him, nor even see
him clearly, until the man passed into the light of a small
fire glowing before one of the outer tepees of the village.

Betts hastened his steps, but he was too late; for ae
ee man flitted on past the fire.

_ Jim Betts stopped, his heart hammering against his
ribs by reason of his rapid pursuit, while a sense of disap-
pointment and anger went through him. ;

The Utes were either having a powwow near the
centre of the village, or were doing a lot of screeching
there just because they liked to howl in their present

demoralized condition; but the apelike man had not gone.
in that direction; and, because he had not, and no one_

was near the tepee or the fire to observe, the daring fel-

lo

 

 

 

WISER te
if 3 toy
Ay

be

te

ki

in
   
  

 

 

low, who long before had won the title of the Gamecock
because of his recklessness, crossed the line into-the Ute
village, still pursuing the murderer of the mine superin-
tendent.

Once again he caught sight of Gorilla Jake, near an-
other lodge, and scudded in that direction, bending his
tall form and running with almost silent feet.

“If I kin lay my hands on the dog I’ll choke the wind
out o' him and manage to git him out of hyer, when, if I
kin do that much, you bet I kin git him down to Blossom
Range. I could land him in the jail thar while I am
attendin’ to the other matter, and hold him in it till JI
got ready to take him to Sody Springs.”

The Indians were still howling.

To his disappointment he saw the apelike foute turn
in the direction of those inharmonious sounds,

Betts stopped and listened, called himself softly any
number of fools for not getting out of that dangerous
place, then went on, still pursuing Gorilla Jake,

There was a fire leaping in front of a lodge, and in and
about the lodge he saw many Indian figures; but what
they were howling about he could not make out, unless
simply noisy because they were drunk. He concluded
that the latter must be the explanation,

Then he saw the apelike man, who had been moving
toward the Utes, stop beside a lodge, duck his head as if
he had heard something, then pass into the tepee.

“Wow!” said Jim Betts, staring. ‘‘What’s it mean?”

Anyway, he thought he might be given a chance to
dive into that lodge, even though it was almost under

‘the painted noses of the yelling Utes, and grip his in-

tended prisoner. He was too close to the lodge not to
try it, reckless as it was.

He was cautious enough to keep the bulk of the lodge
between himself and the Indians, and to take all the ad-
vantage possible from the shadow cast by the leaping
fire; he crouched low, too, so that he seemed to slide his
tall form along the ground. :

In that manner he gained the rear of the lodge, where
he was stopped from proceeding farther by hearing
Gorilla Jake talking with Tim Benson.
thought they had company, for he heard Indian grunts,
which came, however, from behind the lodge.

The white men were flinging accusations at each other,
as soon as Gorilla Jake entered the lodge; it was appar-

ent that Benson had seen him passing and beckoned or.

called to him to come in.

“You didn’t have as many of them tablets as you said,”
Benson declared.

“And you didn’t have any whisky, ’cept what we fust
brought in,” Gorilla Jake flung back at him.

“Was that my fault?”

“Tt wasn’t mine !”

“Some one tampered with the cache.

was one of Cody’s crowd.” |

I’m betting it

  

THE BUFFALO BILL STORIES, | sy

At first Betts _

y

i
4

      

“Fer which reason,” said Gorilla Jake, and Jim Betts
heard him suck in his breath angrily, “if I'd hed a mil-
lion o’ them tablets you wouldn’t had the whisky to use
with ’em.”

“We might have used them alone. We could have.
told the Utes that they were better than whisky. That
was my plan, when I found the whisky was gone; then -
I discovered you didn’t have any more, They'll sober off
now, and then -

“We can cut out o’ this, can’t we?

“Not while I’m on yer trail,’ Jim Betts whispered,
“You're my meat.”

“Cody will follow us!” said Benson.

His tone showed that his courage had broken down, or
else he was losing his mental balance.

 

re,

The apelike man snorted his anger and moved uneasily
about the lodge. -

“He’ll be comin’ out in a minute,” thought Jim Betts.

In spite of the peril he began to crawl round to the
tepee entrance, with the intention of knocking Gorilla
Jake on the head there and making a desperate fight to
get out of the village with him. He drew his heavy

- revolver, which he held so that he could use the butt.

Betts had crawled no more than halfway round when
the apelike man, appearing in the lodge entrance, drew
toward him a mob of furious Utes, who came at him
howling.

Betts heard him utter an exclamation and step back;

_ then heard him say to Benson:

“li you've got any influence with ’em you'd better use
it now. They want me, I reckon, frum the looks; but

they'll be wantin’ you next.”

The Indians foamed up to the entrance, ime flowed on
into the lodge.

A desperate curiosity caused the reckless Gamecock
to lift the edge of the lodge skin and peer in, his form
flattened out and his face against the earth. |

As he did it a blow sounded; and he saw, then, that
Gorilla Jake had knocked one of the Indians down, and
was backing over against the wall, one Benson, who
sat crouched on a lot of skins.

A growl like that of an aroused animal came from the
lips of Gorilla Jake.

“Stand up hyer and help me!” he flung at Benson.

But Benson knew which side his bread was buttered
on right then, and he did nothing of the kind. He saw
that the Utes had come for Gorilla Jake, and that if he
interfered he would put his life in jeopardy. So he sat
still, letting the angry Utes stream past and even over —
him,

“Wow !” need the excited Gamecock, an eye at
the aperture taking everything in. “Wish’t Brother Bill

| was hyer ter see this right now. But I’m afeard that this
‘trouble is goin’ to make it mighty hard fer me and Bill

   
 

    

22

to collect that reward fer Gorilla Jake; it begins to look
as if he is goin’ to git all that’s comin’ to him. Yet that
reward offer said ‘alive or dead.’ If he was scalped, I

don’t reckon that would make any difference. Only—lI
hope they won’t burn him; erode be ay hard ter
produce the body, in that case.’

The Gamecock was trembling with excitement and ap-
prehension. He wanted to hurl himself in there and take
the part of the threatened man, then lead him off to the
Blossom Range jail. But, plainly, that would not do.
Even Jim Betts was not reckless enough to try that.

“Benson’s a coward, er he’d git right up and into that
game,” he breathed. “Gorilla Jake is his friend, ain’t he?
Well, why don’t he stand by his friend ?”

The Indians were crowding before Gorilla Jake, who

was shouting wildly at them. The one he had knocked
down was on his feet again, this time with a hatchet in
his hand.

“Stand back!’’ the apelike man howled at them. His
knife had come out. “Stand back, all o’ ye, er take the
consequences. Y’ ain't goin’ to pull me to pieces, and
not git my knife, I tell ye. Thar on the floor is the man
you want—not me; /e’s the man that started this thing,
by s’jestin’ it. He’s the man that was to furnish the
whisky—the coward; and now he sets thar, an’ let’ s me
do the fightin’. Stand back!”

Few if any of them understood his English, but te
understood the significance of the sweep of his long arm
as it whirled the knife.

The watching Gamecock did not know what they were
yelling, but he judged that they were accusing him of

treachery or deceit, or were demanding more whisky,.

which it was clear he could not furnish. It was plain,
too, that they were temporarily crazy. That was the
only explanation; and Benson and Gorilla Jake had made
them so. No band of maniacs in any lunatic asylum ever
looked more terrifying or more desperate.

One of them sprang straight at the throat of Gorilla
Jake like a dog flinging at an enemy. ©

But he never reached the panting man. Gorilla Jake’s

long arm swept out, struck him in mid-air with a thump,

and the Ute dropped at the feet of the apelike man, his
chest torn open by the knife.

“Stand back!” the desperate man yelled, swinging the_

bloody knife.

He looked insane, too, now; his lips frothing, his great
shoulders and muscular arms working, his hairy, painted
face twisted in rage, and his ay eyes Sa like
an angry animal’s.

The fall of the Ute stayed the braves ee him,
had come so suddenly, but only for a moment; La
another leaped at him, with still others rushing in right
behind. |

Thump! Thump!

‘Two of the Utes fell, The third Gorilla Jake caught

THE BUBFALO

 

 

 

BILL STORIES.

   
 

to his breast, gave him a deadly squeeze, such as. a great
ape might give, and hurled him lifeless as a missile .
straight into the faces of his friends, knocking down half

a dozen. :

Flinging himself backward against the rear wall of
the tepee, Gorilla Jake tried to get out there, but found
that he could not, and turned to rip the ues dried
skins with his knife.

It gave an opportunity for the maddened Utes to close
in on him, and they made use of it.

His swinging arm clove open a hole in the tepee, and
he staggered through it, with Utes hanging to him like
leeches. Others poured, yelling, through the hole after
them. —

As this happened, the staring-eyed white man who
watched under the edge of the lodge saw Tim—Benson
rise from the skins he sat on and project himself out of
the lodge by the way of the regular exit, brushing aside
the Utes crowding in there.

The Gamecock got into action.

But he was bewildered by his desire to filleg and cap-
ture Benson and his equally strong desire to know what
was being done to Gorilla Jake. Already he had reached

the conclusion that if he ever received a reward for

producing the body of Gorilla Jake, it would be by pro-
ducing a dead body.

The roaring tumult on the other side of the lodge
where the apelike man and the maniacal Utes had gone
was indescribable.

CHAPTER XII.
BUFFALO BILL.

There was a wild uproar, a surging mass of painted
figures, yells, and howls, the whole a pandemonium.

But Jim Betts was not able to see what became of
Gorilla Jake.

He found it necessary to consider his own safety.
Utes were all round him. One had actually stepped

~on the Gamecock’s ao as he lay sprawled on the

ground.

“T got ter git out 0’ this!” was his startled thought.

Apparently it was a conclusion taken none too soon.

He began to crawfish away from the lodge, almost
flat on the ground, keeping out of the way of the In-
dians, who rushed in what seemed the probable direc-
tion taken by Gorilla Jake.

The Gamecock moved rapidly, now that . had made
up his mind.

There was another lodge, into whose shadow he got;
then he began to crawl round it, intending to get on the
other side, where the darkness lay /heaviest, and ‘then
perhaps make a dash to get safely out of the village.

 

“I reckon that Gorilla Jake has gone under,” he was.

thi
he
fer
bas
the
en
ing

hit
col

Sur

he
an

Wi
ris
cle

OV

Ww

th

in
th

|

m

ak

   
  

ie Oe ferneh coer act ook

Le {Pye

 

 

THE BUFFALO

thinking, “and that this climate is gittin’ mighty un-
healthy fer Tim Benson. It'll be also plum malarious
fer me if I don’t move out of it. A sudden change of
base looks mighty good fer my health right now.”

Then he stopped—not his words only, but his motions.

Right before him he saw a blanketed figure hugging
the ground.
“Wow! An Injun! Tet when I was gittin’ shet of
‘en ,

The “Injun” discovered by him moved with surpris-’
ing suddenness, : :

The blanket lifted, and the man under it jumped at
him, clutching the Gamecock by the throat before he
could get back or get out a weapon.

Betts was a powerful man, and was never known e
surrender readily, so he began to put up the best fight
he could. He partly broke the strangle hold on his throat,
and reached for his knife, gurgling out a panting ex-
clamation at the same time. ac

That gurgling exclamation, unintentional though it
was, proved a mighty lucky happening for Jim Betts
right then. The clutch on his windpipe, which was
closing again, dropped away; then a voice sounded:

“Who are you?”

“Wow! Who air you?”

Jim Betts fell back, gasping and ourgling.

“T’m Buffalo Bill!”

“Wow!- Pm Jim Betts!” -

The man drew himself together, pulling the blanket
over him.

“T beg your pardon,”
were an Indian.”

“An’ I thought you must be the devil the way you
got holt o’ me.”

“Get under this blanket quick, and lie low..
the Utes are coming over this way.”

Betts, helped by the scout, slid under the gray cover-
ing, so that, as both men lay flat, the blanket covering
them looked like a dark shadow against the ground,

he whispered; “I thought you

Some of

“Wow!” Betts was breathing, filled with amazement.
“Cody! Wow! Buffalo Bill! I wonder if my thinkin’
machinery ain’t slipped its gearin’? Cody can’t be here.”

“What's happening?” the scout asked in a vee
lowering his head.

He had been peering out, with iy blanket drawn close
about his eyes.

“T reckon that Gorilla Jake has gone under.”

“T was guessing as much.”

“You seen him ?”

“T heard him,”

“And the Utes!”

“No one could help hearing them.”

“You didn’t see Matt Shepard, the sheriff?”

“IT didn’t; reckon he has -gone under,’ said Betts. —

“What you doin’ in hyer, anyhow?”

 couldn’t furnish ’em no more old redeye.

 

BILL STORIES. . 23

“And you? We supposed oe were on yon way to
Blossom Range.” a

Betts began an ene aeoe but the scout cut him
short. pe
“Hist! Not now. he Utes are near, some of ent?
Betts and the scout lay snugly under the blanket, and
the running Utes passed on and away. ee

Buffalo Bill began to talk again in cautious whispers.

“T came in here to look round, ee that perhaps I
might be able to capture Benson.”

’ “And I come in hyer to look round, thinkin’ oe T
might be able to capture Gorilla Jake.”

“But why didn’t you go on to Blossom’ Range??? =

“That’s why. I wanted to capture Jake. I seen him
outside of the village when I fust set out, and turned
in hyer after him. I might have got him, but the Utes
chipped in, and I reckon Jake has seen his finish.”

“You saw Benson?”

“Yes. He was in the lodge with Jake, tut he cut and
run when the Utes pounced on Jake; so I comet oe
what become of him.”

“T think we’d better try to get on of this.”

“Ths dangerous hyer right now.’

“Almost as dangerous as death itself. If the Utes
find us we’re gone. I never saw Indians so crazy. I’ve
seen them drunk, but never anything like this. If
Gorilla Jake has been killed by them I guess he brought
it on himself, for he and Benson must have fired them
up with whisky.” ae

“Old forty-rod, if it’s filled pith drugs and dope to
make it go fur, will knock out a white man, and make a
liatic ofa ted} I yerseen it petore. + : :

“T never saw Indians as wild as these are to-night.”

“T couldn’t understand anything the Utes said, but I
jedge they was crazy mad because Jake and Benson
'Deprive a
red of whisky, after he’s been havin’ some, and it turns
him into a wild man. Benson and Jake was shore playin’
with fire, and they’d vet to have knowed it. I reckon
it finished Jake.”

“We'll crawl off in this direction, in the shadow of the
lodge; be sure to keep the blanket over you,” said the
scout. “Be careful, too, that you move slowly and cau
tiously. 1 shouldn’t have risked my life in here if :
had fully understood the situation. I’m glad I met you.’

, Jim Betts coughed out a low, wheezing laugh. |

“My achin’ throat don’t echo that sentiment,” he said ;
“Gt’d feel a heap easier if I hadn’t met you. I never met
up with a man had . erip like that; I thought my. neck
was bein’ crushed in.’

The scout did not echo the laugh: at this ares the.
thing looked too serious. ay

“T might have killed oe Betts,” he said. 4 saw you
getting that ite, and

 

  
 

724 | | THE BUBFALO BILL STORIES.

“Then if ripped out somethin’ in purty ofin Huelich,
and you tumbled. It’s alt right now. But I reckon my
throat will ache fer a week. When I have a heap of
time I’m goin’ ter see if you can’t choke an iron bolt so

that it will holler.” : |
» ilicy execpt along under the blanket, slipping it over
the ground, until they had cautiously crossed an open

space; then found themselves within the shadow of an-
-~ a misdake you may come on.”

other lodge. ®..
They were moving away from the centre of disturb-
ance and apparently increasing their chances.

“Whar did ye leave the rest o’ the boys?” Betts asked,
~- geaching out his hand to the German.

as they stood up in the shadow of this. lodge.
“Where they were when you left us.”
“They knowed you had come?”
OV es,’ 93 f

“Brother Bill oat be surprised, I reckon, if he
He says I allus take too big risks.

knowed I was here.
Shall we make a run fer the aidge o’ the village now?
The distance ain’t more’n a hundred feet. Thar’s a
heap o’ noise goin’ on, and I reckon we could make a
lot of racket without bein’ heard by the crazy Utes.”

“T think your brother Bill is right in saying that you
are incliried to take unnecessary risks. If we make.a
dash. to get out of here we may be seen and might ‘be
shot. Caution still stands us in hand, I think.”

The scout stooped again, and, clinging to the shadow
of the lodge as long as he could, he worked his way

toward the outer circle of lodges,
jim Betts followed him.

Fortunately, interest in another quarter oe them

from being seen,

| CHAPTER XTIL

THE DARING. OF BILL BETTS.

“Vo j iss?”

Nomad and his pards were euerliag the camp, Baron
von Schnitzenhauser being on the side toward the town.
Hearing something, he dropped down, the characteristic
question whispering from his lips, and stared hard into
the darkness.

The sound, which had been like that of cr ashing feet,
had stopped. The baron did not know but that an In-
dian had tried to come upon him, though an Indian,
unless intoxicated, would hardly have made so much
noise.

“Der Inchuns He peen howling so mooch dot Ha
T am hearing tings vhen dare aind’t notting to seen,’
he muttered. :

Then he heard the sounds again, unmistakable foot-
steps coming toward him.

The baron lifted his forty-five revolver and poked it at
the sounds.

quickness like I dell you,” he commanded.
adt?”

“Uff you tond’t vant to gidt shodt you vill sbeak so
oe 1Ss

bibs me.
“Yaw! Budt I tond’t know ‘me.’
“Dugan. That you, Schnitz?”
“Oh, idt iss Dugan? Der shepidy deriff—I mean der

debudy sheriff. Uff you ar-re sure dot you aind’t makin’

Who iss ‘me’ ?”

A

When Dugan, deputy sheriff, came on, Schnitzen-

~hauser discovered that he had a man with him.

“T’m Hank Elmore, stage driver,” said the second man,

“Vou haf peen in more danger righdt now as in eeny
holdt-oop,” the baron told him; “vhen I gand’t seen
you, I am come mighdy nigh shooding you. Why you
make der sneak?”

“Feared o’ the Utes,” said Elmore.
We was huntin’ fer his party.”

“T am some uff his barty.”

“Ves, | know it; where’s the others?”

“Righdt ofer dhere. Nomat is vatching on der righdt
site uff der gamp, unt Vilt Pill on der lefdt, unt Pill
Petts on der odder, unt me here. Cody is scoudting
roundt, unt saidt he vos going into der willage.. From
der noises I haf peen hearing I tink, Py yiminy, dey
musdt haf sbalped him alreaty.” ‘

“Vit you stay right hyer?”

“Idt iss orders. Ve opey orders, uff somepoty gits
kilt. Oddervise, uff Cody iss nodt kilt unt comes py
dhis blace, he tond’t findt us here, unt dhere iss a mix-
oop. Notting iss vorser as a mix-oop in der night. You
hav somepoty caming pehint you—huh ?” )

“Thar will be a crowd in the mornin’,” said Dugan.
“T tell ye thar’s the biggest skeer goin’ on down in Blos-
som Range as ever ye see, ‘count o’ the Utes chargin’
that crowd and killin’ Shepard. I tried to git a posse to
come out to-night, but I couldn’t make it; nobody had
the sand. Elmore said he’d come with me, and we're
hyer, 7 Cee
“Cody vill pe a8 to seen you—yaw. He vants more

“Where's Cody?

59

~ men as he has got.”

“Where will we find the rest of your crowd? £ led
Dugan . |

“Go righdt aheadt. Vhen you have gone tventy
yardts or so you petter call oudt, mitout too mooch noise,
so dot you don’t git shodt.” :

They were about to move on.

* But am aitition,?
bleased uff vun of you couldt dake my blace standting

here, as I am getting so mooch exercise uff my mindt

apoudt Cody dot I shouldt like to make an inwestigadion.
Tond’t vorgidt idt.”

They moved on, and soon he heard them. speaking
with Bill Betts and N omad.

said the German, “I vouldt pe

    

We
pr

in
Sa

an

We

he
fey

th
ak

Td

tr

~

Ww

IY.

Ce

  
    
    

sak so

ho iss ©

D??

in der
nakin’

litzen-

| man,

l eeny
seen
y you

Cody ?

righdt
t Pill
idting
From
:, dey

; gits
es py
mix-

You

ugan.
Blos-
argin’
sse to
y had
we re

more
asked
venty

noise,

at pe
dting
mindt
dion.

aking

   

 

In a little while footsteps rustled again, and the baron
was about to call out, when Bill Betts announced his
presence and came forward. |

“Tm gittin’ that worked up over the racket goin’ on
in ther village thet 1 want ter see what it means,” he
said.
~“Yoost der same here.
knowed idt.”

“Sounds like it, don’t idt? What I’m most afeard of
is that the bloody Utes air murderin’ Gorilla Jake.”
“Unt maype Penson!”

Cody iss in drouble, unt I

“T don’t keer fer Benson. But Jake is my meat. Me--

and Brother Jim wants that reward fer arrestin’ him.”

“Vale, you don’t can’t gidt it now, uff dhey kill him.”

“We might. I’d like to see about it. And as Cody
must be havin’ trouble, I’d like you to go with me, so’s
we two kin Mook into things.”

The baron shook his head.

“Orders iss orders! I am commandedt to iy righdt
here.”

“T know Cody said that, but Dugan is coming right
over hyer to watch at this p’int. He told me he would.
I asked Nomad to go with me, and he said he wouldn't,
though I could see that he was mortally skeered up
about Buffler.” | ,

“You ditn’t ask Vildt Pill?”

Noe

They were silent a moment, listening to the unearthly
racket in the Ute village.

“Thar’s another thing stingin’ me all up,’ Bill Betts
admitted.

“WOE ieee

“I’m harborin’ ther oncomfortable feelin’ that Brother
Jim is over in that village.”

‘He vendt to der town.”

“T have a feelin’ that he didn’t, and that he’s now in
trouble. You see, he’s as anxious as me to git hold of
Gorilla Jake. I askt Dugan and Elmore if they met up
with him, and they said they didn’t.”

“Tdt iss not proof dot he ditn’t go to der town.”

“T know it ain’t. But didw’t you ever have a presenter-
ment, baron?” oo.

“Many dimes, vhen I am asleeb; but odder beoples
call idt a nighdtmares.”

“Tt is-a feelar.”

“Vaw! Idt iss a offul veeling. I haf hadt him.
Vonce diss nighdtmare vot climbed indo my pedt vos
redt all ofer, unt I hollered yoost like a horse. I am
sveadting yidt, venever I t’ink apoudt idt.”

“You don’t understand me, but it don’t make any dif-
ference; the question is, will you go with me? I’m set-
tin’ out right now for the Ute village. Hyer is yer
chance fer excitement, baron.”

The “excitement” appeal seldom failed to move Baron |

von Schnitzenhauser. He would have been willing to

—

JH BUPEAEO

 

BILL STORIES. 25

rove half round the world to find some unusual form
of it. For.a moment longer only he hesitated. ae

“Dhis site uff der camp is avay frum der Inchuns, unt
Dugan iss to come here soon. Yaw! I will go mit you.
I am dot anxious apoudt Cody I gan’t standt idt eeny
longker. Ledt der vays, unt I am mit you. As for der
Utes, raus mit ’em. Cody iss maype needting rescuink _
dhis minude.” ae

Having made up his mind to accompany Bill Betts
on this wild excursion to the Ute village, the baron set
out forthwith, tramping at Betts’ heels with exceeding
care. He had been wanting to see for himself what was
happening, for such infernal Indian yelling he had never
heard in all his wide experience. He was genuinely anx-
ious, too, about Buffalo Bill. He justified his disobedi-
ence of the latter’s orders by this feeling of anxiety,

though he knew well enough that if Cody’s wish could

be ascertained, Nomad would have been selected to go
to the village, if any one went at all. Buffalo Bill trusted
the old trapper as he did no one else except Wild Bill
Hickok.

No difficulty was experienced in keeping to a straight
line—that wild howling would have guided one through
Stygian darkness. The only thing was to guard against
stumbling and falling, There was little likelihood that
they would be heard, because of the Indian uproar.

“Sounds like ther infernal regions has heaved them-
selves right out upon the yearth,” Bill Betts observed
when they stopped on nearing the commotion and noise.
“D’y’ ever hear anything like it?”

“Der nearest,” said the baron, “iss vhen my vife gif .
me a biece uff her mindt der second day after ve ar-re —
marriet.”

“Wow! It must er Hee a heavy piece!”

“Vell, you haf heardt a door preaking down, unt a
stick uff vood hammering on idt. Dot vos my vife dry-
ing to gidt at me into der room vare I haf run, Also-o,
she vos yelling for der bolice.”

“You must have had a happy married life, Schnitz.”

“Vaw! Der fairst day idt voss viatirons, der secondt —
day idt vos proomsdicks unt rolling bins, unt der nexdt :
day idt : ee
“Wow !” oe broke in. “Lissen ter that. We've got.

 

- to git nearer.’

‘Nearer idt iss. [I am mit you.”

They were not content until they were close up by the
lodges. Then, as they still could not sce well enough,
they crossed the line into the village. +

“Keep close by me, Schnitz, and be ready fer trouble _
and to cut and run if we have to. See that lodge off
thar? It’s whar the yellin’ is fiercest. Sounds like
killin’ men thar, don’t it? I have a ingrowin’ feelin’
that Brother Jim is clost about that spot.”

The baron, who had been stooping, stood up and

' stared off in the direction indicated.

   
  

26 80 | TR BUFFALO

A ieanine’ fire near it showed the lodge and Bey swarm-
ing, painted Indians, :

“Thar’s a temperance lesson fer ye! YP said Betts.
“Shows what whisky will do.” -

“Ach! Vbueky | iss no goot.” |
“Pm goin’ to git clost enough to see if Jim is in the
midst of that. You keep by me. Don’t fergit that I’ve
got my umbreller gun. We're goin’ to git down now
and sneak along’ behind it. Thar’s bowlders big and
little everywhars you look. Set this umbreller open on
the ground, and in this pore light you couldn’t tell it
(ues a bowlder. We can take advantage of that dace:

t’s why I like the ‘old gun. ' Besides, if anybody ‘comes
: ce us, I can drap him with it, and he won't know
whar the bullet come from: You jest oe close at my
heels.”

Slipping to the ground, Bill Betts hee open “his
umbrella gun, and he and the baron got behind it.

The baron then saw that around the handle—which
was the gtin—where it passed through the umbrella
there were openings, so that through them he and Betts
could look out. ete those eee also, Betts
could aim the gun.

“The old thing is chock-a-block with ca teides: as I
call ’em,” said Betts. “I kin mow down half a dozen

reds without havin’ to reload, and I got plenty more
ca'tridges in my pockets. Now, we'll git closer.”

Pushing the open umbrella carefully ahead of him and
moving slowly, Betts made a cautious approach to the
lodge where the howling Utes were seen.

‘They were. stopped in this perilous advance by seeing
the rear of the lodge break open suddenly and Gorilla
Jake come rolling out, dragging with him a number of
Utes. Though he was painted like the Indians, Bill
Betts knew him at once.

“Wow!” Betts breathed.
“TE am seening: idt.”

“Thar he Boes down, with Injuns right on top o’ him;
they’re goin’ ter kill him. Would you open .on ’em if
you was me?”
_ The German caught Betts by the arm.

~“Dond’t. dooded idt!” he ve
our finishment.”

“But they’re killin’ in, I recone

“Vaw! Idt looks like idt.” —

“And if they finish him, ae am I to a hak re-
ward?”

“You von’dt wae eeny uff idt, Misder Petts, uff you
make a foolishness mit yourselluf righdt now. I am
vondering dot dey ton’dt seen us.” me

Then the’ German saw Tim Benson leap out of the
lodge entrance and go scatnpering in the other direc-.
tion. Betts caught sight of him, too.. :

“See that--seeat?.

j
&

“Tdt vouldt pe

“That goes Benson,” Betts es aS hands He

ing.

 

 

BILL STORIES.

 

“Yaw! I seen him. Budt I ain’dt vanting to foller

him dhis minude. Vot I am loogking vor iss Puffalo
Pill. You ton’dt seen coe ce

“No, I don’t see him.”

‘They beheld the “finish” of Gorilla Joke to the reat
grief of Bill Betts. The Indians had killed the apelike
man without mercy, simply because he could not eh
them more whisky.

A little after that the two crouching behind eS um-
brella beheld the scalp of the unfortunate man elevated
on a lance before the lodge, with the drunken Indians
dancing and howling round it.
~ “Gives me thé creeps!’ commented Bill Betts. “Um
beginnin’ to think that Jim didn’t come hyer.”

“Budt Cody dit!” whispered the German.

“Vit he may have got out before this happened.”

- “Yaw, I am hobing so.”

Bill Betts’ keen eyes beheld sneaking forms near the
outer lodges. He stared at them. What had seemed
but one man became suddenly two, when the blanket
round them dropped down. ee

“White men!’ he gasped. “I’m betting one of ’em is
Jim Betts. He’s that reckless he’s allus funni’ inter
danger.” :

“Unt der odder i iss maype Cody, woe is ee as reck-
less. Now, you unt me——”

“B’ jings, I believe they’re comin’ tie this way. If
one o’ them men is Brother Jim ae roast him oF run-
nin’ hisself into danger like this.”

The “bowlder,’”’ which the umbrella seemed to be, be-
gan to move slowly backward, the men concealed by it
crawfishing toward the outer lodges.

“I hate dog-goned bad to have to go and leave Gorilla
Jake? said Betts.

“Budt he iss dead.”

“I know it, but the reward said ‘dead or alive.’ ”

The reckless men did not get safely out of the village
without trouble. When they were still some distance

from the outermost lodge an Indian dog came toward

them, sniffing. Suddenly the dog began to bark.
“Freeze! ) said Betts, * |
“Yaw! Jam a piece uff ice.”
An Indian appeared and called to the yelping dog.
“Wow! See that?” whispered Betts.
“Tam hearing idt,” >

Encouraged by the Indian, the dog pene a barking

rush at the dark umbrella.

“The Injun thinks this is a Powlder,”
the dog knows better.”

“Yaw! He knows idt mit his nose.”

“Shall I let him have it?” _.

The dog settled the question by ae a furious a
upon the bowlder,

‘The finger of Bill Betts clutched ne ie stock. of

said Betts, “but

the umbrella handle in a nervous grip; a dull click

soun
track

1
the «

F
Gert

c
over
thin!
had

T
back
He.
Indi
Bett
seen
mor
time

«6

66N

Blo
ous

  
 

    

THE BUFF ALO

sounded, and the dog, yelping its last, fell dead in its
iracks..’.

The Ute stared in wildest astonishment, then ran to
the dog, which was thirty feet or more from the bowlder.

“Now he vill gome on unt | seen us,” whispered the
German.

The mystified Indian, after stooping for a moment

over the dog, advanced toward the “bowlder,” probably ”

thinking some one was behind it, yet puzzled because he
had heard no gun.

The dull click sounded again, and the Indian reeled
backward with a yell, his right arm dropping at his side.
He yelled again; then began to run toward the dancing
Indians,

ine howlder’s got to move back, ag’in,’
Betts. ‘“Ye’re seein’ now the uses of a gun what don’t
seem ter be a gun. I reckon this ole umbreller has saved
more’n a dozen lives fer me; I’d been killed that many
times if I hadn’t had it.”

“Vun more life idt haf safed you to-nighdt—huh ?”

“You bet you! Hitch back fast’s ye kin, Schnitz;
thar’ll be more Injuns whar that’n stood in a little while.
He’s reached the dancers and is spreadin’ the news thar.”

Some of the dancers stopped their whirling and howl-
ing and began to run toward the spot where the dog
had been killed and the Ute had received a shattered
arm. The injured Ute led the way, holding his bleeding
atm with his left hand. ,

“Now we haf got to make der slide.”

“Ves, it’s a lively skedaddle fer us. Up goes ther um-
breller. Now, jump fer it.”

The umbrella closed with a snap, and the two men
whom it had concealed sprang to their feet and beat a
hasty retreat out of the village before the staring eyes of
the astounded Utes. : ,

But the Utes, getting their wits together, followed,
howling like*a crazy mob.

As the baron and Bill Betts leaped into the darkness
beyond the farthest lodge they heard the voices of Buf-
falo Bill and Jim Betts.

“Right this way,” said the scout.

“Come a-b’ilin’, Brother Bill!” Jim Betts called.

The four men came together, then beat a quick re-
treat. |

Before the camp was reached the Betts brothers weze
quarreling, each charging ~ other with foolish reck-
lessness.

eee

 

CHAPTER XV...
CONCLUSION.

When morning came a considerable force arrived from
Blossom Range. It was composed of the most courage-
ous men of the town, and they were well armed.

@ said Bill :

i

BILL: STORIES.

 

27

Buffalo Bill, taking command of this force, moved on
the village of the Utes. But there was now no one in
the village who sought to oppose him. The warriors who
had howled and danced throughout the night lay in
a stupor and were helpless; several warriors were dead.
The woman and children, with the older men, and such
of the braves as had not been able to get enough of the
doctored whisky to hurt them, were alone able to meet
the force of the scout and talk intelligibly.

They were dreadfully frightened by this array of
fighting men from the town, and seemed ready to make
any promises demanded. They were not to blame, they
said, for what had happened. The white men who had
brought the whisky should alone be blamed. One of
the white men who did it was dead, the other had fled
from the place.

But the body of Gorilla Jake could not be found. This,

the Indians explained, was because it had been burnt.
on the bonfire the Utes had built and kept roaring
through the greater part of the night.
- Old Iron Bow was in a stupor, from which he was
aroused with difficulty. Even then he could give no sat-
isfactory account of what had happened. But he and
some of the worst of the warriors were placed under
arrest by Dugan, and were taken down to the Blossom
Range jail.

Buffalo Bill and his friends searched the Ute village
through and through, but were not able to find Tim Ben-
son.

“He’s a feller yer cain’t never ketch,” said Nomad.

Buffalo Bill did not side with this view. —

He sent orders everywhere, which blocked all the
trails leading from Blossom Range and the country sur-
rounding it, and sent messages again to all the sur-
rounding towns and mining camps.

ley get him yet,” he said in serene confidence. “You

see, he is probably now in the hills, or else has come
right back into.Blossom Range. If he is in Blossom
Range it must be our work to see that he don’t get out
again. If he is oe in the hills he will starve there, so
will have to come in.’

But old Nomad had seen the hopes of the scout baffled
so often by the clever road agent that he had become
pessimistic on the subject of the capture of Tim Benson.

Nevertheless, the old trapper did not relax his efforts.
Buffalo Bill never had better lieutenants than Nomad,
Wild Bill, and the baron. They gave their strength
and time night and day to watching and shadowing.
Wild Bill kept a close watch on all the gaming places
of the town, knowing that Benson was a notorious
gamester, and would be found in such places if he feit
that he could visit them safely.

Benson’s ability at disguising was not forgotten.

So

every man and woman leaving the town was subjected
to an examination.

  
 

  

28 aoe THE BUFFALO

It was bad for the business of the town, but it brought
results.

Benson had really fled into Blossom Range, stopping
on the way only long enough to remove his Indian paint
and feathers and assume his ordinary clothing, which
he had kept with him in the Ute village and brought out
of it.

- For a day or two he hid with a friend, who fed him
and kept him secluded.

But this friend was soon suspected and arrested. Ben:
son had to leave his house. -

The few friends left now in the town became afraid

to harbor him.
At last a day came when Benson, grown desperate,
hungry, wearied with hiding like a terrified wolf, came
boldly out into the street. Yet he had taken the care to
give himself a change of clothing, which he stole during
the previous night, so that he was not now the dapper
gambler and desperado, but appeared as a miner in rough
clothing and clay-stained boots.

“There are miners going in and out of the town to
their work every day, and I'll try that trick,’ he said to
himself, “I can’t get away during the night, for no man
is permitted to go out who is not known, so I’ve got to
make the try in broad daylight. If 1 fail

He walked boldly down the street, passing dozens of
men, who gave him not a second glance.

 

“They don’t know me! I guess I can work it. But
I’ve got to get farther than just out in the hills. How
will I do that? All the surrounding towns are guarded,
with men looking there for me, so I can’t go into the
towns. And if I stay in the hills [ll starve; a coyote
ne live there. I think I'll have to try the stage
again.’

Yet he knew ‘that no man whose identity 1 was not
clearly proven could leave now by the stage.

Benson had not proceeded half a mile when he saw
the man whom he feared above all others—Butffalo Bill.

The great scout had been standing at a street corner,

as if at ease with himself and the world, also apparently

not watching any one or looking for any one.

But it was evident that he had seen and spotted Ben-

son as soon as the latter appeared in sight.

When Buffalo Bill sauntered with seeming careless-
ness across the street to intercept Tim Benson old

Nomad was in another street, which hid him from Ben- —

son’s sight, though he and the scout could see each other.

The scout put up his hand in a peculiar way, much as
if he were settling a refractory cuff in place, a sign
which Nomad saw at once and understood.

Benson was still under the impression that Buffalo
Bill had not recognized him, when the scout, after brush-
ing by him, turned quickly, with handcuffs ready for
Benson’s wrists. a

BILL STORIES.

 

 

 

“Better surrender without trouble, pees he said
in a low tone. “I’ve got you, you Sec.

Benson whitened to the lips; then in desperation he
whipped out a revolver and fired at the scout. The

scout ducked and seemed to reel.. At the same instant
the trapper came yelling upon the scene.

“Waugh!” old Nomad whooped. “Better drap et,
Benson, fer ye’re shootin’ only blanks!”

The shouted words, telling him his revolver held only
blanks, confused and balked Benson for a moment; it
made him uncertain, and that caused him to hesitate.

The scout had not been touched by Benson’s bullet, and

it gave him the time and opportunity needed.

He sprang upon Benson. When the latter’s hand went
up again with the revolver, Buffalo Bill turned the
weapon aside and at the same time snapped the wrist in
the handcuff; then, with a swing, he caught ae brought
the other wrist round.

“Click !” sounded the manacles.

The revolver fell to the ground, and Benson reeled
back against the wall. That click and the touch of the
cold steel on his wrists let him know that the great scout
had him at last.

Not until the thing had been done and the handcuffs
held his arms together did Benson come to a full realiza-
tion that Nomad had shouted those words simply to con-
fuse him and cause him to lose time.

He turned upon the old trapper furiously.

Nomad only laughed.

23

“Thet’s all right, ye reprobate,” said the trapper. “We
wanted ter ketch yer, so I didn’t want ter drap ye with
a bullet myself, or hev ye drap Buffler. Ye're the star
road agent o this section and the king o’ all the des-
peradoes that’s been workin’ EounG hyer; but now we
has got ye., Et’s the final scoop.”

Tim Benson, a very few minutes later, was in the al
of Blossom Range, whither his pals had gone before
him.

As for the Utes, old Iron Bow and the others who
were jailed, they were released in a few days and per-
mitted to return to the village.’ It was held that, being
savages, they. were not really responsible for deeds com-
mitted undér the influence of desperate white men and
strong drink.

The Betts brothers did not get that reward. _
They could not produce the body of Gorilla Jake,

dead or alive. Yet there was no doubt that he had suf-

fered at the hands of the Utes a terrible punishment for
his crime of furnishing them with drugged whisky.

TEE END,

The next number (441) will contain “Buffalo Bill at
Clearwater; or, Scouting with Old Nick Wharton.”

Coase AS eo es

Pn So Tea Nate ee

   
 
 

 
  

 

&

    

om
VOTED TO BORDER LIFE

NEW YORK, October 16, 1909.

e.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TERMS TO BUFFALO BILL STORIES MAIL SUBSCRIBERS.
(Postage Free.) ~ é
Single Copies or Back Numbers, 5c. Each.

ith. Cpeveceuivegecuses teas 650, Onevear ece sl woouvecseos uu es $2.50
i Feu MEM e wenin aue whee cia 85c. | 2 copies one year.............. 4,00
§ months ....-.+- et UeUpare oes $1.25 | 1 copy two years........0..080 4,00

How to Send Money—By post-office or express money order,
registered letter, bank check or draft, at our risk. At your own risk if sent
by currency, coin, or postage stamps in ordinary letter.

Receipts—Receipt of your remittance is acknowledged by proper

change of number on yourtlabel. If not correct you have not been properly
credited, and should let us know at once.

STREET & SMITH, Publishers,

Ormonp G, SmitTH,
79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City.

Georcs €, Smitx, | Prop reeecr

 

 

THE HUNTERS HUNTED.

 

In October, 1890, I, John Howard, then only seventeen
years of age, found myself stranded at Port Elizabeth, Cape
Colony, without any visible means of support, having,
through ill-usage, been forced to run away from my ship, and
leave everything behind, excepting what I stood up in.

In this dilemma the offer of a berth as attendant to two
English gentlemen on a hunting expedition into the interior
was a godsend.

My duties lay with the wagons, and I must say I saw very
little of the hunting part of the business, beyond practicing
upon hares, squirrels, birds, and smaller fry with a bow and
arrow, for I was not permitted the use of a gun.

On the occasion which gives rise to this story, Captain
Clapperton and Mr. Thornton had wounded a large bull ele-
phant, which had got away. The captain coveted the ani-
mal’s ivories, as a few like them would pay the whole cost
of the expedition, and he insisted upon starting out next
morning to track the prey. Unfortunately, Mr. Thornton
was laid up. with a chill, and Fritz Africander, the half-breed
guide, had sprained his ankle in evading the elephant’s
charge,

So, to my astonishment, I was hurriedly called to accom-
pany the captain, an invitation of which I was only too glad
to avail myself; and seizing the bow and quiver of arrows
as the only weapons legitimately my own, I hastened to
join him.

He laughed at my primitive weapons, saying he expected
to find the elephant dead, and only wanted me to help carry
his heavy rifle, for the Hottentot drivers were not to be
relied upon in any emergency; upon the slightest alarm they
would either fire off the gun in whatever direction it hap-
pended to be pointing, or else drop it and fly into the woods.

Pressing on for a couple of hours, we entered a belt of
timber, and here signs of our quest were visible in newly
pulled up young trees, torn branches, and a general appear-
ance as though a tornado had been having a time of it there.

A noise of yelling, barking, and hideous laughter, sound-
ing faintly to our right, drew our attention to that quarter,
and making cautiously for the spot, we beheld a strange
and pitiful scene.

There lay the wounded old bull elephant in the midst of a
howling pack of hyenas, jackals, and wild dogs, tearing fero-
ciously at the kneeling carcass of the now almost unresisting
brute! |

   

THE BUFFALO BILL STORIES,

We were in time to see him give his last blow, as he
smashed the ribs of a forward hyena, who was immediately
torn to pieces and devoured by his affectionate relatives. We
scattered these wretches, and put an end to the old tusker;
afterward cutting off the forefeet, as the fleshy substance |
beneath the skin of the foot is accounted a choice morsel in
Ae but is the only fragment of the brute fit for human
ood. :

We then went off to the pool by the canebrake, for the ~~

purpose of cleansing ourselves before returning home,.to”
send the Hottentots for the tusks. Ler

Ablutions over, we were on the point of starting for the
wagons, having the elephant feet slung on’ sticks, over our
shoulders; and I had but taken a few steps up the grassy
bank, when suddenly a little smooth-haired animal, shaped
like a kitten, only larger, came gamboling toward me. I was
charmed with the pretty creature, and stooped to caress it.
The little innocent pawed my hand for a bit, and, then, with
awkward, puplike gambols, returned to the canebrake and
disappeared.

“Phew! Lion whelps!” whispered my companion. “Hist!
the mother can’t be far off.” ee

The reeds quivered, two tiny heads appeared, and the
owners thereof trotted out, playing with each other.

We backed, with the intention of getting out of the way,
but just then, with an angry roar, a full-grown. lioness
sprang out of cover and faced us!

She crouched, her forepaws planted firmly into the
ground, her long tail swaying menacingly to and fro, as,
opening her red mouth and showing a formidable array of
gleaming teeth, she gave vent to roar after roar.

This was our first encounter with lions, although they had
often, of late, serenaded us at night, attracted by the oxen.
I must confess I was scared to death, and stood staring at
the savage animal, not knowing what to do; but the readier
soldier leveled his piece, and, saying: “There’s no help for
it,” fired straight at the lioness.

She fell over on her side, writhing, and the captain imme-
diately emptied his other barrel into her, luckily blowing out
her brains.

Then hurriedly reloading, he called:

“Come, Howard, ,we’ll have to run for it; there are more
of these gentry around here, and this is no place to be
trapped in.”

We ran for the woods, but the immense tawny head and —
black mane of a lion appearing above a knoll directly in front
brought us at once to a full stop. Coming out inte full
view, he showed himself to be a veritable king of beasts.

At the same instant I heard a crackling in the underbrush
to my left, and caught a glimpse of the sleek body of a
second lioness gliding away through the grass.

We appeared to have walked right into a den of the
animals.

The large brute in front lazily scanned us for a secon
or two, sniffed the air in our direction, then over his shoul-
der toward'the place where carnival was being held over
the dead elephant; then, with a stifled growl, as if making
up his mind, trotted down the slope toward us.

Retreat was out of the question.

I could hear my heart thumping against my ribs, and fer-
vently wished I was with the wagons. Again Captain Clap-
perton’s gun came into requisition, but out of breath as he
was with running, his hand could not have been as steady as
usual, for his bullet struck the animal in the hip.

Chaos ensued. . :

I remember a terrible roar, a picture of red eyes, red
mouth, and glistening teeth, set in a mass of streaming hair,
a hot breath for one brief second, and the concussion of a
strong body, as I rolled over, momentarily stunned!

My senses came back with a flash, and, jumping up, I saw
the enraged brute standing over the captain, who had shoved
his gunstock into the animal’s mouth, and was endeavoring
to keep his arm from the monster jaws.
 

 

30. THE BUPHALO

There was not a second to lose, and hardly knowing what
I was doing, ] dashed in frantically, seized hold of the lion’s
tail, dropped it, picked up my bow, fitted an arrow in the
string, and sent it quivering into the flank of the beast.

Toy, as my arrow was, it saved my master. The lion
turned in an instant, snapped at the shaft, then sprang for
me.

My courage evaporated at once, and I did the only thing
I could have done in the circumstances—turned tail and
fled wildly toward the water.

Hearing the maddened animal’s heavy thuds on the earth
behind me, I darted behind a clump of bushes, and was
chased around them; then another, and another, under the
influence of terror, skipping and jumping about like a
mountebank—though it was no joke, I can assure you. :

Casting a frightened look over my shoulder, I beheld, to
my intense relief and surprise, my pursuer stop for a mo-
ment by the dead body. of the lioness, where the two little
babies still played, all unconscious of their mother’s fate.
He smelled at the oozing blood, licked his own wounds, and
with another roar. of pain and rage, came after me. The
delay had given me a small start, and I dashed back for the
trees at my utmost speed. It was a race for life.

Oh! How I tore along, expecting every moment to feel
those terrible jaws closing on my body.

I saw the captain limping along near the edge of the wood,
as if he were still partly dazed, and didn’t know what to do;
but at our approach he seemed to understand the position,
and painfully climbed a friendly tree.

The next moment I was beneath him, and, with a wild
spring, caught a branch about nihe feet from the ground,
and with a gymnastic effort never equaled by me before,
or since, twisted myself up higher out of danger, alongside
‘my companion—hardly knowing whether I was safe really,
or had not been killed at the first charge, and the latter part
of the incident but the imaginings of my brain during the
last second of life!

But no, the infuriated animal bounding up the trunk of
the tree, tearing up the grass at the roots, scratching the
bark like a cat sharpening its claws, and showing by other
signs what he would do if once he got hold of us, was too
real for dreaming. .

Looking into casualties we found the captain’s only hurt
_ was a strained knee and a slightly lacerated hand; while my
' damages consisted of a fit of trembling, caused by excite-
ment, and my heart still beating audibly; but these quieted -
down, and we began to devise means for getting out of the
scrape. The gun and bow lay where they had been dropped,
so the only hope was to tire out our jailer.

Probably he would be tempted off to share the elephant
feast, before there was nothing left but bones.

But this gentleman appeared to disdain carrion, and
thought revenge far sweeter—aunless, indeed, he had already
satisfied his appetite somewhere else. He kept walking
round and round the tree, growling menacingly, and varying
the monotony by a roar, and a futile leap every few minutes.

At last he appeared to settle down, resting his shaggy
head on his great paws, and keeping up well in sight; but
by and by he took to whining, and licking his sores as they
became stiffer, and once more he broke out into angry howls
and vain attempts to reach us.

All the afternoon this programme was kept up, and we
Hae tired of changing from bough to bough to ease our
imbs.

Any movement on oyr part appeared to turn his majesty
into a raving maniac for the time being; so we retreated
farther aloft, and kept as quiet as possible, until a troop of
long-tailed, chattering monkeys, congregated in the branches
of a neighboring tree, became too venturesome, invading our
territory, when we assailed them with sticks and shouts,
frightening the whole screaming troop awav.

At six o’clock the lion suddenly rose, and walked slowly

BILL STORIES.

in the direction of the pool, halting frequently to look back
and see that all was right.

As he disappeared, I descended from my perch for the
purpose of getting the rifle, when back came our tenacious
enemy, roaring furiously.

I was up quicker than I had got down.

His dripping jaws showed that his thirst had been
quenched, and shortly afterward he went off again for a
few seconds, returning with one of our precious elephant
feet, which he proceeded to devour before our very eyes.

His two journeys had disturbed the cubs, who followed
him back to our quarters, uttering plaintive cries, and trying
to nestle under his warm coat, but he drove them off with
growls. See

At nine o’elock there was no sign of the siege being raised,
and we were hungry, thirsty, and shivering with cold, as the
night deepened, our enemy’s green eyes glaring up at us,
and producing a creepy sensation.

At length a shot sounded in the distance, and we knew
that the expected search party were looking for us.

Half an hour of silence, and then another shot was heard
close by; so, uniting our voices, we poured forth reiterated
answering yells. In a few minutes Fritz’s voice, rivaling
the lion’s, burst out into a tremendous “Halloa!” and we
shouted back, warning him to be careful.

Meanwhile, the king of beasts rose, and trotted toward
Fritz.

Instantly there was a flash, a shot, and he came bounding
past the tree, to our surprise, silently, and we saw his dark

body skimming along the ground, and finally vanish in the |

_canebrake. Then we thankfully joined our deliverers at the
foot of the tree, and returned safely to the wagons.

The next morning my undaunted master went forth with
his fellow traveler, and triumphantly returned with the skin
of the royal beast that had caused us so much trouble. I
wasn't present at this hunt. One lion adventure was enough
for me, and I freely confess I never want, and have never
had, another !

n> 6 > dh
ry SOPs

AN EMBARRASSING POSITION.

 

It was a very warm night, just before the rains. The
veranda doors were wide open, and the blinds were down,
so that the clear moonlight made white lines upon the floor.
Far away a jackal was howling, and presently the monot-
onous cry was taken up by others, and Mrs. Chesham, sit-
ting up in bed with her heart beating like a hammer, heard
the rush of their feet as they sped away down the hillside
toward the servants’ houses. ee
_ She had not grown accustomed to India yet, and the jack-
als frightened her almost as much as the hyenas. There
were rumors of a tiger, too, that had followed the buffaloes
up from the plains, and that selected its victims from the
coolies cutting wood in the forest on the hill.

A great many shooting parties had been formed with the
object of ending his homicidal career, but he was a wily
tiger, and no bait seemed to attract him. - he

Captain Chesham had a leopard trap rigged up ‘in their
own little compound, and had tied up a pariah dog inside.
It had howled for an hour, poor creature, but apparently it
had gone to sleep; and now that the jackals were out of
hearing, the whole place was very still.

_ Ah! there they were again! What a dismal noise! so
penetrating and long-drawn-out. Surely no jackal ever had
so pathetic a cry!

Mrs. Chesham jumped out of bed and ran across to her
husband.

“Wake up, Jim, wake up!” she cried. “You must go into
the drawing-room and bring Jupiter here; do you hear how
he is crying! JI am sure he is frightened at heing alone, and
no wonder—so am |!”

  

Ge
Her
oS
Firs
and
It is
SI
banc
66r
rath
poo!
{Sec
bed,
H
thre
|
moc
min
Mv
him
66
ject
sO 1
.

SO
ashe
}
ing
arn
ter:
bru
wa
wo
col
ql
wh
at
an
am
thr
tai
shi
tre

an

hi

pa
or
ak

  
  

THE BUFFALO

Captain Chesham turned with a yawn, and stared at her.
Her eyes were full of tears, and she spoke fretfully.

“You are not half awake yet, Jim! I cannot get to sleep.
First of all, it was the jackals, and now Jupiter! Please go

and see what is the matter. What a horrible place India is!

It is equally like the zoo, but with all the animals loose!” ~
She sat shivering on the edge of the bed, while her hus-
band obediently arose and prepared to do as she wished.
“The jackals do make a queer noise,” he said, “but I
rather like it. Are you sure it was Jupiter howling, or that
poor brute in my trap? J bet you anything that man-eater
is about, which accounts for all the row outside. Go to
bed, and try and get to sleep. Ill have a look around.” _

He strolled about in his sleeping suit, reconnoitring

through the blind.

“I think Pll take a stick and put on my hat. I believe the

moonlight affects one’s brains, and I can’t afford to risk
mine.”

Mrs. Chesham turned around at the door and looked at
him.

“My dear Jim,” she said, “how can you make such an ob-
ject of yourself, even in the middle of the night? Thank you
so much, dear; I am sure I shall sleep now. Don’t be long.”

She ran back again to her own room, pulled up a resai

so as to stop her shivering, and, in two minutes was fast .

asleep, entirely oblivious of the wild beasts raging outside.

Meanwhile, Captain Chesham had descended to the draw-
ing-room, where he found Jupiter curled up safely in an
armchair, and from thence he made his way out into the
terraced compound to have a look at his-trap. The poor
brute tied inside it, behind a second trellis work of brass,
was howling dismally, and, in his senseless terror, he had
wound the bit of chain round and round his neck, until he
could not move. hae

The door was fixed open with a light steel spring, and
when Captain Chesham held it back to step inside, it slipped
a little to one side.
and fawned against him. He lost his balance for a minute,
and reeled forward, so that the cage shook, the door was
thrown back with a jerk; there was a sharp click, and Cap-
tain Chesham turned hastily.

The moonlight was shining very brightly, showing the
shadows of the bars distinctly; a light wind was rustling the
trees, and far away he heard the faint howl of a jackal.

The door was shut! ee

He put his hand between the bars, but he was just out of
reach of the spring lock. He called and listened, but no one
answered—the servants’ houses were lower down on the
hillside,

There was nothing for it but to wait!

He opened the trap door between him and the terrified
pariah, and it pressed close up to him, lying with its head
on his knee; its eyes were shut, and it had a ghastly grin
about it. It had fainted! The knowledge came with a
shock to the captain, and a thrill passed through him.

What horrible sight had the poor beast seen to have made
such an impression?

What might be creeping up now across the moonlight in
the garden, attracted by the scent of human prey?

What a fool he had been to bring that useless stick instead
of his rifle!

He sat down in the middle of the cage, with his knees
drawn up, and his head resting upon them—his eyes closed,
and he was conscious that the dog stirred again, as he felt
the warmth of his body. ee

He awoke a short time afterward, with a full knowledge
that he had been dozing; the moon had gone down, and it
was very dark.

Close behind him he heard the soft pad of fect.

He turned his head hurriedly, and there, within three feet
of him, were two glaring eyes, and the long, lithe, striped
body of a tiger! _ oo

   

The dog leaped the length of the chain

BILL STORIES.

3t

He did not move or turn—he hardly dared to breathe, as,
with a low, fierce growl, the creature walked stealthily _
around the cage, coming nearer and nearer with each circle.

Breathlessly, he watched it stand and pat the wicker ar-
rangement with its paw, until the cage actually shook; then
it laid its head to the ground, and pushed its paw under the
bars, trying with vain sweeps to reach the imprisoned crea-_
(ures within, 4": Te a Onl

With a sickening sense of helplessness, Captain Chesham |

realized that if it leaped against the cage, it was possible it a

might overturn or break it; but, happily, instead of that, it
came back to the head again, and crouched down, still keep- _
ing its glaring yellow eyes upon its prey. i :
He felt sure ‘that the long, interminable night would Be
too horrible, so he steadied his voice, and sent shout after
shout into the darkness; ‘but there was no answer, except -
that at every shout the tiger raised its head and snarled,
showing its row of twisted and broken fangs. we -
So they waited, all through the silent, breathless night,
watching each other with burning eyes, that dared not
turn this way or that for a moment.
And in the early dawn the tiger rose, stretched itself, saun-
tered a few yards away, came back and sniffed at the bars,
as if reluctant to leave such a promising meal, and finally
disappeared down the road.
Captain Chesham rose up into a kneeling position, for
there was no room for him to stand.
‘Not one other night do you live, sir!” he shouted, after
the retreating tiger; “not another chance do you get of
making the lives of other men hideous to them, you vile,
sneaking brute! Good morning to you; and when we meet
again, I trust there may be no bars between us.”

The servants said they had heard the cries at intervals all

night, but thought it was merely some more coolies being .

eaten, and therefore had not interfered. Mrs. Chesham had
slept soundly, and heard nothing. When she stood with
trembling lips and dim eyes, and heard the story of the night,
there were the marks of the stealthy paws to witness to the
fact. eae |

All the station, armed with rifles, lay in wait that night,
under the shadow of the veranda in the Cheshams’ house;
but to Captain Chesham himself were the honors of victory,
for the tiger fell to his second shot.

A perfect jewelers’ shop was found inside him, ghastly
trophies of his cunning; but Captain Chesham always tells
the story as one of those horrible experiences that can only
happen to a man once in a lifetime.

cf 9 tien

HOW ARROWS WERE POISONED.

 

An old Cherokee Indian recently told how the Indians of
olden times used to poison their arrowheads for war pur-
poses or for killing bears. According to the Denver Field
and Farm, they took a fresh deer liver, fastened it to a long
pole, and then went to certain places where they knew they
would find rattlesnakes in abundance. eas

About midday the rattlers are all out of their dens, coiled
up in the sunshine. The bucks would poke the first rattler
with the liver on the long pole. A rattler, unlike common
snakes, always shows fight in preference to escaping. 3

The snake would thus repeatedly strike at the liver with
its fangs until its poison was all used up, whereupon it would
quit striking and try slowly to move on. The bucks would
then hunt up another rattler, and repeat the performance,
keeping up the work until the liver was well soaked with
snake poison, is on

Then the pole was carried home and fastened somewhere
in an upright position until the liver became as dry as a
bone. The liver was pounded to a fine powder and placed in
a buckskin bag, to be used as needed for their arrows. This

_ powder would stick like glue to any moistened surface.

 
 

   

 

 

 

~ BUFFALO BILL STORIES

 

snort abo rere seems

The most. original stories of Western adventure. ‘The only weekly containing the adventures of the famous

Buffalo Bill. High art colored covers. |
 ¢28—Buffalo Bill’s Mexican Mix-up; or, The Bullfighter’s De-

fiance. .
29—Buffalo Bill and the Gamecock; or, The Red Trail on the
Canadian.
 Gg0—Buffalo Bill and the Cheyenne Raiders; or, The Spurs of
the Gamecock.
g3I—Buffalo Bill’s Whirlwind Finish; or, The Gamecock Wins.
' $32—Buffalo Bill's Santa Fe Secret; or, The Brave of Taos.
gate Bill and the Taos Terror; or, The Rites of the Red
istuia,

 

 

Thirty-two big pages. Price, 5 cents.

434—Buffalo Bill’s Bracelet of Gold; or, The Hidden Death.
435—Buffalo Bill and the Border Baron; or, The Cattle King of
No Man’s Land.

| 436—Buffalo. Bill at Salt River Ranch; or, Old Flint-face, the

| _. Comanche.

He Boe Bill’s Panhandle Man-hunt; or, The Comanche
igers. :

| 438—Buffalo Bill at Blossom Range; or, Juniper Joe’s Jubilee.

439—Buffalo Bill and Juniper Joe; or, The Fool of Folly Moun-

 

 

 

All kinds of stories that boys like. The biggest and best nickel’s worth ever offered. High art colored

govers. Thirty-two big pages. Price, 5 cents.

‘g4a—Through the Earth; or, Jack Nelson’s Invention. By Fred
Thorpe.

343—The Boy Chief; or, Comrades of Camp and Trail. By John
De Morgan.

344—Smart Alec; or, Bound to Get There. By Weldon J. Cobb.

345—Climbing Up; or, The Meanest Boy Alive. By Harrie
Irving Hancock. _

46—Comrades Three; or, With Gordon Keith in the South
Seas. By Lawrence White, Jr.

g47—A Young Snake-charmer; or, The Fortunes of Dick Erway.
By Fred Thorpe.

g48—Checked Through to Mars; or, Adventures in Other Worlds.

3490—Fighting the Cowards; or, Among the Georgia Moonshiners.
By Harrie Irving Hancock.

35@--The Mud River Boys; or, The Fight for Penlow’s Mill. By |

John L. Douglas.
351—Grit and Wit; or, Two of a Kind. By Fred Thorpe.
352—Right on Top; or, Yankee to the Backbone. By Cornelius

Shea,
353—-A Clue from Nowhere; or, On a Phantom Trail. By Harrie
Irving Hancock.
By John L.

354—Never Give Up; or, Harry Holton’s Resolve.
355—Comrades Under Castro; or, Young Engineers in Venezuela.

 

Douglas.
By Victor St. Clair.

 

By Weldon J. Cobb.

 

The latest and best five-cent weekly. We won't say how interesting it is. See for yourself.
Price, 5 cents,

colored covers. Thirty-two big pages.

20—Motor Matt Makes Good; or, Another Victory for the Motor
Boys.

-21—Motor Matt’s Launch; or, A Friend in Need.

22—Motor Matt’s Enemies; or, A Struggle for the Right.

23—Motor Matt’s Prize; or, The Pluck That Wins.

24—Motor Matt on the Wing; or, Flying for Fame and For-
tune.

25—Motor Matt’s Reverse; or, Caught in a Losing Game.

 

STORIES

 

High art

26—Motor Matt's “Make or Break”; or, Advancing the Spark of
: Friendship. 3 :
27—Motor Matt’s Engagement; or, On the Road With a Show.
28—Motor Matt’s “Short Circuit”; or, The Mahout’s Vow.
29—Motor Matt’s Make-up; or, Playing a New Réle.
30—Motor Matt’s Mandarin; or, Turning a Trick for Tsan Ti,
31—Motor Matt’s Mariner; or, Filling the Bill for Bunce.
32—Motor Matt’s Double-trouble; or, The Last of the Hoodoo.
33—Motor Matt’s Mission; or, The Taxicab Tangle.

For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any address on receipt of price,
5 cents per copy, in money or postage stamps, by

STREET & SMITH, Publishers, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York

 

 

iF YOU WANT ANY B ACK. NUMBERS of our Weeklies and cannot procure them from your hewedesien, they can be

obtained from this office direct.

&s with the price of the Weeklies you want and we will send them to you by return mail. POSTAGE STAMPS TAKEN THE SAME AS MONEY.

 

STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City.

eCoaaeanea ROSSOROTCETHEFEHSLEORERHOHSHOSHHOHHSHHEHHSSEEHESHOL2ECOS 190

Dear Sirs: Enclosed please find. .......00c0ec0000. sese.. cents for which send mes

 

TIP TOP WEEKLY, NOS
NICK CARTER WEEKLY, © ..0....cccccccccccccecccceeeceee

DIAMOND DICK WEEKLY, “ ................... noe

| BUFFALO BILL STORIES, NOS.................s0sesceeseeeaes

BRAVE AND BOLD WEEKLY, ...............
MOTOR STORIES, = *

@QCHOSCEOBSCOHHLSES FH F828 2E8 eeceeeoe

WONG oie cc seco cals cok cncecssecc 65s -STOGlss loss cen ccy en cets c 5 ses 50100. City POHHSESSMOCHOCSSHOEHOAFDMPA0RNE . State. sc evncevese.

Fill out the following Order Blank and send it te

 

 

    
 
 

 

BUFFALO

STORIES

 

ISSUED EVERY

TUESDAY

BEAUTIFUL COLORED

COVERS

 

 

There is no need of our telling American readers how interesting the stories of the adventures

of Buffalo Bill, as scout and plainsman, really are.

weekly ‘for many years, and are voted to be masterpieces dealing with Western adventure. ;
Buffalo Bill is more popular to-day than he ever was, and, consequently, everybody ought to

know all there is to know about him.

the actual habits and life of this great man, as by reading the BUFFALO BIEL STORES.

You can have your news-dealer
order them or they will be sent direct by the publishers to any address upon receipt of the price in
money or postage-stamps.

We give herewith a list of all of the back numbers in print.

162—Buffalo
177—Buttfalo
210—Buffalo
211—Buffalo
213—Buffalo
214—Buffalo
217—Buffalo
218—Buffalo
219—Buffalo
223—Buffalo
224—Buffalo
225—Buffalo
226—Buffalo
228—Buffalo
229—Buffalo
230—Buffalo
232—Butfalo
235—Buffalo
236—Buffalo
237—Buffalo
238—Butffalo
239—Buttfalo
240—Buffalo
241—-Buffalo
242—Buftfalo
243—Buttfalo
244—Buffalo
245—Buffalo
246—Buffalo
247-——Buffalo
248—Buffalo
249—Buffalo
250—Buffalo
251—Buffalo
252—Buffalo
' 253—Buffalo
254—Buffalo
255—Buffalo
256—Buffalo
257—Buftfalo
258—-Buffalo
259—-Buffalo
261—Butffalo
262—Buffalo
263—Buffalo
264—Buffalo
265—Buffalo
266—Buffalo
267—Buffalo
269—Buffalo

King

270—Butffalo
271—Buffalo
272—Buftfalo
273—Butffalo
274—Butftalo
275—Buffalo
276—Buffalo
277—Buftfalo
278—Buffalo
280—Buffalo
282—Buffalo
283—Buffalo
284—Buffalo
285—Buffalo
286—Buffalo
287—Buffalo
288—Buffalo
289—Buffalo
290—Buffalo
291—Buffalo
292—Buffalo
293—Buffalo
295—Buffalo

Bill’s Canyon Cache.........

Bill in Morenci
Bills Blinds Weadie acsjece sacs.
Bills: Sacrifice. so...

Bills Diamond Hunt... 02...

Bill’s Avenging Hand.......
Bill’s Cheyenne Comrades....
BLES Siehy ei ratl ci. <.c)e<ciee-e
BIE S (SiOUxeINOCS. © 723505 -ci..
Bill’s Florida Foes........

Bill’s Grim Climb...........

Bill’s Red Hnemy
Bill on a Traitor’s Track....
Bills Air Voyage...........

Bill’s Death Thrust..........
Bill’s “Kaowa Woe... 0: ......-%.

Bill’s Wyoming Trail........

Bill’s Apache Round-up......

Bill’s El Paso Pard.........
Bill on the Staked Plains....
Bill’s Border Raid.......

Bill’s Bravest Fight.........

Bills Heathen Pard.......
Bill’s Dakota Dare-devils.
Bill’s Arapahoe Alliance.....
Bill on Special Service......
Bill on a Treasure Hunt....
Bill’s Lost Quarry..........

Bill Among the Comanches...

Bill’s Stockade Siege........
Bill’s Creek Quarrel........
Bill Among the Pawnees.....
Bill on a Long Hunt........
Bill’s Wyoming Trail......

Bill and the Redskin Wizard..
Bill’s Bold Challenge........

Bill’s Shawnee Stampede.....
Bills. WOrst “MOC s Sse cs. su.
Bill on a Desert Trail.......
Bill’s Rio Grande Feud......
Bill in Tight Quarters.......
Bill’s Daring Rescue........
Bill’s Treasure Train....

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

Bill in the Land of Wonders..
Bill and the Traitor Soldier...
Bilis Dusky Tratlers..% 25...
Bill’s Diamond Mine.....

Bill and the Pawnee Serpent...

Bills; Searlet: Hand... 2. 23).
Bill Running the Gantlet....
Bill’s Leap in the Dark......
Bus Daring ~Phinge 2...
Bills] Ghost Raiden oe.
Bill's: -Camp-fires.... 2.0.00...
Bill UpzacStump. =]: 26.
Bills Secreb Woes. os,
Bill’s 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........
Bilitine Peril. occa we
Bill in the Death Desert.....

OUVOTOUOTOTON

CVOTOUOTON OU

CLOTOULOTOVOVOVOT = CUVOT OV OT OVON ONO ON OF OF OT OFT OT OF OF OF OT OT OV OV OV ON OT OT OLOTOUOT ON

CLOTOUOUOVOTOUOT

 

296—Buffalo
297—Buffalo
298—Buftfalo
299—Buftalo
300—Buffalo
301—Buffalo
302—Buffalo
303—Buffalo
3804—Buffalo
305—Buffalo
3806—Butffalo
307—Buffalo
3808—Buffalo
309—Buffalo
310—Buffalo
311—Buffalo
312—Buffalo
313—Buffalo
314—Buffalo
315—Buftfalo
316—Buffalo
318—Buffalo
319—Buffalo
320—Buftfalo
321—Buffalo
322—Buftalo
323—Buffalo
324—Buffalo
325—Buffalo
326—Buffalo
327—Buffalo
328—Buffalo
329—Buffalo
330—Buffalo
331—Buffalo
332—Buffalo
333—Buffalo
334— Buffalo
335—Buffalo
336—Buffalo
3837—Buffalo
338—Buftalo
339—Buffalo
840—Buffalo
341—Buffalo
3842—Buffalo
343—Buffalo
344—Buffalo
345—Buffalo
346—Buffalo
347—Buffalo
348—Buffalo
349—Buffalo
350—Buffalo
351—Buffalo
352—Buffalo
353—Buffalo
354—Buffalo
355—Buffalo
356—Buffalo
3857—Buffalo
358—Buffalo
359—Buffalo
860—Buffalo
362—Buffalo
363—Buffalo
364—Buffalo
366—Buffalo
367—Buffalo
368—Buffalo
369—Buffalo
370—Buffalo
371—Buffalo
372—Buffalo

Bill in No Man’s Land......
Bill’s Border Ruffians.......

Biles Black Magles yeu. eters cn. i

Bill’’s Desperate Dozen......
Bill’s Rival

IBIS ACS CHASCa a etree re
Bill and the Boy Bugler....
Bill and the White Specter...
Bill’s Death Defiance.......
Bill and the Barge Bandits..
Bill, the Desert Hotspur....
Bills Wild Range Riders....
Bill’s. Whirlwind Chase......
Bill’s Red Retribution.......
Bill Haunted

BIE, TDS WWOpY ADD e/o ug Ho 6 Oo

BilksmDeath “Jum pits... oe tai
Bill and the Pit of Horror...
Bill in the Jaws of Death....
Bill’s Aztec Runners.........
Bill’s Dance with Death.....
Billish Miery, Wy er si sc cce ee ee
Bill’s Mazeppa Ride.........
Bill in the Land of Spirits...
Bills GypSyau bam deena cee.
BilliseiMaverickissigncy ccc ies ote
Bill, the White Whirlwind...
Bills) Goldy Hunters ies 5 ses.
Bill in Old Mexico....

Bill’’s Message from the Dead

Bill and the Wolf-master....
Bill’s Flying Wonder.......
Bill’s Hidden Gold..........
Bills Outlaws nailer see

Bill and the Indian Queen...

Bill and the Mad Marauder..
Bills vce, Barricade... 2.
Bill and the Robber Elk....
Bills) Ghost “Wancen. e250

Bills) Peace=piper 2. siete.)
Bills Red Nemesis..........
Bill’s Enchanted Mesa......
Bill in the Desert of Death..
Billks Pay, Streak. soa es. oo
Bill on Detached Duty......
Bills Army Mystery. 22...
Bills Surprise mmamuyges ica
Bills Great “Rides si. 2...
Bilis Water (hrailiew tc
BilliseOrdealmot vine. «sie
Bill Among the Man-eaters...
Bill’s Casket of Pearls......

BUS EAS ky Pilots eras ease

Bill’s ‘‘Totem’’

Bill’s Flat-boat Drift........

Bill on Deck

Bill and the Bronco Buster...
Bill’s Great Round-up..... aes
Bills Pled ee esis eee ,
Bills CowbovarPands ccs. eo,
Bill and the Emigrants......
Bill Among the Pueblos.....
Bill’s Four-footed Pards.....
Bill’s

Bills GPick=upie oui ee

Bill’ste Quest... 2s 3 ee ees

Bill’s Waif of the Plains....
Bill Among the Mormons...
Bills Assistanc@t. str. 42-5 <6.
Bill’s Rattlesnake Trai!

Bill and the Slave-Dealers..
Bills-Strone Arm. «suo
BES Girl Pando. cane aoe
Butts tron Bracelets 3.43...

NA OUI DUI DT TU DU UU DT OU TEDL DUT OLOT OT OT OT OU OUOUOUON OU OT OUT OU OUOUOT OU OUT OV OU OT OU OTN

IPTOLES Corie serene eens 4

CUOUOVON OV OV OVO ON OV OVOUOU ON OVS

OUDITEDI DUN

ODO IH

 

373—Buffalo
374—Buftalo
375—Buffalo
376—Buftalo
377—Buffalo
378—Buffalo
379—Buffalo
380—Buffalo
381—Buffalo
382—Buffalo
383—Buffalo
384—Buffalo
385—Buttfalo
386—Buffalo
387—Buffalo
388—Buffalo
389—Buftfalo
390—Buffalo
391—Buffalo
392—Buffalo
393—Buffalo
394—Buffalo
395—Buffalo
3896—Butfalo
397—Buffalo
398—Buffalo
399—Buftalo
400—Buffalo
401—Buffalo
402—Buftfalo
403—Buftfalo
404—-Buffalo
405—Butffalo
406—Buffalo
407—Buftalo
408—Buffalo
409—Buffalo
410—Buftfalo
411—Buffalo

| 412—Buffalo
| 413—Buffalo
| 414—Buffalo

415—Buffalo
416—Buffalo
417—Buffalo
418—Buffalo
419—Buffalo
420— Buffalo
421—Buffalo
422—Buffalo
423—Buffalo
424—Buffalo
425—Buffalo
426—Buffalo
427—Buffalo
428—Buffalo
429—Buffalo
430—Buftfalo
431—Buffalo
432—Buffalo
433—Buffalo
434—Buffalo
435—Buftalo
436—Buffalo
437—Buffalo
438—Buffalo
439—Buffalo
440—Buffalo
441—Buffalo
442—Buffalo
443—Buffalo
444-—Buffalo
445—Buffalo

These stories have been read exclusively in this

In no manner can you become so thoroughly acquainted with

BillisuRanchs Ridersiace on. wo

Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s
Bill’s MIS Ghnumeveme stianeiee cunouc\s
Bill JOVverboardprss ese ois
Billse CRU imo pee tees) wie ee oe aera
Bills BigeConurace ao. suc...
Bill and Calamity Jane......
Bill’s Kid Pard

Bill’s Desperate Plight.......
Bill’s Fearless Stand........
Bill and the Yelping Crew...
Bill's Guiding, Hand... 3.5...
Billss (Queer 2Quest. wesnsy |.
Bill’s Prize ‘“‘Getaway”......
Bill’s Hurricane Hustle......
BITS eS tates PaaVesrcene costes 2.
Bill’s
Bills Dprackersi.... o.

Bilis Dutch Pardy.cyi te. 35.
Billwand thes BraviOlaatescc cn:
Bill and =the Quaker. 23...
Bill’s Package of Death....
Bill’s' Treasure Cache.......
Bills sPrivatey Water:

JadevAmMUUlete yee ose
Malsicrtamiativeniasns ¢
sPaper-=Nallaceiwe: sc.
Bridge, of Hire. seas. 5.
Bowie

Pay-streak..... Z
VEIT Chee Gece erie siete) cteuete te

Bill and the Trouble Hunter. .

Bill and the Rope Wizard...
Bilis MieStace cet peice tk cs 8)
Bill Among the Cheyennes...
BillBesteg ed srniar were cod suen:.
Bill and the Red Hand.......
Bill’s Tree-trunk Drift......
Bill MandAthe SPeCtere. .. ..c.ss tse.
Bill and the Red Feathers...
IBS SWIM ee SULOKC i acces. «
Bill, the Desert Cyclone.....
Bill’s Cumbres Scouts.......
Bill and the Man-wolf......
Bill and His Winged Pard...
BillesagessabylOn ehatenice on.
Bills wong: SATION e: cremcrin ne -
Bill and Old Weasel Top....
Bills’ Steel cArm a Pars ss...
IBilSe Aztec: Guideur ign... «
Billvande Dittlevsminetl yc. 5.
B Ulli eae A AUCC mC lye 5
Billise Balloon scape. a...
Bill and the Guerrillas......
Bill’s Border War
Bill’s Mexican Mix-up
Bill and the Gamecock

Bill and the Cheyenne Raiders

Bill’s Whirlwind Finish....
Bill’s Santa’ Be Seeret......
Bill and the Taos Terror...
Bills Bracelet of Gold....
Bill and the Border Baron..
Bill at Salt River Ranch...
Bill’s Panhandle Man-hunt.
Bill. at Blossom Range.....
Bill and Juniper: JOC.) ss.
Bugs nua SCOODM sy ene sere
Bill at @learwater ss 3.0... -0<-
Bills WinninesHand.: --....
Bills -.Gineh Glatms 7...
Bill's) Comrades. s...

Bill in the Bad Lands......

BUTE Rs een sae ac: 5

nO

If you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot procure them from your newsdealer, they can be obtained direct

from this office.

Postage-stamps taken the same as money.

STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS, 79-89 SEVENTH AV

ENUE, NEW YORK CITY

 

UL OUOT ON OL OT OTOL OT OL OT OV OV OF OF OF OT OF OL OT OL OF OV OT ec, OLOT OF OF OV OF OV OU OU OT OVOUL OT OT OLOVOT OVO

 

 

 

w