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

NEW YORK, AUGUST 21, 1909. Price, Five Cent

ey

Br ee ise et ep

BSS Pee

 

Au7wor,
de Le VERT

Ne ¢.

The gambler of Taos made a flying leap through the window, breaking glass and sash, and, knocking
down the baron, made good his escape before the others could seize him.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Peg ee

 

 
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

y eS 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 known all

over the world as the king of scouts. ~

 

No. 432.

NEW YORK, August 21, 1909.

Price Five Cents. ©

 

 

BUFFALO “BILL'S SANTA FE SECRET:

OR,

The Brawo of Taos.

 

By the author of “BUFFALO BILL.”

 

CHAPTER. |: eee
AN UNCONVENTIONAL CALL.

“Waugh! I reckon this hyar Seenyore Lopez is ther
boss hold-up gent of New Mexico!” said old Nomad,
Buffalo Bill's trapper chum, as he drew the flame of a
match across the tobacco he had thumbed into the bowl of
his old briar.

“He is called the Wild Ox.”

“Ther Wild Ox is shore De ter hev his horns
trimmed.”

“And we are expected to do the trimming.”

“A try at et would suit me, anyhow. I been Hath
languishin’ fer a bit 0” excitement. Seems like time never
goes so slow anywhar as in this ole town.of Santy Fé,
when et's quiet. Ther ain't nuthin’ ter see but sand
- and sunshine and yaller-bellied Mexicans, wi’ now an’

then a white face as conspic’us by its lonesomeness as
ther one leetle oyster in thet last oyster stew we had.”

“It’s too bad, from your standpoint; nothing to breathe
but air, nothing to eat but food!”

Buffalo Bill laughed at the long face drawn by the
old trapper. Then tre, too; scratched. a imatch< and
smoked up. oS

     

 

 

They were in a, room of the remodeled Alcatraz, an
ancient hostelry that had been so made over it scarce
knew itself. The walls were adobe, and it was built
around a patio, or court, after the fashion of New Mex-
ican dwellings of the time.

Moreover, the Alcatraz had a history. Here Kit Car-
son had been wined and dined by the dignitaries of the
old: city, after his famous Across-the-Continent ride
made for Fremont, away back in the “Roaring ’Forties” ;

dJater. he had come to it, wounded, and had been nursed

back to health, after leading a bloody foray against a

warlike band of Chiricuhua Apaches under Tar- bottle,
the black-faced murderer of the Upper Rio Grande,
Here, also, had -come old’ Bill Williams, who ‘went
under’ on Bill Williams Peak, in Arizona, only after he
had piled round him a heap of the desperate warriors
who thirsted for his blood. There were many more, as
famous, whose feet*had once echoed in the rooms of the

‘Alcatraz, but who had long since gone pen the Long

Trail.

Now the hotel had taken on airs, with as much dam-
age to its appearance as when an ancient dame rigs her-
self out in the flowers and furbelows of gay and giggling
girlhood. The innovations did not become it.

In the room occupied by Buffalo Bill and his trapper

           
 

 

‘ ‘THE BUFFALO

pard some of these innovations showed; the ‘doby wall
had been cut into at one side to admit a bay window, on
the other side a window had been lengthened and en-
larged; while, as if this did not admit light enough, there
had been a skylight set in overhead, taking the place of
the heavy wooden trapdoor which had given access to
the flat roof.

“1 ain’t ‘sayin’ thet quietness an’ peace aint healthy
——fer most men,” said Nomad, tipping his chair against
the wall for ease and comfort as he smoked. “Ef a man
chooses ther quiet spots o’ life, an’ keeps outer ther way
when bullets an’ bowie knives git busy, he’s li’ble ter live
-so long, down in this healthy climate, thet hell be
ashamed o’ hisself fer hangin’ on so an’ cuttin’ younger
men out of a job. But as fer me, I never has been pinin’
fer a extry long life, eft cain’t hold now and then a
leetle suthin’ int’restin’ in et. Them’s my senterments.”

“About this Senor Lopez, ihe: Wild (Oxcr”

“Ther thick bunch o’ ignorance I harbors on thet sub-
jec, Cody, is plum scan lous. Youll hev ter do ther
tellin’:

“Ever since they have been heanile gold dust from
the tributaries of the San ae the Wild Pen has been
troublesome.”

“An’ thet’s how long?”
“Now more than a year. No one knows how many
thousand dollars’ value of the precious metal he has cor-
-ralled; but he has held up and robbed the San Juan stages
a number of times, has robbed foot travelers, and horse-
back travelers, throwing in a murder now a then for
full measure. During the last three or four months he
has grown ambitious;
activities to other trails centring in Santa Fé. Last week
he killed two miners over near the Raton Pass, and
robbed their cabin. It’s said he did this because they had
discovered his identity and had threatened to tell on him.”
“Yit no one knows who he is? Is thet it? Et S a pity,
ef so, thet ther two miners didn’t do a:bit o’ effective
ee waggin’ whilst they could.’
s been hinted that he is a man well known in Santa
Fe aa at the trading post at Taos. Some say he is a
merchant; others that he is a notorious gambler; still
others that he is a woman in disguise.”

“Et’s a plum guessin’ contest.”

“Vhatis about i

“Vit you said his name was , Seenyore Lopes an’ thet
he is called ther Wild Ox!”

“There's a dead-and-under -the-ground: oe who was
a famous New Mexico highwayman, an’ they call this fel-
low Lopez asa sort of remembrancer: He is never seen
except when masked; sometimes, in addition to his face
mask, he sports a pair of ox horns, which he probably
captured from some Indian medicine man; which explains
the title of the Wild Ox.”

“Hooked ther horns!’ Waugh!”

Nomad cackled quietly over his little pun; then smoked
again.

“But ef nobody cain’t find out whar he harbors, et’s
goin’ ter be as bad as a game of blindman’s buff, ter look
fer him. Might’s well spend yer time twiddlin’ yer

‘thumbs er playin’ penochle.

The scout sat without replying, staring at the bay win- —

dow; though beyond it was the darkness of night and
the poorly lighted street.

“Hyerd suthin’, Buffler ?”

Buffalo Bill rose softly.

so has extended the area of his_

 

a STORIES.

“Ves, I heard methine”
Then he looked upward, toward the skylight, dropping
a hand to his hip holster.

As he did so there was a crash, mingled with a Sonne o

of breaking glass, and a dark object came swishing down
through the crushed skylight.

Nomad’s roar broke through the room heavily.

The scout tried to jump back, as the falling object was
coming down on him, He but half escaped. It struck
his shoulder, almost knocking him down; then it rolled to
the floor,

The next moment the scout and the trapper saw that
the object was a woman, who seemed a mere girl in
years, and, in spite of fier flushed face and wild con-
fusion, rather thandsome. She was a Mexican, or of
Spanish blood, as her dark eyes and brunette skin pro-
claimed. :

As she tried to rise the scout put out his hand and
helped her to her feet.

For an instant she stood swaying in the centre of the
room; her face turning from red to white, then back to
a deep red again. Suddenly tears glistened in her eyes,
and she put up a tiny brown hand to dash them away.
Having done that, she staggered into a chair, dropping
heavily, as if stunned by what had befallen her.

Nomad was muttering a string of repressed whoops.

Buffalo Bill stood before her, a faint smile somewhere
in his eyes, though his face looked grave enough,

al beg your pardon!” he said. ie hope you are not
hurt.”

' Then the girl laughed, a musical tipple:

She was dressed in Mexican garments. But ne man-
tellina which had been about her shoulders and head had
dropped away, and the fall had torn her midnight hairy
from its fastenings, so that it streamed in all its oe
down on her back.

“It is entirely unnecessary,” she said, “that the sefior
should beg my pardon, as 1 am the offender. It is an un-
timely intrusion, which I hope he will overlook, as it was
so tinintentional. I can assure him I have no desire to be
here.”

Her voice was as musical as hee laugh; her Spanish
excellent.

Nomad edged sane the open door, oulane himself
so that he could command it and the windows; his eyes,
taking in the girl, roved also round the room, with a
elance now and then at the broken skylight. He looked,
also at the glass which had tinkled to the floor, accom-
panying the fall of the girl and now lay about her, with
some specks of it shining like jewels in her hair and
clothing.

Buffalo Bill quietly helped himself to a chair, while
studying the girl’s face.

“You were on the roof?” he said. :

lease question, Sefior American, which scarcely needs
am answer.’

“And spying on us!” os

; iN Ae ; ‘ ‘ ui

“What, then?”

“Listening.”

“Ts it not the same ?”

“Very different, sefior.”

‘Please explain the difference.” ae

“T wished to pave a look at the Sefior American before
IT called on him.’

“Ah! Me

 

 

 
 

 

THE BUPEALO

a

“So you see there is a difference. His windows were
blinded. Because of that I could not see him from the
street; hence I climbed to the skylight.”

-“You intended to call on me?”

“Tf I liked the sefior’s looks, not otherwise. By which
I mean that if my judgment told me that the sefior is to
“be trusted Y-

He smiled at that.

“What does your judgment tell you?”

“The American sefior can be trusted.”

“You have made your call, sefiorita, in a most uncon-

- yentional and extraordinary manner, and perhaps you
will be willing to say what you desired of me?’’

In spite of her light manner and her musical laugh,
the girl was still disconcerted, flushing and paling. Stil
hesitating, she glanced now at Nomad.

“My old friend and pard, Nick Nomad,” said the scout,
seeing the glance. »

‘He is to be trusted 2”

“Er, waugh!” blurted the suspicious old trapper.

“Mebbyso I’ ain't,” he said in English, for the benefit of -

Cody. “When a han’some female peeks down on yer
through er skylight, et’s ter be looked on as plum dis-
turbin, whether she make a accidental high dive into yer
room er not. What I says is, ‘Ware, Buffer i

The girl looked at him with interest.

“What does he say? I can see that he does not like
me.
"Nou do not understand English?” the scout asked.

“Only when it is spoken very slowly, and is book Eng-
lish. I think the white-haired sefor does not. speak book
English,”

The scout smiled; the old trapper threw back his head
and laughed. If he could not speak book English, he
- could understand Spanish. The girl oe again, and
bit her lips.

“TY believe you have not yet related the mission which
you had in mind,” Buffalo Bill reminded her.

ob ira Muriel,” she said, hesitating, “daughter of Sefior
Mendoza, the governor. You have been in the palace,
and have doubtless seen the relics. One is a circlet of
gold, called the Crown of Montezuma; in its centre the
great ruby, called Montezuma’s Eye.”

“IT have seen them,” the scout confessed.
its association, the ruby i is of immense value.”

“Tt is gone, » she said.

“She bent toward the scout, her hands clasped, trem-
bling, in her lap; her face pale again.

“That is what made me wish to see you. You are
Sefior, Cody, the American scout, and you are here in
Santa Fé to follow your calling. To-morrow the loss of
the great ruby will be discovered, when my father shows
the relics to the bishop, as that is the day appointed for
the inspection.”

‘You really startle me,” Buffalo Bill confessed. “The
governor does not yet know that the ruby is missing?’

“He will know it to-morrow. As he is responsible for
the safe-keeping of such things, it will put him to shame
if the thief is not found and punished. He will then

_ call upon you to find the thief, or take part in the search.
‘ That you will do, sefior ?”

“This is extraordinary,” he said. “Kindly tell me how
you know that the ruby is missing, when your father
does not.”

“Tt is the point I am hastening to sefior.

“You? Do you mean that you stole it?”

“peside from

i took 10.7

   

 

BILL STORIES. ie

“In the expectation of returning it, sefior.”’

OW ere ts 1t2

“In New York.”

“Then you sold it?”

“T but obtained money on it, ad it is held in New
York until I can redeem it, which I mean to do soon.
Two weeks hence I shall come of age, and into the in-
heritance which is to come to me from my grandmother ,
then I shall have the money with which to redeem the
ruby.”

The scout sat looking at her in amazement; Nomad
was rocking to and fro, muttering to himself, his pipe
having gone out in his hand.

“Er, waugh!” he boomed,” when the conversation
seemed to te stopped.

“My plan is,’ the girl went on, “to return the ruby ©
some night when no one can know, and let it be found in
the crown just as before. There will be a stir, and a talk
of mystery, but the wrong I have committed will then be
righted, and none will be the loser save myself.”

The scout twisted uneasily in his chair.

“Why do you come to me with this?” he asked.

“T thought I had told you. You will be called to help
in the hunt for the thief. You are so great in that line
that I feared you would find me out, and expose me, be-
fore the time came in which I could restore the ruby.
But you will not do so, now that I have confessed this,
and beg you to shield me for that brief time. Also, it
will shield my father. If the truth were revealed and
the exposure of his daughter made, he would die of
shame and grief, for he is an honorable man.”

“J think you are right there,” said the scout slowly.

opel confide to you my secret; to safeguard myself
and my father.”

“What if some one else makes the oe you wish
to avoid?”

“Poot! She blew her vos out scornfully. “As for
these little coyotes of Mexicans here in Santa ne Mh A
them not; they could not find a cat under a wall. Th
American sefior is the only one I fear.’

“You do me great honor !”

“I hope the senior does not sneer at me.
him. Will he Ce mer.

The scout sat without answering.

“Tf he does not, he will bring about the destruction of
my father, who is a man he holds in respect.”

_“T respect Sefior Mendoza very highly.”

“Then, for my father’s sake, I know that the senor
will do what I ask. Ii my father but guessed this, it
would crush him. He could not live for the shame of it.”

“You ought to have thought of that before you took
the ruby.”

“Youth does not think clearly, sefior, until afterward.
I see now what I should have done, but it is too late.”

“It is strange that you needed ‘so farge a sum of
money, when Sefior Mendoza is a wealthy man.’

“It was for a matter I could not go to him about; and
I shall not speak of it now, as it brings in names I do
not wish to mention. I take all the blame on myself for

I have trusted

what has happened, and only ask a little time in which to > 3

right the wrong, so that it can be done without hurting
any one. Will the American grant me this? I can see .
that his heart is kind.”

“Waugh! Too kind!” Nomad rumbled.

“Perhaps I shall not be called into the matter at all,
the scout urged.

 
 

 

 

 

4 ee. “THE BUFFALO

“Tf you are not, all you need do is to keep your mouth
closed on this thing. I have placed myself in your
hands, and’’—she glanced at Nomad" in the hands of
your friend.”

She arose from the chair,

“That is all,” she said. ‘Whether you’ promise or not,
I know that you will not injure my father. To-night 1
leave by the stage for Raton, and then east to New York,
where I shall redeem the ruby. ‘The legacy from my

grandmother will await me in New York, and there I

shall pay what | owe., As soon as I can make the long
journey and return I will be back here with the ruby.
My father will know nothing; I shall restore it to the
crown of Montezuma, and all will be well. After that,
let men think what they will; the ruby will have been
restored.”

As she moved near the door near which Nomad had
stationed himself, he and the scout saw that she limped,
showing that she had hurt herself in her tumble from the
skylight. :

The scout stepped to her aid.

“Your pardon, sefiorita,” he said, “I ought to have i in-
quired more earnestly if you were hurt by your fall.” -

“It is nothing,’ she urged; “just a twinge of pain
when I put my foot down; it will pass readily, I know.”

After a look at the scout, Nomad drew open the door.

The girl glanced out into the street, hesitating. It
was not well lighted; yet she slipped the mantillena up
round her head, using it as a screen as ene bowed her
head and stepped out.

‘Adios, seniors!” she called softly.

Then she flitted away.

 

CHAPTER FL
TAT TH Be BA LAC h.

“Er, waugh!’? Nomad whooped when she had gone.

He looked at the street into which she had flown, then
at the clutter of broken glass and splinters, the wreck of
the skylight on the floor.

Buffalo Bill had caught up a pisch slipping it into his
pocket.

"Whar away?”

“Tm going to follow her.”

“Whoop! Count me in. When a seenyorita like thet
plays’ sech a game | pass up. What dye make of et,
pard?’?

“T want to see.’

The scout on ta the street, followed by Nomad.
The door was locked behind en. and they turned in
the direction of the plaza.
boundary, lay the governor’s palace.
off in that direction.

Through the plaza they passed, looking sharply at the
people seen here and there on the benches. The parklike
little square is one of the chief loitering places of Santa
Fé; there the military band plays each Saturday after-
noon, and there the crowds gather on every occasion of
excitement. In the time of this story it was even more a
gathering place of interest. ‘ :

Not many people were in the plaza on the particular
evening in which Buffalo Bill and old Nomad passed
through it.

ae girl hastened

A number of carriages were drawn up before the pal-_

 

 

 

Beyond it, along its eastern -

 

BILE, STORIES.

‘ace of the governot’s hoe in the street facing the

plaza. Men and women were hurrying about.

Seeing a long-haired Mexican who looked communica-
tive, Buffalo Bill addressed him, asking what the carriages
were for.

“The governor’s daughter, Seftorita Muriel, departs to-
night foe the East,’ was the civil answer. “The seiior
did not know of it ”

“T had heard it said. You have seen her?” .

“She is not to be seen until she comes down to get into
her carriage. It is the one in front, drawn by four
horses.”

Fe pointed it out.

“Why does she make a night journey?”

“Ah! the sehor has not hear de. ier erandmother lies
at the point of death in New York, and she goes thither
as fast as may be; so she waits not until morning to make
the commencement.”

“It is a long journey, to New York.”

“Si, sefior; a very long journey. Prayers have been
said in the church of San Miguel for the senorita’s safety,
and that her grandmother may live until her arrival in
the great city. At Independence, on the Missouri River,
she will take the boat; when still farther on her way she
will have one of those wonderful wagons of fire to bear
her. The senor has heard of them? They eat fire and
water; S0 on an iron trail, and run with the speed of the
wind. If my own brother, Sancho, had not himself seen
one, I should not have believed the miracle.”

“You mean a locomotive and train of cars.
are wonderful.’’

The untraveled Mexican wanted to talle about. this

“miracle”; while the scout desired information concern-
ing the journey to New York.

“My friend, I presume you have seen the governor’s
daughter, Muriel : ?’ Buffalo Bill asked.

There was an affirmative answer.

“Would you be kind enough to describe her to me?”

“The sefior may perchance see her when she. comes
down to the carriage, if he will but wait. Yet I can say
that she is divinely beautiful, and as good as she is
beautiful.”

“Of a dark complexion ?”

“Her eyes are dark and her hair abundant and like
midnight in its blackness.”

Gears to be er good deescription,”
English, for the scout’s ears.

except that the description fits any good- looking
Mexican girl,” Buffalo Bill objected.

“I reckon yer right. They’re all dark as tar water,
‘cept when they’re rale- youngish. I has seen’ some,
though, thet I thought war plum han’some.”

_ “The girl’s grandmother is, | suppose, Very riche. the
scout asked the man.

“As the mines of Golconda, sefior; so it is reported.”

“And the girl will get the erandmother’ S fortune: e

“So T have understood, sefior.”’

Buffalo Bill asked ofher seen but got no further
information.

He would have asked entrance to the house, and. to see
the governor, but that he feared if he left his post at that
time he might miss seeing Sefiorita Muriel when she came
out to enter her carriage.

So he waited—and was disappointed ; for when ce
girl came out, attended on the right hand and on the left
by duennas and servants, she was so heavily Mia that

Yes, they

said Nomad, in

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

THe BU ALO

“ner face could not be seen. Nor did she lift her veil, but
was handed into her carriage, while the servants stood
servilely, with hats off.

The scout’s disappointment was great.

The driver snapped his whip, and the horses jumped .

against their collars; the procession moved, gaining speed
at dnce, and swept round the cornet ; then out of the old
city into the Santa Fé trail leading toward the northeast.

A company of horsemen appeared, dropping in behind
the carriages as a guard-of honor and for protection, as
robbers lurked along the trail, and the deeds of the
dreaded Senior Lopez, the Wild Ox, were on the lips of
every one.

“Waal, she’s gone!” eid: Nomad, breathing heavily, as
the grinding wheels swept away.

Buffalo Bill turned to the palace entrance, where serv-
‘ants and others were still gathered, with them .the head
steward, or major-domo. ‘This ee in gold lace
and spangles, he addressed.

“Is the governor in?”’ he asked, - |

The major-domo disengaged himself from the crowd.

“Si, sefior,” he replied; “he is in, but engaged.”

“Will you take this to him, please: and say that I de-

sire a word with him?”

He gave the fellow a card.

It was passed to a servant, who in a little while reap-

peared, with the information, surprising to the major-
domo, that the governor would see the American,
_ Whereupon, with a great increase in the respectfulness
of their manners, the major-domo and the others at the
door gave way before Buffalo Bill and Nomad, who en-
tered now, and were conducted through a cor ridor to a
large, but rather close room, where they were given seats,
and requested to wait a moment or two until the gov-
ernor could receive them.

. The old palace at Santa Fé was even then a good deal
of a curiosity, and has not. become less so with the pas-
_ sage of time. Built two hundred years or more ago, by

the Spaniards who subdued and occupied. the Southwest,
it became the home of the Spanish governors, then Amer-
ican, and has never ceased to be the residence of one of
those representatives of power. In the hey day and glory
of the old Santa Fé trail it was the social and political
centre of the Southwest.
dried brick, as are likewise the walls of that oldest of all
houses now standing in America, the ancient church of
San Miguel, also in Santa Fé. The palace walls are very

thick, pierced with deep windows, giving to the place a.

prison-like aspect even on the’ brightest day. Buffalo
Bill and Nomad had been in it a number of times, and
had already met the governor, Pasquale Mendoza.*

‘Mendoza came into the room with a light step, which
- indicated that he had no knowledge of the things which
had been told the scout and Nomad in their room at the
Alcatraz. .

He gave the scout and Nomad his hand, begged pardon

 

| *It may be of interest to state here, im addition, that it was
in a room of this old Palacio at Santa Fé that Lew Wallace,
then American governor of the territory, wrote the concluding
half of his celebrated romance of the time of Christ, “Ben Hur.”
Also, it may not be out of place to say that the Palace contains
a good museum of curiosities of the early days of New Mexico,
_and what is probably the finest collection of the stone gods, or
idols, of the ancient Pueblos, to be found anywhere. Also, it has
many pictures of saints and paintings of scriptural scenes, saved
‘from the early churches established in the Southwest by the
oS

 

 

‘The walls are of adobe, or mud-

BILL STORIES. Ss

in the effusive Mexican fashion for having detained
them, and inquired concerning the character of their call.

Mendoza was a handsome man, of the dark Spanish —
type, who dressed well, and took delight in keeping his
mustachios waxed to shapely ends.

It may be well to say, in this connecon, for the ben-
efit of the captious critic, that Mendoza was only acting
governor, serving temporarily while the American gov-:
ernor was absent from his post of duty. For after the
Southwest, by annexation and purchase, became Ameri-
can soil Santa Fé harbored American governors only, so _
far as the writer is aware.

Buffalo Bill gave a rather lame excuse, on the spur of
the moment, for his intrusion, saying that he had heard
Mendoza’s daughter was starting for the East.

Poa) But she has gone—departing only a few minutes
ago!’ Mendoza told him.

“I learn that her. grandmother lies dangerously ill in
New York. Accept our condolences, Sefior Mendoza.”

“Tt is true,’ said Mendoza. “My wife’s mother lies’
there at the point of death. My wife is with her. To-
day we received, by overland post, news that the old lady
cannot last long, and that she desired ere she passed
hence to see my daughter Muriel. So my daughter set
out as soon as we could get the caravan ready. I hur-
ried a rider off this afternoon, that he might precede her
and clear the way; get horses ready for the coaches, in
the pass, and farther on along the trail. My daughter
journeys in haste.”

“The mounted escort jaccompanies her? me

“Until danger is past.”

“T asked, because the Wild Ox haunts the trails and
has a bad reputation.”

Mendoza frowned at that mention of the Wild Ox.

‘What the sefior says is true,’ he admitted,

“Cannot the Wild Ox be muzzled?’

“Tt has been tried, Sefior Cody. And, now that it is
mentioned, I was told that the work of muzzling him, as

you put jt, is one of the things which caused. you to come

now to Santa Fé. I wish you success in it.”
“Tt will be difficult r”
“Perhaps not, if one could come on him. But where
is the Wild Ox? He is seen only when he acts; then he
is gone, like the shadow that flies across the valley. One
day he is on the Santa Fé trail; the next on the trail to
San Juan; the next on that which leads south; then on
the north, If the sefior can put his finger on the Wild
Ox, he may be able to muzzle him. Otherwise, how is
it to be done? I have myself tried; by which I mean, I
have sent out rurales, and the American governor has
sent out soldiers. If Kit Carson were alive, it might be
done.”
It was as if he challenged the scout’s standing as a
possible successor to the work and fame of that greatest
of the early border heroes of the Far Southwest. ~
Buffalo Bill. continued to ask questions, though they
seemed somewhat rumbling and aimless.
At length he. took his departure.
“Waal, what was et?” Nomad blurted, when they were

alone together in the street.

t Lhe ‘object of my visit?”

*“Yés.. Yer didn't Varn nuthin’, more’n yer already
knowed.”’

“T wanted to see what Mendoza knew.”

“Did yer hive thet information.”

“He knows ie about the loss of the ruby.”

   

 
 

 

 

6

“She said as much; thet he didn’t know, but would ter-
morrer, when ther bishop come ter look over ther treag-
Hitce.
 “Yourre right. In that she spoke truly—if she spoke
truth at all.”
“Waugh! What kind of a gnat is bitin’ ye?”
“T can’t say that any kind is.” ‘
“Yer suspects sumpin’.”
_ “T have been troubled by the feeling that the girl we
saw may not have been the governor’s daughter at all.’
“WWatioh! Come ao ins. 7.
“Was it like a young lady of her supposed breeding to
climb on the roof of our hotel and eavesdrop at that
skylight ?”
“IT sh’d say not. But she explained et.”
_ “We have been in the town now several days, Nomad,
and in the palace. It séems to me that she might have

found an opportunity to size us up in another way. The

whole thing has a most peculiar lock.” _

“Et spells crooked, heh?”

“Tt don’t want to go so far as that.”

“Waal, yer seen her take her departyoor in ther stage
fer ther Base: ;
“Was it the same woman? Remember that she was
veiled when she came out of the palace, and we failed
to get a look at her face.” =

“Et’s ther way © these hyar Mexican seenyoritas.
They cloaks themselves up jes’ like ther women in a
Turkish harem. Et’s ther fashionable thing ter do down
hyar. Er female would ruther bust her collar bone then
ter be outer ther fashion.”

The scout laughed. They were passing through the
plaza-again, to reach the street leading to their hotel.

“Your criticism of the fair sex is measurably just,
Nomad. As you say, everything is regular on the sur-
face, and the girl’s story was largely confirmed by the
“governor; in fact, they tallied on all the points I dared
to open up. Still, I have that uneasy feeling about it. It
still seems to me that a girl of the supposed character
and standing of the governor’s daughter would never
have sneaked out on that skylight for a look into our
room. That was so singular that I own it has made me
suspect the truth of her story.”

“What yer goin’ ter do about et?”

“I don’t see that we can do anything but wait.”

“Got any more figgers about how we’re goin’ ter move
agin ther Wild Ox?” /

P None.”

“Ner I ain't. Et plum looks as ef we're up a stump,
in this hyar New Mexican town o’ Santy Fé.”

“We will have to await developments.”

That was their ultimate conclusion, even though they
again talked the matter over, at great length, when they
had gained the scout’s room in the Alcatraz.

I ‘

CHAPTER LIT, ;

“SUSPICIONS.

“Pard Buffler, thar’s an ombray prancin’ round out
hyar ’et says he wants ter see yer.”

This followed Nomad’s heavy knock on Buffalo Bill’s
door.

The morning was well advanced, and the scout had

ms

 

 

 

“they will talk.”

THE BUFFALO BILL STORIES.

breakfasted with Nomad in the hotel dining room. They
‘expected the early coming of Wild Bill and others or-
dered to that point with the scout. Buffalo Bill held at
the moment in his hand a recent letter from the man
from Laramie, as he responded to Nomad’s bellow.
Looking out, Buffalo Bill saw the man spoken of by
the trapper, a smartly dressed young Mexican, who came
up saluting and bowing, and held out a note.
. “From Governor Mendoza,’ said the scout, as he
snapped it open.
But he did not read it aloud, because of its contents,
merely passing it to Nomad.
. «The brief note ran:

“The presence of Sefior Cody is required at once at
the palace, where a daring robbery was done during the
night just past. I have also sent word to the military
commander, Colonel Diamond.

ee “Sioned; PasoguaLe MENDOZA.”

Nomad smothered a ‘‘woof” in his beard.

Buffalo Bill, after turning back into the room for the
revolver he had carried the night before, and which.
he .dropped into his pocket, joined Nomad and the mes-
senger; when all took their way toward the palace.

“It is a most mysterious affair,’ remarked the young
man as they went along. pe ;

“Ah! then you know about it? I thought, as the note
was closely sealed, secrecy was commanded.”

“That may be. But it is common knowledge already
among the servants. Unless their tongues were cut out,

“What say the servants?”

“That much gold and silver plate has been taken, with
many jewels, some very rare, among others the great
ruby from the crown of Montezuma, called Montezuma’s
Byes. 9
“And this happened last night?”
“So it is reported, sefior.”

When they reached the palace and met Mendoza they
found him in a disturbed and furious state.

“T am ruined!” he groaned.

Fe repeated that much valuable plate, together with
jewels, and the inestimable Montezuma’s Eye, were gone,
with not a trace of what had become of them.

“They were guarded closely?” the scout asked. —

“They were tightly locked in the treasure room. I
catried the key; there-is none like it, and the lock is of
suich a complicated pattern, fashioned on some model of
the old Moors, that no key but the original has ever
been made that would fit it. But, sefiors, even the key is
gone |” :

“When did this

/ last nicht: !

“What makes you sure of that?”

“It is explained easily. The bishop was to be here
to-day to look at the treasure and the relics. To be
prepared for him, I sought my key to the treasure room,
that I might go in and be sure everything was in order.
I could not find the key. For an hour I searched for
it in every likely place in the palace, but it was gone.
In my anxiety, I sent for José Rodriguez, the most skill-
ful smith in the Southwest. He could ‘not unlock the
door for me; finally, it had to be lifted off its hinges, a
work that required the strength of more than a dozen
men. When I went in I found the things gone,”

gn

happen?” the scout asked,

   

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

He led the scout and Nomad to the door of the
treasure room, which, though it had been restored to its
hinges, was not locked. Three men, heavily armed,
anoned at the door now, stood ade to give them
entrance.

Nomad and Buffalo Bill looked the treasure room over
carefully and curiously, recalling the words of the young
woman who had claimed to be Mendoza’s daughter.

The scout’s first ee apparently surprised Men-
doza;

“No one of your. Hau eehold had access to that key?”

“No one outside the members of my family,”

“When.I have explained, you will pardon me for say-
ing that it was unwise to give the secret even to them;
by. which I mean that if anything befell, suspicion might
most unjustly be turned against them.”

Mendoza’s dark face flushed'a deep and angry red.

“The sefior does not himself wish to suggest anything
of the kind?”

“No. I suppose you have no idea how the thief got
possession of the key? oe

“He must have stolen it, off my person, when I lay
asleep; for I carry it always so, with a chain of gold
round my neck, the key hidden under my clothing. ° Yes-
terday at the noon hour I slept heavily. It is always my
custom to take a siesta in the room over there, which
from here the sefiors can see;
looks out on the balcony.’’

The scout thought it well to inspect the room indi-
cated, and the balcony.

In doing so he saw where one might enter by the win-
dow, and ‘bet the key from its chain of gold, if the gov-
ernor slept heavily. And he said as much,

“I think it was done that way,’ Mendoza admitted.
“How else it could have been taken I cannot fancy.”
_ They went back into the treasure room, where the
scout and Nomad looked at the circlet of gold which was
reputed to have been one of the crowns of the great
Montezuma, probably a fabulous claim. It was a light
band of red gold, and had been set with jewels, all of
which were gone, together with the central ruby called
Montezuma’s Eye.

Mendoza groaned as he looked at it and regarded the
havoc wrought in the treasure room.

Tae scout and Nomad inspected everything carefully.

At one corner of the room the scout detected Ghe i

seemed a scratching in some dust collected there; when
he looked closely it proved to be the outline of a Siiall
shoe, of the Mexican pattern.

He quietly called the trapper’s attention to it,

“The Seenyorita Murielr” Nomad grunted. “I reckon
thet she had a hand in this thing.”

“What I want you to notice is that the track was made
recently—I think last night. You will remember she
claimed she had taken the ruby some time-ago.”

“Waugh! Prob’ly she thought, in’smuch as she hed
turned one good trick she'd try another, an’ so she come
back and tuck ther rest o’ ther treasure before she set
out las’ night. Et looks plum dollars ter doughnuts
thet ther treasure, big Eye, and all; air right now in
ther coach which ther young lady is swingin’ along in.
Anyway, I'd like ter take a a inter thet coach wi’ thet
idea in view,’

‘The scout and Nomad were about to depart from the
palace, when word came to them from the military com-

THE BUFFALO BILL

  

it has a couch in it} and:

       

STORIES:

mander of the district, who desired to see the scout, and
at once.

“More about this hyar case,’ said Nomad.

The trapper was right. Colonel Diamond, having been
notified of the robbery, wished to put Buffalo Bull on the
case immediately.

“Of course,” he explained, “this can’t be called your
work, strictly speaking; you were called down here to
put an end, if possible, to the hold-up work of Lopez,
the Wild Ox; because in robbing the stages, he has taken
money out of the government mail bags. But I thought
that in running down this robbery at the palace you might
come upon something concerning the Wild Cre these
outlaws are nearly always linked together.”

Colonel Diamond was a military-looking man, well
set-up, and natty-appearing in his trim clothing. He had
received the scout and Nomad in his room at headquar-
ters, at the Santa Fé army post, where the general goy-
ernment kept a strong detachment of troopers, to protect
the mails and the settlers against Indian raids and gen-
eral outlawry.

“T have sent the troopers out along the-stage lines at

various times, always without success,” he reported to

the scout. ‘The troopers are all right in their place—
that is, when fighting is to be done; but what we need is
clever work somewhat along the detective order, We've
got to find out first who the Wild Ox is, and where he
holes up, or is most likely to be discovered. Until that is
done, we are simply like a man hitting smashing blows
into the dark; we don't see what we are striking. at, and
we don’t hit anything.”

Buffalo Bill suggested that it might be a wise move
to send troopers in the stages, armed, but dressed like
ordinary passengers.

“Jf such men were in a stage held up by the Wild Ce
they could probably get him, ” he urged.

“Tt has been tried,” said Diamond, ‘Tt ought to work,
but it, won't. He strikes the stages that have no guards,
never those that have. The only thing to do would be
to maintain guards on every stage running over these
trails, and that’s what I have about concluded I must do
to stop the hold-ups. But I’m anxious for you to have a
try at it first.. Lf you fail, then I'll put guards in every
stage. That may not get the Wild Ox, but it will make —
him let the stages alone.’

“What you say shows that he has informants right
here in Santa Fé,” Buffalo Bill observed,

“Or is in Santa Fé himself,’ said Diamond.

“You have no suggestion as to how I’m to go to work
to get track of the burglar who raided the treasure room
at the palace?”

“None. [ am more at sea than ever, You will have
to work it out yourself. But you understand that you
are to call on me for aid, if you need it, I stand ready _
to supply troopers, or do anything 1 can,’

Buffalo Bill thanked Colonel ce for his offer;
then took his departure, with old Nomad trailing behind.

On their return they stopped again at the paldce,
merely to notify the governor that they had instructions
from the military commander to take up the case of the
stolen treasure.

Mendoza was still sputtering about, in a state of dis-
traction and excitement.

“You have learned nothing?” he ee

“Not a thing? the scotit pepe “But we haven’t
really begun the ee yet.”

  
 

 

 

 

 

8 THE BUPA

“Ther trouble is,” said Nomad, “we don’t know jes’
whar ter begin. We has some quare suspicions, yit we
carat tell em.”

“How is that?” asked Mendoza.

The scout gave Nomad a warning glance.

“Thar’s nuthin’ ter be said right now,’ Nomad an-
swered.

“But what are your suspicions?
clue?”

“We have really found nothing,” Buffalo Bill asserted.
“We shall have to turn this matter over in our minds
some before we begin work. Also, I have friends whom
I expect here to-day, on whose judgment I place much
reliance. I shouldn't want to outline any plan of action,
even if I had information, until after their arrival.”

“Who are these friends?” Mendoza asked.

“J. B. Hickok, better known as Wild Bill; together
with my Dutch pard, Baron von Schnitzenhauser; and

You have found a

my Indian trailers. They have been at Maricopa Springs, |

but I expect them to reach Santa Fé to-day.”

“I have heard of Hickok,” the governor commented.
“He is said to be a fighter. Well, I shall hope you can
unearth the scoundrels who broke into the treasure room
and took the jewels and plate. Unless you do, and the
things are recovered, I ’shall feel ruined.”

“Ther guvnur seems plum distracted,” Nomad com-

mented as they took their leave of him, “But ragin’
round and pullin’ at yer own ha’r never yit accomplished
anything, I’ve noticed. Et’s too bad, Buffler, thet yer
cain't mention yer s’picions ag’inst his darter!”

“Have we any suspicions against his daughter—any
well-grounded ones?”

“*Tany rate, ye’ve p'inted out things thet looks plum
strange an’ sing’lar ter you, an’ they likewise does ter
me. Ef thet gal took ther jewels, she held good cards
an’ played her hand fer all it war wuth, in her leetle
game with you. You're blocked complete. Even ef you
war shore she’s the guilty bunch thet et looks she is, you
couldn't go ter her dad an’ tell him so.” :

They were stepping into the street, when they saw a
woman scudding ahead of them, whose appearance drew
their attention. She was hurrying, but she had a notice-
able limp, which she controlled now and then as though
with an effort. She was lithe and slender, apparently
young; her shoulders and head being wrapped in a shawl,

however, with her face turned in the other direction,

they got no good look at her.

“Waugh!” Nomad grunted. “Looks tollobly like ther
han’some young wench thet dropped through ther sky-
light !”

“You're right,” breathed the scout, as he turned sharply
in pursuit of her. ; |
Though she did not look around, or appear to take
notice of this, the young woman noticeably increased her
gait, so that soon she was almost running. The limp
nearly disappeared, only showing now and then when
she set her right foot down on some unequal surface.
_“Et’s ther right foot, ye’ll obsarve,’” commented No-
mad; “an’ ther gal what we had fer comp’ny last even-

ing limped wi’ ther same foot, an’ said she had turned.

her ankle in thet high dive she made inter ther room.
Yit this lass may be an Injun, fr all we kin tell now.
An’ thet notion makes me think o’ ther story o’ ther
fancy young gent thet fell ip love wi’ their veiled lady,
_ until she lifted her veil an’ he seen she war a coal-black
nigger. Waugh!” re y

     

street where she had been.

 

BILL. SPORES.

Nomad could talk, even though he needed all his wind

for the pursuit that was now on. :
_ The hooded young woman hurried past the plaza and
into oné of the narrow streets that abound near it, down
which she flitted, the scout and Nomad plunging along
in haste, trying to keep her in sight.

Along this way she went for some distance, ducking
in and out, for the street was not straight; then she
disappeared. Be

“Waugh! Gone inter ther, ground, er up inter ther
air? I didn’t see thet she went inter any 0’ ther houses,”

Nomad stopped and stared. »

“She went into a house here, of course; there are no
holes in the street, into which she could have vanished,’
said Cody.” :

The scout looked at the houses, on the side of the
They were adobe structures
of the type common in Santa Fé at that time, and which
may be still found there in numbers.’ The street itself
was not merely crooked, but it was narrow and dusty,
filled with sand and dirt. The bare walls of the houses
were flush with the passageway, with the exception here
and there of strips of stone walk not wider than a foot
anda half in any place. At each side ran a gutter, now
dry: :

oe brown-skinned children were playing marbles
in the dirt.

When he could not determine which of the houses the
young woman had entered, the scout approached the
tumbling children, holding out some small coins.. He
addressed them in Spanish, asking if they had seen the
young lady who had but then come down the street.

The oldest, a boy, snatched the coins; he had rat teeth
and shifting black eyes. He spoke up, before the others
had a chance. i
_“Sefior, there was no lady came here, that we saw.”

He glared round at the other children; so that, seeing
and hearing him, if they had observed the woman they,
too, would have told the same story.

Buffalo Bill was disappointed. He knew the woman
had gone into one of the houses; these New Mexican
urchins knew it, and refused to give information.

“Likely a relative of theirs,” was his thought; “and
they suspect that we may mean harm to her.”

He and. Nomad marked down two of the houses,
sketching them in their memories, sure that in one or
the other the young woman had found refuge.

_ Farther up the street they came on a Mexican they
knew; so they turned back with him, and the scout
pointed out the houses,

“In this first one, sefior,” said the Mexican, “lives the
gambler, Lopez Escondo; he has not occupied it long, and
I do not know him by sight, as he always appears masked
at the gaming tables.” :

“Er, waugh!’’ Nomad blurted when he heard that.

“How is this?” asked the scout. “He appears masked
at the gambling tables?” ;

“Always, sefiors; so 1 am told. I have seen him but
once myself; that was a week ago, at the Red Dragon.”

It was the most notorious gambling resort of the town.

“He usually goes there?”

oO Pam told a a

“Then, perhaps we might have the pleasure of seeing
him there this night, should we visit the place.”

“And lose your money to him, sefiors, also, if you
should play with him; it is said he invariably wins.”

 

   

 
 

 

 

THE BUFFALO -

“Such a gamester will be worth seeing, at any rate,”
said the scout. “So we thank you for the information,
and will look in at the Red Dragon soon, to get a glance
at him.”

Net keep away from him, unless, indeed, you have a
long purse and care not how soon it is emptied. e

“His name is Escondo?”

“Lopez Escondo, I have been told.’

“He hails from where ?’*

The Mexican gave his shoulders the indescribable
Spanish shrug.

“Who knows, sefior? Those who do, if there are any,
hold the knowledge as close as if it were treasure.”

The scout thanked ne man again; ‘and he hurried on
his way.

“You noticed there name, Buffler—Lopez ?’’

“Lopez Escondo.”

“Ther Wild Ox is called Seenyore Lopez, Buffler.”’

avery true: and: lhad thought of it” We may be get-
ting, right here, were the trail is warm. By all se
we shall have to seek a meeting with this gambler.”

‘His name’s Lopez, and he goes round masked,” mut-
tered Nomad, as they returned toward the plaza; “like-
wise, ther gal with a twisted ankle, er ther double, come
this way, an’ I reckon went inter ther house whar this.
hyar gambler has his camp.”

“It may mean nothing, and it may mean a great deal,’
observed the scout.

“Right-o! My guess is thet et means a heap.”

 

CHAE TER IV.
THE STORY OF THE WOMAN AT PAGOSA SPRINGS.

When Buffalo Bill and Nomad reached the Alacatraz
they found that Wild Bill Hickok and the baron had
arrived, together with Little Cayuse and his Apache
trailers. .

“We came straight through, with only a stop, at Wagon
Mound;” the man -from Laramie. reported. --lhe only
incident worth reporting is that on the old trail, this side
oi Wagon Mound, we passed the governor’s daughter,
with a caravan, on her way East. We rode out of the
trail to let em go by; a coach and outriders in the front,
with a troop of soldiers bri ingin’ up the rear. It was a
_brave sight. “They were doing their clean ten miles an
hour, I reckon,”

“We have bumped into a mystery concerning that
girl,” the scout told him. “As an ‘experienced man,
Hickok, maybe you can help us out of our tangle. No-
mad and | admit we're stalled.” —

“Waal, we're shore stacked up ag’inst some ctr’us
prop’sitions,” the trapper admitted. “Better weave the
yarn fer him, Buffler; p’r’aps ther baron, too, may have
ideas ter dish out, when he hears et.”

Buffalo Bill related the queer incidents that had be--

fallen himself and Nomad, beginning with their arrival
at the Alcatraz and the descent of the girl through the
skylight.

Wild Bill flirted his humorous dark eyes up at the
broken Skylight sash, which had been rather ineffectively
repaired,

“T noticed that sash. Must have made - you think that
angels were flutterin’ down on you, Pard Cody!” he said

   

eu eil

with a laugh.
“in that way.’

gambler,

STORIES.
7 Wait & often a young lady makes a call

“Was it the governor’ s daughter, or this other young
woman whom Nomad and I followed?’

“Maybe it was both.”

“How do you make that out : fe

“You're sure the governor’s daughter went in that
coach?”

“Why, of course.’

“Well, if you’re sure of it, then this dee woman is—
another woman. I get the idea that you think this other
woman, was spying on you at the palace, and that she
skipped. out ahead of you when she saw you were ready
to leave there ;-yet she didnt) get enough start in her
getaway, so you caught sight of her in her limping
flight, and followed. Is that it?”

“Thet’s ther way we figgered it,” said Nomad.

“You calculate, further, that this young woman with
the limp is the same one, probably, who dropped through
the skylight ; and, still further, that she is connected with
this masked eambler, who goes by the name of Lopez
Secondo, and who may be the very man we want—Senor
Lopez, otherwise the Wild Ox.”

“Correct!” said Nomad, getting out his pipe and
thumbing tobacco into the well-burned bowl.

“Does it suggest anything?” Buffalo Bill asked.

“Only that we ought to get a look at that masked
The trouble is going to be that when you do,
supposing even that you tear away his mask and see his
face, what. good will it do you? Nobody knows how
the Wild Ox looks.”

“Aber I tond’t know mooch,”’ said the baron, “der
whole ting séem to me as clear as a vatch crysdals. You
see how idt iss, in my *obinion. Dhis younk vomans
vot fall py der skylighdt town,-she iss der- sistder, maype,
or der vifes, uff dhis gampler vot vear der masks. Dhey
findt oudt dot der gofernor’s daughdter she iss going
to N’y York on acgoundt uff der sickness uff her gros-
mudder, who iss going to die unt leaf her some money.
Sooch a ting couldt pe dalked all roundt, so idt iss easy
vor eenypoty vot vish to findt idt oudt. Having diss
misinformation, diss gambler unt his sisder, or vifes, lay
a blan to sdeal der treasure unt der chewels, unt trow
Puffalo Pill off der tracks. So der voman she come

sbying roundt, unt by a acksident she fall indo der room~+
Idt suidt her all’ righdt, even

here trough der skylighdts.
uff she tvist her ankles; vor idt gif her a shance to/say
to Puffalo Pill vot she vandt to say—dot she is der

daughter uff der gofernor, unt iss going to N’y York,.

and-so-fordth; she blay der game pooty goodt, unt fool
Nomat unt Cody. Der gofernor’s daughter she iss really
going to N’y York, unt so idt vork oudt. Lader, dis
odder vomans, she iss dot anxious apoudt idt, dot she has
to sby roundt, to see if Puffalo Pill iss going to susbect
her; unt so idt iss dot you see her, vhen she limps avay
from der balace.

maype ar-re at der pottom uffder whole pitzness uff der
chewell sdealing.””

“Baron, you've got a head on your fat shoulders,”
Wild Bill, “if it is a cabbage head.”

“I do mine own tinking, eenyhow,” averred the baron,

- pulling solemnly at his pipe.

OL the baron is right, and he may be,” said the man

trom Larainse,

      

 

You foller; but she iss too slibbery, ©
. unt she gidts avay. So, I tink dot she unt dis gampler

said -*<

“we might solve this puzzle, and even get

 
 

——— ee

oe a THE BUFFALO

back the jewels, by raiding that house which your Mexi-
can friend showed you.’

“lt owe new which house she really went into,” said
the’ scout,“and if she remained in it alter entering !
That might have been just a blind; she may merely have
gone through the house, or to the roof, and reached
another street, or building.”

-“Right-o!”? Wild Bill admitted.
thing else, but to get a look at this masked gambler;
even that doesn’t seem to promise much. When we got
your word, Cody, ordering us on here, I allowed we'd
be thrown right at the Wild Ox, just like a ‘lariat hurled
out from a saddlebow,”

When they had talked the subject dry, and reached no -

worthy conclusion, they went out into the streets of the
old city, taking their way toward the plaza and palace.

The curious life of the old town, almost as Spanish
even to-day as then, was always interesting.

They strolled about, surveyed the groups in the plaza,
took a look at the old palace from the outside, then
walked down into the narrow street where the limping
and veiled woman had disappeared so mysteriously.

Several hours were consumed in this way.

As they returned toward the plaza, having gained no
information, they became aware that a tumult of excite-
tnent had broken out suddenly, either in the plaza or at
the palace.

Elurrying into the plaza, where they had a view of the

palace, they saw troopers in the street there, with a num-

r of coaches, together with a swarm of excited people.
Fhe doors of the palace were open, and people were
running in and out in much excitement.

“Looks jes’ like ther ole caravan had come back, what
kerried the governor’s darter,’ remarked Nomad.

“It is the caravan!” declared the scout, after ene good
look.

He began to run;
heels.

' When they reached the palace they were met by a
startling story.
Some distance beyond Wagon Mound, at a place called
Pagosa Springs, where the coaches and the troopers had
. Stopped that the horses might be given water and fest,
had occurred the thing which had sent the caravan helter-
skelter back to Santa “Fé

The troopers had there dismounted, “and el erhiody
was at ease; the passengers had descended from the
coaches, among them, as was supposed, the governor’s
daughter.

The place was in the edge of the Raton Mountains, or
among the outlying spurs, within a brush-covered coun-
try which held many cedars.

While the horses and the troopers rested, the veiled
woman supposed to be the governor’s daughter had
mounted suddenly to the back of the trooper’s horse and
turned the head of the animal into the hills.

(he troopers laughed at first—it seemed a joke, to
behold the sefiorita, daughter of a stately governor,
mounted astride in a man’s saddle; they thought she
meant it as a bit of pleasantry.

50 no one interfered, but permitted her to have her
way. Her way was to ride into the brush, where she
put whip to the horse and galloped off.

When they heard the thunder of her horse’s hoofs they
thought the beast was running away with her.

So. there followed a wild pursuit. One of the leading

the others came tumbling at his

Si Taes

     

“T can’t think of any-

Bild. STORIES.

‘troopers gained on her, and might in the end have come

up with her. as he had the speedier animal; but when
he began to crowd rather close, she whirled suddenly in
the deep saddle, threw up a pistol, and tumbled him to
the ground with as clever a snapshot as a woinan was

~ ever likely to make.

When the other troopers reached him they found him

bleeding, on the ground, his horse having galloped away ;

there was a hullee in i right breast, near the shoulder.

As for the woman, she had disappeared, and could not
be seen again.

“Waugh!” woofed old Nomad when he heard this
astonishing story, told to Buffalo Bill and his pards by
one of the troopers.

“Tt snarls the threads of all our theories,’ > said Wild
Bill grimly. “What do you say to it, Pard Cody 2” P

Buffalo Bill, instead of answering, began’ to ask ques-
tions.

“Well,

of course,’ said the trooper, who was an
American, “it couldn’t have been the governor’s daugh-
ter.

“How does yer know thet?’ Nomad demanded.

“The governor’s daughter wouldn’t have done such a
thing.” .

He suppose,’ said Wild Bill, “you have heard of the
robbery here in the night? The treasure room in the
palace was raided, jewels and plate taken, together with
the great ruby called Montezuma’s Eye.”

Having just arrived, and been one of the bearers of a
story so startling that it had caused all others to be
temporarily forgotten, the trooper had not yet heard of
the daring burglary.

“T saw a while ago that the governor was about crazy,”
he said; “though I thought it was all on account of his
daughter, This robbery. may have had or to do
with his state of mind.

“Where is his daughter?” Wild Bill inquired,

“Well, 1 don’t fniow, if she isn’t here,’ the trooper an-
swered. “We figured that she must be here—left behind
in some queer way.”

Buffalo Bill pushed on into the palace, inquiring for
the governor, of the servants he encountered.

He found Mendoza by and by, the governor walking
frenziedly about in his private office, almost literally
tearing at his hair.

The scout edged in, past the scared serving man, and
stood before Mendoza.

“This 1s a strange tale that I hear,” he sacs so strange
that I do not know what to think about it, or noi to

believe it.”

Mendoza’s face was pale; his eyes red; his countenance
haggard, almost wild,

Sit down 1” he commanded, his voice shaking and
harsh. “You have heard> the report they bring? No
doubt you have heard, too, the things that are being said.”

A have heard very little.”

“You have heard of the woman who sprang from the
coach at Pagosa ee and aioe away, outdistancing
the troopers.”

“Yes; I have bod Oi tat.”

“Who she was no one knows;
daughter. I know that because my daughter could not
do such a thing, unless she was insane.”’

“There is no insanity in the family?” the scout ques-
tioned mildly.

Mendoza glared at him.

     

but she was nof my

 

 
 

,

 

THE DURPALO

“None.
now.”

(Your daughter i is ee not here f”

“No. She set-out in that coach last night. How it was
juggled I do not know. But she was taken out of the
coach and this other woman smuggled into it.”

“What for?” the scout inquired softly. ;

“That is for you to tell; the solving of such problems
is your business, not mine.’

“You forget that’ I ee on another mission alto-
eether:

“T forget nothing; I wish I could forget.”

He walked nervously to and fro.

“I have a theory,” he said, turning abruptly on the
scout. “It is, that the robbery of the treasure room took
place before the coaches set out; that the robbers took
the loot and concealed it in that coach; and that one of
them was in it when my daughter entered it. It seems
far-fetched; but what else am I to think?’

The scout admitted that it was a puzzle, through which
as yet he could not see even a glimmer of daylight. Por
a moment he was tempted to tell the governor what he
had been forbidden to tell by the young woman who had
claimed she was Muriel Mendoza. But he refrained.
Later would serve him as well; and he might, by delay-
ing, avoid some unpleasant disclosure. He did not wish
to rouse Mendoza into further frenzy, or declare to him

Though I feel as if insanity were in my brain

_that his daughter, if that were her, was little better than

a self-announced thief,

Buffalo Bill tried to quiet Mendoza. Failing to ac-
complish much in that line, he took his departure, prom-
ising to do what he could to unravel the mystery and
locate the missing daughter.

Outside he talked again with the troopers, getting all
the détails of that singular affair at Pagosa Springs.
Nothing of value was added,

CHAP Ti ay.
THE BRAVO-GAMBLER OF TAOS.

Buffalo Bill and his redoubtable pards were all at sea,
so far as any certain conclusions were concérned, when
they took their way that night to the Le Dragon, the
gambling house which it was reported had been nightly
visited by the masked gambler,

They had learned, however, that he had come from
Taos, and was for that reason called the Bravo-gambler
of Taos. Also, that he gave as his excuse for always
appearing masked at the gaming tables, that he was a
Spanish nobleman, who had fled:to this country because
of political peril and feared that if it became known who
he. was he would-be dragged back to Spain and im-
prisoned for life.

It was said he had confided this secret to a Fiend
from whom it had. spread; yet who this friend was no
one appeared to ae

“A. fishy yarn,’ said Wild. Bill, when: they heard it.
“He’s got another reason for hiding his face; I’d_ be

willin’ to bet something fancy that he is ‘wanted’ some-
were? >

Wild. Bill, alate of Bubalo Bill's party, went sepa-

 

 

BILE STORIES. oe ‘TI

rately to the Red Dragon; this, in accordance with a dar-
ing plan he had proposed for getting at the gambler’s
identity. oe

He had made a few changes in his clothing; and he
went to the place masked.

The Bravo of Taos had not arrived when Wild Bill
invaded the gambling den. The hour was still early, for
a place of that kind. Yet the roulette wheel was doing
some business, and at the card tables several men were
deep in the mysteries of a game.

‘These men stared hard at the masked scout, appar-
ently thinking at first he was the bravo who had made.
further changes in his appearance. Wild Bill did not
undertake to “enlighten them. He sauntered around the
gaming rooms, looking at the men at the tables and at
the roulette wheel, and at the sporting pictures on the
walls. ‘

The place was almost American’ in some of its ap-
pointments, but Wild B#ll quickly concluded that its
customers were principally Mexicans. He had observed
that those of the border seemed to be gamblers by nature
and habit; as inveterate gamesters as Indians; and it is
known that. when an Indian gets bit by the gambling
mania he will bet away everything he has, even his favor-
ite squaw and pony. x

When Wild Bill had killed half an hour of time he
saw his friends come boldly in at the front entrance—

. Buffalo Bill, Nick Nomad, and the baron.

That they might not seem to be merely intruders, the
baron waddled down and attacked a wheel of fortune
with his customary daring, while Buffalo Bill and Nomad
laid a few small bets elsewhere.

The baron soon had a crowd about him, consisting of
most of the people in the house. Usually a lucky game-
ster, on this occasion he was at first no exception; so
that the wheel of fortune was soon having a hard time
of it. or |

“Somepoty sendt oudt unt gidt a cardt to dake avay
my vinnings!” he bellowed in his jubilation.

Yet half an hour afterward a mouse could have lugged
off. all the silver he possessed. The dealer behind the
wheel of fortune—as the baron believed—had done some-
thing to his machine for gathering in the cash of the
public, after which a streak of luck had gone against the
German so steadily that his winnings, and then his own
money, melted away.

He drew down his last silver piece.

The wheel spun again.

e Losdt le ie yoled, jumping about.
loadedt ag’inst me, I pet you.’

the manipulator of the wheel of fortune took umbrage.

“Don’t kick when you’re the loser,’ he said. “You
felt fine ‘as silk when it all come your way.”

He was a red-faced fellow, and an American; nearly all
the other gamblers connected with the Red Dragon were
Mexicans or Spaniards.

“Lendt me somet’ing, so dot I can preak dis ting!” the
baron howled at the scout.

“Come away!” the scout whispered to him.

The baron understood, and obeyed; at that moment, at
the other end of the room, the masked gambler of Taos
had made his appearance, and the time for the baron’s
gaming Was at am end.

The, Red ee had y this time filled up almost to

“Diss pitzness iss

 
 

 

 

THE BUFFALO

its nightly capacity, with as motley a crowd as could
be found anywhere.
gathered between the two oceans; there were in it moun-
tain men and plainsmen, trappers, teamsters, miners,
cowboys. and town loafers.
others were the Mexicans, dark-faced, gay of attire, with
a continuous magpie chatter, and a shrugging of shoul-
ders and twisting of black mustachios truly and notice-
ably Spanish. Whenever they had money they wagered
it recklessly and passionately.

The man from Taos took a seat quietly at a table he
had occupied nightly since his coming to Santa Fé.

He was hardly in position, with some others, slipping
cards through his slim fingers, when the masked scout
dropped in at the same table, suavely oe himself to
a seat.

The gamester from Taos gave an observable jerk of his
head and stared hard at Wild Bill, whose coming he
must have regarded as unwelcome, or as foreboding evil.

“If it’s permissible, [ll take a hand in this little West-
ern game of stud poker,’ remarked the man from La-
ramie in a voice of oil. “I’ve got a few sawbucks in
- my jeans that I think I’d like to risk here. My name is
Lucky Lucas, when ?’m going good.”

He had opened up in English, to “draw” the other.

But the fellow did not answer; he merely looked
sharply at the man from Laramie, through the holes in
his mask, then began to shuffle the cards with a skill and
ease that was worth watching.

Even after the cards had been dealt, Wild Bill gave
his attention to the man in the mask more than he did to
his “hand.” ~

“American, or Mexican?” he asked.

“Tam Spanish,” said the other, using that lancuage.

“Ah! You look to be an American,” Wild: Bill an-
swered, sticking to his English, fishing for a “rise.”

But the play went on, the gamester from Taos con-
fining himself to brief sentences or single words in Span-
ish, when ‘he spoke at all,

He had a low, pleasant voice, under good control. But
the man from Laramie knew that his presence there had
disturbed the fellow. This showed in his playing. He

: lost.

Men began to leave the eae gaming tables, crowding
round that occupied by the two masked men; apparently,
they scented trouble. Also, the fact that two asked men
were in the room, at the same table, was noteworthy.

The table was near the end of the room, with the rear
door close by and somewhat ajar. Beyond the door was
a dark area which Wild Bill supposed to be a garden.
The thought was suggested to him that in choosing. this
table the Bravo-gambler of Taos was prepared to make
a hasty exit into the garden, if it seemed at any time
advisable.

To sée if this were 59, the American scout complained

 

To-day no such crowd could be.

More in numbers than all >

oe
Bill: STORIES,

that the wind blew on him through the half-open door,
and asked one of the attendants to close it.

The gamester from Taos lifted his head at that; then
requested the man, in Spanish, to let the door alone.

He turned sweetly to the man frém Laramie.

“I have heart trouble,” he said, “and a closed room
oppresses my breathing; I should have to quit the game;
and I am sure the gracious sefior does not wish that.”

So the door remained open; but Wild Bill had gained
the information sought: the masked gambler wanted the
door kept open, that he might make a quick escape, if
needed, into the darkness outside.

The man from Laramie threw a meaning glance to-
ward Buffalo Bill and those with him; standing on the
outer fringe of the interested throng, they had seen
and heard. Asa result, old Nomad and the baron worked
their way out of the room, for the purpose of getting
around into the garden, or where ae could view the
rear door,

Buffalo Bill remained in the Red Dragon, that he
might assist Wild Bill if it seemed necessary,

Developments came soon enough, hastened by the man.

from Laramie, who accused the other of cheating.

There was the usual uproar, as the gambler tried to
get out his pistol; then the table went over, with Wild
Bill pitching across it at the masked man. The gambler’s
pistol roared, the bullet cutting a curl from Wild Bill’s
forehead. Wild Bill made a desperaté grab for the mask.
As it came away in his hand some one began to shoot
out the lights. After that pandemonium reigned. |

Wild Bill clutched a man he believed to be the gam-
bler, and they whirled and rolled together out into the
garden, the man striving to get away, dragging the scout
along with him. /

Right behind, as he was swept on, Hickok heard the
encouraging shout of Buffalo Bill; then came the bel-
lowing roar of Nomad and the piping notes of the baron.

“Right this way!” yelled the man from Laramie. “I
reckon I’ve got the rascal.”

The garden held a number of excited men, who had
streamed out during the mélée, but nine-tenths of those
in the Red Dragon had fied by way of the front door.

Buffalo Bill flashed a match, applying it instantly to
a prepared torch which he jerked out of his pocket. He
turned the light on Hickok and the man he held, as the
two rolled together on the ground near the door.

All were astounded to see that though Wild Bill held
the mask he had torn from the gambler’s face, he did not
have the gambler;\the man he held was dressed differ-
ently, so there could be no mistake. He was a Mexican.
Roaring with rage, he rose to his feet as soon as the man
from Laramie released him.

In loud tones he demanded satisfaction; he had been
attacked and beaten without cause, he declared, while he
merely tried to defend himself,

   

 

 
 

we
Sa

““Sold !” said Wild Bill, crestfatien.

Was tbr”

 

TOE BURRALO

Cae

“Sefior, I bee your
pardon!

the bill. It was a mistake. I am the boss jackass of the
Southwest.”

There could be no doubt that the Bravo-gambler of
Taos had gotten off safely and easily.

“The mix-up came when the light went out,” said Wild
Bill. “That’s the only way I can explain it.”

A dozen men were asking excited questions.

“There’s no need of an explanation,” said the irritated
man from Laramie. “You saw it. I accused the man in
the mask of cheating, and we came to a fight over it.
Some friend of his shot out the lights. He slipped out
of my hands and ran; when I got out here I was choking
the wrong man, for which I owe his aching neck a
thousand poultices and apologies.”

“Your identity, senor!”
Dragon, appearing.

In the torchlight, Wild Bill doffed his mask.

“Ah! One of the Americans!

“At your service, sefior. I have no reason to ba my
face; I but did it for the time to see its effect on the ras-
cal who calls himself the Gambler of Taos. £1 could
have held him when [| had him, I should now be able to
produce for your inspection one of the biggest thieves

1?

and criminals in all New Mexico.”

CHAPTER VI.
THE BRAVO S ESCAPE.

Wild Bill might have sd further econaiens and
apologies, if Buffalo Bill had not called him away.

Cody was at the gate which led from the garden to
the street. With him were Nomad and the baron. Bor-.
ing a way through the clamorous crowd, the man from

Laramie joined them.

“We're wasting time here,’ said the scout. “The
Gambler of Taos must have taken this street. It is my
opinion that he has retreated to the house viewed by
Nomad and myself, into which the limping young woman
tan when. we followed her.
there at once, as he may take it into his head to leave
the town, now that we have scared him.”

“T was a blunderer for letting him get away,’ the man
from Laramie answered. ‘I admit that he was too clever
for me, aiter the lights went out.”

“Der man who shooded oop der lamps,” said’the baron,
“vos blaying mit him unt you at dot taple; I seen him;
aber hé was so kvick dot I couldn’t sdop him.”

“IT hope you pinned a good picture of, his ugly mug
down on your memory tablets. Which one of the fellows

   

If I have ruined your jacket, I am willing-to |
“purchase a new one; if you require a doctor, I will foot

cried the owner of the Red

I think we had better go ~

 

 

BILD SlORTES a

“Der vun mit der tvist in his eyes.”

“Wow! The cross-eyed gent-that held four aces. If
he shot where he looked it’s a wonder he didn’t smash ©
his own top-lights, instead of the lamps; that fellow’s
eyes were a wonder—they were not only crossed, but
white, like the eyes of a vicious horse.’’

“T pedt you he iss a shooder, eenyhow! Vhen he |
pidched oop his rewolver—bang, bang !—idt go so kvick
as dot; unt each dime a lamp flies indo bieces. I am in
darkness pefore I know mysellef.”

They had moved out into the street, where all turned _
sharply along it, hurrying now to get into the narrow
thoroughfare which held the house suspected.

“Tf this is a failure,’ said the scout as they swung
along, “we'll hunt up the gent with the white eyes, and
shadow him; he and this masked. gambler are no doubt
thicker than fleas. I suspect that it would have paid if
one of us had followed him.”

The street seemed dark—it never was well lighted;
but without much trouble they located the house, finding
it as gloomy as the surroundings. —

A gap in the wall farther down gave them admission
to the rear of the row of houses running along there.

Little Cayuse and the Apache trailers, who had been
scouting around, in readiness to render aid, having ap-
peared, were stationed in the street in front of the

house, while Buffalo Bill and his pards went to the rear.

After tramping and fumbling about in the garden with-
out success, the scout sent Nomad around to tell Little
Cayuse to hammer on the front door and demand admis--
SiO 3) :

Nomad executed this; then came hurrying back.

The loud hammering of the ie Piute reached even
into the garden.

The effect was instantaneous. A door in a wing of
the house at one side swung open, throwing out a blind-
ing light, revealing a woman, who shouted to them to
depart from the garden. At thé same instant, with a
crashing of glass, the masked gambler came through the
window in the wing right in front of them, making a
wild jump, knocking the baron down.

The door slammed shut, cutting off the bright cone of
light which had momentarily dazzled the eyes of the
scout and his companions; the baron went over on his
back with a whoop of pain and fright; and the masked
man made a dash through the darkness for safety and
freedom.

Nomad swung his big revolver round and took a
roaring shot at the disappearing form of the masked man, _
missing him completely; and the rascal disappeared, hav-
ing jumped the garden wall.

Buffalo Bill dived in pursuit, followed by his friends;
but all were chagrined beyond words. They had found
the gambler, and let him get away again.

 
 

Ol | . ' THE BUFFALO

It did not take them a minute to know that he had
escaped, After he disappeared over oe wall he was

neither seen nor heard.

An alley ran along there, forking in two directions
a few vards beyond. Which fork he took could not be
determined; both were as dark as a stack of black cats,
and seemed unoccupied.

The scout lighted his torch again, and they ran down
one alley; then, returning, they raced down the oer
‘But they did not find their man.

“Sold again!” said the man from Laramie, voicing the
universal disgust.

“Yes. he’s gone,” the scout admitted reluctantly.

They divided their party, the scout and Nomad going
to the front door, the baron and the man from Laramie
to the one at the rear where the woman had showed the
light.

On the front door Buffalo Bill knocked, demanding
admittance. Lifting his voice, he stated that he was an
officer, armed with paper authorizing him to enter the
house and search it; which was a fact, as he had taken
care to secure papers for that purpose before going to
the Red Dragon.

When no heed was given to this demand Buffalo Bill
called on Nomad and the Indians to assist him. They
prepared to breach the door; but the scout found it un-
necessary, as his key ring held.a key which would throw
the lock. : :

They entered with arms drawn as the door flew open,
finding the hall and room into which they entered as dark
as the garden at the rear.

“T reckon ther she-cat is also out o’ ther trap,” breathed
Nomad, staring round in the gloom.

Buffalo Bill again produced and lighted his torch and
flashed its light on the walls. A stairway invited to an
upper room, and they climbed it. At the upper land-
ing they came upon a woman, who faced them with a
broom. She was a withered crone, sputtering vigorous
Spanish, now that she had found her tongue, demanding
to know what was meant by this outrage, as she called it.

“Why are there no lights in the house?” Buffalo Bill
asked her. |
“It is my business, not the sefior’s!”’ she snapped.
“Will you tell the name of the man who was in this

room and went out of it a while ago by this window; he -

broke it as he jumped through?”

“That is, likewise, not the sefior’s business!”

The scout drew the papers he had brought. Nomad
and the Indians had crowded into the room; up from the
rear carne now the heavy tramp of Wild Bill and the
baron, ascending. The woman began to weep in her
rage.

“Vou can tell us the name of the man”
on her.

“Lopez Escondo!’’ she said.

the scout urged

     

 

  

BILL, SLORIES.

“He is the man who goes masked to ae Red Dragon,
and is called the Bravo-gambler of Taos?’

en lay the sefior knows more than I do.”

“Where is the woman who opened the door and flashed

_ the light out, at the time Escondo jumped through this

window 2”

“T am the woman,” “And

was her angry declaration.

now, if the sefior has finished insulting me, will he take

his men and clear out of here?”

Notwithstanding her tempestuous manner, they
searched the house, without finding anything worth their
attention. The woman seemed to be alone in it.

“But that wasn’t the woman who flashed the light,”
said Wild Bill, as they departed. “I saw that other
woman as she stood in the door; it was but a glimpse,
I know, but I could tell she was a younger woman.”

‘‘Anodder pitzness vot iss a failure,’ the baron groaned,

_ when they had reached the street.

Many people, nearly ali Mexicans, had Shi ved before
the house. They blocked the way, and asked questions,
as the scout and his companions turned toward the plaza.

 

CHAPTER VII,
WHERE IS THE GOVERNOR'S DAUGHTER?

Buffalo Bill’s first action was to communicate with the

Mexican marshal of the town, and get him to’set guards ©

in the highways which led out from it. *
“But it is probably like locking the stable after i:

horse is stolen,’ he admitted to Colonel Diamond, at the

military post, to. which he and Wild Bill hastened imme-
diately afterward.
we made that attempt at the Red Dragon.”

The man from Laramie laughed in his light way;
though he knew this was not a humorous matter, and
there was no laughter in his heart.

“You see, Cody is simply rons rocks at me when
he says that,’ he remarked. “He was so confident I
would garner in our masked gambler that he did not take

the precautions which otherwise he would have taken.

But—I was just as confident.”

“You want me to send troopers ane all the roads and
trails?’ said Diamond.

“At once, if you are willing.” :

The colonel gave the command, and went out to see
that the movement was hastened.

When he came back he brought an officer with him—
Captain Cutcliffe. In the meantime Buffalo Bill and the
man from Laramie had talked the case over, trying to
sift it so that they could get at the truth.

“Do we know just where we are at?” the colonel Di Ll

now, employing the Western vernacular. “I want Cap-

tain Sutcliffe to hear the detail-- he may be able to help
us to some sane conclusions.”

 

   

“T ought to have had it done before

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

THE BUFFALO

“The colonel relies greatly on my wisdom,” said Sut-
cliffe, with a smile, “since I fished him out of the muddy
Rio Grande, into which he fell at the last freshet.”

it would hhave been a great lack of wisdom, Sutcliffe,
if you had let me drown!”

“Cody had better lay the thing out for the captain,”
Wild Bill urged. “We seem to be up against a mystery
here. I admit that it’s too much for me.”

“Captain Sutcliffe understands that the treasure room
at the palace was robbed of jewels and plate, and the
big ruby, which is called Montezuma’s Eye, taken. Nat-
urally, the thing made a stir; and the governor is dis-
tressed because he feels that he was responsible for the
safety of the valuables taken.

“But that isn’t all of it. The governor’s daughter set
out. in great state. to journey East, on a visit to her
grandmother, who is said to be at the point of death in
New York. At Pagosa Springs, beyond Wagon Mound,
where the caravan stopped to rest, a veiled woman ap-
peared out of the coach in which the governor’s daughter
had started, took a trooper’s horse, and rode off into the
hills. When she oe pursued, she shot one of the troop-
ers, and got away.’

“That could not have been she. governor’s daughter! i
declared Sutcliffe.

“We were instructed, before that,”
“to report here and do what we could to locate the bandit
who has been holding up the stages. He is said to be
a man named Lopez, otherwise called the Wild Ox. Last
week he murdered two men up in the Raton Hills. He
has made the stage trails so dangerous, that when the

governor’s daughter set out, as you know, a company of -

troopers was sent along to safeguard her.”

Sutcliffe replied that he was aware of it.

“For several nights now a masked man, whose name
we think is Lopez Escondo, has been appearing at the
gaming tables in the Red Dragon. A number of cir-
cumstances, among them the fact that he always shows
himself with his face covered, caused us to suspect him.”

“You thought he might be the Wild Ox?” said Sut-
cliffe,

‘Exactly, We wanted to get a look at his face.”

“You know how the Wild Ox looks?”

“No one seems to know that. But we believed that
when the mask was torn from this gambler’s face he
would in all probability be revealed as some criminal with
whose looks we are faraliar; so we ee, to unmask
him,”

Piers i is where 7 fell down!” said ,Wild Bill, with a

grimace, “Now we get the interesting part of it.”

“We went to the Red Dragon, my friend Hickok going
there alone, with a mask over his face, in imitation of
this gambler.

   

the scout went on,

He engaged him in a card game, and at
a certain time charged him with cheating.’

BILL STORIES: | NG t5
“And he was chchdae Wild Bill asserted. “I didn’t

have to lie about that, when I made my crack at him.”
“Hickok charged him with cheating; then jumped at

him across the table, to tear off his mask and expose his

features to the view of every one. But as he did so some
friend of this gambler shot out the lights in that end of the
room. The table was overturned; and in the scuffle

which followed, though Hickok clutched and held to the

mask, and rolled and fought his way out into the garden
with a man he supposed to be the wearer of the mask, —
it turned out that the rascal had slipped through his
fingers, and he had another man.”

The man from Laramie, with a sickly smile, took from
an inner pocket of his coat a piece of black cloth, which,
when opened, was seen to be a mask. _

i ilere it 1s,’ he said. “Vo the victor belongs the
spoils, you know.”

The colonel and the captain ae the cloth with
interest.

“The man certainly got out of the Red Dragon into
the garden behind it, and into the street there. As we
had previously located the house he occupied, we hur-

ried to it, surrounded it, and demanded admittance.”

“And right there is where I had company al of us -
fell down!” said Hickok. a

“T think we must admit that we bungled the thing,
or else that our gambler is a superior sort of fellow. A
door in a wing of the house flew open, as if to give him
light, or else for the purpose of flaring the light into
our eyes and turning us temporarily blind. At the same
moment the gambler, wearing a mask, came with a jump
through the window, tearing away the sash and knock-
ing down our friend the baron. Then the door closed,
making the darkness ee than ever; and once more
our gambler got away.” >

“Tt was clever,” said the captain, eroding his mustache.
“Give the devil his due.”

“I reckon we'll have to score that up to his credit,
whether we want to or not,” said the man from Laramie.
“But, go on, Cody; ’'m interrupting the thread of your
interesting discourse.”

“That is about all,” said Buffalo Bill. “Except that
when we entered the house, we found only an oid wom-
an, who scolded us roundly.”

“And she was not the woman who opened the an and
threw the glare of that light out-on us,” Wild Bill as-
serted, “Or, if she was the same, she had taken some
means of making herself look old and ugly, ee
her appearance completely.”

“Tve known the like to be done,”
deeply interested,

“If she did, she is as clever as the Gambler of Taos
himself!” Buffalo Bill declared. . .

taal

‘What 1’ d like to now is,”

\

said the captain,

cald the colonel, “did the

   

 

 
 

1654 > THE BURFEALO
governor know that the jewels were taken that night
of the robbery? Had he seen them recently?”

“He had not looked into the treasure room for several
days; but it was always locked, and he carried the key.”

“he ey was stolen from him?”

“It was.’

“The question troubling me is,’ said the captain, “did
the woman who rode into the hills at Pagosa Springs
have anything to do with the robbery?”

“I wish you could answer that question for us!” the
scout told him.

“Where is the governor’s daughter, if that was another
woman?” the captain demanded next. :

“It is another question which I wish some one Catt
answer for us, and save us the os of trying to
“ solve it.”

“The governor doesn’t oe where she is—if that was
not his daughter,” declared Wild Bill.
“Tt could not have been her?”

“So he declares.”

“And we have no desire to dispute him,” Buffalo Bill
added.

When they had taken their departure, Hickok referred
to the scout’s noticeable omission of any reference to the
woman who had eons through the skylight and.
claimed to be the governor’s daughter.

“T shall hold that as a secret, until 1 am sure at its
telling will not do more harm than good,” Buffalo Bill
told him.

“You will withhold it for the purpose of protecting
the governor?’

“Also, for the purpose of oan the governor’s
daughter, until we know that she ought not to be pro-
tected. So long as the mystery is as dark as how, I think

I ought to say nothing about it. You know the old

' adage—‘The least said, the s6onest mended!’ ”

“I reckon you're right, pard. But what do you think
about the woman who left the coach at Pagosa Springs ?”’
“YT ean only counter by asking what you.think about

i *

“Tt feazes me,” the man from Laramie admitted. “It
doesn’t seem that she could have been the governor’s
daughter. But, if not, where is the sefiorita?’

“Which brings us back to the starting point—where
is she? It’s a thing we must try to find out.”

CHAPTER VIII,
THE DEMAND OF THE WILD OX.

When Buffalo Bill and Hickok reached the Alcatraz
they found old Nomad in a state of much excitement.

“Whar ye been?” he demanded.

“At the palace, and the army post,”

z

the scout answered.

 

 

-ernor Mendoza.

BILL. STORIES. oy wo

“Waal, I been lookin’ fer ye high and low; an’ Nye
hed the baron an’ the Apaches huntin’ fer ye. ‘Look at
thet.

He drew out a folded paper and gave it to the scout.

“A gal came to the hotel a while.ago wi’ this, inquir-
in’ fer ye; when she found ye warn't hyar she handed et
over ter the clerk, tellin’ him to git et to yer.
hyar, ner the baron; but Pedro an’ Little Cayuse war
loafin’ round, an’ heard what she said. So, when she
goes erway, Little Cayuse he ups an’ trails her, leavin’
Pedro hyar ter make a report of et. When I come in,
wi’ the baron, the clerk asks me whar yer air, an’ hands
et out ter me. Et war sealed; nevertheless, as Pedro
tells me about Little Cayuse, an’ ther clerk he has said
‘twar left. by a oe woman what kep’ her veil on, I
breaks ther seal, an’ reads et.” )

Buffalo Bill, with Wild Bill looking over his arm,

was already reading the note:

ie BUFFALO Brit: I hold Muriel, daughter of Gov-
You are said to be in Santa Fé, looking

for me. Say to Mendoza, that ten thousand dollars, sent

me by the hand of one of your Indians, will bring about

the release of the Sefiorita. All you ma need to do, tell

him, is to give the ten thousand dollars to the Indian, and

tell the Indian to walk about in the outskirts of the town,
on the east, where he will meet some one*who ack
him if he has the money. I will not specify a particular
place, for that would give you a chance to set a trap
for me there. I will know if any one follows the Indian.
In that event, the man will not appear to take the money.
Also, in that case the sefiorita will not be released. In
addition to the foregoing, I want you to send from the
governor a written pardon for me for all past crimes by
me committed, with a promise in it that I will not be
pursued by officers. When I get the ten thousand dol-
lars, I will set the sefiorita at liberty; and will myseli
hasten to get out of the country. Thus New Mexico
will be freed from the further attentions of
“THe Witp Ox,”

“Waugh!” Nomad exploded.
Ores:

“Tt tells us where the governor’s daughter is, ape a
said the man from Laramie. ’

“I. don’t see et thet way,’ Nomad objected. “Et tells
us ther Wild Ox has got her, but not whar she is.”

“What I meant,’ Wild Bill said, “is that it a clear
away a little of this befogging mystery.”

Buffalo Bill drew Nomad away from the pe) oe
fice, as the clerk was eying them curiously, and had
cocked an ear in their direction.

“That clerk may be all right,” he said, nae he
is; but so long as we're not sure of it, we don’t care for
him to overhear us. Where is Pedro?”

Nomad stepped to the outer door and called to the
Indian, who was ce near by. Pedro followed the.
trapper in.

“You saw the woman who left this note, Pedro?” the

“What does yer think

 

 

1 warn’t

 

 

»
Hef

 

fl

n

yf. !
:
hs
|

 

 

ered up. Me no like see face covered so.

| Pa-has-ka,. look bad;

-cand’t do idt.

 

THE BUFF ALO

scout asked him, when they were ete they could talk
without being overheard.

MAI! Mesee um. Little Cayuse he see um. He take
trail when she go way. Say me stay tell you, pronto.”

“That’s good. Now tell how she looked,”

“No see um face,” said the Apache. “Face heap cov-

Muy malo.”
“It looked bad to you?”

“All same look very bad. Little Cayuse he say tell
say he foller, see where um go;
come back, tell Pa-has-ka.”

“Little Cayuse is a bright and faithful fellow. You
did just right, Pedro. Tell me something further about
her. Did she limp?’
' The scout dropped his right foot in imitation of a
limp, to aid Pedro’s understanding.

The black eyes of the Apache flashed.

‘Ai, Pa-has-ka!” he almost shouted. “She go, so!”

He, too, imitated a limp, sinking with his right foot
just a trifle as he stepped across the floor.

“That clears up so much of the mystery, anyhow,”
said Buffalo Bill to his pards. “We followed a woman
who showed a limp, trailing her from the palace to that
house where we cornered the Bravo of Taos. We didn’t
get to see her face, becatise she kept it muffled.”

“And she was not the daughter of the governor,” said
Wild Bill. “That is what Pedro’s revelation means.”

“Exactly. Whoever she was, she could not have been
the daughter of the governor. That is, if our surmise
is right, that the same woman brought the note to the
hotel which I now hold in my hand. Yet she may be the
woman who dropped through the skylight.”

“Mebbyso Little Cayuse will git a look at her,” re-
marked Nomad hopefully.

“He will be likely to find where aE goes, anyway,
said Wild Bill. “This seems to prove that the Gambler
of Taos is the Wild Ox, or is connected with him.”

“Makes me hoppin’ mad, when I think o’ how. thet
gent got away from us!”

“That was largely my fault, dear Nomad,” putred
Wild Bill; “don’t forget to pile it on my delicate shoul-
ders !’’

The baron came stamping into the hotel.

“Call him in,” ordered: Buffalo Bill.

“So, you iss hiding here?” the baron grunted, when
he came in and saw the scouts with Pedro.’ “Nomat has
findt you—-huh? Vale, idt vos more as I couldt do.
Vhere you haf peen?’

They told him.

“Vot you dhink iss der meanness ufi dhis note?”

“Tt’s plain enough,” said Hickok; “the Wild Ox wants
ten thousand dollars.”

“Uut he haf der gofernor’s daughter. So soon as

Nomat unt me readt idt, ve dry to findt you oudt, unt I
Yiminy, I haf my i peen valking off!

ite

1°?

 

 

 

BILL STORIES. a 17

. He mopped his heated face.

“We must go to the governor with this at once,” said
the scout. “But, first, I’d like a few words with this
hotel clerk.”

“Recklect, Buffler, you don’t low eos about him
ter trust him!’ Nomad warned.

“Til not forget that, Nomad. All of you may go along
with me, to see that I make no breaks. One thing should
be remembered: Nothing is to be said to any one yet
about the young woman-who came through the skylight,
and claimed to us afterward that she was the governor's
daughter. If she was, it’s a thing we have to keep to
ourselves.”’

The clerk had moved out from behind his desk, that te
might get nearer-the room where they had been talking;
but went back when he saw them coming. Yet they
knew he had not been close enough to hear anything
they had said. Now he looked at them curiously, and
at the note the scout still held in his hand.

“A veiled woman left it here for you,’ he said, as if -
to open up the subject; “and I gave it to your iriend
there, which I suppose was all right. I didn’t know
where you were at the time, and she gave me to under-
stand the note concerned a matter of importance, and
should be got to you as soon as possible.”

“You didn’t get to see her face?” the scout asked.

“No; she wore a thick veil, and kept it down.”

“But you would probably know her voice again, if
you should hear it?’

“T think so. ~She spoke in low ‘anes. and seemed in a
hurry. I think s&é was a young woman, judging from
her walk, and her voice. Still, [ saw that she limped
slightly as she went out at the door there.” |

No important information was to be gathered from
the clerk of the Alcatraz. —

It could be seen by the eapermess of his eyes that he
was anxious to know what the note contained, but the
scout did not think it well at that time to enlighten him.
. “T thought that perhaps it had something to do with
the Gambler of Taos,” he suggested; “that fellow you
had trouble with last night in the Red Dragon!”

“You've heard a good Gest of talk about that?’ Wild
Bill asked him.

oN number oft men were in here talking about it fis
morning.”

“Just what did le say?” Hickok inquired,

“Chiefly, they were marveling that the fellow didn’t kill
you, when you jumped at him over the table, after ac-
cusing him of cheating. He did shoot at you, I under-
stood |”

Wild Bill touched himself lightly on the forehead.

“He shot away one of my beauty locks,” he said; “but
it will grow again.” :

The clerk looked pape at the forehead of the man
from Laramie, as the Meee pushed back his big hat. —

   

 
     

os _ WHE BUFFALO

*There’s no hole in the hat,”’ Hickok explained, “simply
because it had tumbled off. He tried to put a bullet
through my head, and gave me a close call. But a miss
is as good as a mile, you know.”

For some time they hung about, talking with the clerk,
giving him no information of value, and getting little
themselves, while they waited for the return of Cayuse.
They hoped the young Piute would be there soon, with
knowledge of value,

“You don’t know anything much about this fellow
that they call the Gambler of Taos?” was one of the
questions put to the clerk by Wild Bill.

“Nothing at all, more than the general public knows:
that he appeared here in Santa Fé not long since, and
has been haunting the Red Dragon, where he came each
night masked, and had uncommon luck at cards. He
has been a good deal of a mystery. Some think the Red
Dragon men had him come there masked simply to stir
up curiosity, as that would help each night to fill up
the Lan It seems to me that a have been the
reason,’

“Der kvestion uff vot der men uff der Ret Dragon
knows apoudt him might be petter exbosed py asking der
Ret Dragon men,” the baron suggested.

“Right-o!” said the man from Laramie.
we adjourn to that place and see what we can learn.”

They asked the clerk to send Little Cayuse over to
the Red Dragon as soon as he came back; and, that there
might be no failure in this, they left Pedro at the Alca-
traz, to see that Little Cayuse came promptly.

_ But the conductors of the Red Dragon gaming house
were inclined ‘to reticence, when the inquisitorial screws
were applied to them.

They did not know anything about the Braye of Taos,

they declared, beyond the fact that he had occupied one

of the card tables on a number of evenings, and always.

had astonishing luck.

“We charge for the use of the tables,” they explained;
“any man or men willing -to pay can use them. If is
true the fellow wore a mask; but he was quiet, minded
his own business, and never got into any trouble, until
your friend here charged him with cheating, and at-
tacked him.”

“Wow !” Wild Bill rumbled. “So, I'm the gent that’s
wholly in the wrong !” : a
“Tt looks so, in this case,” he was told.

“Who was the cross-eyed man who shot out the

lights ?”
They claimed not to know.

Little Cayuse did not appear while they talked with

the keepers of the Red Dragon.’

When they went back to the Alcatraz the aes was
still absenting himself.

BILL STORIES.

“So, I move

“Der kvestion has been, Vhere iss der gofernor’s -

     

daughter?” said the German; “soon idt vill pe, Vhere iss
Liddle Cayuse? ‘I om peginning to veel a pea.
apoudt him.”

The others were also beginning to feel uneasy.

 

CHAPTER IX.

| BUFFALO BILL’S PLAN,

“We can’t delay longer in getting this note to Goy- _

ernor Mendoza,” declared Buffalo Bill, when the Piute
still was conspicuous only by his absence.
The scout, in waiting for the return of Little Cayuse,

had hoped he would be able to take to the governor some —
definite information concerning the woman who had de-

livered the note.

“But there is no use in waiting longer,” said Wild Bill.
“We'll get this to Mendoza; then try to find out what
has happened to the Piute. I’m not willing to think any-
thing has downed him; yet it begins to look it.”

Hickok and the scout left Nomad and the baron, with

Pedro, at the Alcatraz, to keep watch for the return of -:
Little Cayuse, and hastened to the palace,

Governor Mendoza came to the door himself, to wel-
come them, when the name of Buffalo Bill had been
taken in to him, «

“I was just on the point of sending for you,” he said.

“Something new, eh?” asked the scout, entering, read-
ing Mendoza’s face.

In addition to the deep marks set by worry and anx-
iety, there were other lines there now.

“When the scouts were inside, and he ‘ad led the way
to his inner sanctum, the governor told them that an-
other mysterious thing’ had happened,

7 YOU Spoke td ihe, . he said,
woman leaving the palace here; ‘that you followed her,
and found that she disappeared in a house supposed to
be occupied by this Gambler of Taos, It did not occur

to me at the time that I might know who she was, even -

though you said you observed that she had a slight limp.

~But since one of our female servants has disappeared
and cannot be located, that has come back to me. Her

“name is Maria Xavier, and she sometimes acted as maid
to my daughter Muriel. She has vanished out of the
house, and we cannot tell what has become of her.”

“Ah! The woman with the limp!” said Wild Bill.

-Buffalo Bill regretted the necessity he still felt him-—

self to be under, of keeping from Mendoza information
of the young woman who. had tumbled so unceremoni-

ously through the skylight; yet he-hoped the time would :

soon come for that revelation,
“We shall have to see if we can locate this Maria

Xavier,’ he told Mendoza. “But we have come now on.

a matter of great personal importance to you—some-
thing concerning your daughter.”

 

“about seeing a young —

 

 

 

eth et

a eA Re

ome

li
 

 

wo cca Date term Fa Sct rn

THE BUFFALO
Mendoza turned pale and trembled.
“You have discovered that she is—dead >?”
“Read that,” said the scout; and put in his hands the
note sent by the Wild Ox. |
Mendoza sank into a chair, gasping, when he grasped
the character of the contents.

“The Wild Ox!?she cried, his hands shaking so ‘hat
the paper rattled in them. “My daughter in the power
of that outlaw! This is terrible.”

“Tt is proof, at any rate,” said the scout, “that she is
not the veiled woman who rode away on the trooper’s
horse at Pagosa Springs.”’

“Who could have believed for a moment that was my
daughter ?”

“The troopers Pees it, at first.”

“Only ‘at “inst.

“You have formed some theory concerning the identity
of that woman?”

“None. It is a puzzle. I have questioned the troopers,
the officers who were with them, and nearly every per-
son who was a member of the caravan. No one. has
been able to explain it. There was only one other stop
made—at Wagon Mound. All declare that though my
daughter got out of the coach at Wagon Mound she_
returned to it again. It is my opinion now that she
never left Santa Fé; that the woman who got out at
Wagon Mound and returned again to the coach there
was the same who, at Pagosa Springs, sprang out of
the coach and disappeared on the trooper’s horse.”

“But you saw your daughter here, when she was ready
to enter the coach!’’ Buffalo Bill objected.

“T saw her in her rooms while she was getting ready.
There must have been some substitution. Since I have
learned of the disappearance of Maria Xavier I have
connected her with it.”

Beyond that the worthy governor could not go.

“This woman who brought the note from the Wild Ox
to the Alcatraz, was probably Maria ey. he sug-
gested,

“I reckon we ain’t soins to get at the Pon of this
affair until we corral the Wild Ox himself,” said Wild
Bill. : .

The governor looked at the note again. ’

“Ten thousand dollars,” he said; “it is a large sum; yet
I would raise it, and pay it, to secure the safety of my
daughter.”

“Can we be sure that she is in his hands?’ Buffalo
Bill asked. _

“He says so.”

“The man who would make such a demand would also
lew

“You think this is a lying demand?”

“We don’t know. It may be. The Wild Ox may not

2

have your daughter at all; he may merely have learned ~

         

i

a aS gn IEE Ry Eat Ve RH a anche NaRe ae

cn

BIEL STORIES 10
about this singular affair, and took this means to pront
by it. You will notice the peculiar quality of his demand.
The money is to be given to him; then he will release
your daughter. Suppose we get the money to him, and
she is not in his possession? He has the ten thousand _
dollars—what he wants. From all I have learned of
him, it would be like the Wild Ox to platy such a trick.”

Mendoza was so disturbed by this that he could not

sit longer in his chair; so got up and walked about the

room.

“What do you gentlemen suggest?” he implored.

“There is one thing which we have not yet acquainted
you with,” said Buffalo Bill. “When this note came for
me, at the Alcatraz, two of my. Indian scouts were there.
They caught on to its meaning, and while one wate to.
tell me, the other set out to follow the woman.”

The governor stopped in his restless walking.

“You think he will locate her?’

“We thought so at first; but now it doesn’t look like
it. We waited for him; when we left the Alcatraz to
come here he had not returned, ee he had been
gone a long time.” ;

“You think, then, that the Wild Ox fae captured
him?”

“That may be the way of-it. We are going to try
to find out.”

“How ?”

“You stump us again, Governor Mendoza; we don’t
know how we are going to find that out.”

“What would be the result,’ Mendoza asked, “if one
of your Indians was sent out with a package of paper
resembling money and met the man who is to receive the
amount? It could be done perhaps to-night.”

“T will tell you of a plan I have been revolving in my
mind as we have-talked here. 1 am good at disguising, as
my friend Hickok can testify, having often made myself
up as an Indain so successfully that I have even been |
able to deceive Indians themselves. ~Perhaps I could de-
ceive this man who is to receive the money for the Wild
Ox. I might disguise myself as an Indian, take a pack-
age of fake money, meet him—or rather let him come

_ to me in the part of the town designated; and when he

took the package seize and hold him. We could then

__ probably scare him into telling us where the Wild Ox is,

and whether or not he really holds your daughter.”
Mendoza stepped toward the scout, his face flushed
and eager.
“Just the thing!’ he cried. “If you can do that it will

get this messenger; and then we could ect the Wild Ox
himself.”

“It may at least be tried,” said the scout quietly.
“And if we do get our hands on the Wild Ox’’—the

governor’s eyes blazed, and he caught his breath with a
gasp—“if we do get him, woe be unto him!”

     

 

 

 
 

 

20 THE BUFFALO
“You would shoot him?” )

“No. I would not sully my soul with so foul a crime.
But I should see that he was hanged high as Haman,”

“IT am willing to make tHe) chrort,” Bitielo Bill told
him.

“Nothing can be done until to-night, * Wild Bill add-
ed. “If any man can carry it off, then Cody is the one.

And we'll contrive—myself and the rest of our crowd— «

to be so close round that we can jump in to help him, if
the Wild Ox has men there in addition to his messen-

3)

ger.

“I could send troopers,”
ously anxious,

“It’s my opinion,” Buffalo Bill told both of them, “that
if the thing can be carried out at all, I shall have to go
alone. You'll notice the warhing in the note. The Wild
Ox will probably be ready to guard againstiany failure

of his plan; he may even be near, ready to shoot aw if
he sees that his messenger is in danger of capture.”

“Then your plan imperils your life!” cried Mendoza.

“I realized that well enough, when I began to think
it over. Yet I am willing to take the risk.”

“And if in the end,” said the governor, “he has not
my daughter.?—what if your suspicion is realized, and
his plan is only a means for gettine the money, and my
daughter is not with him?” :

“We should probably be able to discover that fact
~ when we made the messenger talk.”

“T do not see how I can wait ae night,” said Men-
doza.

“The interval might be profitably employed,” ine scout
told him, “by having men make a search through the
city for Maria Xavier. Her appearance is known; you
even know who her friends are; so, right at the start,
you will have something to work on. I should undertake
this myself, to occupy the time between now and night,
but that I fear we shall have to fill it in looking for our
Indian, Little Cayuse.”

suggested the governor, nerv-

CHAPTER X,
LITTLE CAYUSE.

Buffalo Bill’s Indian scout, Little Cayuse, was both
faithful and intelligent; and he had acted with com-
mendable promptness in setting forth to follow the
woman who brought the message to the Alcatraz,

The Indian trailers had been with the scouts, it will be
recalled, when the latter raided the house containing the
_ masked gambler; so they knew as much about that mys-
: i individual as the scouts knew themselves. They

were, also, well aware that in coming to Santa Fé, Cody’s
mission was to capture or destroy the murderous outlaw

called the Wiid Ox.

       

DIT SORES.

In addition, they knew a good deal about the mystery
in which the scout and his pards had become involved.

- So, in setting forth to run down the veiled woman, Little

Cayuse realized that he was likely to plunge imto peril.

The chase proved to be a long one, leading him into
the very borders of the old city, into the section in-
habited chiefly by Mexicans of the lower class.

It came to an end before a rambling adobe house
sprawled in a walled and neglected garden, Into this
house he had seen the woman vanish, still veiled, and
showing that-slight limp which in a measure pea
him to follow her.

Little Cayuse stood off, staring with his black eyes
at the house.

“Muy malo!” he muttered. “Little Cayuse go in house,
have head busted open, mebby so. Better stay outside
an’ look. Bimeby Pa-has-ka come; then see.”

He camped down in the dust and made a pretense of

rearranging his flannel head band. Then he took off

his moccasins, and pretended to dig sand out of them,
working slowly, emptying them, and restoring them to
his feet,

He seemed not to be observing the house; but the
glances he flirted at it gave him its every detail.

It was singularly quiet, he thought, after the woman
had disappeared in it; he began to fear she had gone
out at the other side.

Some children appeared, riding a burro; seeing him
there, they began to shout at him. Strictly speaking, they
were not white children, being mixed bloods; but they
considered themselves white, which they supposed gave
them license to hoot at a genuine Indian wherever they
saw one. They hooted at Little Cayuse, and finally
began to pelt him with pebbles.

He glowered at them. yet was unwilling to try chas-
tisement for their insults; so in this emergency he arose
and went round to the other side of the adobe.

There the wall was broken; and as still he saw no one
moving in the house, he fancied it would be safe if he
got closer in and secured a better look.

Ele passed through the breach in the wall, and began

to poke about in the neglected garden, as if he had lost

something there and now sought it; thus he came close
up to the house.

He was now out of view of the annoying urchins; also
of every one else, with possibly the exception of the occu-
pants of the house. On that side was one window, in —
the second story; and one door, on the first, or ene
floor. Both were closed.

Suddenly the door opened, and in it appeared a woman.
She was dark-featured, but young; and Little Cayuse, .
though he did not see her walk, concluded this was the
woman he had followed—the veiled woman with the .
limp, '

é

     

 

 

 
Se BP tae et ery

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eae eee aeaee ee anne eames ae eee ee

THE BUFFALO BILL STORIES, ar

“What are you doing here?” she asked in Spanish,
Little Cayuse was willing to retreat now, having, as

he believed, made sure that the woman was really still

in the house, and likely to remain. He regretted, how-
ever, that he had not brought Pedro with him; he could
have sent him back now, with a message to Buffalo Bill.

_The Piute made a lame excuse, in broken English,
about searching for coins in the dirt of the garden, and
began to retreat along the wall.

As he did so he heard-the window over his head
hoisted. :

He glanced up quickly. Yet ie was not quick enough.
A rope was dropping upon him from the window, the
noose flared out in a circle like a lasso loop as it flies
over the head of a steer.

The Piute threw out his arm to knock the noose aide:
but it dropped neatly down over his arm, pinioning it,
as the man who threw it gave the rope a jerk.

Little Cayuse struggled madly; but the only result was
to slip the noose round his shoulders, where it clasped
him closely as the man pulled on it.

The Piute now tried to get out his knife; but he was
hampered, using his left hand, while he had ‘his knife
harnessed to his side on the right. So he was compelled
to reach round awkwardly with his leit hand, while the
noose and the rope were tightening and dragging him
from his feet.

While in this dire extremity he heard the woman ex-
claim, and knew that she had darted out of the door.
The next instant He felt his eroping left hand caught by
her; the rope slipped up round his neck; in addition, she
threw her weight on his body.

A moment or two after that Little Cayuse knew noth-
ing; the weight of the woman and the cutting choke of
the strangling noose reduced him to insensibility.

When he dropped over on the ground, limp and ap-

parently lifeless, the woman seized the rope, which the -

man released above. She proceeded to pull on it, hold-
ing it taut until the man appeared, after he had run
down the inner stairway.

The fellow was dark-faced and Mexienn | in appearance,
but was of strong build, having square shoulders and a
large body. But his hands were slender and so smooth
that it could be seen at a glance Ly had never done any
useful labor.

In truth, he was none other than the man known as
the Bravo of Taos, this time without his mask.

He glanced round to see that he was unobserved; then
he swung the limp body of the Piute to his shoulders and
darted with it into the house.

The woman, also looking round, hastened after him,
disappearing and closing the door.

Up into the second story of the squat adobe, under the
flat roof, the man bore the Piute, the woman floun-

dering excitedly up the shaky stairs at his heels.

 

The room into which they entered was an wnattract-
ive hole, nearly devoid of furniture, filled with remains
of half-removed cobwebs, and much dirt. It was an
odorous place, scarcely more attractive than a pigsty.

Heedless of any bumps given to the Piute, the man
pitched the body on the floor; then stooped and released
in a measure the choking pinch of the rope, which had
been drawn so tight that, as it fell away, its imprint was
left in the shape of a deep crease.

“Have you killed him?” the woman asked,

She was younger than the man, being little more than
a girl in years, and was not unattractive, from the
Mexican standpoint. Her dark eyes showed anxiety;
her speech was in Mexican.

Before answering, the man laid his hand over the

Piute’s faintly fluttering heart.

“His clock is still going,’’ he said, with a brutal touch.

“Of course he followed me,” she said, her voice
shaking.
_ “He will not go back until we are ready to let him.”

di he dies tT”

The rascal shrugged his shoulders.

“Pooh! It is not easy to kill the like of this fellow.
He is an Indian.”

“But the murder of an Indian would be punished.”

He scoffed again.

“Where is that aguardiente?” he asked.

She vanished, but returned soon with a small bottle of
the fiery Mexican liquor.

“This will bring him back to life.” .

The gambler pried the teeth of the Piute open with

_ the blade of his knife, and poured some drops of the

liquor between them. The result was that Little Cayuse
half strangled, coughed.

“You see he is all right,’ he said, “or soon will be.
As I told you, it is hard to kill one like this fellow.”

Little Cayuse proved this assertion, apparently, by
returning to consciousness shortly afterward.

He was lying on the floor, when his breathing became
more regular; then his eyes slowly opened. But as soon
as he saw the man kneeling by him. the eyes closed

again.

“Wake up, coyote!” the man called to him, and dug
his thumb into the Piute’s side.

Thereupon, Little Cayuse opened his eyes again.

Judging that he could not play the game of “dead” very

successfully now, he kept them open, staring at the man,
then at the woman.
You will know us when next you see us!” said the
man, with a hard laugh.
“Question him,” urged the woman. —
“Tt might.be better to kill him,” said the man, as if
for the purpose of testing the Piute’s courage. :
The gaze of Little Cayuse wandered round the room,
then settled on the stairway which, from where he lay,

 
 

looked like a hole in the floor. He wondered if he
could reach it by a jump, if he made it quickly.

“Better not try that!” the man warned. “The door
below is locked, and you could not get out; besides, I
have a pistol which carries true.”

The Piute’s dark eyes came back from their wandering
search and rested on the gambler’s face.

“I do not need to ask you if you are here in ce
Fé with the American who is called Buffalo Bill; every-
body knows that! Who I am does not now matter;
and the same can be said for this woman. What is to the
purpose seems to be the fact that we have you!”

Little Cayuse did not waste his breath in trying to
answer; and it began to seem that he did not compre-
hend what the man was saying to him.

“You do not understand Spanish?”

The Piute shook his head.

“You cannot answer, of course, if you do not; and
what your Indian language is does not matter, as I could
not speak it. But you may know that we intend to hold
you here. It may be worth our while. You followed
this woman, but I think you came-alone. By and’ by we
may want to send word to your friend Buffalo Bill, that
if he tries to locate us we will send him Jour scalp in
payment for his trouble. That is all now.’

He drew the rope with a quick jerk, onions it
again round the neck of his prisoner.

But this was only a temporary means of holding him;
when he had bound the Indian with cords he threw off
the choking noose. )

Then he stood up.

“We may leave this house,” he said. “If we do there

will be nothing left in it but you and the rats. And they —

are hungry rascals,”

CHAPTER XE y
THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED EYES..

The efforts of Buffalo Bill and his pards, aided by the
Indian trailers, were insufficient to locate Little Cayuse.
Nor could the officers do better, who were sent scouring
through the town by the marshal of Santa Fé in answer
to the scout’s demands for local assistance.

So when night came again Little oF was num-
bered with the missing.

In his room at the Attarea, Buffalo Bill prepared for
the réle he had assigned himself. He kept his Indians
close about the hotel, so that the sight of Indian fig+
‘ures flitting about might help him in getting out of the
place unnoticed. In addition, he had Pedro leave in the

room his Indian blanket, his flannel head band and:
feathers, together with his box of pigments.

Buffalo Bill had the aid and advice of Nomad and
Wild Bill, also that of the baron, as he proceeded with

   

THE BUFFALO

  

DLE (SPOR TES.

his “make-up.” i Nomad especially was familiar wil the
art of Indian decoration.

_“Ther only trouble, Buffler,” he said, “is goin’ ter be
thet you're too tall fer ter pass off"as one of yer Injuns.”

“Pedro is nearly as tall,” the scout told him. “I shall
wear Pedro’s blanket and head band; and I think I can
make it.”

When he had finished and stood before the mirror in
his room he had changed himself into so faithful a copy
of Pedro that the resemblance was almost startling.
Even Nomad admitted that he “reckoned it would do,”

-if he would hold up the blanket, and so hide his mus-

tache.

It was not until eleven o’clock’ when the ups and
sporting fraternity of the old town were but just begin-
ning to wake up that the scout departed from the Alca-
traz, slipping by a back way out into the darkness of a
side street.
~ “Dhere: he joined two of the Apaches, Pedro having
been kept out of the way; the idea being that if any one
saw him leave the hotel, this fact, together with the dis-
guise, would miake the watcher think he was really Pedro.

Wild Bill came trailing out after him, with Nomad
and the baron. Together they stood in the shadows, with
heads together; the whole thing being carried off as
naturally as possible.

At this juncture a man went by, who glanced at them.
There was something familiar in his appearance. Whet
he passed, on the other side of the street, under a dim
lamp, they saw that he was the gambler who had shot out
the lights in the Red Dragon.

“Der man mit der tvisted eyes!” the baron breathed.

“Right-o!” whispered Wild Bill. “Eyes crossed, and
white, like the eyes of a vicious horse; I recollect the
rascal, for he tried to help that Gambler of Taos to
cheat me. Hadn't I better follow him, Pard Cody?”

“Yes, at once. I will go out to the eastern section of
the town, as planned; Nomad can follow me. You take
the baron and the others, and shadow ae fellow. Move
quick, or he'll get a big start of you.”

Wild Bill and the baron glided away, with the two
Indians.

Buffalo Bill waited until they were out of sight; then
he turned in the other direction, moving slowly, keeping
to the dark streets, with his blanket well up about his

dace; he even very Beverly imitated Pedro’s Indian walk.

Behind him, at some distance, came Nomad, stealthy
as an Indian himself,

“Waugh!” was the thought of the trapper. “We seem
ter be jumpin’ all ther game right at ues I hope
Hickok gits thet devil wi’ ther white eyes,” :

The man from Laramie was doing his best in that
Aas

Without seeming to do so, he Lene at the heels of the
cross-eyed gambler; the baron and the Indians coming

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

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Ck re,

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THE BUPEALO

on behind, close enough not to lose him, yet far enough
back not to attract attention.

The sporting man did not seem to know he was being
followed, which made Wild Bill’s work much easier.

Now and then he stopped on meeting some one, spoke
a word or two, then moved on. At these men, on pass-
ing them, Wild Bill looked, discovering that each of them
was a Mexican of the sporting type.

“A-regular gang of the thugs here in the old town,”
he mused, “It’s easy to see how the Wild Ox got his
tips about the stages that were sent out with armed
guards 7 them, if these cattle are his pals, and I reckon
they are.’ ‘

ine aoe led at ian to the old adobe to which
Little Cayuse had trailed the woman. ‘Though the house

was dark, Wild Bill saw the man disappear into it; then -

he saw the flash of a lamp, after which darkness reigned
again.

“Holed ! said the man from Laramie.
Cody ought to be with me now!’

Fe retreated, to make sure he would not be seen, and
was soon joined by the baron’and the Indians.

“He is in that house off there,’ Wild Bill told them;
“anyway, he went into it. I fell back to tell you. I
reckon you'd better take one of the Indians, baron, and
slide round to the other side, to see that he doesn’t give
us the slip; Til take the other one, and go up on this
side.
trouble; so look out; these fellows will shoot at the drop
of a hat. Here’s excitement for you, baron; likewise, a
little tobasco sauce, in the shape of possible danger; the
combination ought to make you happy.”

“Tdt iss vot suidt me,” the baron acknowledged, grip-
ping his revolver and looking at the house. “I am pet-
ting a tollar to a pologna sissage ve ar-re having some
lifely dimes soon. Diss veller mit der tvisted eyes, he
gan shoodt; I seen him vhen he pudt der lighdts oudt.”

Followed by one of the Apaches, the baron slid around
to the other side of the adobe; where, in the darkness,
he found the broken place in the wall, which let him
easily into the neglected garden. «The rear of the house
was as dark as the front.

Hardly were the baron and the Apache in position
when the door on that side opened, and a woman blun-
dered out of it, muttering angrily.

The baron dropped his round body down; the Apache
sank beside him as softly as a falling leaf.-

The woman was followed instantly by a man, who
spoke to her, stopping what seemed her headlong flight;
then he began to address her i in a tone of argument, or
entreaty.

“By gotry,

Unfortunately, Pe ee was better acquainted -

with “pologna sissage’’ and sauerkraut than he was
with the Spanish language when it fluttered and clat-
tered along with the rapidity to which it was subjected

 

-tmnooch.

lf he has pals in the house, we're likely to have’

apr aeearts Naa

   

BILL STORIES. oe

now by the man and woman who stood between him and
the door.

The woman was apparently in a peppery temper over
something, and the man was trying to calm her; that
much the baron gathered more by the accents than by
the words,

“Idt iss der veller mit der tvisted eyes, all righdt,” he
thought. “Aber I gand’t hardtly seen him, I gan dell dot
1 am petting dot der vimmins iss der olt wench
vot ve see in dose odder house vare der gampler gidt avay
vrom us.” :

The woman refused to accede to the man’s request,
whatever it was, and went on, plowing heavily through
the old garden, disappearing beyond the wall.

. The man stood looking at her as she went, muttering
anerily; then he turned back to the door.

> For a moment the baron was on the point of springing

up and rushing upon him. At~his side he felt the form
of the Apache quiver, and knew the Apache had the
same thought.

But the man passed through the door, pulling it shut

behind him with a soft movement.

“Chabbo, you make a kvick fludder roundt to Vildt
Pill, unt say he iss to come by dhis vay on der choomp,”
the baron ordered, with his lips close to Chappo’s ear.

The Apache rose, drew up his blanket, slid with a
stealthy movement across the garden, and was gone.

alhe baron, with revolver drawn, lay on the ground,
looking at the closed door, wondering if he had not
wasted an opportunity when he let the man get back
into the house.

Before he had settled this matter in bie mind Wild
Bill appeared, following ieee with Yuppah right be-
hind him,

The baron lifted himself that ey might see him, and
be guided toward him and the door.

“Idt vouldt haf peen petter, maype, uff Yubbah had
stayed pehindt, py der odder door,” he said. “He gan
go roundt again. Der tvisted eyes, he iss in here. Ve
seen him. A vimmins gome oudt, unt dey haf a qvarrel,
idt seems to me, unt she go avay; while he goes pack
der house insite vunce more. Der kvestion iss a

The explanation of the baron was cut short by a sound
within the house, as if a fight had started;
heard the voice of the gambler. —

“We'll just look in,” said Wild Bill.

 

“Yuppah, slide

_round to the front, and let nobody go out that way;

down ’em if it’s tried. Come on, dear baron.”

He ran to the door with the baron, ready to hurl his
weight against it and fling it from its hinges; but the
door had not been locked when the man went inside.
Perhaps, in his haste, or his anger, he had forgotten it.

“Ach!” wheezed the baron, “ve gidt in easy. Some-
poty iss preaking der house town.”

They were no more than inside when they heard a cry _

s

then they ..

 
 

  

24 2 THE BUFFALO

which was unmistakably made by Little Cayuse. It
sounded at the head of the dark stairs before them.

Chappo threw back his head when he heard it, and the
Apache war whoop broke from his lips; the next instant
he was going up the stairs in great jumps. :

“Wow!” Wild Bill bellowed, following him.

Crack, crack!

A heavy revolver roared in the room above, the
bullets cutting through the wood of the stairs over which
the Indian and the scout were jumping; the lead had
been hurled at them, evidently.

In response to the Apache war cry, came the familiar
battle yell of Little Cayuse; and they heard a sound as if
a form rolled over the floor. This was. followed by an
oath in Spanish, and a swishing blow.

The room above, which Wild Bill and Chappo reached,
was dark as night; but a smell of oil recently burning
told that it had bess lately pee and that the lamp
had been put out.

A man came lunging through the darkness at the
stairs, going over the stretched-out hands of Wild Bill
as the man from. Laramie tried to seize him. The plun-
ging form struck Chappo, hutling him backward down
the steps. The man went on, diving for the rear door
of the house.

At the foot of the stairs ae came into violent collision.

with the baron; then he and the round-bodied German
went to the floor together, the baron yelping for aid.

_ Though Wild Bll heard a scuffling, and a grunting

sound, on the floor of the room, he did not stop to in—

vestigate; but flew back down the stairway to the as-
sistance of the German.
_ When he reached the bottom he found Schnitzenhauser
rolling over the floor, with the stranger first on top of
him, and then under him, both fighting like wild cats.
Chappo, having tumbled to the foot of the stairs, had
gained his feet and got out his knife, and now stood
ready to jump in with it if he found he could do so with-
out knifing the German.
Wild Bill could tell by the sounds when the stranger
» came uppermost. So he caught hold of him, seizing him
round the throat, and tried to drag him off the baron.

When Chappo flew in, lending his strength and aid,
the man was literally pulled from the baron’s back, ae
held down by main force.

He was a lusty fellow, of immense eee but his
combined foes were too much for him,

By this time Yuppah, who had been sent to the front
of the house, had come round again into the garden, and
then into the house; so that now * was also ready to
lend help.

“Get a light, some one,’ Wild Bill panted. “We've got
(10. see who we've corralled here.”

The baron rolled back out of the way, breathing heav-
ily, sputtering German sentences.

 

     

Eee eae tere

 

Bee nee Sega EIR A EN SLIT AE a a Sn

BILL STORIES.

Chappo struck a match.

“Der man mit der tvisted eyes—yoost as I t’ought!”
the baron cried, when the light of the match fell in the
fellow’s face.

Still, beyond the head of the stairs, in the room above,
sounded those queer noises; now, added to them, was a
call from Little Cayuse. :

The two Indians went scurrying up at that. :

The baron struck another match, caught from the wall

a Mexican lariat of horsehair, and, flinging himself on

the gambler, began to tie him with it, aided by Wild
Bill,

Indian whoops came from the room above while this
was going on.

The man who had been captured swore in vigorous
Spanish,

Cast keep quiet, my friend, or I shall have to hammer

_you on the head with my revolver,’ Wild Bill told him.

Thereupon the fellow opened up in English, protesting
against this “outrage,” declaring he did not know what
this assault meant.

“You will have time to investigate, after we get these
knots set well; eh, baron?’

“Uff I ain’dt miss my guessing, he vill haf seferal
years in vhich he gan t’ink dhis ofer,” the baron de-
clared, surging on the knots.

As soon as he saw that the baron could manage ,the
captured man, Wild Bill jumped up and started to ascend
the stairs. :

He, too, flashed a match, to drive away the Stygian
darkness, :

Tle saw coming down the steps Little Cayuse, with one
of the Apaches on each side of him; they had him by
the arms, as if they felt they ought to support him.
There was blood on the Piute’s dark face.

“Wow !” Wild Bill bellowed. “I thought I recognized

the music of your gentle voice; and l did. So they

had you: corralled here!”

Little Cayuse swung on down, lurching as if he suf-
fered from dizziness. , Besides the bleeding wound in
his cheek, made apparently by the rake of a knife, there
were deep, dark lines round his neck.

“Hello! Did the devils try to hang you?” Wild: Bill

asked.

Little Cayuse reached the lower floor; then sank
weakly to a seat on the bottom step.

Wild Bill flashed another match, the former having
gone out, and looked again at the young Indian.
_ Little Cayuse began to explain.

“Muy malo, Me foller woman—you know, huh? ‘She
come here. Mebbyso I think she gone out other way.
Little Cayuse he go all same round—find back door.
Whoosh! Rope drop down on Little Cayuse.”

He went on his queer way, telling of his capture; and

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sb OF ce

U

©
 

te aioe

 

 

 

/ odder madders.

THE BUFFALO

how, since that time, he had been held a : isoner in the

adobe.

He said the man who roped him was the women who
had worn the mask, though at the time the man’s face had
not been covered; he tried to describe the man.

“Wow! Maybe he’s in here yet! Scatter through this
old rat hole, and find gut.”

The Indians, with lighted matches, hunted about, and
found some candles half used, which sérved their pur-
pose; with them they went over the house, searching it
from top to bottom.

While they were gone, Little Cayuse told how he
had partly worked out of his bonds, and had then been
attacked by the cross-eyed man; this had es just

before his friends got into the cle.

Wild Bill gave the searchers aid, while fhe baron
watched below with the bound prisoner. The revolvers
the gambler had worn lay on tWe floor, heaped in a pile
with the knives and other weapons taken from him.

“You vos going to sedt oop a hartvare sdore, hey?”
said the baron. “Idt looéks idt.” |

“T’d like better to fill your fat paunch with lead!” the
man flung at him.

“Tdt vouldt pe crueldy to animals. Vare iss diss odder

veller—der man vot vear der masks ?”’

“Do you think I’m mixed up with him?”

ON ov. shnte,

“There you're mistaken.”

“How do you know who I am sbeaking apoudt ?”

“IT know that easy enough—the man you fellows tried
to get in the Red Dragon; the one they're looking for
upstairs. But I’m not mixed up with him.”

“Ve vill holdt you, uff idt iss so, on der sharge uff
cabdivating Liddle Cayuse.”

“The Indian?’

“Yaw. It iss a benidentiary offenses.”

‘“T had nothin’ to do with that, either.”

“Nein: “Iss dot so-o? Se you exblain him? You
knifed him yoost a vhile ago.”

“T came to this house to see the woman who was
here. The Indian was tied. When I told her she ought
to let him go she got mad. We had some words over it,
and she cut out. The Indian kicked me when I got back
upstairs. That made me hot, and I gashed him.”

“Tdt iss a inderesting sdory. Aber I tond’t tink idt
is der troodth. Who iss dhis vimmins?’

Hind out.” : ce

“You pet me ve vill do so. Ve vill also findt oudt some
Ve vill findt oudt vare dhis masked
gampler is sdaying; vare iss der Vilt Ox; vare iss der
gofernor’s daughter! Likevise, how mooch you know
apoudt all uff dhem.” a

“T don’t know anything about them; you're on the

wrong track, and but waste your time.”
“Meppyso. Ve tond’t pelieve idt.”

 

 

 

BILL” STORIES. ; 25

Wild Bill and the Indians returned from their search
of the house. ‘ Ce

“Tt’s empty as a last year’s bird’s nest,” said the man
from Laramie. “It’s a pity, we didn’t get hold of that
woman. I’ve an idea she is the one we saw at the other
house.”

“Tdt iss etzackly my own obinion.”

“Did she have a limp?”

“She vos viying too fasdt vor a limpingness vhen she
vendt oudt uff der garden,” averred the German.

“Well, we'll just take this fellow and go to that other
house. Chappo can stay here, to report if any other
person comes. Yuppah can go with ts. I think, baron,
we'll be wise to make a hasty flutter of it.”

A little later they moved away from the old adobe,
taking their prisoner. oo

The Mexicans of the near-by houses had been aroused,
and could be seen gathering and whispering in the sur-
rounding semidarkness.

‘CHAPTER XIL
AN IMPORTANT CAPTURE,

Buffalo Bill was having an experience quite as imter-.
esting, of an entirely different kind.

Disguised with the blanket, the head band, and the
Indian paint and feathers of Pedro, the Apache, he had
set out for the eastern outskirts of the town, armed with
a bundle of worthless papers to represent the package
of money which it might be supposed the Indian would
carry.» .
Nomad trailed along behind. keeping him within view,
yet lagging enough to avert too close attention. Nomad

had himself made a few changes in his personal appear-

ance, though he had not attempted any disguise. The.
principal thing he had done had been to discard his old
beaver-skin cap for a wide-brimmed hat: the alteration
which that made was remarkable.

Having gained the outlying narrow streets on the

“east, the disguised scout prowled along them, peering

in Indian fashion, as if looking for some one, holding
the package where it cotld be seen.

For a time he had no success. Occasionally he saw
some person, but no one came near him. ee

At last as he turned the corner of one of the narrow
streets, he was met by a veiled woman, who stepped out
of a low doorway, where evidently she had ensconced
herself for this purpose, having seen him approaching.

She looked at him earnestly; then spoke.

“Vou are one of Buffalo Bill’s Indians?” she asked, i1
Spanish.

The pretended Indian ed and drew his blanket
well up about his neck and face.

VAIN he erunteds .

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

26 THE BUFFALO

“You are one of his Indians?”
“Ai, No spik um Spanish.” ‘

“I spik the Inglis ver’ poor,’ said the woman. “Hava
you some-at'ing for me?”
He glanced round, to see if any foes were near. Some

distance off he caught a glimpse of the sauntering form
of old Nomad.

“You come git Buff Bill money?” he asked.

“Ves, It is so; the money I am come to get.
haya de money:?”

The stpposed Indian swung his arm toward the deep
doorway out of which she had appeared.

“Give money there,” he said. \
She flitted into the doorway, he following her; and he
observed that though she had moved quickly, she had
a slight limp of the right foot. There could be no doubt
this was the messenger sent by the Wild Ox to get the
$10,000 demanded of We governor for the telease of his
daughter.

ON Ot

Instead of handing her the package the pretended In-
dian dropped it, and pressed against her temple the cold
muzzle of a revolver.

“You are caught!” came the startling declaration, in
Spanish, which she was so supposed to understand per-
fectly. “Make a movement, or cry out for help, and
it will bring your death. J am not an Indain; I am the
American scout called Buffalo Bill. You are trapped.”
- she uttered a low cry and reeled against the door. In
her sudden terror her knees gave way, and she would
have dropped, if he had not caught and sustained her.

“I think I know who you are,” he told her; “you are
Maria Xavier, recently one of the servants in the gov-
ernor’s palace, and an attendant of the governor’s daugh-

ry Muriel”

She moaned faintly.

Then she began to plead.

“Let me go,” she said; “will the kind sefior not let
me go?’ :

“Why should I let you go?”

oe sobbed in answer, her whole body shaking.

“See here!” he said. “I suppose that the Wild Ox is
somewhere near, waiting for you to bring the money
to him!”

She still sobbed and trembled.

‘ell me it that isso,”

“He waits at the house,’

“The Wild Ox?”

“Who else; he is so called.”

“T have no ate to be hard with you, he urged; “but
you must know that you have got yourself now where
only straight dealing can help you; you will have to tell
me everything. Where is Muriel Mendoza?”

_ She broke down at that, and began to weep again.
_ “She waits at the house, with the Wild Ox.”
“Other own free will?” :

she confessed.

 

BILL STORIES.

“No,” she confessed; ‘‘she is a prisoner there.”
“T do not want to linger here, for I have an idea that
this outlaw called the Wild Ox has sent men to trail you,

probably to protect you, or because he does not trust

you. We will walk along here, and join my friend who
waits below. If you go willingly I shall not tie your
hands; but if you try to get away I shall have to do that.”

He stepped out of the doorway, taking away the pistol
which now and then had kissed her forehead.

She came trembling after him out into the street.

“Tt will seem strange for you to be walking with an
Indian, perhaps,’ he said; “but people do queer things
in old Santa Fé; and right now it can’t be helped. Right
over there you can see my old friend, Nomad; he. is
here to help me; and as we walk along he will ans in be-
hind us. So, you see what folly it will be for you to
think of trying to escape.’

“Where are we eer e 2” she faltered.

“To the palace.’

She shrank back. |

“No—no!” she urged.

“Tt is a place familiar to you.”’

“But: I—I cannot go there, now.’

es is the en we must go. You must see the gOv-
ernor.’

“He will have me sent to prison!’

“Perhaps not, if you deal fairly and frankly with him
now; if you tell him all, and what made you undertake
this terrible thing.”

She went along then, seeing she could do nothing
else. .

As. they passed Nomad, he dropped in behind them;
and continued to follow them as they went on toward the
palace.

When they were out of the narrow streets, in one which
led nearly in a straight line toward the palace, Buffalo
Bill quickened his steps.

The woman did not try to escape now; she was re-
duced to submission by terror and her sense of guilt,

She shivered and drew back, and but for her fear
would have run away, or attempted to do so, when the
palace was gained,

Buffalo Bill’ produced the cords he had under the
blanket, showing them, and she submitted to the inevi-
table.

His hammering knock brought a servant, who did not
recognize the veiled figure of the woman and the blan-
keted Indian-like form of the American scout. He
started and stared when the supposed Indian addressed
him in Spanish. .

“Say to the governor that the American scout is here
and would see him at once,’ Buffalo Bill ordered.

The servant stared out of the door, looking for the

American scout. .

“Where is he?” he asked,

 

  

   

 

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THE BUFFALO

“He is here!” said the scout.

Thereupon the servant retreated, declaring to those
he met that a crazy Indian was at the door.

But the tumult this aroused brought the governor;
and the scout got into the palace with the woman.

Mendoza was astonished, as well as pleased, with the
cleverness of the scout at disguising ; yet he did not know
who the woman was until his inner room was reached
and she lifted her veil at the scout’s request.

“Maria Xavier!” he said.

The woman looked at him. pale, almost defiant.

“You will make full explanation to the governor,” said
the scout, discarding now his blanket and the disguising
Indian feathers and head band. “That is why I have
brought you here. And as you know where his daugh-
ter is, tell him about her first.”

The woman sank into a chair, trembling and faint, on
the border land of tears again.

“Tt was because I was tempted, and was jealous—of
her,” she urged.

“Jealous of my daughter!’ said the governor.

“Jealous or envious of all the fine things she had—
her jewels and fine dresses, her comforts, and her money.
So, when I talked with him about it, he got me to help
him carry out his plans. But there was another woman
who helped.” m

“Who was that?” the governdr ceed

“His mother. She lives with him, in that house.”
“What house ?”

She gave the name of fhe street and the loca of

the house.

“It is the house occupied,” ‘said the scout, “by the
Gambler of Taos.”

“The Gambler of Taos is the Wild Ox?”

The woman admitted as much.

She went on to confess that she had become acquainted
with the gambler, and had fallen in love with him; and

that then he had tempted her to attempt what she had

afterward done.

“I stole the key to the treasure room from you,” she
confessed to the governor. “With it he got into the
room, and took the jewels and the plate.”

“And Montezuma’s Eye?” said Buffalo Bill.

‘No! He did not take that. It was not there. And
he Wanted it more than all else, for it was of greater
value. Then—must I tell all?”

“Everything!” the governor thundered at her.

“Then he thought that your daughter had taken it.
For it was there but that very afternoon. I saw it there,
then, myself, after I had the key. He thought she had
taken it in the coach, and would sell it in New York.
So he planned to get that, too. He sent his mother,
therefore, by a swift horse, to Wagon Mound. She had
helpers ; men who went with her. At Wagon Mound,
where your daughter got out, they captured her, un-

Be

BILL STORIES. . 27

seen; and while they blinded her with a shawl and held

“her so that she could make no noise, the gambler’s

mother took some of her clothing, put it on, and went
away in the stage, wearing it, and the troopers did not

know. At Pagosa Springs she got out, still veiled; then |

she took a horse and rode away, returning to Santa Fé.”
“But she did not find the Eye of Montezuma in the
coach?” said Buffalo Bill. :
He almost feared to ask the question, lest the woman
should confess that in the coach, or on the person of the
governor’s daughter, the big ruby had been found. It
seemed possible, remembering all the things he knew.
“No,” said the woman, to his relief, “the ruby was
not there.”
“What a fool this man must have been—what fools all

of you—to think it possible my daughter could have —
taken it!” thundered the governor. “But hasten. Where ©

is my daughter at this moment?”

“At the house of the Gambler of Taos.”

“And he is there, too?” said Buffalo Bill.

“He is there, too; he waits for the money. When
the ruby was not secured he was in a rage; then he de-
termined to make the governor pay ten thousand dollars
for the Sefiorita Muriel; he said the ruby he had lost
was worth that much.”

“We will go there at once,” said the governor.

But when he attempted to go he was seized with such
weakness that he could not walk; the excitement he had
been through had affected his heart. :

To tell the truth, Buffalo Bill, fearing disclosures
which he suspected might come, was glad that the gov-
ernor could not take part in the work he now had to do

—the capture of the Wild Ox, and the release of Muriel

‘Mendoza.

CHAPTER XIIT..
CONCLUSION.

When Buffalo Bill arrived with old Nomad, and the
two men the governor insisted on sending along, they
came upon Wild Bill and the baron, who had but a little
while before reached the spot with their prisoner and
the Apache who was with them..”

But they did not waste time in many explanations; a
few words were all that were needed to acquaint the
scout with the fact that the cross-eyed gambler was in
the toils, and to tell Wild Bill and the baron of the cap-

ture and confession of Maria Xavier.

The house was quietly surrounded,

Then Buffalo Bill demanded that the door should be
opened.

Sounds were heard inside the house after this demand
was made. But they subsided, and no one came to the
door.

   

 

 

      
 

ae | THE BUFFALO

The scout then unlocked the door, as he had done once

before; and with lanterns brought for the purpose a
search of the house was begun, the doors at the same
time being guarded.
- On the top floor, as he was ying. to get out upon the
roos, they came upon the Gambler of Taos. He had
again masked himself, and was trying to make a sneak
out of the place.

Buffalo Bill caught him by the leg and dragged him
down.

As he came through the trapdoor the man slipped the

_ mask from his face and tossed it out on the roof; but

it was not done so neatly that the thing was not seen;
and after a while the mask was found there by the
Apache.

Now that he had been captured, the masked Gambler
of Taos tried to brazen it out; making a good bluff at

first, until he knew that Maria Xavier was in the hands

of the governor, and had made a confession.
After that he grew sullen.
“We have been wanting you: for we know that in ad-
a to this crime committed by you,” said the scout,
“you are the outlaw called the Wild Ox.
squirm out of that, since you were fool enough to send
that demand for money to me, and signed that name to
ity”
He denied that he had signed it, when he said any-

thing, sticking to the futile lie.

“What we came for, more than you, is the governor’s
daughter.”

“Ah! If I tell you where et is, we you let me go?”

They would not agree to that; so they searched the
house again. In the lower rooms they found the woman
who had glowered and grumbled at them when they were
there before—the same woman who had been at the
adobe house on the outskirts of the town not long before.

Maria Xavier had said this woman was the gambler’s
mother; yet it did not seem possible. It is not easy,
though, to tell the age of some Mexicans. She was dark-
faced, with withered features; but she had a panther-like
springiness of movement that seemed to belie her years;
and she gave ample proof that she had a peppery tongue
and a fiery temper. They could believe that she was
the one who had played so bold a part at Wagon Mound
and Pagosa Springs easier than they could believe that
she was the gambler’s mother. |

She refused to tell where the governor’s daughter was
—denying that she had ever seen her, or knew anything
about her.

But Buffalo Bill found a girl’ at last, when he dis-
covered a trapdoor in the cellar, and went down into
the pit. ;

His lantern revealed the girl ae on the stone floor,
bound hand and foot, with a gag in her mouth.

 

 

You catrt

 

BILL STORIES.

He cut the cords and released her. :
Nomad and Wild Bill were with him, the baron and

the Indians and Mexicans being above, to keep watch.

over the prisoners.
The lantern light showed the scout. and Nomar that

‘the governor's daughter was truly the young woman

who had dropped down on them through the skylight, and
had told that story about the jewel.

She was shaking with fright now, and her nerves had
given way.

‘T lied about it, then,” she said; “I took it afterward.
But I meant to take it, when I told you that; and I
thought that would keep you from following me. I re-
lied on you to hold the secret from my father,’

“We have done so, until this minute,’ the scout as-
sured her. :

She gasped with relief. Ae

“Then, sefiors,”’ she said, “will you still keep tt a
secret? If you will but trust me, this very night the Eye

of Montezuma will be restored to the crown; no one but |

you and myself need ever know. My father will be
saved the great humiliation. And I have learned my
lesson.”

“But why did you Me it?” the scout persisted.

“Must I tell all?’ she said, as Maria Ae had said
before her.

“Tt is advisable: then we shall Liaw better how to act,”
the scout told her.

“It is simple, yet heartrending and terrible. I have
a lover who is in New York; but my father will not
consent that I shall marry him. I planned to take the
ruby there and sell it, for he is poor. We would then
have gone to Argentine to live, where he had friends. I
meant to pay my grandmother that visit.’

“Vet you did not intend ever to return the ruby?”

“No,” she admitted. ‘I could not have done that.”

They talked the matter over; finally they determined
to ask the governor to release the servant, Maria Xavier ;
and that they would hold this whole matter, so far as it
was necessary, a closed secret. It would harm the gov-

ernor to be told of it; and the daughter was repentant.
This they did. |

‘The Wild Ox and such of his accom in outlawry
_as were caught were held for punishment.

The reader may be interested in knowing, in con-
clusion, that after a time the governor softened his
heart; and Muriel, his daughter, was permitted to marry

the man of her choice, even if he had no wealth. But :

she never forgot the lesson she had learned. .
‘Buffalo Bill still holds her a in oy as affair

‘as his Santa Fé Secret.

THE Eee

Next week’s isstie will be, No. 433, “Buffalo Bill and

the Taos Terror; or, The Rites of the Red Estufa.”

 

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THE BUFFALO.

 

    

   

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1_ © — DEVOTED TO BORDER LIFE

 

 

 

 

 

_Geores C, Smira,

NEW YORK, August 21,1909,

 

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NICK HUN’TER.

Emerging from the forest, near the south fork of the
Platte River, might have been seen a hunter—a tall, stalwart
man, of the true Western stock.. He was attired’ in the
customary suit of the Western hunter and trapper. In a
belt, encircling his waist, was a long sheath knife; in his
hand he carried an old-fashioned, brass-mounted rifle, which,
with constant use, shone like gold—the mountings, not the
rifle. He stepped forth from the forest with that swinging
gait characteristic of the man. Looking cautiously east and
west, he noticed every tree and bush, or tuft of grass of any
considerable size. Being apparently satisfied’ that no one,
was around, he said:

“It’s a mystery. How could itibe did? A single trail
broke into two or three pieces. Now, ef thar was two or
three 0’ the skunks it would be a different thing; but Pm
sartin thar’s only one. Let me see,’ and he began to scratch
his head, “how could. I do it? I couldn’t jump thirty feet,
but—maybe I could, though. If I couldn’t jump that fur
how could I go over the ground without teching? Whoop!
I have it! Nick Hunter never was stumped and never will
be: The way the durn skunk broke the trail was by swing-
ing on a grapevine, or something o’ that sort. Ennyhow,
we-—that is me—will go back and see.”

Saying which, he started on the back track. After going
about a quarter of a mile, he came to one of the “broken
places,” and, looking up, he discovered a loose, swinging
grapevine, :

“Vaas,” said he, examining the end, “he has had hold o’
it; “cause why, the bark is twisted off; and,” turning his
eyes on the ground, “thar’s the long steps whar he took the.
run to git a good long jump: ‘Thar, that’s enuff, Nick
Hunter; ’tain’t a mystery no longer. But he must ha’ been
a mighty cute imp, fur it ain’t every nigger, white or red,
as would ha’ thought 0’ sich a thing, Mind yer ha’r, Nick.’

After coming to this satisfactory conclusion, he turned and
began to make his way out of the forest. He soon reached
the edge of the timber, and, following the trail, he crossed
a narrow strip of prairie, and again went into the forest.

Da area yee ear irene re a

Dae rb etna eer ete xii vse tomcginesey mat iN

   

BILL STORIES. 29

Still on the trail, which haa no more grapevine breaks ‘in
it, he kept on, and about four o’clock in the afternoon he
came to a small creek. This he had just crossed, and was
standing on the bank, when he heard a noise behind as if
some one might be following him.

He hastened into the woods, and lay down behind a black-
berry bush. to watch and wait for whoever it might be
that was following him, And the person, whoever it was,
did not appear to care much whether he was discovered or
not, Presently he came in sight. He was a “character.”

He was dressed in a long, blue, scissors-tailed coat, with+
pantaloons with broad yellow and brown stripes, which had

the appearance of having been made in “high-water time.’

A large tar-bucket-shaped hat ornamented his head, a pair
of horsehide boots were on his feet, which were not of the
most delicate proportions. He came down tothe creek,
and, with quite an unconcerned air, began to “examine
things.” After looking: up and down the creek, he looked
across, and seeing the fresh tracks in the mud, a sound sus-
piciously like “Waal, du tell!” escaped him. Those three
words proclaimed his nativity. Hunter no longer remained
concealed, but rose from the ground, and walked toward the
‘water,

“Hello, stranger!” said he.

“Vaas, what is it?’ asked the Yankee, turning quickly to-
ward Hunter.

Whar ye goin)?!

“Out speckerlatin’; looking’ fur a settlement.”

“Are, hey? What's yer name, ef I may ask?”

“Sartingly you may ask.” »

“Well, then, what is it?’

“Terrible Squeers.’

“You look mighty terrible; chaw me ef you don’t.”

“Wheo wants tu chaw yeou, ['d like tu kneow? ‘Yaas,
all the folks tu hum said I looked terrible, and that’s why I
cum eout tu the woods.”

“Aire you ‘feared ao} the reds?”

“Reds! What be they? Sunthin’ tu eat?”

“No; Injuns, to.eat green Yanks.”

“T want tu know! Drat my buttons, Susan Melinda
Ann said as heow ef I'd come eout and sell whisky tu the
hathens, I meout come home in tew or three year, and we'd
hitch teams. I see intu it neow; she on’y wanted tu have
7em kill me.”

“Jest so,’ remarked Hunter.

“Think so?” asked the Yankee, crossing to where Hunter
stood.

PNiagagcuny:
“In earnest?” '
“lam. Sawimy leg off: :

“Hain't got no saw.”

“You are a green un as ever I seed. Whar did ye spring
from, ennyhow ?”’

“Frony down tu Leowel. Near the old brick. meetin’
TUS Ge S

“An -yer name is Squeers:”

e Vanes beeribie ssqucens.’,

“An’ what are ye goin’ to do now, as you have got here
in the woods?”

“Why, track Injuns; kill “em and sell stheir skulps. 1
reckon they would fetch a feller ten or fifteen cents apiéce,
wouldn’t they, mister?” ;

“And what “ud any white gentleman want wi’ em?”

“Why, mister—what’s yeour name?”

“bhianter.<

“Mr. Hunter, yeou air as green as a Massachusetts pun-
kin.”

“T reckon not.”

“Yaas, yeou air; ur yeou wouldn't ask what a white gen-
tleman would want with a Injun’s skulp.”

“Well, what would they want wi’ ‘em?’

“White men wouldn't want ‘efn, but niggers would.”

“And what ‘ud a nigger do wir ‘em?’

 
  

8077 8 : i THE BUPRALO

“Why—why, tu ote banjo. heads.” :

“That’s enuff, Mr. Squeers; you'll cee Kin you track a
redskin ?”

Psomey.

“Well, thar, foller that trail and I’ll look out fur In-
juns.”

“Sarting. Ennything tu ackommodate yeou.”

And it was surprising how the greenness leit the Yankee,

as he stooped down and examined the tracks in the mud, and

es gathering himself into a kind of knot, he started on

“turkey trot,’ keeping on the trail like a greyhound. - At
first Hunter was surprised, then astonished, and finally he
got mad, thinking he had been duped by a “durn green

Yankee.”

They kept on until near sunset, when they came to the

edge of the forest. Here they concluded to stop for the

- night; so, building a fire, they prepared their evening meal

of some tasajo (pronounced tasaho; dried buffalo meat) and
crackers, which Terrible had “about his clothes.”

_ Their supper was soon over. Producing a coin, Terrible

said:

“Heads or tails, squire, fur first watch.”

“Heads for your watch, and tails fur my sleepin’,
Hunter,

“Neow, in arnist, which is it?”

“Ef it comes heads, Vll watch first.”

OUhareisheads.

Terrible did not throw the coin up, but let it drop from
his thumb and forefinger; and, as a matter of course, could
drop it so that either side that he wanted would come up.
Hunter ‘did not notice it.

After talking a little while longer, about various Yankee
“jimeracks,” Terrible concluded to retire; so, going back a
few yards into the forest, he lay down. and in a few minutes,
to all appearances, was fast asleep. By the fast smouldering
firelight. Hunter loaded his rifle with great cate. He then
shook the powder down, so it would not “hang fire,” and then
put a cap on,

Shouldering his rifle, he began to walk back and forward
near the edge of the forest: he then made a circuit of the
camp (if it could be called such), and being. satisfied that
“all was well,’ he seated himself on a small mound, a few
rods from the fire.

Leaning forward, with his head on his hands, with his
elbows resting on his knees, he was soon in a “brown
study.”

There he sat; minutes passed, hours came and passed.
. The warm south winds murmured though the trees with
a low, wailing sound; the lone night owl from his lofty
perch sent forth his dismal “to-hoo!” the bat fluttered through
the dark aisles of the forest; the short, sharp yelp of the
coyote, or prairie wolf, could every once in a while be
heard near the edge of the forest; a rain crow perched on
a tree near by sent forth his voice of evil omen; directly,
borne on the breeze from afar off, could be heard the lone-
some cry of the nightingale—the sound came from the east.

‘Presently it was answered; from the west came the
sound. Hunter slowly raised his head and loked around;
then he arose to his feet and walked farther into the forest.
Seating himself 6n the rotten trunk of a tree, he waited
the progress of events. The nightingales seemed to be
going to the north—they seemed to be approaching each
other.

After a while the sounds died away altogether. He arose,
and began to walk back and forward—that is, from the log
to the opening in the forest, and then back to the Tog.
Some minutes passed, when the voices of the birds were
heard again, this time quite near the camp; again they
-were heard, and this time still nearer. Hunter grasped his
rifle, and, holding i at a “trail arms,” glided away in the
darkness.

He made a circuit and came in behind the birds, if birds
they were. Guided by the sounds, he kept on. Directly| they

89

said

      

BILL STORIES.

again ceased. Hunter stopped a minute; then, flitting irom

tree to tree, he made his way toward the place where he
last heard them. Very slowly he went forward, when
presently he heard the low hum of human voices.

“Ef we don’t get him now, we may never have another
chance,” said some one.

“Which one do you mean?” asked another.

“Why, the Yankee, of course.’

“And let Hunter slip ?”

“Take him arterward.”

Hunter gently lowered himself to the pean and on
his hands and knees approached the speakers. In place of
finding only two, as he expected to, he found five men—
three Indians and two whites. The night was not. very
dark, and he could see them, very indistinctly, though. The
dialogue was kept up some minutes longer, when they (the
five strangers) decided to secure the Yankee and then shoot
Hunter.

“No, ye dont,” muttered he, as he quietly crawled away.

“Creeping to a safe distance from them, he rose to his feet,
and, again making a circuit, he soon arrived at the place
where he left Squeers, but was surpised to find him not.
He couldn't make it out. :

“Durn the difference! He’s not to look out fur, anyhow,’
said Hunter; “but them t’other skunks don’t ketch this
nigger. Nary once! I wonder ef they ever cotched a weazle

asleep Ugh! the skunks! to have sich a poor opinion 0’ a |

white gentleman as to think they could walk right up and
litt his har. Boo! the apes!”

“Wheo meought yeou be callin’ an ape?’ and Terrible
hove in sight, bearing in one hand a long, murderous-looking
knife, while in the other he held a fleshy object.

“Hello, Squeers, is that your” said Hunter.

“Yaas, 1 kaikulatecit 1s.) Whats the apes?”

“I was talkin’ about some other chaps. S’pose you've

“seen em?”

??

“Yaas, look thar!” and Squeers held out something.
What is ite ol cave see very plain.”

“A banjo head. That is, when it’s dried and the bristles -

1

wo

scraped off.”

“A scalp, ye mean?” '

“Yaas, worth about twenty-five or thirty cents.”

They now became silent. Both moved off in-a northerly
direction, hoping to escape any further trouble; but in this

they were disappointed. For they had not proceeded a hun-

dred yards before they came suddenly on a crowd of men;
white renegades and Indians. They were discovered, and

now itewas useless to try to hide; the crowd made a rush
at them, but, discharging their rifles, bothHunter and _
Squeers left the scene “for parts (to them) unknown.” The.

Yankee slid through the underbrush like a snake, and soon
disappeared in the forest. Hunter was not*so fortunate.
They kept sight of him, and went like a buffalo herd through
the timber after him. When they all got into the shade
of the trees, it was difficult to keep sight of anything. Hun-
ter took advantage of this fact, and disappeared behind a

large tree; some, in fact most all, of his pursuers passed

him. He had lain himself flat on the ground, and in pass-

ing, one of the Indians stumbled and fell on him. Hunter:

grasped him by the throat, and plunged his knife up to the

haft into the savage’s breast, who with a convulsive shiver

stretched out, and then lay- perfectly still. He was dead.

Hunter raised up, and was groping forward, when his hand

came in contact with something soft. The next minute he
was grappling with a brawny red man. And it seemed as
though the Indian was likely to prove more than a match
for him. He lfted Hunter from his feet and. dashed
him violently to the ground. He was stunned by the fall,
and was as powerless as a child, The Indian took his
hatchet from his belt, and drawing back, was about to strike,
when a blow from behind laid him on the grass. Squeers

stepped forward, and quietly plunging his. “knife into the

Indian, he wa aited till he - -(the Indian) was dead, then coolly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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i apa PR ad, — ee Oot

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WE BU aC)

ripping off his scalp, he remarked to Hunter, who was slowly
raising from the ground:
“Six banjo heads, for thirty cents apiece, is worth a dollar
eighty. Ain’t that sor”
Nothing else worthy of note happened to them, and they,
after a short time, cleared the dangers of the forest and

. made good their escape.

Driers |

ZEBRAS AT HOME.

 

“One of the finest sights in all the animal world,”

That.is how the writer of a recent book on wild life
in East: Africa speaks of the great herds of zebras which
he saw on the wide plains, There they were, roaming over
the veldt (grassy expanses), hundreds of them, grazing or
galloping, or turning with heads thrown up and pricked ears
to find out what was approaching them,

Like the wild ass of Western Asia, the zebra of Africa
is in a very special sense a freedom-loving animal. He
knows well that man’s coming usually means mischief, and
directly any person appears in sight he flings up his hoofs,
and away he goes. He seems to say, like the American pa-
triot, “Give me liberty, or give me death.” He is wiry and
strong, nimble and. fleet, :

If you have seen a zebra at close quarters, you will
know what a striking-looking creature he is, with his striped
body and banded legs. And, strangely enough, he is fond of
roaming in company with another curious-looking animal—
the gnu, which is likewise “‘tameless, and swift, and proud.”

Zebras love the plains; they are not forest animals. The

vast open spaces of East Africa, with their coarse, long

grass, rough scrub, and here and there a big shady tree or
group of trees—these are just what suit them. If the plain
runs up to the foot of a range of stony hills, they like it
all the better. If pursued, they will take refuge there. Off
they go with a toss of the head, and a clatter of hoofs, racing
up the slopes with a speed that soon, leaves rider and horse
panting far behind.

The zebra has many enemies besides “the man with the
gun,’ and has need, therefore, of all his watchfulness and
his nimble feet.

One might think that, with so many fierce beasts prowl-
ing about, especially at night, such a noticeable figure as
the zebra seems to us would be always in danger. Wherever
he went, wherever he rested, he would be marked down by
hungry eyes. et

Now, the strange thing is that it is only when he is taken
away from his proper surroundings and put on view that he
becomes conspicuous. At home, in Africa, it is often quite
difficult to catch sight of him when he is standing still under
some tree: the flickering shadows of the branches mimic so
closely the stripes on his body. Even when he is out in
the open his black-and-white body blends wonderfully with
the tall grass.

But it is at night, when his sharp-toothed foes take their
walks abroad, that it is most important for him to escape
notice, And surely the brilliant light of a tropical moon
would “show him up” in a most merciless way?

Yet, no; hunters tell us that even when zebras are only
forty or fifty yards away, it is often impossible to see them,
even in the broad moonlight. Nay, these animals have
sometimes been so close to the hunter that he could hear
them breathing, yet could not make out where they stood.

It sounds contradictory, but the truth is that the very
stripes that seem to make the zebra such a striking and no-
ticeable creature are really his best protection. —

This was once proved in a very simple but ingenious way
He tethered a pony out in the open, ©

by Professor Ewart.
one bright moonlight night, and he and his friends went fifty
yards away. From that distance it was easily seen. Then

he went to it and fixed black and white ribbons round its —

body, imitating as closely as he could the stripes of a zebra.

ae

BILL STORIES. 31

He walked back to his friends, and they looked again, It
was as if the animal had vanished. |

It is mostly at night that one hears the curious barking
noise which zebras make.

There are three distinct kinds of zebras: Burchell’s zebra,
which is the’ most common, a fine animal, with hoofs like
iron; Grevy’s zebra, which is rather larger, with very
beautiful and complete striping, and which was only discov-
ered about 1882; and the true or mountain zebra, which
was the first kind known to Europeans, and which, though
finely striped, is the least tall of the family. The small herds
now carefully preserved in Cape Colony, where once it
abounded, will soon be the only survivors of the true zebra.
There was another striped animal, similar to the zebras,
called the quagga, which was also numerous once upon a
time in Cape Colony. But the last of the herds was shot
down about thirty years ago.

The zebra of which we hear stories from time to time
of its having been driven in harness is Burchell’s zebra.
Its temper is not to be depended on, but it has allowed itself
to be harnessed with mules, and also with ponies; it has
helped to draw wagons across the veldt in South Africa, and
teams of four have been driven for show in England.’

But the fact is, the zebra is an animal not made for
work. He is too restive, too willful, too independent. Force
him, when in harness, to go on trotting and pulling, and he
breaks down. Most likely it was just so with the wild horse
long, long ago; but for so many ages he has been man’s
helper and fellow worker that now he can keep on working
hour after hour, and do the same day after day.

Nevertheless, in the British East Africa Protectorate,
zebra farms have been started, and some capital animals
have been bred and reared, Some of them will even bear to
be saddled, and others are trained for other work. They .
have their own separate stalls in clean, airy stables, and a -
veterinary officer to doctor them and inspect them-—just as
if they were horses.

Zebras may be made to do various things, but nothing
seems to tame their tempers. Ask any circus manager what
he thinks of the zebra, and he will tell you that he is one
of the most difficult and intractable creatures you can have
to deal with.

His jaws are like steel, and when he snaps at his keeper
or his trainer, as he often does with little or no provocation,
he can do dreadful injury. .He kicks, too, most viciously.
Tying up one leg is no remedy, for, standing on two, he
will lash out with the other, and yet stand frm. Herr
Schillings, the daring German hunter, thus writes: “I do
not. hesitate to say that it is less dangerous for a. tamer
to handle lions, tigers, and other such beasts of prey than
the zebra with its fearful bite.”

At the London Zoological Gardens many anecdotes are
told of this creature’s spitefulness. Mr. A. T. Elwes, the
veteran animal artist, has one such story in his recent book.

Speaking of a pair of zebras, he says: “Not long ago the
male zebra was seen dragging his mate round and round the
inclosure by one of her ears, which he held firmly. between

his teeth. When at last te released her she nestled up to

him with every outward show of affection, and then sud-
denly bit him sharply and kicked him savagely at the same
moment, after which she raced away at the very top of her
speed !”
It would be hard to beat that for treachery and spite.
And he goes on to meption an instance of another zebra
which, without being provoked in any way, pushed through
a sliding door and rushed fiercely at a keeper. It knocked
the man down and “pinned him by the leg until his cries
brought another keeper to the rescue.”
Altogether it seems as if the zebra was one of those ani-
mals that are quite out of place in a paddock. They need
to be seen on the wide plains of sunny Africa, roaming in
herds through the long grass, with the curly-horned gnus,
whose temper is as short as their own. a :

 
 

 

  

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There is no need of our telling American readers how i 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

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We give herewith a list of all of the back numbers in print.

162—Buffalo
177—Buttfalo
181—Buffalo
210—Buffalo
211—Buffalo
212—Buffalo
213—Buffalo
214—Buffalo
217—Buffalo
218—Buffalo
219—Buffalo
221—Buffalo
223—Buffalo
224—-Buffalo
225—Buffalo

226—Buffalo
228—Buffalo
229—Buffalo
230—Buffalo
232—Buffalo
235—Buffalo
236—Buftfalo
237—Buffalo
238—Buffalo
239—Buttalo

240—Buffalo
241—-Buffalo
242—Buffalo
243—Buttfalo

244—Buffalo
245—Buffalo
246—Buffalo
247—Buffalo
248—Buftfalo
249—Buftfalo
250—Buffalo
251—Buffalo
252—Buffalo
253—Buffalo
254—Buffalo
255—Butftalo
256—Buffalo

257—Butftfalo
258—-Buffalo
259—-Buffalo

261—Buffalo
262—Buftfalo
263—Buffalo
264—Buftfalo
265—Buffalo
266—Buffalo
267—Buffalo
269—Buffalo

King
270—Butftfalo
271—Buffalo
272—Buffalo
273—Butftalo
274—Buffalo
275—Buffalo
276—Buffalo
277—Buffalo
278—Buffalo
280—Buffalo
282—Buffalo
283—Buffalo
284—Buffalo
285—Buffalo
286—Buffalo
287—Buffalo
288—Buffalo

Bill’s Canyon Cache.......c.
Bille IM MOLEN Cio rs cc 616 o!cilereer.
Bill’s Mexican Feud......c.
Bills Blinds Wead scr. clee ciel eels
BINS = SaCrifiCc@ m.retcisjs «sie ee oo
Bill’s ’Frisco Feud..
Bill’s Diamond Hunt........
Bill’s Avenging Hand.......
Bill’s Cheyenne Comrades....
Bill’s Fiery Trail.........0.-
Bill’s Sioux Foes..
Bill’s Iron Fist..
Bill’s Florida Foes....
Bill’s Grim Climb.
Bil’s Red Enemy Sees enone

eoceeeeooeoe
ecco eee eee
ee cece

eeoececevee oe

Bill on a Traitor’s Track... rere
BillS AIT ViOYyALE. 2 «21s cleleiele
Bill’s Death Thrust... ...ccee
IBURST IBOS cg pb oo douG co
Bill’s Wyoming Trail........
Bill’s Apache Round-up......-
Bill’s El Paso Pard...... eves
Bill on the Staked Plains....

Bill’s Border Raid..........
Bill’s Bravest Fight.........
Bill’s Heathen Pard.........
Bill’’s Dakota Dare-devils....
Bill’s Arapahoe Alliance.....
Bill on Special Service......
Bill on a Treasure Hunt....
Bill4s Gost; Quarry... .... . oilers
Bill Among the Comanches...
Bill’s Stockade Siege........
Bill’s: Creek Quarrel.....
Bill Among: the Pawnee’. one
Bill on a Long Hunt.
Bill’s Wyoming Trail.
Bill and the Redskin Wizard..

  

ee

eee

Bill’s Bold Challenge. aie
Bill’s Shawnee Stampede. eerie
Bill’sewWorste MOeia a «.6 .

Bill’ onva Desert iratlen. s..
Bill’s Rio Grande Feud......
Bill in Tight Quarters.......
Bills) Daring, Rescue... .. 56
Bills ireasures irain... cr. <
Bill Among the Blackfeet....
Bill’s Border Beagles.

Bill and the Bandits in “Black..
Bill and the Indian Tiger.
Bill on the Deadwood Trail. Bee
Bill in the Cafion of Death..
Bill and the Robber Ranch
“Bill in the Land of Wonders...
Bill and the Traitor polstene:
Bill’s Dusky Trailers.
Bill’s Diamond Mine.
Bill and the Pawnee Serpent...
Billsescarleteiandnc. ccc.
Bill Running the Gantlet....
Bill’s Leap in the Dark......
Bill’s Daring Plunge..
Bills. GHOSt GRAIG. .t. 268.5 ote
BrllesaeC anipateres:: 2 eciove sete oe
Bille pac StU Dp i566 5 e sie 6c
BUNS SCCREU HOC ee ais cle ceh et sie!e
Bill’s Master-stroke........
Bill and the Masked Mystery.
Bill and the Brazos Terror...
Bil’s Dance of Death.......

SPLOULOUOUOTOVON ON OVOTOUOVOLOVOUOUOVON «= OVOTOTOT ON ON OV ON OV OF OV OT ON OF OV OT OF OF OF OT OV OT G1 OF OF OF OF OF OF OFT OF OF OF OF OV OV ON STON OT OF OF Ot Ot Ot Ot Ot OF O1 Ot O1 OF

 

289—Buffalo
290—Butftfalo
291—Butfalo
292—Buffalo
293—Buffalo
295—Buffalo
296—Buffalo
297—Buftfalo
298—Buffalo
299—Buffalo
300—Buffalo
301—Buffalo
302—Buffalo
303—Buffalo
304—Buffalo

305—Buffalo
306—Butffalo
307—Buffalo
808—Buffalo

309—Buffalo
310—Buffalo
311—Buffalo
312—Butffalo

313—Buffalo
314—Buffalo
315—Buffalo

316—Buffalo
318—Buffalo
319—Buffalo
320—Buffalo
321—Buftalo
322—Buffalo
323—Buffalo
324—Buftfalo
825—Buffalo

326—Buffalo
327—Buffalo

328—Buffalo |

329—Buffalo
330—Buffalo
331—Buftalo
832—Butfalo
333—Buffalo
334—Buffalo
335—Buffalo

          

3837—Buffalo
3838—Buftalo
339—Buffalo

340—Buffalo
341—Buffalo
342—Buffalo
343—Buffalo
344—Buffalo
345—Buffalo
346—Buffalo
347—Buffalo
348—Buffalo
349—Buffalo
350—Buffalo
351—Buffalo
352—Buffalo
3538—Buffalo
354—Buffalo
355—Buffalo
856—Buffalo
3857—Buffalo
358—Buffalo
3859—Buffalo
860—Buffalo
362—Buffalo
363—Buffalo
364—Buffalo

Bill and the Creeping Terror..
Bill and the Brand of Cain..
Bill and the Mad Auoualre

Bill’s Medicine-lodge.. S60
Billeine Peril ano ctes
Bill in the Death Desert. .

Bill in No Man’s Land.
Bill’s Border Ruffians.......
Bill’s Black Hagles..........
Bil’s Desperate Dozen......
Bill’s Rival 55
Bill’s Ice Chase...... PSrarlens
Bill and the Boy Bugler..
Bill and the White Specter..
Bill’s Death Defiance. mane
Bill and the Barge Bandits. 5
Bill, the Desert Hotspur.
Bill’s Wild Range Riders... eis
Bill’s Whirlwind Chase...
Bill’s Red Retribution..
Bille Haunted. eee cise ss
Bills sHighteror silenced wicker.
Bill’s Death Jump.. Sets
Bill and the Pit of Horror. O60
Bill in the Jaws of Death....
Bill’s Aztec Runners.....:...
Bill’s Dance with Death.....
Bilis] MietyaWyee se 6 5 ee ook
Bill’s Mazeppa Ride.........
Bill in the Land of Spirits...
Billise GyDSyie BANG cere sihe tere
Bills Maverickees-m socio 6
Bill, the White Whirlwind...
Biles Golds Hunters... 35. es.
Bill in Old Mexico.

Bill’s Message from. the “Dead
Bill and the Wolf-master.
Bill’s Flying Wonder.....
Bill’ss EnddemsGoldvys cts <6 c 5n
BillissOutlaws oral oo. ese ccc
Bill and the Indian Queen...
Bill and the Mad Marauder...
Bills lees Barricade... 3...
Bill and the Robber Elk....
BillseGhost Mancecw. cc wee cre
Bills Peace-pipey oie. cc 6 «>
Billzsa Red NEMESIS: cc cre rene «
Bill’s Hnechanted Mesa......
Bill in the Desert of Death..
BilleSesPaver OUnea Kurr. .ociensneie cs
Bill on Detached Duty......
Bill’s Army Mystery.. i
Bills ‘Surprise Party... ..

BillSeGreat Ridin coi. ce co slets
BillisewWater Wy allies. «ss. ie
Bilis Ordeal Of wine). wm. or. oe
Bill Among the Man-eaters...
Bill’s ‘Casket. of Pearls......
BTMeStSkeyge ilo te cases cliersious sees
Bills Rotem aeeens es ccetk. coe
Bill’s Flat-boat Drift..

Bills on: Deckacivewatas Geos sce
Bill and the Bronco Buster...
Bill’s Great Round-up.......
Bill’s Pledge. Mooneitevehercuone
Bill’s Cowboy Pande oss eas
Bill and the Emigrants... .
Bill Among the Pueblos. Woretede
Bill’s Four-footed Pards...
Bill’s preuene = ey te Soe eo ete ners
Bill’s Pick-up.

Bill’s Quest... Sn eeeterer ere
Bill’s Waif of ‘the’ Plains.

OCUVOT ON OT OT OT OT OU OT ON ON OV ON OT OV OL OV OTONVOTOUOTON

OVOTOTOTOL

CLOLOTOT ON OU OT OT OUOTOUOTOU ON

OCLOTOLOTOT OU

HAM OOM AT OTN

5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5

5

If you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot

dealer, they can be obtained direct from this office.

STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS, 79-89 SEVENTH Ee ee YORK CITY |

 

366—Buffalo

367—Buffalo
368—Buftalo
369—Buffalo
370—Buffalo
371—Buffalo
372—Buffalo
373—Buffalo
374—Buffalo
375—Butftfalo
376—Buffalo
377—Butftalo
378—Buftalo
379—Buftfalo
3880—Buffalo

381—Buftalo
382—Butffalo
3883—Buffalo

3884—Buffalo
385—Buffalo
3886—Buffalo
387—Buffalo

388—Buffalo
3889—Buffalo

390—Buftalo
391—Buffalo
392—Buffalo
393—Buffalo

394—Butftalo
395—Buffalo
3896—Buitalo

397—Buffalo
3898—Butftalo
399—Buftfalo
400—Buftalo

401—Butftfalo
402—Buffalo
403—Buffalo
404——Buttalo
405—Buttfalo
406—Buffalo
407—Buffalo
£08—Buffalo
409—Buffalo
410—Buffalo
411—Buffalo

412——Buffalo
413—Buffalo
414—Buffalo
415—Buffalo
416—Buffalo
417—Buftfalo
418—Buffalo
419—Buffalo
420—Buffalo
421—Buffalo
422—Butftfalo
423—Buffalo
424—Buffalo
425—Buffalo ©
426—Buffalo
427—Buffalo
428—Buffalo
429—Butffalo
430—Buffalo
431—Buffalo
432—Buffalo
433—Buffalo
434—Buffalo

435—Buffalo
436—Buffalo
437—Buffalo
438—Buffalo

Bill Among the Mormons...
Bill’s Assistance. OOOO C000
Bill’s Rattlesnake “Trail.
Bill and the Slave-Dealers ave
Bill’s Strong Arm. Sis voreKer eve
Bills Girl Pard...... aieioiohete
Bill’s Iron Bracelets........-.
BTS Ranch GRIGeNS. siciee sie o's
Bill’s Jade Amulet.....-ccece
Bills Magic Lariat... .ecece
Bill’s ‘‘Paper-Talk’’....ccecee
Bill’s Bridge of Fire......e-
Bill’s Bowie Bi eueloleketers
Bill’s Pay-streak.......ceee
Bilis Mines, «235 nee Saicrelonersiece
Bis Clean-up... ...ccs cece
BTS eeeECUISC ace ciea titers: oxo ree ono ore
Bill Overboard.
Bill’s Ring.. ;
Bill’s Big Contract . eisilereiel oie oie
Bill and Calamity Jane......
Bill’s Kid Pard...... Bielenesyieke
Bill’s Desperate Plight. .
Bill’s Fearless Stand........
Bill and the Yelping Crew...
Billiss Guiding Hands a. -crec.0e
Bill’s Queer Quest.......
Bill’s Prize ‘‘Getaway’’......
Bill’s Hurricane Hustle......
BillismStarasRlayi..: sete
Bist liticescesc. ce ssiecee Arrant eis
IBUNESEATACKERScire cee cl clceelers
Bill’s Dutch Pard..
Bill and the Bravo.......eece«
Bill and the Quaker eee ete 66
Bill’s Package of Death....
Bill’s ‘Treasure Cache. ics
Bill’s Private War.....
Bill and the Trouble Hunter... S
Bill and the Rope Wizard...

 

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IBIS AV CStas ech ce scue terete oe
Bill Among the Cheyennes. 66
Bille Besiesedi nase accverete 4
Bill and the Red Hand. 6

Bills Tree-trunk Drift. erereone
Bill and they Specter... <7. 66
Bill and the Red Feathers...

Bills Keane aSteoke. isc. ee
Bill, the Desert Cyclone.....
Bill’s ‘Cumbres Scouts.......

Bill and the Man-wolf......
Bill and His Winged) Pard.s...
Bill at Babylon Bar. eG
Bills wome; vATM shoe e ec crec sce ers
Bill and Old Weasel Top....
Billes  SteelhsArny aad. 6. a6
Bill’s Aztec Guide...... AOPOO
Bill and Little Wirefly...
Bille im “the, Aztee City. sc.
Bill’s Balloon Escape......
Bill and the QGuerrillas......
Billéss Borders Wats conc
Bills Mexican Mix-up ......
Bill and the Gamecock .....
Bill and the Cheyenne Raiders
Bills Whirlwind Finish....
Bill’s Santa Fe Secret......
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,....

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