ree Crea HER Seas i Hee , Nests ae ee INE RON SS exo > ei “A WEEKLY PUBLICATION Entered as Second-class Matter at the N. x Post Office, by STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Ave., WV. ¥. Issued Weekly. ; Copyright, 1911, by STREET & SMITH. O. G. Smith.and G. C. Smtth, Proprietors. TERMS TO BUFFALO BILL STORIES MAIL SUBSCRIBERS. ‘ (Postage Free.) _ Single ree or Back Numbers, 5c. Each. _ How to Send Money—By post-office or express money order, registered. letter, bank check or draft, at our risk. At your own risk if sent. by currency, coin, or postage stamps in ordinary letter. 2 anonthy ae | Ghee One wenn tilde isnt. the trail, and disappeared. Wild Bill and the others, moved up now to their leader; for even the mule was “By gorry, Pawnee! what'll we do now?” demanded the man from Laramie. *Toofer iss nod sorry dem Inchuns to see go yedt,” ecunted the baron; “undt I am nodt sorry oder.” THE BUFFALO BILL” STORIES. 5 “On-she-ma-da!” exclaimed the bowie man. “The fat’s all in the fire—no doubt of that, boys.” “What'll Buffler say?’ grunted old Nomad. “He'll just natcherly git up on his hind legs and holler!’ declared Wild Bill. “But Pawnee couldn’t help it, son,’ trapper. “You re right there, old non. ” returned Pa w- hee: And nobody elsé could have helped it ‘°Ceptin’ thet thar gosh-blamed, ornery mule of the baron’s,” declared old Nomad, with emphasis. Instantly the baron flushed up, and his blue eyes > sparkled angrily. “Vos iss?’ he croaked. said the old “You say dot mu-el, he make dr-r-rouble fOr us yedt? Dot vos foolishness- 1" ness ! “Well, weren’t we fooling with him wen thet thar prisoner was snatched heavenward?” demanded Nomad. “Vale! undt vos dot de mu-el’s fault?” cried the eXx- cited baron. “Idt vos our own t’ickheadedness-ness —aind’t idt? Say! didn’t de mu’el do his pest to Varn us cot dere was someding didding? Yah!” “How dye make thet thar out?’’ argued Nomad. “Dot iss vy he pellow so mooch—idt iss his vay of speakin’—aind’t idt?” “T wish he’d been born dumb, then,” Hickok. “Ach, himmelblitzen!”’’ roared the angry German. “You vos all down on de mu-el. Budt he iss de only schmardt von in de crew.” “Mebbeso,”’ said Nomad. up our minds : “Undt he vos dellin’ us den in his own vay dot ve shouldt meppeso loog oudt vor dot Lorrin’.” “Hold on!” exclaimed Pawnee Bill, who had been silent during this argument. ‘We shall never agree on that point. “But here’s another: What’s to be done to repair damages—as the feller said after the bulldog got the seat of his breeches!’ “We'd better ride back, lickety-split, and tell Cody,’ said Hickok. “Well, that ain’t such a deuce of a job,’ growled Pawnee. ‘It’s like sending a man to do a boy's work, aint itt “T hates ter go back myself like a pup with his tail ‘twixt his laigs,” agreed Nomad. ‘But I reckon the danger line is at Cimaroon Bar—’r tharabouts.” “Ye're right, old Diamond!’ cried Pawnee Bill. “Tf these reds mean to get nasty, they'll aim for Cima- _ roon Bar.” “Dod iss idt!’ murmured the baron. “Right as a trivet!” said Hickok. “Wuh!” grunted the young Piute, nodding his head vais dcaitenaned : “But we've got to do more than run with this tale to Buffalo Bill,” said Pawnee vigorously. “How d’ye mean, Pawnee?” demanded Nomad. The bowie man was very serious, indeed, as he said: murmured. ‘But if he hadn’t taken 6 THE BUPEALO “This old catamaran, Black Water, means business. I believe he’s been fooling Cody, at that. He let out to me that the Utes were all ready for war and that the villages beyond the range were being deserted by the squaws.: HOS “That means war every time, as you well know, Nomad.” ee MS “Betcher!’? grunted the borderman. “The squaws and children will get back into the farther hills and valleys or else go to the villages of those Indians who remain peaceful. That’s an old Erick: “Tt sure is!’ exclaimed Hickok vigorously. “And meantime the braves will be lurking around _ Cimaroon Bar—and other towns—ready to strike.” “Wuh!", grunted the Piute. “Chief Pawnee Bill speak heap true.” “And there you have it!” exclaimed the bowie man. “Black Water and this band that have just left us, will stir up the tribe about this rescue of Jack Lorring. They'll say we connived at it—whether they believe we did, or not: : “Injuns is sure suspicious,’ admitted Nomad. “Then trouble is bound to break out almost imme- diately. We've got something to do beside running back to Cody. The news of this must go to Fort Lester—and go suick. Those troopers that were promised us over this way must come on the double- quick.” ‘s “Right-oh!” cried Hickok. “I'll go, Pawnee, if you say the word.” 7) “No,” said the bowie man thoughtfully. “I'll do what I think my old necarnis would do under the cir- cumstances. He would send the Piute, here.” ‘Sure as shootin’!’ agreed Nomad. Instantly Little Cayuse began to try the cinches of his pony’s saddle. Pawnee Bill pulled’ out his note- book and began to write. “Wuh! Me take talk paper Fort Lester,’ said the Piute eagerly, vaulting onto Navi’s back again. “And give it to General Lawton—if he is there,” said Pawnee Bill earnestly. ‘ “Wuhl’ “If not, to the officer in command.” “Wuh!” | “And if you should meet the pony soldiers on the trail show the talking paper to the officer in: command, but take it on to the fort. The department should know of this trouble, and know it at once.’’ v With a third grunt, the Piute tucked the paper Pawnee Bill gave him into his shirt and started his pony along the shelf. “And keep yer eyes skinned fer them Utes, Little Cayuse!” yelled Nomad after him. The Piute waved his hand, and disappeared around | the turn in the trail. a “I got an anxiety fer thet thar boy,” grunted the borderman. “How sor. asked Hickok. Pi 3e BILL STORIES. “Them Injuns thet jest left us may lay for him. Er-waugh! we're in a sure ticklish place, boys.” “Then we'd better get out of it. I'll risk Little Cayuse,’ said Hickok. os ‘“T’m worrying more about the folks at Cimaroon Bar,” said Pawnee Bill. ‘Let’s back water.” , They wheeled their mounts and started along the path toward the western end of the shelf... They were some distance from the end, and the path was so nar- row that they walked their horses. Suddenly the mule, Toofer, lifted up his deafening bray again. . “Vait! Vait!’ squalled the baron. “Dere vill pe someding didding: : “There'll be a dead mule if you don’t stop him!” yelled Hickok. But the baron was staring straight up at the edge of the crag ninety feet above their heads. “Loog! Loog!’ he shouted. _The glance of his friends shot heavenward, too. They saw a huge bowlder seemingly trembling upon the edge of the high rock—it looked to be directly over their heads! “Get out of here!’ yelled Pawnee Bill, who was in - the rear. He set spurs to his own mount and lashéd the mule across the rump with his. quirt. “Er-waugh!” yelped Nomad, and, with Hickok, he likewise forced his mount ahead on the jump. But the bowlder dropped even as they discovered it. It fell silently, but with a rush of air before it that fanned the pallid cheeks of the four men below! CHAPTER IV. AT CIMAROON BAR. The mining camp of Cimaroon Bar had settled down to regular hours again after the Indian scare and the departure of the arrested gambler, Jack Lorring, for Fort Lester. - The Bar was quite a lively camp; there was not much independent mining carried on, for the’ gold was all in the bluff behind the town and along the bank of the river. This gold-bearing soil was washed out of the bank by powerful streams of water forced through hy- draulic pumps. The earth was washed down into the sluice boxes all the week long—sometimes the mining was carried on at night, as well. About once a week—usually over Sunday—the work was halted while the sluices were washed clean, and then the ribbons of compact gold dust were stripped ¢ out of the riffles. One of the oldest pioneer miners at the Bar was Big Jake Hentz, and when the syndicate had- bought up the moribund claims along the river—his own in- - cluded—Big Jake was given a job at a hydraulic ma- chine. q One day, while at work as usual, the stream of water Jake controlled chanced to loosen and shoot out _of the bank a piece of rock that, falling upon Jake’s head, eracked the poor fellow’s skull, and came near killing him. Jake had been a quarrelsome fellow, and only that - morning had picked a fuss with a Chinaman named Louie Gow, and, with the Baron Villum von Schnit- zenhauser, Buffalo Bill's comrade. The excitable miners at first believed that one of these enemies of Jake had tried to kill him, for no- _body saw the big miner hurt. But the baron proved an alibi, and Louie Gow robbed: the unwatched sluices one night and lit out for parts unknown—or so it was sup- osed. ~ Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill discovered how Jake had been hurt, and disposed of that mystery. The injured man was able to get around, but he could not remember much of his former life, and bade fair to be a half-witted unfortunate as long as he lived. _.. These incidents, joined with the poneibiiey of the Ute uprising, had kept Buffalo Bill at Cimaroon Bar for some time. He had elected to remain and watch the Indian signs in the mountains about the Bar, when his friends ac- . companied Jack Lorring and Black Water’s band to- ward Fort Lester. .. Buffalo Bill put up at the Eldorado Hotel and slept most of the day—it was quieter there during those hours, anyway... _- But as night approached he slipped out of the town and stayed away sometimes until almost daylight. And there was a good reason for this, and for the -scout’s anxiety. He saw no Indians in the flesh dur- ing the first three nights after Pawnee Bill and his party had started east; but he found signs in plenty. He was convinced that some of the Utes were watch- _ ing Cimaroon Bar from the heights all day long. He - found several smothered camp fires; and likewise traces of the reds near the town. - There was no large number of Indians within a twenty-mile radius of Cimaroon Bar; but their watch- fulness of the place, and their keeping out of sight, bothered the scout. It looked as though Black Water and his ‘people were bent upon playing the whites false. Buffalo Bill had taken his life in his hands ae gone ~ into the Ute camp after Jack Lorring had murdered the chief’s son, and had fairly bullied old Black Water into withholding his hand and urged him to attend the _ gambler’s trial at Fort Lester. _ But it looked now as though the scheming old sav- age had gone to the fort merely as a blind. Mean- while his people were gathering from far and near— _and that gathering could mean but one ae . -War—and Indian war! Buffalo Bill had seen many such uprisings. were more than two hundred fighting men in it, could a be. easily nie out by the Utes. THE BUFFALO ie. n knew that Cimaroon Bar, despite the fact that. there : BILL STORIES. ad The Indians might nuinber a thousand braves be- fore any attack was made. The favorite time for an Indian attack is just before sunrise. It was, therefore, Buffalo Bill’s determination to guard the mining camp at night, and especially just before sunup. If he could. have caught any of the reds lurking about, the scout would have made such spies tell him what was going on among the Indians beyond the range. The uncertainty of it all was what troubled Buffalo Bill more than anything else. And it was well to- ward morning of this third night that the scout sud- denly came upon something that put all his faculties on keenest edge. He had climbed some distance up the mountainside on the west of the town. Through the trees he could see an occasional light which marked the public houses in the camp. Southerly, along the riverside, a soft, thin fog drifted. The length of the Bar was patrolled each night by watchmen, for there was no night nuning be- ing carried On just now. There were two of these watchmen; but just where they were at this hour Buffalo Bill did not know. The light in the east assured him that dawn was at hand. The scout did not know, but the watchman might have already gone off duty. And he was quite sure that neither of the men 1 would come up this way; yet he heard a step—the crack of a_ dry twig—and knew that some human being had passed quite near to him. No wild animal would have made the mistake of stepping on a dry branch. Was it-Indian or white. man? ee le The scout had dropped to the ground the instant he heard the noise. He did not know which’ way ‘the. mysterious person was moving—not at first. Then there was a squeak in a brush pile a little far- ther down the slope. The keen-eared scout knew that it was a sound emitted by a porcupine when. it was startled. “T’ll take the chance,” muttered Buffalo Bill, “Who- ever made that misstep a minute ago, seems to tans startled Mr. Porcupine down there.” He wriggled through the brush himself, and no red- , , skin could have gone more softly than he down the hill. Stooping low, with one hand touching the ground now and then so that he could retain ie balance, the © scout slipped under the low limbs and through the thicket. Suddenly he reached an opening—and one. not far from.the uprise of the great bluff, the face of which was being continually washed away . the gold : miners. - Buffalo Bill knew that this opening in the tone was here, and if the mysterious marauder crossed it the scout would get a glimpse of him. He waited for some moments, and feared finally that "3 | THE BUFFALO ss, either the man had not come this way, or he had gone — so quickly that he had escaped. Another crackling in the brush aroused the scout’s attention, however. ‘The bushes parted on the upper edge of the clearing. A figure came hesitatingly into view. . Between the fog and the dim light of the early’ morning Buffalo Bill could not well mark this indi- vidual. At least, he did not recognize him. Half doubled over, the man ran softly down the hill, and in twenty seconds was out of sight again. His head and face were entirely concealed from the scout during the few moments he was in sight. “Tm hanged if I know whether he is a red or a white man,’ muttered Buffalo Bill. “But he is a marauder, whoever he is, and he’s got to be run down and properly catalogued.” _ With this determination, the scout wriggled out of the brush clump and crossed the opening in the forest himself—almost as swiftly as the fugitive. As he reached the farther covert—almost at the spot where the unknown had disappeared—the scout shot a swift glance over his shoulder. Behind and above him lay the steep side of the mountain. Hundreds of yards above was a huge bowlder, or crag, along the brink of which ran a nar- row bridle path or Indian runway. _ He knew of the existence of this path, and he knew through what high break it came between the mountain peaks. But Buffalo Bill had no idea that the edge of the rocky bluff was visible from this spot. Nor would he have noticed it now only it was so much lighter up there than it was down here toward the river. And in that glimmering, ghostly light of the pre- dawn he saw figures moving along the path—like pic- tures thrown upon a screen! _Only for a few seconds dit-he see them—horsemen, and a number of them.. They were traveling at a quick trot, and by the fluttering of their fringed garments and the shadow of the eagle feathers in their hair, he knew that they were Indians. ” There was a broad wagon treil through the range above Cimaroon Bar; but these pony riders did not come from that direction. The secret pass through the mountains farther to the south, and from which direction these mysterious redskins rode, was not known to many people—that Buffalo Bill well knew. This discovery both amazed and troubled the scout. He feared it was a war party of the Utes. ‘Their numbers were small; but there might be more gathering from other directions and by other secret Pr paths 4 Was Cimaroon Bar about to be attacked? The thought spurred Buffalo Bill to a change of front at ONCE. . ce He lost imerest in that single man stealing down toward the riverside, and tightening his belt- he set forth on a rapid lope up the steep mountainside to- ward the place where he had seen the redskins pass. BILL SIORIES. CHAPTER V. LITTLE CAYUSE\ IN DEE TOTtks: Little Cayuse, the young Piute, had proved himself many times faithful to Buffalo Bill and his comrades _ The Indian lad adored Pa-e-has-ka, himself; he re- spected Pawnee Bill as.a great chief; he was like a son to old Nick Nomad; and he was comrade to Wild Bill Hickok and the baron. The youth was proud of their confidence. Although he could not be traitor to his own people, he had grad- ually developed in his mind the unshaken belief that the white man’s ways were the right ways, and that the Indians could only, be happy and prosperous by obey- ing the white man’s law. He was a strange mixture of Indian habits and be- liefs and a faithful adherence to the customs and laws of the whites as he had learned them. : But he was as faithful to a trust as a dog would be. Pawnee Bill was perfectly secure in trusting to the young Piute the important work of taking news of the Ute uprising and the rescue of Jack Lorring to fort Lester. i If Little Cayuse lived he would-put the “talking paper” into the hand of General Lawton, at that time in command of the forces of Fort Lester, or into the hand of the general’s subordinate. | | When Little Cayuse struck his heels into the ribs of his pinto and flew out of sight around the turn in the mountain trail, going east, he went in haste but not without caution. He, as well as Pawnee Bill and the others,.realized that Black Water and his associate chiefs and braves had left the party in a state of furious rage. The Utes might be going to search for the escaped prisoner and his friends. But the Utes would be likely to spy upon Pawnee Bill’s party, too. And these renegade Indians would not care to let a messenger run for help for the whites at Cimaroon Bar! Little Cayuse trusted a good deal to the fleetness of Navi, his pony. Once let him get off of this moun- tain trail, that was so narrow, and he believed he could dodge almost any number of Indians. He rode steadily, and at a good pace, despite the hard climbing, for an hour after leaving his friends. By that time he was much higher in the mountains, and the forest was thinning. So he knew he was near the peak, or ridge, of it. ae : He had not seen the Utes, nor had he observed where they had turned off of this defined trail. And that was not surprising, for the mountainside was so rocky that to have traced their course would. have been difficult, indeed. _ He believed, however, that he must ave passed then. if Black Water and his band intended to fol- low Jack Lorring and his companions, they would have made at once for the brink of the crag where the pris- oner had last been seen. : Seeing no signs of Indians—or whites, for that mat- a t —— ter—Little Cayuse began to ride with an easier je . }meanor- And then suddenly—tright in the path before him— peeked a tall redskin, wearing the distinguishing _ marks of the same tribe of Utes as that to which Black Water and his gang belonged! _ Had this figure not appeared so suddenly—and so near him—there might have been a chance for Little Cayuse to dodge the meeting. But the tall Indian—his arms folded upon his breast and apparently unarmed—had stepped from a thicket directly before Navi's nose—so near, indeed, that the pony threw up its head with a snort. The Indian in the path was almost a giant and a very fine-looking savage, indeed. a he was entirely a stranger to Little Cayuse. “Wuh!” grunted that young brave, in surprise. The other looked the Piute over calmly. He seemed friendly enough, and he apparently had the advantage of Little Cayuse in that he knew the boy. - “The young brave of the Piutes rides on a crooked trail,’ said the tall Indian, in the dialect that Little Cayuse understood. The young fellow thought ae Pee ae the trend of. the other’s meaning, but he would not. admit it— at first. That was the Indian way. They usually beat about the bush for a long time before they come directly to the point. *Wuh! Little Cayuse is his own master,” Piute, said the _ “No,” declared the tall man gravely, “Little Cayuse — has sold himself to the paleface for a belly full of food and the toys the paleface gives him,” and he pointed scornfully to the pistols oe rifle that Little Cayuse carried, The Piute anmled: dtioueh the accusation made him angry. “Little Cayuse the friend of Pa-e-has- at he said. ‘“Pa-e-has-ka show Little Cayuse how to use white men’s: fire: stick and little fire sticks. White men’s weapons much better than Indian weapons.” “Then they are good to kill white men with, e said the tall Indian gravely« “Why kill white man?’ demanded Little ran quickly.. “White men friends to Little Cayuse.” - The tall man shook his head. ‘Little Cayuse young. He does not see clearly—or far. friends to the Cha-hicks-a-cha-hicks.” ~“Pa-e-has-ka my friend,” said'the Piute stubbornly, “Maje Lillie—Kulux-Kittybux—him my friend. Many more my friend. Wuh!” But the tall Indian went on in the dialect : SY OL think so, Little Cayuse, because you are young. They are serpent-tongued. They beguile you. man can be friend of red man. We are enemies, and must always be enemies.” ‘ »“Nol” cried the Pinte. “We be ‘friends. tal- la-ha (buffalo). * tHE BUPE a Palefaces are never _ side where there were evidences of a camp. thereto. No white Tf we" -not be friends, then the red man will soon go with the BILL STORIES. ae 9 For-the first-time the eye of the sree Indian flashed. He had been touched on the raw. “No!” he cried resonantly. “The red man will pos- sess the land again. He will drive out the white men. The buffalo will come back u “Wuh!” interrupted the Piute, who had heard all that before. “The buffalo dead; if they come back, then they come back ghost buffaloes. They no fill In- jun’s hungry belly.” This, of itsélf, was an unanswerable argument. tall redskin did not try to answer it. “The Piute is foolish to run for Pa-e-has-ka,”’ he said. “Why carry talking leaves for. him? Little Cayuse do wrong—help paleface against his brethren.” But Little Cayuse, although he was troubled much by the knowledge this man seemed to ee of him, was_ loyal to his white friends. “No, Pa-e-has-ka my friend,’ he declared. “You run with talking leaves?” “Wuh! 24 “No take talking leaves to paleface camp. Talking leaves bring much pony soldier—much walkaheap. Kill Utes. Little Cayuse spy!” The young Piute knew that he w&s in trouble. His little eyes had begun to flash glances on either side. He did not want to ride down this big Indian, but he wanted to escape before the matter went any fiirther. “Little Cayuse leave Pa-e-has-ka. Come with Utes?” cried the tall Indian. | “No!” exclaimed the youth. And then, before he could speak to Navi, or charge the: man in the path, other Indians burst from the brush on both sides, and Little Cayuse was seized, dragged from the pony, and disarmed in a flash! But to his surprise the Piute saw that none of these men who had seized upon him Heke to that band that Black Water lead. . They were mostly young. men—all but the giant. They were desperate-looking fellows. They were painted for war, and were all. armed with rifles. PCome!” commanded the tall Indian, and, wrapping his blanket about him, he led the way up the moun- tainside and off the trail. The captors of Little Cayuse followed, and te Piute was held so firmly that he could not escape. One of the Utes led Navi. They did not seem to try to hide their trail, but in a short time they reached a hollow in the mountain- Other In- | dians joined them, until Little Cayuse Ce at least twenty. : Little Cayuse was stood up against a tree and lashed Then, for the time being, he was given very little attention. o But the Indian youth’s mind was very active. He studied these redskins thoughtfully. _They had done him no harm—only taken away his weapons and Navi. As yet the tall man had not searched him for the ‘ ‘talking leaves,” as he called the note Little Cayuse was carrying to General Lawton. _ The fs | THE BUPFALO This tall man seemed to be the head of this band of reds; but as the fellows were grouped together about the fire in the middle of the glade, talking Softly, the boy suddenly recognized one of them as a brave who had ridden out of Cimaroon Bar with Black Water, and had been with that chief when the Utes separated from. Pawnee Bill and his companions after the es- Cape OL Jack Loring) cc, : . The story then was plain enough to the shrewd mind of Little Cayuse. This body of Indians—twenty braves or more—had gone ahead of ‘Black Water and the whites, and had hidden here. Had the friends of the gambler not rescued that man as they did, when Pawnee Bill and the others reached the spot where Little Cayuse himself had been held up, these waiting Utes would havé pounced upon them, and, aided by Black Water and his twenty companions, would. have massacred the whites and got hold of .the prisoner ! 7 | _ It. had been a plot worthy of the wicked mind of Black Water. He had proposed from the first to play Pa-e-has-ka false. | : _ It was likely that the whole tribe was now on the warpath waiting for the word to descend upon Cima- roon Bar. After the break between Black Water and Pawnée Bill on the trail, this Indian whom Little Cayuse rec- ognized had been sent forward to alarm the band wait- ing here—and likewise,to order the capture of Little Cayuse himself. 5 | But this last distressing circumstance did not so much trouble the young Piute. He did not fear for his own life, although he believed that because he was Pa-e- has-ka’s friend he would probably suffer death, if not the torture. : But the note Pawnee Bill had given him to deliver at Fort Lester—the “talking paper,” as Little Cayuse called it—burned in the young redskin’s bosom! CHAPTER VI. _ THE DEATH CHANT. Now it was getting dark. he shadows lengthened in the hollow where the Utes were encamped, and soon only the firelight dispelled the gloom. “ ‘Little Cayuse worked at his bonds, but could not free himself. There was no give to the cords. Nor did he dare call attention to himself by strain- ing openly at the fastenings. The camp fire flared up occasionally and revealed his whole figure to those In- dians who sat around the blaze. The reds gave no sign of leaving this spot at pres- ent. Naturally they would not care to travel in the night. ; Little Cayuse, beside being troubled mightily over his holdup and inability to follow the trail to Fort Lester, was worried not a little regarding the safety of Pawnee Bill and his companions. BILL STORIES. If there were many bands of Utes in the hills this side of Cimaroon Bar the white men might be captured before they could return to the mining camp. ~ But Little Cayuse saw that none of these hideously painted braves had scalps at their belts. It looked as though—thus far—the reds had committed no atroci- ties. His captors paid the Piute very little attention dur- ing the evening—not even the attention of offering him food. But before the party rolled into their blankets to sleep the tall Indian came to stand in front of Lit- tle Cayuse again. “Young man think heap what his friends say?” in- sinuated the Ute. “My friends white men. Kulux-Kittybux——’ “No! No your friends,” grunted the other. ‘“Lit- tle Cayuse fool.” “Little Cayuse be fool if take up hatchet against white men.” “Join Ute,” grunted the tall Indian angrily. “Paint face for war. Fight paleface. Ute kill all palefaces.” “Wuh!” grunted Little Cayuse, with scorn. “No count palefaces. Ute kill all time—one moon, two moon—imany moons!’ and he opened the fingers of his tied hands rapidly to show that he meant a great many months. “Then no kill all white men. Wuh?!”? ‘“Pa-e-has-ka lie to Little Cayuse,” declared ’the Ute. “No so many white men.” “Little Cayuse go himself. See himself, White men's town, with more braves, squaws, papoose than all Ute nation in one town! Wuh!” This statement seemed to stagger the tall Indian for the moment. Yet for some reason he was very. de- sirous of weaning Little Cayuse away from Buffalo Bill. “The paleface blind Indian’s eyes,”’ said the tall man haughtily, reverting to his own tongue. “He uses magic to show him lies. But the magic of the Ute medicine men is greater than the magic of the white men. The Utes shall destroy the white men—all, all!’ This sort of talk was foolish in the ears of Little Cayuse, who had learned so much about the whites and their wealth and strength. But it troubled him seri- ously, for he saw that influences were at work among the Utes to rouse them all in a mighty war against the palefaces. He said nothing now, however, only shaking his head at the tall Ute. The latter added: | “We would save our brother, Little Cayuse. We will give him the night to think it over. At the coming of the sun to-morrow, if he will not leave Pa-e-has-ka and join with us, Little Cayuse will hunt his ances- tors.” ee ve ay With a final gesture, the tall man turned away. Little Cayuse made no mistake as to what was meant by this statement. _ Inthe morning, if he had not changed his mind and would not join the Utes, he would be put out of the : i q : My friends Pa-e-has-ka, fae way. Death confronted the Indian youth¢—and prob- ably death in some horrible and ingenious form. Little Cayuse was not shaken, however; he had been threatened before with extermination. He had come through many tight places, and, like all other brave souls, he possessed a fund of hope. But standing tied to that sapling, hungry and thirsting, and with the lashings now cutting mto his flesh, the young Piute’s heart grew very empty. of comfort! He could not sleep. If he dozed at all his body sagged on the cords and the pain of them awoke him. Each sentinel, as he-came on guard, tried the youth's bonds, and sometimes tightened them. So. that, be- fore morning, the pain became exquisite—akmost un- bearable. Yet so schooled was Little Cayuse in the w ays of his people that he did not even utter a sigh to show his torture. The fire died down to coals at last, and gray. lights ‘flickered aione the trees. Le- kuts-kot-rue—"the medicine bird’—sprang from some meadow on the mountainside and hailed the dawn with its morning song; and it seemed to the Indian boy that never be- fore had a lark’s song sounded so sweet. _ For Little Cayuse realized that probably he had come to the very last day of his earthly career. To-day he would seek the spirit land—and he wished to go bravely. As soon as the Utes had partake of a little break- fast the tall man stood before the Piute youth again. “Has Little Cayuse thought of the good council of his Ute brother?” demanded this man sternly. ~The boy was in the greatest torture of mind and body now. He did not know what else might befall him, and he feared his own else to endure without a murmur. Therefore he tried to tempt the Ute to: kill him at once. Snarling an opprobrious epithet at the tall brave, Little Cayuse spat in his face! The Ute sprang back with a yell, jerked the knife from his belt, and poised a moment on the balls of his feet, as though to ang himself upon the youth and kill him instantly. And this was the boon Little Cayuse crav ed: He hoped for nothing better! But the tall brave controlled himself. In a guttural tone, he issued commands to his men. Three of them unbound Little Cayuse from the tree, but his tortured wrists and ankles remained tied. Then, with the tall Indian in the lead, ‘ite captors started through the forest, along the mountainside, with Little Cayuse. Two of the bucks carried a leg each, and a died held the Piute’s shoulders. They - were not particular how they carried him, either; he might have been a sack of meal. — For halt a mile they traveled in this way—only the four Utes and their prisoner. They came to the mouth y IE. BUPFALO BILL STORIES. 2 eat of a gully in the hillside—a eh ravine, its sides ov er- grown with stunted trees. There was a half-discernable path up the bottom of this gulch. Sick and galled as he was, Little Cayuse knew that this path must have been made by some wild creature—presumably a bear. Quietly, and with stealthy looks around, the tall leader went up this path and was gone from sight for ten minutes. The three others dropped Little Cayuse on the ground to rest; but they, too, kept a cautious watch about them. The sun was rising now, and the gulch only was in shadow when the tall Indian returned and beckoned his men on. Little Cayuse was carried up the inclined way for some rods. Then suddenly the gully ended in a pocket. There ‘was a broad shelf of rock, at the rear of which was a small dark opening—the entrance to a cave. Little Cayuse knew well enotigh that this was the lair of a bear. Whether it was a deserted home of the animal, or one now occupied he could not tell. The redskins. evidently knew the place well. They showed by their actions that they feared that \the owner of the lair would appear. swiftly they bore Little Cayuse to the shelf and laid him, all bound as he was, directly before the entrance to the cave. Any creature going into, or coming out of, the hole must needs step over the body of the young. Piute! Quickly assuring himself that the captive’s bonds were still taut, the ‘tall Indian bent over Little Cayuse, glared with hatred into the youth's eyes, muttered a curse, and withdrew. The prisoner heard them scrambling hastily up the side of the gulch; they evidently did not dare return by the way they had come. And almost immediately Little Cayuse knew why. He heard a rustling, and then a whining inside the cave. The noises were made by one or more bear cubs. But the mother bear was not at home. The brain of the unfortunate Indian lad seemed to clear instantly. His tortures had made him a_ bit flighty during his journey in the Utes’ arms; but — now he fully realized his position. | The Indians knew that the old bear was not at home. She had been out hunting during the night, and would soon return to suckle her young. The presence of a human being before the’ door of her cave would stir the mother bear into blind rage. Believing her cubs in danger she would tear Little _.Cayuse to pieces—and then see if her cubs were safe afterward! The hungry whining of the baby bears continued. Little Cayuse heard nothing more of his savage cap- tors, nor did he hear the coming footsteps of the old bear. He knew that his end was at hand, however; and he prepared to meet it—terrible as it would be—as bravely as his own father could have wished. The Indian is instinctively religious—in his owa a THE BUFFALO way. He believes implicitly in the power of Manitou; but to him this god is a god of fate and seldom of mercy. : Little Cayuse, facing death here in this gully, did not pray for escape. But he lifted his voice weakly in the death chant of his tribe. Weakly at first; but as he went on his voice grew stronger—the tones grew higher and more strained. And down below him, in the gully, there was a sud- den crash in the bushes. Then sounded the angry growl of a beast and the scratching over the rocks of - the creature's long claws. The mother bear was coming on the dead run! / CHAPTER Vii. BESET, BM PREIS. The falling bowlder o’ershadowed Pawnee Bill and his three companions and the wind of it fanned their cheeks. Yet, by the mercy of Providence, and through the lucky glance of the baron that had apprised him of the danger from overhead, all escaped the falling rock. With a deafening crash, the bowlder struck the ledge on which the comrades rode, and the huge missile was split into fragments. The tail of Pawnee Bill’s horse was scarcely out of the way when the bowlder struck. But even Toofer, the mule, bounded ahead at such desperate speed that the splitting fragments did not chance to injure either the men or the steeds. Most of the pieces bounded down into the cafion, caroming against the wall of the cliff and finally land- ing in the river. “By gorry!’” panted Wild Bill, pulling in his horse at the end of the ledge. “We just escaped that time, Pawnee!” “The whiskyzoos sure missed us,’”’ grunted Nomad. ~ “Vale! dey vos nod vhiskyzoos, vot oder else dey may pe,’ declared the baron. “Dot rock didt nod vall py himselluf—nix!”’ “Did you see anybody behind it?’ demanded Paw- nee Bill hastily. : “Undt I could nod say dot I did idt,’’ returned the baron slowly. “Bud de rock did nodt vall all py him- selluf.” ; “T don’t know,” said Wild Bill. “It might have been balanced just right . . “And wot jarred it loose,. Hickok?” interrupted Nomad. “Dot is anudder t’ing,” said the baron, in his slow . way. “I didt nod see anypody oop dere; pud I didt see vot jarred de rock loose.” _ “Qn-she-ma-da!’’ exclaimed the impatient bowie man. “Give it to us, baron. What the dickens did you see?” “De rock vos bried.avay from de edge of de cliff yedt eo “Pried away from it?” “Dot iss idt! Himmelblitzen! I see de dree dey, Die SL ORDES, use idt mit mein own eyes. Dot vos vot made me gall oudt.”’ “But you did not see the men who did the prying?” demanded Pawnee. “Nein.” “Why not?” “Vale, dey stoodt meppeso too var pack,” said the baron placidly. ‘Do you reckon he’s got the rights of it, Pawnee?” demanded Hickok. “It sounds right.” “Tl trust ter those pop-eyes of th’ baron’s,” grunted Nomad. “But who did it?’ cried Pawnee. “Vale! idt vould nod mooch madder yedt if de rock hit us—aind’t idt?” “But it didn’t hit us—thanks be!’ cried Pawnee. “And I don’t want:.the matter to rest here.’’ “You mean you want to know whether that bowlder was pushed over on us by reds or whites?” asked the astute Laramie man. “You've got it, Bill.” : “It looks like we'd oughter look into et,” admitted Nomad. “If those friends of Jack Lorring stayed up there long enough to do that, they must be in force. I'd like to know how many there are of them.” “And, Pawnee, mebbe we cart git a line on Lorring again,” said Wild Bill, with responsive eagerness. “Right-oh !”’ “Bud ve moost tage de news of vot has happened to Puffalo Pill,” objected the baron. “T realize that,” said Pawnee. “We gotter divide forces, thet’s all,” grunted No- mad. “And there you are right, old Diamond,” said the bowie man, “Who will take the news to Cimaroon?’’ demanded Hickok. “What about the baron?” asked Pawnee. “He can prick on with the mule, and he’ll get there soon after daybreak. We can hide our horses and climb to the top of yon crag.” “And git thar before sundown, too,” declared No- mad, with vigor. “I'm with ye, Pawnee,” declared Wild Bill, “De madder seems to pe decided unanimously mit- oudt mein vode adt all,” murmured the baron rue- fully. ““Pud somepody moost go—undt idt may as vale pe Schnitzenhauser.” ; This point being decided, the party rode back on the trail for half a mile—and rode fast. They saw no further signs of either redskins or renegade whites; but they believed that there surely were people in the mountain who—as Hickok expressed it—‘had it in’ for them! “Tell my old necarnis that we'll feel out this crowd of gay boys who have grabbed off Lorring—and tried to pinch out our candles, too,” said Pawnee to the baron. ‘But we'll come in mighty pronto if we find oe AS feed n ‘Keets-cotty and his gang. man. “But for ee protection—no !’’ » “THE BUFFALO that the Injuns are thick in the woods—don’t forget to tell him that.’ “And keep your own eyes skinned fer trouble, “T mistrust thet thar I dunno but ’twas them tried ter squash us like bugs under thet thar bowlder.” “Could they have got up there on that crag so. quickly ?’”’ asked Hickok. “*Twouldn’t surprise me none,’ pers “Well, take care of yourself, baron,” said Pawnee Bill, in conclusion, and the mule and the German trotted away and quickly disappeared from the sight of the trio. “Now, let’s hike, and hike quick,’ said Hickok. ‘Whether the fellers that tried to git us were red or white, I’m itchin’ to give em our compliments in re- turn.”’ “Go easy, Bill,’ warned Pawnee. “We don’t want to make any false steps in this dance. Were up against bad folks, either way—red or white.” “Er-waugh !’’ murmured old Nomad, “Ain't you jest right, major!” ; The trio led their horses into the forest, almost dragging them up a steep ascent, and finally found a baron,” advised old Nomad. ? grumbled the trap- sheltered hollow in which the succulent grasses grew lush and offered a spot of good grazing for the night at least. Here they left their steeds and their rifles. They. could not be hampered by heavy armament. After eating a cold bite taken from their war bags, they tightened their belts, removed their boots and drew on moccasins instead, and then set out to climb the steep side of the mountain toward that crag over which Lorring had disappeared, and from the brink of which the cowardly attack had been made upon their lives. They were more than an hour in reaching that spot from which the bowlder had been flung. They had seen nobody in the forest, and their passing to this spot had been:so careful that they could. not possibly have aroused the attention of any enemy. And here was the first place in which they saw signs of that enemy. There were a few footprints in the hard earth. They were the prints of moccasins; but that meant nothing, for they wore the Indian foot- coverings themselves. And the marks were few and scattered. on the hard earth. It was plain that the baron had seen aright. Here was the tree with which the scoundrels had pried the bowlder out of its bed and tipped it over the brink of the cliff, “And them sinners come dern near gittin’ us, boys,” muttered old Nomad. “But they didn’t manage it; and now they’ve lit out,” said Hickok. “What shall we do, Pawnee—follow them?” “For personal satisfaction Suen," said the bowie Jack Lorring’s wrists. observed Nomad. BILL STORIES. ie ee “Er-waugh!” exclaimed Nomad, much puzzled by this oracular announcement. Wild Bill laughed. “I catch your drift, Pawnee,” he said. “‘You think we'd better go further along yon, and see what became of Lorring?”’ “And the men that stole him away from us, Pawnee. “And them Injuns thet I ber aire on their trail, too,” 29 said declared Nomad. . “But one party or the other must have come to the spot and tipped the rock over,” said Hickok. “Granted. But we must take things in their right order,” said Pawnee Bill. They crept along the edge of the forest, which did not descend quite to the brink of the bluff, looking for signs all the way. And they found the spot to which : Jack Lorring had been hoisted by his friends without the least trouble, The marks here of moe- casins were plain enough. : “Huh!” granted Wild Bill, “We don't know now whether these fellers were the skunks that tipped that rock over onto us, or not.” “We don’t know yet,’ admitted Pawnee Bill. “But we will know—eh, old Diamond?” JEr waugh !”’ growled Nick Nomad. we're likely ter fare sumpin’, all right. them hombres went. “Come on! ' Yere’s whar Yere’s the cord they cut offen Er-waugh!”’ The afternoon was now waning. It would not long be light, and the three friends could not trail through the forest for long. * Nomad went ahead, and for some distance the tracks of the four men they pursued were very plain in- deed. ‘They had struck right up the higher mountain- side, as though only desirous of getting away from. the place where the three had made their very des- perate, but successful, attempt to rescue ‘the murderer. “Don't look like these fellers dodged back and plumped the rock over onto us, after all, Dy gorry!” muttered Hickok, But this comment was scarcely digested by his friends when the trail reached a huge flat rock which cropped out of the hillside. This barren bowlder ex- tended upward for several rods, and was equally wide. The quartet they were following evidently used this tock by which to halt further pursuit. Sharp as were the eyes of the trio who followed them, they could not find the point where the fugitives left this rock! _ . “They knew erbout this yere place, and they come yere a-purpose,’ declared Nomad. “It’s gittin’ power- ful dark, boys. . We can’t see no furder.”’ “What'll we do? Give it up and go back?’ de- manded Wild Bill. “Not on your tintype!” cried Pawnee. “We gotter bog down yere and wait fer sunup,” “IT feel like Lillie does. ter find Jack and his mates if we kin.’ “Mebbe old Black Water will find ’em first,” mut- tered Wild Bill. We got=. #3: 14 : THE BUFFALO But he made no objection to the proposition to spend the night on the open mountainside. They did not remain on this huge rock, for it was too exposed; but in a little valley not far away they crept under the shelter of a thicket and went supperless and fireless to sleep. At least, two of them did; the night was divided as evenly as it were possible to do so, by reading the stars, into three watches. Hickek had the morning watch. The east grew rosy and the birds had begun to sing ‘when the Laramie man heard-a faint and croon- ing sound—the sound of a human voice. It rose and fell, at no great distance, and finally grew strong enough so that it seemed a chant—and in the Indian tongue. He awoke his comrades instantly, and in half a min- ute the three were warily trailing the sound, creeping through the underbrush easterly along the mountain- side. “Thet thar’s er-Injun death chant,” whispered No- mad, with confidence. pr . “An Indian death chant? Ridiculous!” declared Hickok. -“Then it’s whiskyzoos,” gtowled the superstitious borderman. s But Pawnee Bill was troubled by no belief in ghosts. He led the way, and he led swiftly. The trio of white men came out suddenly upon the brink of’a steep-sided ravine. The eerie sounds came up from the shadowy bottom of this place. And then, as the light of sunrise increased momen- tarily they saw something that startled them more than the sound of the gruesome chant. Lying on a flat rock before a hole in the mountain wall was a figure, bound. It was the figure of an In- dian. In another instant the three recognized the cap- tive. “The Piute!” hissed Pawnee Bill. © “By gorry! ye’re right,” agreed Wild Bill. “Thar’s Injuns yere,’ muttered Nomad.. “It’s er - trap fer us, mebbeso.” But there was a more imminent danger than that of Indians. Below in the gully they suddenly heard the she bear growling. And then they heard her charging up the ravine to the rescue of her cubs in the lair! CHAPTER VIII. THE SLUICE ROBBER. Buffalo Bill did not reach the bridle path, at the point where he had seen the Indian horsemen pass, until the sun was well up. The mist had melted then and he could see clearly. | ~The damp earth retained the marks of the ponies’ hoofs, and from a careful scrutiny of the marks he judged that at least a score of riders had passed this Way. He followed at a double quick, but could not over- take the mysterious band. BILE “STORIES, The trail crossed the regular wagon road leading over the divide, and went on to the east of Cimaroon Bar, through the heavy forest. For two hours the scout did his best to overtake the Utes; but they’ struck an easy path finally and went away at a gallop—the pony tracks showed that. The possibility was that they were merely a band of hunters; nevertheless, the Utes had not been in the habit of hunting in this direction, game being pretty well chased away from the vicinity of the mining camp. Alone and unmounted as he was, the scout did not venture to go further. He got down into the camp in time for breakfast at the Eldorado; and there he found the superintendent of the mining company, Alf Granger, and some of the miners themselves, in a state of much excitement. “Judas priest, Cody!’ exclaimed Granger. “Some dadburned son of a Digger Injun has been at the sluices again. What d’ye think of that?” The information brought instantly to the mind of Buffalo Bill the remembrance of the unknown he had followed early that morning, before a sight of the Indian band had caused him to track up the mountain again. “A sluice robber!” he exclaimed. are sure, Granger?” “Two boxes got their riffles cleaned out. And it happened just now—or so Joe and Ginger say. They had the watch, and come up to camp when the fire- man arrived as usual to blow up the fires.” “Then the robbery was committed just at day- break ?”’ “Sure. He worked quick, but he didn’t have time to finish up more than two boxes.” | “Any trail?’’-asked the scout, as he sat down to the long general table, and the Mexican brought his break- fast. “Lor-dy!” ejaculated Granger. “That’s what makes it so dadburned puzzling. Ye know, Cody, we had a sluice robber before—not long ago?” “Pawnee Bill told me about. it. wasn't it?” “Phat’s what we reckoned. Yer friend, Pawnee, found the tracks, and they was sure Chink’s™ slip- pers.” | “And these tracks ?” “Not! They ain’t the same. B’sides, I-don’t be- lieve Louie Gow would ha’ dared hang eround here so long. He got the cleanup that night becatse we was all so bothered over the Injuns that we didn’t set no watches.” “And you are sure this wasn’t the Chinaman ?” “Come! when you get that grub stowed away, walk down yon and look at the marks I found. Dad- burned funny marks, too, now, I tell ye!’ “Cody said nothing about the man he had seen early that morning stealing toward the riverbank; but when he had eaten he accompanied the superintendent down the bar. “T suppose you A Chinaman, — TR pee bed SE eg tag (et ee Try pweet OL) ~~ =~ -_ Tr Sead 6° a gee es yt peek YY OM rh O oO Oo snowshoes on his feet,” at was the very first two sluice boxes that had been robbed. (It was still so early that not many men had _ been at the place ; therefore it was possible to pick out some impressions that Granger declared to be the marks left by the robber. But they were not boot marks; nor were they the impressions of Chinese slippers, such as Pawnee Bill | had found after the former robbery. “What d’ye say to them, Cody?’ demanded the su- perintendent. ‘Ain’ they cuckoos? See! that feller scuffled down yere from the bresh yonder.” The trail in question was a half-blurred tracery of criss-cross lines, eight or ten inches broad and an in- determinable length. Its ragged shape and the un- certain impressions in the sand had ay puzzled Granger. But they did not bother Buffalo Bill for a moment. However, at first he made no explanation of them, but traced their course to and from the thicket the superintendent had pointed out. And in the thicket he examined the ground care- fully for other marks. The earth was. hard here, however, and behind the clump of brush and saplings the mountainside rose for some distance ina series of rocky terraces that precluded any trailing. The robber had shown good judgment i selecting his point of attack. But Buffalo Bill saw that this place from which the fellow had’ risked exposure on the open riverbank was in line of the course followed by the unknown whom he himself had nearly collared that morning. ~ Yet for the life of him the scout could not have identified the flitting figure that he had chased through the forest! “What d’ye say about it, Cody?” demanded Gran- ger impatiently. “T can speak with all the authority of the usual de- tective,’ returned Buffalo Bill, smiling, ‘You have been robbed.’ “Oh, thunder!” “nd these are the ess most eae left r the marauder.” “Dadburn it, Cody! who done it?” . _ “Now, you don’t expect an answer to that from a mere detective, do you? You want a man with sec- : know all that, myself. But ond sight.” “Hang it all—quit joshing!” exploded Granger. “It -warn’t that Chink this time—heh?” “That I could not say, either.” “Well, what kind of a dadburned critter could leave tracks like them?” “Almost any two- legged hiped—providing he wore chuckled Buffalo Bill. Granger exploded again profanely, but grinned like- wise. “That sure’s one on me,’ * he admitted. “It never crossed my mind. Gee! a pair of snowshoes in fly- time.” “The man may have been the same who robbed you THE BUFFALO BILL STORIES. oa os before—Chinaman, or not. There. are aothing im those marks to tell us whether he was white, red, or yellow.” “Reckon you're pale, Coan? “Under the present circumstances, Granger,’ added the scout, “‘I wouldn't give too much of my thought to this robbery.” “Heh? Pe? I x “Just guard your Ae a little better. And; in addition, warn the men working down the bar, here, to keep their weapons loaded—and a guard in day- time would not be a bad idea.” “Shucks! The feller won’t try to rob us in broad daylight.” “No. But I apprehend other trouble.” “Injuns?’’ _ “The Utes are on the move. The camp is watched all the time. And early this morning I followed a good-sized party of braves riding to the eastward.” “Dadburn ee thought the Injun scare was mostly over.’ “Tm afraid it howe nae begun,” acknowledged Buffalo Bill. “Until the troopers get here from Fort Lester I shall not feel convinced to the contrary.” “Well,” said Granger, not so much impressed. “We've got a bunch of husky boys yere, Cody. We can fight.”’ ‘But we don’t want to be caught napping. I am going to set guards all around the camp, day and night. There is something going on among the Utes that perhaps I have not fathomed,”’ and the scout shook his head doubtfully. ) ‘CHAPTER IX. THE WASP’S NEST. The Haron Villum yon Schnitzenhauser pointedly lacked judgment; but he had one attribute that com- manded the highest praise. He knew how to obey. His experience in the German army y had taught him that, if nothing else. He was faithful and brave. as well, and when he was appointed to carry the news of what had happened on the mountain trail to Buffalo Bill, his friends hadn’t much doubt that the baron would “get there.” And, barring Toofer’s taking another fit of stubborn- ness, the messenger was likely to arrive in Cimaroon _ Bar not far from sunup the following morning ; for after leaving the mountain trail the path to the mining camp was one easily followed, either day or night. Toofer struck his gait when they emerged into the easier trail an hour before sundown. The mule was a good traveler, and the baron sat an easy saddle. The rider pulled in the overeager mule, however, at a sharp rise where the trees overhung the trail and ° made it—some rods ahead—a trifle gloomy. Knowing that there were Indians loose in the coun- try—to say nothing of Jack Lorring and his desperate 16 comrades—the baron, on advice from Nick Nomad, “kept his eyes skinned.” He saw no enemy as he journeyed up the steep hil- lock; but the thicket on either hand offered a splendid ambush, and the baron muttered to himself: “Mit dose Inchuns I dond’t vant no doin’s—nix. Undt if Toofer goes easy he vill schmell dem oudt sooner as I could see dem—lI pet you! Huh! vos iss dot?” In staring about with his goggle eyes the baron spied something hanging from a tree branch just ahead. At first he thought it was a piece of newspaper flut- tering from the branch, and newspapers are not fre- quently come across in the wilds. He drew Toofer in quickly to a walk, and shot ‘glances all about him with quick suspicion. Any little thing—especially an inexplicable thing—was sufficient to startle a man traveling alone and under the circum- stances that had brought the baron to this place. Nothing stirred in ‘the underbrush; but overhead a bird was fluttering and ecalling—a mother bird startled - from its nest. The feathered creature hovered over a particular spot beside the path, but some yards beyond the flut- tering thing. A dozen forest enemies might have caused the bird’s excitement. Nevertheless, the baron finally halted the mule, and was about to dismount when Toofer bucked, kicked out with his hind feet, and oe a startled “hee- haw!” “VO8 iss oF demanded the ie just managing to save himself from a bad. tumble. “You vos ‘a schmardt-meyer—yah? Idt iss feedin’s you git too _mooch of, meppeso. You iss too fresh yedt.” — The mule whisked his tail sharply and stretched his head around as though to see his flank. “The baron slapped him over the ears with his hat. “Git on mit you—you loafer! You gedt me into more dr-r-rouble yedt—yah!” This last was actually a shout! The baron smote himself wildly behind the-right ear, and the mule started forward again. “Himmelblitzen!” bawled the baron. I haf peen bid yedt!’ He glared all around and rubbed the spot behind his ear in agony. He could feel a lump rising under his fingers there. Some insect had certainly bitten him. Then his gaze lit upon the fluttering thing in the tree, and he beheld a sort of-a moving haze about it. It was not that the rag-*of paperlike substance itself fluttered—for there was no breeze—but a cloud of something surrounded it—and that cloud was violently agitated. Toofer had begun to trot, and in a iawn seconds the baron was almost under the rag. Again, with a vio- lent “heehaw!” and a buck that would have done credit to a range pony, Toofer gave indication that he was startled and hurt. “Py shiminy Gristmus !” gasped the baron. pees——- Waugh!” “Vos iss dot? it iss ° So Be ~~ THE BUFFALO BILL STORIES - This final explosion of sound was caused by a sec- ane sting that was located on the back of the-baron’s neck. He dropped the bridle and slapped at the place first with one hand and then the other. In his ears was now a buzzing, or humming, noise. He glanced up in fright at that mysterious thing on the branch, and finally understood what he had run into! - A torn wasp’s nest, of huge dimensions, swung from Me tree limb, and the occupants of the disrupted home were either angrily buzzing about the nest or shooting out in skirmishing parties to attack any living thing in the vicinity in a blind desire for vengeance. "“Whoob!’’ shouted the baron, as a third wasp nailed hing “Diseiss no blace. vor Schnitzenhauser. Get oob, Toofer!” He dug his heels into the ribs of the mule. But while the animal was still rearing and snorting, about a quarter of the whole colony of wasps dropped upon Toofer’s undefended rump! The mule was a past master in the art of kicking: but now he attempted to break his own record. Andina moment Toofer was a tangle of legs, ears, and gyrating Dutchman! Out of the cloud of wasps and mule hoofs came staccato cries and grunts. The baron was in an awful fix, for to save himself from coming a cropper over the mule’s head, he had to cling to his saddle with both hands. And that gave the wasps a splendid chance at the unfortunate German. The wicked yellow rascals inserted their stings in about every portion of Schnitzenhauser’s cuticle that was uncovered. His cap flew off, and they lit on his undefended head in a swarm. His hands and wrists were likewise attacked, and in as many moments as it takes to tell it the poisonous jabs of the enraged in- sects began to take effect. . The baron’s face and head began to swell. Some of the wasps inserted themselves between his neck and the collar of his shirt. Even his eyelids were stung, and he was completely blinded. But Toofer did not desist. He would not . up the fight. And by some fiendish luck his heels finally caught the remains of the huge nest squarely, and the wreck of it, with the remaining wasps, fell upon him- self and his rider, Blinded as he was, the baron could still hear. And suddenly there penetrated to his understanding a sound that he could not mistake. The shrill, bloodthirsty yells of fide sounded from all about him. He heard the crashing of their footsteps in the brush on either side of the frail. Fle was in the midst of an ambush. Perhaps the reds had torn open the wasp nest purposely to delay the German and his mule. Then came the crackling of several guns, and the “zip-ping’” of the bullets as they passed close to, the baron’s head. . Something seemed to scorch his et atm—from ee S Ne ee SOD COE a ire BUPEALO elbow to shoulder. It was not a bullet, but at the next hoist of-the maddened Toofer the baron realized that -he had managed to shake an Indian brrow from his shoulder. Pear fairly jerked open his swollen eyelids. He ob- tained a confused picture of a horde of painted faces about him. One warrior was coniing at him with a poised spear.. The Indians seemed all to be afoot. And then he realized that the yells of defiance and triumph were changed to shrieks of pain. The brave with the spear never reached him. The angry swarm of wasps separated with soldierly precision, and in platoons ee: upon the red- skins! Toofer uttered a final, awful oe The baron felt blood spurt from a wound i in the mule’s neck upon his hand. A flying arrow had missed the rider“by a hair, and had slit a gash in Toofer’s neck. ‘ Wasps were one thing; but if his enemies were com- ing at him with swords, that was too much even for the obstinacy of Toofer! He sprang ahead like a charging bull. Two of the Indians were bowled over. The others were ee off the angry insects. And before the unmounted scoundrels could recover themselves, the mule was galloping over the rise, his rider rocking in the saddle, but clinging with his last strength to it. The escape was complete! Toofer ran like the wind for five miles. He came to a deep creek and a into the middle of it. There the unfortunate baron rolled out of the sad- dle, and the mule himself laid down until his own smarting body was completely laved by the water— all but his nose. The plunge woke up the baron. He struck out, man- aged to swim a yard or two, and finally recovered his feet and stood upright. His head was swollen to the size of a peck measure. He could barely see out of slits: between his eyelids. His hands and wrists were puffed to an unnatural size as well. He spat the water from his lungs,\obtained at last a full breath, and then that a man should so waste good wind upon the kind of language the baron there and then emitted! And yet one had to admit that the baron had some cause for complaint. ; He was most awfully stung up by the wasps; he had a nasty scratch along his arm from the Indian arrow; and he had collected an assortment of bruises from the rocks in the bottom of the creek into which he had been so unceremoniously dumped. Finally, with many groans, he got to the shore a there dropped upon the bank. Toofer got onto his haunches in the middle of the brook, facing his mas- ter, and so sitting half gut of the water, waggled his long ears and snorted. Well, it really is a pity” ee _the mule. BILE STORIES. | | 4 The baron took this for a challenge. He raised a puffed fist and shook it weakly at the brute. “Vale, see vot you did itdt now!’ the baron gasped. “Didn't I say you vos a schmardt-meyer ?”’ CAG TR Os, THE BARON GETS IN DEEPER. But there was no use in sitting there and condemning The baron was well aware of that; but the strenuous exertions he had put forth during the hour had pretty well done him up. So it was some time before he had the pluck to get up and proceed to urge the mule out of the water. Meanwhile he found that his own ducking had been good for the wasp stings. Toofer had discovered that remedy, and it took some time to get him out of the stream. When this was. accomplished the swellings on the baron’s face and hands had become less painful, and > he could see better. But dusk had fallen, the night chill was on, and the baron dared not go on without wringing the water out of his clothes and trying to get his bones warm. As the Indians, who had attacked him, were evi- dently afoot, he did not fear pursuit—not immediately. He managed to kindle a fire in a sheltered place, and while the picketed Toofer grazed, his master made. himself more comfortable. When his clothing was partly dried, and he had got into it again, he ate a cold bite and saddled. up once more. It then lacked only an hour of midnight. “Undt now, you pig vool!” croaked the baron to his mule. -. see if. you gan capry.me to Cimaroon/Par midoudt any more oof your foolishness-ness yedt!’ His fear of possible lurking Indians was as great as his desire to report to Buffalo Bill. The baron felt that the forest was no place for him on this dark night. The trail was gloomy, for it ran a good part of the way through the forest, and the lack of a moon made traveling both unpleasant and dangerous. The mule, however, was sure-footed, and was really a wise creature.. He was. not likely to put a hoof in a hole, or otherwise make a misstep. But the darkness was not the only danger threaten- ing the baron on that ride. Beside the Indians there were other savage creatures in the forest, and the mule had not carried him two miles beyond the stream when the presence of these desperadoes of the night was an- nounced. - The baron heard first a ‘distant and mournful howl —faint in the beginning but, as he progressed toward the. mining camp, the yelling of the wolf was joined by the hunting notes of other wolves. , A pack was gathering—and it was ahead of him. _ oa this time of year even the big, gray timber wolves were not supposed to be ravenous. ‘There were plenty of jack rabbits and other small game, and even on this 18 ae. of the range there were sufficient deer to give the wolves good running. But they gathered to the sound of the heavy bho beats of the baron’s mule. »-*-The rider began to see the Suarking of their eyes along the trail. Soon half a dozen were running with him, and Toofer snorted his dislike. They ceased yelling as soon as they sighted the mule and the baron; but the soft pad, pad, padding of their feet seemed to rise above every other noise. Their pursuit soon got upon the baron’s nerves, and he declaimed his feelings in a series of grunts and snorts that coincided with those of Toofer’s. But the wolves grew bold. One huge fellow loped up fairly beside the mule, and suddenly made a spring for the baron’s leg. _ Despite the fact that Schnitzenhauser did not wish to awake the echoes of the forest, and proclaim to every listening ear that a white man was passing along that way, this attempt on the part of the wolf to get him piecemeal was too, too much. The first jump of the beast fell short; but the next one might be more successful. The baron pulled out his guns and blazed away on both sides at the eyes of fire! . — With shrill, vehement yelpings the wolves again made the night hideous. More than one was bowled over; but the gang was added to momentarily and seemed only enraged by the shooting of their comrades. “Ach, himmelblitzen!” breathed the baron, begin- ning to grow really anxious. “Dere iss all de wolfs in de worldt here, aind’t idt?”’ He put his hand upon the mule’s flank and felt that Toofer was sweating—and it*was the sweat of fear. The obstinate creature could not kick these ravenous beasts into a better mind, for- they would be: too elusive—and Toofer well bone it. He could only run; and he needed not the baron’s urging to make him run for once! Meanwhile his rider blazed away, shooting steadily Into the pack; but he only knocked over now and then one, for, riding at the speed he did, it was almost im- possible to take good aim. Besides, the wolves were like shadows—they darted this way and that. When he fired they scattered; then in a minute they were panting behind the mule’s heels, their red tongues hanging on their breasts and their eyes glowing like fox fire. | “Tf dot vool. mu- “el shouldt mage a tumble now, groaned the baron, “‘undt vent down yedt, I vould_pe t’rown indo vorse dan a ten of lions—yes!” Such thoughts as this made him load up his pistols again and empty them as fast as he could into the pack. The fusillade drove the wolves off for a time. He had to pull the mule down to a slower pace and let him breathe. But both the baron and his mount were twitching with nervousness. When the wolf clan began to gather again they were — And every time this happened, and forced to spur on. THE BUFFALO Bit bo REE S. the baron had to shcot, he feared that he was announc- ing to more dangerous enemies than these the fact of his presence in the forest. And the baron was not at all out of his reckoning there. Off and on the hungry wolf pack hounded him until daybreak. He was then only a few miles from Cimaroon Bar, and when the beasts finally sneaked off into the lightening forest—for'the coming day frightened as baron’s relief was monu- miettals*. “Vale! dey hass gifen me von pad night—dot iss so!’ he muttered. “Put I vill soon pe mit Puffalo ilk: He would have felt anything but relief, however, had he known that shortly before this moment a mounted band of twenty and more Utes had given Buffalo Bill the slip near the mining camp, and was riding fast along the trail to meet the baron himself. The yelling of the wolf pack warned these reds that somebody, or something, was being chased by the hun- gry beasts. Then the final fusillade of the baron’s pistols assured them that the fugitive was a white man—for no red | would have so recklessly wasted his ammunition—and that he was coming down toward the Bar. Immediately these red scoundrels forced their horses into the thicket beside the trail and prepared to. ambush the coming white. One of the reds was a young brave who had learned to throw the lariat with the precision of a regular cow- puncher. He ‘chimbed 4 ee beside the trail, coiled } his rope carefully, and, hidden by a clump of brush, waited — the coming of the mule, the hoofs of which now beat a quick tattoo in the ears of the waiting reds. Toofer came pounding along the trail, covered with sweat, and well-nigh done up by his night’s labors. His rider blew sighs of relief and really considered all his troubles over now that he was so near Cimaroon ar: For once the baron forgot his cautiousness. He had come through so much during the night that he really believed Fate could have nothing bad in store for him..*And for once Toofer gave no warning of the presence of Indians. Perhaps all the mule could think of then was wolves and wasps! However it was, the beast pounded along until he came to the bowlder where the Indian crouched. In- stantly the red sprang up, circled the rope about his head, and dropped the noose quite neatly over the Baton’ s shoulders. With a startled grunt the baron dronped the bridle and grabbed at the tightening noose. The savages "broke into yells. Toofer sprang ahead as though under the spur, and fortunately the baron’s feet were jerked loose from the stirrups—otherwise he : might have been pulled in two by the strain! : Before the other Indians~could seize the startled Tooter, the mule broke through their ranks and ran — t] ee ot eS let tt THE BUFFALO BILL STORIES. — ca 19. on like the wind for Cimaroon Bar, leaving his rider Nomad and Hickok opened fire the instant her fore- kicking and sputtering on his back in the “middle of parts appeared from the thicket, and, although half a the trail. : _ dozen of their bullets must have been sheathed in the ar beast, she did not even hesitate! Her thick hair was almost like an armor for her; CHAPTER XI besides, in the position they were, they could not aim at a vulnerable spot. ee er. Roaring and fairly frothing at the mouth, the beast. dashed up the incline and did not even glance upward at the shooting men. Nor did she notice Pawnee Bill descending the tree branch. The handsome plainsman swung down over the path just as the furious bear passed beneath it. He did not hesitate. Armed no better than his And his chance for life seemed very small indeed, mates, he was determined to turn that savage creature for his white friends were unarmed save for their aside before she could spring upon the helpless Piute knives and pistols, and the she bear was charging up Jad. the gulch at express speed! As the bear passed under, Pawnee Bill spread w He The chant which the young brave of the Piutes had pi, legs and leaped upon ber Gack! begun was broken off short. He saw the faces of his It was like the leap of a wildcat. He landed astride friends gazing down upon him, though they were more the beast, and seized the hair upon her neck to steady than thirty feet away. himself for a second, The perils which menaced the trio of trailers—Paw- nee Bill, Hickok, and Nick Nomad—were forgotten when they 2 gazed down into the deep and steep-sided pocket and “beheld their young comrade, the Piute, bound and laid a sacrifice upon the shelf of rock be- fore the lair of the grizzly. ait And the sheer wall of the ravine on this side offered The feat amazed the bear as) tiuch as at ferrified no chance: for the white men to descend. Besides, fac- Pawnee Bill’s. comrades. Ue ing a mad bear with nothing but small arms seemed She halted, half reared on her“haunches, and de- an entirely reckless thing to do. livered a fearful roar—a sound that seemed to split But Little Cayuse was so confident of his friends’ the rocky walls of the pocket! prowess that he immediately believed he was saved! Then she slapped first with her right, then with her The thick brush in the bottom of the ravine hid Jeff paw. But Pawnee Bill had kicked out backward the coming bear; but her appearance was delayed only and lay along ‘her spine. Her spread claws did not a minute. Meanwhile each of the three woodsmen reach him. had realized fully the almost impossibility of stopping “By gorry the major’ll be killed!” yelled Hickok, the bear’s charge and saving Little Cayuse from death. and quite as recklessly as their leader; he sprang upon “Get ready ter pour lead inter th’ critter, boys!” the overhanging branch and began to descend it like a gasped Nick Nomad. ‘“Mebbeso- we'll make a lucky huge squirrel. shot———"” © Neither he nor Nomad dared risk a shot at that mo- “With these pop guns!” growled the pistol king. ment. ‘The gyrating bear, with Pawnee clinging like “Not a chance!” - a burr to her back, was no target for a pistol ball! “She'll not be stopped by such means,” said Pawnee But the Laramie man had set the drooping branch Bill, to swittging, and when he dropped to the end he man- “We gotter try it!” squalled old Nomad. “We can’t aged to throw himself forward upon the flat rock be- see her wipe out Little Cayuse.’ fore the mouth of the lair. “But we will—if we don’t do something more than But in the few seconds that had elapsed Pawnee Bill squirt pistol balls inter her,” growled Laramie. got to work on the grizzly. The instant she had come “Look out for TNE; boys re ejaculated Pawnee Bill. down upon all fours again he whipped out one of his “Punch her full of holes if you like—but don’t punc- bowies, and the great blade sunk to the. hilt in 1 the ture me while you are about it.” back of the beast’s neck! He had seen a drooping branch that hung down. Although she had not given the least attention to into the gulf. He sprang for this and went down, the pistol balls, this wound was another matter en- hand over hand. The bear appeared suddenly in the ftirely. Blood spurted from it as the bowie man with- opening before the mouth of her lair. : drew the knife, and the.bear emitted a great, coughing. eee Inside the cubs were whining, and, with an answer- grunt of rage and pain. at ing snarl, the huge beast leaped up the incline toward Yet in her savage mother mind were the cubs— the cave. It seemed as though nothing could stop her first and foremost! This leech clinging to her back, — —she would surely reach the bound Indian youth. and the terrible thrusts of the knife blade did not And if she reached him her great/claws and teeth Swerve her intention entirely. rae would finish his earthly career in a moment—in less She saw the mouth of the cavern in which her babies time than it takes to tell it! lay. Before it was the human being whom she feared | She was a huge beast, and as fearful a specimen meant harm to her cubs—the bound Little Cayuse. as the white men had ever beheld. Yet as she sprang forward again, Hickok reached \ 20. , THE BUFFALO the rock and stooped for a moment above the helpless Piute. In that instant his Gite blade flashed—once, twice. The lashings of the Piute’s wrists and ankles fell away. Hickok leaped toward the other side of the rock- walled pocket, and as he leaped he tried to snatch Little Cayuse to his feet and drag him along, out of the path of the charging grizzly. The Laramie man’s hand slipped, however. ‘And ‘ Little Cayuse was too cramped and stiff to nimbly leap aside himself. The huge bear scrambled upon the rock. Blood and froth dripped from her jaws. Her eyes glowed like coals, and her saber-sharp claws reached /for the strug- gling Indian youth! But she had not shaken off Pawnee Bill. The plains- man was hanging with left hand to a tuft of hair back of her ears, and was plunging the bowie to the hilt at each stroke in the back of her neck, He was covered with blood; but a grizzly hangs onto life with the tenacity of a bull pup to a leather belt. He could not reach what a hunter would call a vital spot in the unwieldy body of the big brute; but he was fairly hacking her head off from the back. If he could but reach the spinal cord—if he could sever that and paralyze her huge body! Old Nomad let a shriek out of him fit to scare the whiskyzoos in whose existence he so firmly believed. He beheld his three friends below there in such close quarters with the bear that it seemed impossible any of them could escape. And the old borderman could do nothing but yell encouragement to them. “Git up, Cayuse! She'll git ye, boy !\he blatted. But the Indian lad fell again, and he was still be- fore the opening in the Pole The bear was aimed right for that hole. As she went into the cave she could easily finish Little Cayuse with one snap of her jaws, and likewise brush Pawnee Bill off her back. Her hind parts were drawn upon the rock. She staggered, growling furiously and dripping blood from her open mouth and from her shoulders. She raised a paw to slap down upon the writhing Indian youth. Its weight would have held him help- less—like a housefly under a man’s finger! So close was death to the young Piute. And then with another roar of agony the creature fell, both forepaws outspread. ‘The stroke missed Lit- tle Cayuse by a hair’s breadth. Pawnee Bill, with a final desperate that, had. reached the point for which he had been striving. The blade of the heavy bowie had severed the spinal cord! The plainsman leaped from her back. Hickok ran in, thrust the blue barrel of his revolver into the open mouth of the beast, and pulled the trigger three times in quick succession. The bullets plowed their course into her brain. The she bear coughed once again, and then sagged down, completely dead. BILE “STORIES. Old Nomad slid don the branch ag the tree and » landed beside them. Pawnee Bill had hauled Little Cayuse to his feet. The four shook hands in silence. Death had ‘passed so near that for the moment none of them could speak. cweeeree CHAPTER XI A SECOND ATTEMPT. “But dern yer hide, Pawnee! ye spiled that pelt purty near complete!’ This was the first audible comment upon the exciting incidents of the past eve seconds, and it came from Nick Nomad. “T reckon I should ia: been more careful, old. Dia- mond,” chuckled Major Lillie. “Howsomever, I’m goin’ ter git them cubs in yon— hear ’em yellin’ fur their mammy f°’ Old Nick got down on his knees and started into the lair, knife in hand. The old trapper did not propose to leave a pair of grizzly cubs alive—to starve to: death if they were very small, or to live to grow up and become savage inhabitants of the forest like their kin. Meanwhile Pawnee Bill turned to Little Cayuse, who now leaned against Hickok, who had picked him up from the rock. “And how came you here, boy?” he demanded, “What’s the meaning of this? You ought to be well on your way to Fort Lester by now.’ “Wuh!” grunted Little Cayuse. “Injun catch. No Black Water band; but help Black Water band. Grab Little Cayuse; tie um up; Little Cayuse heap prisoner,” “So I should judge,” admitted Pawnee. “‘‘And they brought you here with the intent and purpose of your making a breakfast for Mrs. Bruin?” / “Wath ! grunted Little Cayuse. “How many of them are there—this particular bunch of reds?” Little Cayuse spread fis fingers twice, nodded, and said: - “And more—wuh!”’ “More than twenty?” “Wuh! Heap bad Injuns.” “I should judge so,” responded Pawnee. ‘And we'd better look those bad Injuns over, eh, Hickok?” “By gorry! that’s so,” said Hickok. “Besides, some- body has got to go to Fort Lester. This delay———’ “T know,” interrupted Pawnee Bill. “But Little Cayuse is not to be blamed.” “Utes got Navi,” said Little Cayuse, his eyes glit- tering. “Get Little Cayuse’s gun, pistols everything! Wuh!’ “We'll try to. get them back,” said Panne peor ingly. Just then a squabble broke out in the cav ae voice © of old Nomad rose in pain and anger, and then a good- sized bear cub darted out into the sunshine. There - he beit I sho ( cub anc i ma: got cac 6 Pay ‘The we q nov eas tall tho had this late pen owl he stopped, aghast at. the appearance of the human beings. eae But he snarled and blinked in the light, and Hickok shot him before he could get away. v Out of the cave crept Nomad, dragging the second cub behind him, and with a long scratch on his face, and his hunting shirt torn a good deal. ‘Jumpin’ frogs o’ Texas!’’ growled the old border- aman. ‘Phem b’ars kin fight like panther cubs, Huh! got th’ other critter, did ye? «I’m goin’ ter remove an’ caché their pelts right yere.’* “You can do that if you like, old Diamond,” said Pawnee Bill, “while we see what the reds are up to. The camp isn’t far away, Little Cayuse says, and if we get into trouble you'll hear us.”’ The two white men and the Indian youth, who had now recovered the better use of his limbs, climbed the easier side of the gulley. They saw the marks the tall Indians and his mates had made, and they followed those traces clear back to the camp where Little Cayuse had a a prisoner during the night. They Went mighty carefully—careful in two senses. hey were on the sharp lookout for a surprise by the redskins, and they took great pains to cover their own trachein 3 But they did not see a red—not even when they got to the camp in question. The tall Ute and his com- panions had only waited to put Little Cayuse—as they thought—out of the way, and then had lit out to the westward, and over the mountain it would seem, from the direction the trail led from the camp. That upper mountain trail was mighty rough eround, and Pawnee Bill at once doubted if the reds had taken Little Cayuse’s pony with them. “Give your call for Navi, boy,” he ordered the Piute. ‘We'll move about the camp carefully. Keep repeating the call. If the pinto hears it he'll whinny —if I’m not much mistaken.” Thus adjured, Little Cayuse uttered the half-whist- ling ery that he used to call Navi to him. The pinto was an intelligent little beast and fond of its master. After a bit they heard a thrashing in some brush, and the whinnying of the pony. Then they kept still iv for a long time, fearing some of the Indians might have remained with the pony. | But as nothing further occurred they crept on, and in a little time found the pony picketed in a glade where he could feed. Little Cayuse went after him cautiously, drew the picket as though the pony had done it himself, and then they led him down the mountainside toward the Fort Lester trail. . They came upor’ nothing but yesterday’s signs in this direction, and struck the trail in about an hour and without mishap. Little Cayuse had meanwhile re- lated to his friends the particulars of what had hap- pened to him, and Pawnee Bill gave him one of his own revolvers. we “You get onto that pinto now and ride like killdee!” THE BUFFALO. ~doubt in my mind now. RILL STORIES! oe commanded the bowie man. “If you see another Ute, never mind what! he looks like, shoot him first and in-: quire into his business afterward! Savez?”’ “Me heap sabby,’” replied the Piute. “Little Cayuse make Fort Lester this time—wuh!” “See that you do. And bring the troopers to Cima- roon Bar as quick as they can travel. There is no Black Water and his tribe mean business.” They saw Little Cayuse off on the trail for a second time, and then the two Bills returned to the spot where they had left old Nomad. The trapper had skinned his bears and hidden the pelts until such time as the forest might be free of reds and he could come back to secure them. The - ‘three comrades,now took up the cold trail of Jack Lor- ring and his friends that they had. lost on the big rock farther up the mountainside the evening before. . And they picked the lost trail up in an hour. Jack Lorring and his three friends were clumsy trail cov- erers at best. They had done an old-time trick through the tree branches from the rock, but in a direct line up the mountain, and had broken twigs all the way. “If Black Water and his gang went after these fel- lows, they got ’em last night,” declared Hickok. ‘Ain't you jest right,’Laramie!” said Nomad. “And there is another point,’ muttered Pawnee Bill, “that we can bet a blue stack on.” ‘“Wot’s thet yere, major?” inquired the borderman. “It was not Jack and his friends that tried to squash us under the bowlder down there last evening.” “By gorry! you're right,’’ agreed Hickok. “Tt was sure some of the reds, all right,’ murmured Nick Nomad. ‘‘Er-waugh! thar’s so many of them red devils eround yere thet th’ woods is sure crowded. We're goin’ ter see high old ructions b’fore we git through with this biz.” “T’m not sure that we oughtn’t to streak it for the Bar, after all,’”’ said Wild Bill. : “T want to know what has really become of Jack and his crowd first,” said Pawnee Bill obstinately. “T gotter curiosity thet thar way myself,” grunted Nomad. They got over the ridge before noon, traveling straight on the. desperadoes’ trail. And it was before this they found signs that assured them Indians had gone this way, too. “Black Water,” pronounced Pawnee Bill; “or some of his people. They'll get that scoundrelly gambler vet." “But what did they do with their ponies?’’ grunted. the Laramie man. ; “Sent them around some other way. The regular wagon trail to Fort Lester is down this way, you know,” explained Pawnee, as they set off down the northern slope of the great ridge. _ They traveled swiftly, for the only signs of Indians they saw were smokes at various points where peaks 22 THE BUFFALO upreared themselves. Pawnee Bill believed he could ‘read some of these messages. The Utes were gather- ing in force, and on this eastern side of the divide. There was bad business afoot. Suddenly, toward mid-afternoon, the trio heard a faint fusillade of shots. The reports died away, but were repeated again in a little while. The sounds tempted Pawnee Bill and his friends to bear off toward the west further, and in a little time they approached so near the scene of the shooting that they could hear human voices, as wellt.. Not that the voices sounded particularly human! They were the wild yells of Indians, and none of the three had the least doubt but that there was a battle in progress between the Utes and some band of whites. With the utmost care the three white men drew nearer and nearer to the battle ground. The steady pumping of heavy rifles marked the firing of the whites—and Nomad declared there were just three of the good guns. The Indians fired scatteringly—and thes had all sorts of weapons by the “‘tones” of them. “Tf they’ve got Jack and his friends treed, woe Il we do?’ asked the Laramie man. "We sure oughter help th — skunks,’ muttered Nomad. But the old man did not really mean that,. and he agreed with Pawnee Bill that they would have to help the desperadoes if there was a chance for it. They came in sight. of the cave, in the mountain- side where Jack Lorring and his mates had taken refuge. It was an ideal spot for such a battle—a battle of four plucky, if lawless, ‘whites—against more than half a hundred red warriors. There was an overhanging crag of rock, some thirty feet high, and before the natural shallow cave at the foot of this was a pulpit of rock, waist high. Behind this barrier the men on their knees could shoot down the slope while they were completely sheltered from any attack from overhead. Pawnee Bill and his two comrades came to the edge of the forest that surrounded three sides of the cove, and from this vantage point examined the battle ground without being themselves observed. There were but three rifles being fired from the fortress; Jack Lorring had, of course, been unarmed. The Indians were hidden behind bowlders, brush clumps, and logs in the clearing before the white men’s shelter. Occasionally a red would try a shot; instantly a rifle would reply, and it was evident that the whites had done the most execution. Two savages lay stark and dead in the open field, and the whites had kept such a sharp lookout that the Utes had been unable to re- move their dead comrades. All about the pulpit of.rock were splintered arrows and broken spears. The Utes had evidently charged the fortress once at least, and had been driven back with some loss. They seemed now bent on either starv- redskins kill them BILD SF ORLES: ing the whites, or were waiting for darkness before attacking again. “The reds have been up yonder on - the. crag, of course, and found that they could not shoot down be- hind the pulpit,’ said Pawnee Bill thoughtfully. “You can bet your sweet life they wouldn’t have overlooked it,” agreed Wild Bill. “Er-waugh!” ejaculated Nomad. “But that would be er mighty fine place ter roost an’ pick off the In- juns.’ “Just my idea, old Diamond!” said Pawnee vigor- ously. ‘‘Let’s get up there. We can hide till the Utes make a dash, and then pump lead into them good and plenty.” “Right-oh!” cried Wild Bill, “A bully good idea.” The three comrades crept up the hill a way and then © reached the summit of the crag by a detour. They were entirely unseen from the cove below, for a ie of brush grew along the edge.of the crag. / They could, however, distinguish many of the i dians behind their shelters. With their R@ingtons, had they brought the guns with them, they could easily have shot several of the Utes. But the shooting below had lagged, and now only an occasional shot was fired from behind the pulpit, while the Indians did not shoot at all. The silence of the Utes was significant. scouts on top of the crag could see several ‘feather heads” a long way downhill, and they were up to some- thing, that was sure. -. “There’s a good bunch of the scoundrels here,” mented Hickok. ‘And I can see their ponies. old Keets-cotty is in charge himself.” “l'd like to git thet thar old redskin at t oe end of my rifle sight,’ muttered Nomad. “T wonder what they are up to?” said Pawnee Bill He found that out very quickly. It seemed that the Utes were not content to await until night for ‘another charge on the men behind the rock pulpit. _” A bunch of the Indians began to ascend toward the location of the besieged; but they were still well out of rifle range, and the white men did not fire at them. Finally when they came near enough to be tempting one of the men behind the natural fortification fired. The bullet kicked up the dust just ahead of the little band of reds. Immediately they scattered—opened out like a fan, in fact; but one man marched alone. At least, it seemed like one man at first. Then the three watching so keenly from the top of the crag saw that this man who advanced was not an Indian at all! It was a white man—there could be no doubt of that —and rather a bulky figure of a man. He seemed oddly dressed, his head was bare, and his face very red. com- T reckon It was Nomad that almost yelped his identification of this prisoner of the Utes. “Er-waugh! I’m a horned frog ef et ain’t th’ Bites li The three tit th di be lo St Ne sO th Te THE BUFFALO ‘The statement was agreed to by his two comrades in amazed expressions. It was the baron, his hands tied before him, walking up the cove straight ae the fortress. The trio overhead Ga not see what was going on directly below them; but they ‘could see over the baron’s shoulders, and they realized that, closely fol- lowing in the tracks of Schnitzenhauser were three stooping Indians, one after the other. The situation was instantly understood by Pawnee Bill and his friends. The Utes were making a buffer of the German. They believed the white men behind the barrier of rock would not care to shoot another white man. They proposed to force the fat baron to walk up to the fortress, hiding their bodies behind his own. At least, if he could not effectually screen the three reds, he would make it impossible for the besieged to get a good shot at the reds without first killing the German! The reds hoped to get near enough, while the white men hesitated, to dash in and attack the besieged hand to hand. The other Utes were doubtless ready to join in the attack likewise. But it smote the minds of all ee of the scouts that the only person to suffer much in this game would be the baron himself! | The reds would not save him, and certainly Jack Lorring and his friends would not be tender of the German. The Baron Villum von Schnitzenhauser was up against something that looked very much like sudden death ! CHAPTER XIII. CIMAROON BAR BESIEGED. When Toofer, wild-eyed, covered with sweat and mud, and pretty well done up generally, galloped into Cimaroon. Bar. that morning, Buffalo Bill was just coming back with the mining company’s superintendent from his visit to the robbed sluice boxes. The disappearance of the gold and the mystery of the person who had robbed the company was quite put out of Buffalo Bill’s mind when he saw the baron’s mount—and the saddle of the mule empty. The gash on Toofer’s neck, and his general appear- -ance, assured all who saw the mule that Indians—as well as wasps—had made.an attack upon the beast and its master. ~ And the absence of the baron troubled Buffalo Bill hot a little. That.the other horses of his friends, or the men themselves, had not come, did not amaze him. He believed Pawnee Bill and his party were on their way to Fort Lester. But the baron had evidently been sent back for something, Was it with a message from Major Lillie? This guess the astute Buffalo Bill made at once; and that the baron had fallen among enemies needed no reasoning. It was self-evident. BIEL US PORIES, 23 - That there was treachery somewhere—that the Utes were really in arms and looking for a chance to strike —was the scout’s firm belief. He sent the news around the town at once. Half the men were taken off the bar, and a guard was placed around the town, while: companies of skirm- ishers were sent out to beat the forest in the immediate vicinity. Buffalo Bill himself caught a few hours sleep, and then, about noon, organized a band of some dozen mounted and well-armed helpers, and cantered out the eastern trail, from which direction the unmounted Toofer had come into camp. The scout saw no Indians; but within five miles of the camp he found plenty of signs of them. Unshod pony feet marked the dust of the track, and at a certain spot, beside a screened bowlder, was a place where there had been some sort of an overturn or a mix-up. Here were the larger prints of Toofer’s feet, and Buffalo Bill wisely concluded that here the Baron had been unhorsed! The Utes had captured him. They porbanly had not killed him at this point, and it was plain that the party attacking the German had taken him away with them. But this was no time for Buffalo Bill to attempt to ‘track his friend. The camp was in danger, he was sure, and if there was to be a concertéd attack upon it before the arrival of the troopers whom he hoped for, the scout desired to be at Cimaroon to conauct the defense. He headed his party back, therefore; but they spread through the camp a more pfoper respect for the pos- sibility of an; Indian fight. At night every man came in off the bar—not even the watchmen were left. A cordon of sentinels was stationed close about the town itself, and, as the sun dent down, Cimaroon Bar was in a complete stage of siege—although as yet not a solitary Indian had ap-. proached close to the town. There were about thirty structures in the place; but only two or three of the buildings were anything more than flimsy shacks., The Eldorado Hotel was one of the strongest frame buildings, and the only one of two stories at Cimaroon Bar. The Ladybird dance hall was larger, but boasted only a “‘false-front’’ ap- pearance of two stories. The women of the camp were brought to the El- dorado and given the big room behind the bar in which to camp for the night. Sentinels were placed in the kitchen and other rooms on the first floor, and the windows were shuttered. But through each shut- ter were bored, or cut, holes through which a rifle bar- rel could be thrust. Upstairs half the men of the town were laced: : From these upper windows great execution could be done if the Indians dared ride into the town. A select handful of good shots climbed to the roof of the Ladybird and hid behind the false front. They camped there with blankets for the night. N 24 / THE BUFFALO Buffalo Bill took a general sight over all these prep- arations, although the several parties had their own leaders. The guards about the camp were more par- ticularly under his direction. One old fellow refused to leave his shack on the out- skirts of the camp. He stated it as his belief that there wouldn’t be any fight. He did not agree with the rest of the town that the Indians were dangerous. If one argued with him long enough he would deny the existence of Indians, anyway. He was set in his ways, and he always got between his blankets in an old-fashioned yellow cotton night- gown which came down to his heels; and he deliber- ately. got into this nightgear and went to bed as usual. Big Jake Hentz, who had now taken to wandering about the town by himself, was much excited by the preparations he saw being made to repel the Indians. He went from one place to another, looking for the mining superintendent whom he wished to give him back control of the Little Giant—the hydraulic sluic- ing machine that he had managed before his injury. Other than these two irresponsibles, Cimaroon Bar was close herded and ready at any moment for trouble. And, perhaps, that readiness brought about the first outbreak—though it was bound-to come. “Two men were set a little way out of town on either side of the Fort Lester trail, They heard the hoofs of ponies, and then—against the sky line—several “feather heads.” The sentinels only waited long enough to make sure that the coming cavalcade was not composed of whites. Then they blazed away with their seven-shot Reming- tons, and the wild whoops of the Indians proved. that they both surprised and hurt the reds’ feelings! * reds rallied in the darkness and the whites had to give back. Buffalo Bill and several with whom he kept in_ close touch, rode swiftly out of ne town at that end and joined in the mélée. 2 Whether any material damage was done the reds or not, it was sure that they were well warned that Cima- roon Bar was awake. And that the Indians surrounded the camp was like- wise revealed. Before midnight fires flickered through the forest from almost” every point. Even on the top of the bluff overhanging the bar itself there was a flickering: watch light. There were several little skirmishes, too. As ae as the Indians disliked moving in the night, they were creeping nearer and nearer to the settlement, and the sentinels were driven in. / Indeed, after the reales Jevils had got one poor fellow, by creeping up behind him and knifing him in’ Buffalo Bill went to each station of o the back, guards and withdrew them to the camp. ‘The fight when it came must be right in the town itself. The Indians must make the attack as they pleased. Until the first fury of their rage was spent — the whites would much better fight them from behind ar , -in what seemed at first blush to be grave elothes. BILL STORIES, ~~ - oe So the sentinels withdrew to the town and took ‘up places of observation near the Eldorado and Lady- bird. Buffalo Bill had not overlooked the matter of provision and plenty of drinking water in both of these structures. It was some time after midnight when the whites were disturbed again. up‘at the end of the crooked street. shacks was afire. : The Indians began screeching, and in the growing light up there Buffalo Bill could see several of the red One of the smaller fiends dancing. Without doubt they would try to loot. and burn most of the town. But suddenly another voice was added to those of the redskins. A wild and profane yell cut the night air, dwarfing the war whoops of the reds completely. Out of the burning shack leaped a tall figure wrapped Bare- footed and bare-headed, with the single garment it wore flapping about its legs, this apparition streaked it down the camp street wih much more sea than grace! “It’s old John Myrick!’ yelled somebody. obstinate old cuss has been smoked out!” It really was the old miner who had refused to leave his shack. The Indians had chosen his exposed home to set fire to first of all. ee They must have been startled by the old man’s appearance in his nightshirt} too; for they made no effort to shoot him as he ran. But the old fellow was quite beside himself, having been awakened sound sleep by the flames roaring about him. At every jump he let out a yell for help, and at-two _ or three shack doors he hammered for admission be- But when the two men had emptied their guns, the- fore he reached the Eldorado. out and stopped him. “Bill Cody!” the frightened citizen shrieked ; ae There Buffalo Bill ran didn’t you tell me thar was Injuns in the neighbor- hood ?” “What did you want me to do, old. skeezicks: a de- manded Buffalo Bill. “Next time there’s an Indian scare I’ll write you a letter about it. Git in under cover, you old reprobate, before.the women see you.” Later the old man-borrowed a- pair of cowman’s overalls.and a pair of boots and fought like a good fel- low. falo Bill prophesied. Several of the outlying buildings were fired first, and then the Utes seemed to come to the conclusion that the whites had deserted most of the houses and were fortified somewhere against attack. There were fully a hundred mounted reds on the trail oS It was scarcely light when they made their first charge; but the burnifig build- just outside the settlement. ings gave them illumination enough as they rede wildly through the single street of Cimaroon Bar. ? There was a corral behind the Eldorado, and ‘there, and in the sheds, the horses and mules belonging 107 the town had. bean secured, A bright light suddenly blazed “The out Gt a For it came to a fight before daybreak, ‘as Buf- Fin ho tor It lie up the the the po’ a These the Utes were after. They charged down the street, and then separated into bands to come upon the livestock -from all sides. But at once, when they were crowded about the EL dorado, they became subject to a withering fire from the ambushed whites. * These miners were crack shots—many of them. A dozen of the Utes bit the dust in as many seconds, and many were wounded but able to get away om their frightened ponies. So destructive was the fire of the whites that the Indians could not remove their dead, and only one of the seriously wounded escaped—a tall Indian, who was shot through the thigh, but who clung to his horse’s mane and “hopped” out of town in fhe wake of his fellows. Instantly the more savage of ie white men ran out into the street and finished such of the reds as were not actually dead. And every one of the Indians was scalped. Although this brutality was coe ed by Buftalo Bill himself, it had its effect upon the lurking Utes. An Indian is not afraid to lose his life; but to {se his scalp is a Shame that even the spirit of the dead Indian must endure in the spirit world—or, so the reds be- lieve. But this first sek was merely in the nature of a skirmish. Unmounted Utes crept in under shelter of the remaining empty houses and began shooting into the Eldorado and atethe little party behind the false front of the Ladybird. Finding that the latter crowd of whites were not sheltered from the rear, the reds began to do serious damage among them, and some of their bullets, enter- ing the shutters and doors on the lower floor of the hotel, wounded several of the besieged. There was plainly a large body of Utes about the town, and they had plenty of guns and ammunition. It was a well-conducted attack, and Buffalo Bill be- lieved that Keets-cotty’s people would not quickly give up the attempt to wipe out Cimaroon Bar. The scout was deeply anxious for his own friends that had started for Fort Lester with Jack Lorring and the chiefs. He feared that the entire party—not alone the baron—had either been killed, or were in the Utes’ power, CHAPTER Ary, WHAT THE ROBBER DID. The rifles upon the roof of the Ladybird were practically silenced, for the men had to lie down to escape being targets for the reds who were creeping in closer and closer. 5 At that an occasional shot found its mark among — themselves one at a time. these whites, and because they could not use their own Suns the men on the roof were in a bad predicament. The horde of Indians grew. bolder, eee THE BUFFALO Bibl SlORIES. ‘ 25 within easy pistol distance, and, although no white \ was killed, many were wounded. Unable to bear this longer, and ccidees of conse- quences, several of the men leaped up and poured in a destructive fire on their foes. But, although more than one Indian uttered the death yell, three of the whites fell riddled with bullets ! Their death deterred the others from like exposure. But a minute later several reds scrambled to another roof not far away, and the duel then brought about resulted in the death of two more of the defenders of the town... - Although Buffalo Bill and the others in the Eldorado could not see what happened on the roof of the build- ing across the street, the scout suspected that the battle was going against the men on the roof. _ The Utes seemed to concentrate their attack on that place, and the scout knew that success only would lead the réds to do this. He called for volunteers for a sortie, and. only had to choose his men for the attempt. Every man in the Eldorado was ready to sally forth to help his friends. But the scout chose only ten men—and those some of the best armed and sure shots. The popping of the guns across the way was becoming infrequent; but as Buffalo Bill and his halfscore of adventurers bolted out°of the main door of the hotel, they heard planks being ripped from the roof of the Ladybird. - The men besieged on the roof were making an en- trance into the dance hall, hoping to escape the Indians in that way. The reds were yelling like fiends, and their shots came from all three undefended sides into the little band on the roof. Buffalo Bill raised his battle cry, and they rushed some of the reds on one : side of the dance hall, then on the other. They chased several, but on one roof half a dozen reds had gathered, and they were too strong to be dis- lodged. Indeed, the reds gathered’ so fast, and from all directions, that Buffalo Bill and his party were forced to give back. “Into the Ladybird, boys!’ shouted She scout. . “We'll help them from inside, and then make a rush of it, altogether, for-the hotel!” At once his companions rushed upon the porch of: the dance hall. The main door was not locked, and they burst in, followed by a storm of shots from the lurking Indians. However, the rifles at the windows across the street kept the Indians from following the ne band of rescuers. Seeing where the men on the roof had made an opening, Buffalo Bill and his comrades piled tables underneath the place, and Cody himself mounted to the top of the heap and called to those outside to lower “Wounded first, men!” called the ee “We'll save you all.” ee . THE BUFFALO “And thet thar won’t take ye long, Cody,” gasped a man, and his blood-streaked face appeared at the opening. . “Every derned one of us is down!” “Then we'll come out and get you!” declared the determined scout. ‘‘Come on! I'll catch you.” ““There’s them worse hurt nor me,” groaned the fel- low. | And then, before he could speak again, he gasped and fell forward into the arms of the border king. The latter heard the bullet as it plunked into the back of the unfortunate, and he knew when he lowered the body to his comrades below that the man was dead. “Hurry, Bill!’ yelled. somebody from — below. “They've got a fire started against the back of this_ dance hall.” As he spoke a window. was dashed in at the rear and several guns were thrust through the opening and shooting began. “Four of you fellows go back there and drive that mob away!” commanded the scout. “Get a move on!’ _ The place was filling with smoke rapidly, and under cover of this four of the whites advanced on the smashed window and: quickly killed one Indian. who was climbing in, while the others escaped with yells. Meanwhile Buffalo Bill catght the edges of the hole above his head and drew himself through the opening _ to the roof. “Somebody come up and take my place—quick !” he shouted down to his men. He was obeyed. About him on the roof lay the dead and dying white men. escaped without a serious wound at least. He glanced toward the rear of the roof and saw two Indians climbing over the eaves. Instantly he pulled his revolvers, and when they had each barked the Indians disappeared with the death cry on their lips—both shot directly through the forehead! Then, laying the weapons beside the hole in the roof, Buffalo Bill darted to the first injured man and drew him toward the hole. Bullets whistled through the air beside him from the reds in hiding on other roofs; but he paid no attention to the pos that beset him. He lowered the first man through the ole ite sec- ond—the third. ‘Then there was a wild yell from the rear of the dance hall, and he saw at least a dozen reds swarming over the low eaves. The scout glanced about him. It was a hot corner —a terribly hot corner. Part of the rear end of the dance hall was burning briskly. The wind being con- trary was the only good thing, for the ee was like tinder for dryness. Buffalo Bill grabbed up his guns, and, without wait- ‘ing for the reds to get on ie roof, he chareec t them, ee as he ran. a . Two of them rolled off the: eaves instantly: ‘One was on his knees, and he shot the scout aes the coat sleeve, but without drawing blood. % ™ \ ‘ Not a man of them had | BILL STORIES. “The! others either fll off, or dropped off to the ground. Buffalo Bill sprang upon the man who had tried to shoot him, and beat his head in ee the butt of one of his pistols. When he turned to retreat to the hole, He saw Phat one of his friends had crawled through and was coolly lowering the wounded men into the dance hall. The flames scorched their faces as the two worked over these wounded and dead men; but everybody was lowered in a: few moments, and then Buffalo. Bill ane the other dropped through the hole. But they dropped into a blinding swirl of smoke and heat. ‘The flames were fast eating their way toward the front of the building. The fire, however, defended the hie from the rear. Buffalo Bill went to the front door and looked out. A shower of bullets welcomed his appearance. Half a hundred redskins had the door of the Ladybird under their guns! “Boys, said Cody coolly, ‘‘we’ve ae to make the Eldorado—and that’s all there is to it. And we can’t leave these poor fellows here to be burned-up.” “Yer right, Cody! Lead on!” shouted one miner, swinging the body of a wounded comrade over his shoulder. “They ll shoot you both down if you wie now,’ advised the scout cautiously. “We'll first open the doors wide.” coe ee “That'll suck the Rae through and choke us,” cried somebody. a “See that you don’t get choked, then,” returned the scout. “The smoke is what we want. It will cover our dash across the porch. I'll yell to the boys across the street that we're coming, and they'll have the hotel door open. And those bully boys above will pour hot shot into any red that tries to get in for a near shot.” - Endangered as the party was, it cheered Buffalo Bill’s plan to the echo. The scout instantly opened both leaves of the big door, and swung them wide. For a minute the doorway hummed ‘with rifle bullets; but the men inside were either lying chile or were otherwise out of range. “Now!” shouted Buffalo Bill. The man who had already shouldered one of the wounded dashed out of the door, half hidden by the cloud of smoke that rolled through the Ee from the rear. There were but two or avec ee at an ad he cleared the distance to the Eldorado’s open door in a_ dozen strides. Another and another followed him. Not one of the brave fellows were injured, nor die a bullet. hit the wounded men they carried. / But then: there'came an interruption. A te vyell- ing and the beat of pony hoofs sounded from the out- skirts of the town. A gang of- mounted reds was -again riding down between the huidings shooting 2 and yelling as they. came. . 3 the bit Se\ elb pat the Str the Sta he | poi —h celv E sim E ball arm he } B erot swe E tutti the B com Stree wink that ps OD Pa ee St Au Pa the the ell- 11 t- Nas and THE BUFFALO This time they used more judgment in the charge. They were strung out in a long single line, and rode their ponies like the wind. As they passed between the Eldorado and the Lady- bird they pumped their bullets into both buildings. And only one of the Indians was knocked over, while several of the whites were wounded and two killed. One of these was a man standing at Buffalo Bill’s elbow in the doorway of the dance hall. The little party trapped there, between the fire and the rifles of the redskins, could not venture at once to cross the street. The riding Utes turned at the end of the street— the end toward the bar—and with continued yelling started back again. =: A breath of wind blew the smoke out of Buffalo Bill’s-eyes. He could see the column coming, and in the leader of the reckless band the scout beheld old Chief Black Water himself! “That old devil! He played me false, after all!’ ex- claimed the scout. “And maybe he’s got Lillie’s scalp at his belt—and the others’.” Boldly the scout stepped out of the doorway. His commanding figure was plainly seen by the yelling Ute chief. “Pa-e-has-ka! Pa-e-has-ka!’’ shrieked Keets-cotty, and, twitching the bridle of his pony, he drove in toward the side of the road, poising his spear as his steed flew along. The chief's gun was empty, but the muscular effort he put into the cast of that spear would have sent the point and hasp of it clear through Buffalo Bill’s heart —had the scout chanced to remain right there to re- ceive it. : But ducking quickly to one side, Buffalo Bill fired simultaneously with the chief’s cast of the spear. Black Water raised a yell of pain and fury. The _ ball from the big gun shattered the bone of his right arm, and he fell forward on his pony’s neck as though he were fatally hurt. oe Before the scout could get another shot at the treach- erous redskin, Black Water’s pony had leaped past and swept the chief away from the white man. His followers went yelling by, emptying their guns futilely. But the shooting of their leader demoralized the whole force of Utes. : Before they could rally again Buffalo Bill and his companions bore all the killed 'and wounded across the street. The dance hall had to burn, but fortunately the wind kept steady and blew away from the hotel, so that refuge was not in danger. The firing of the Indians ceased entirely before noon. When the scout and others ventured forth, they found that the Utes had removed their dead and wounded, and the settlement seemed to be deserted of the reds. They had all disappeared toward the east and north. This sudden withdrawal was not easy to under- stand; they had made little out of the attack upon the - Bil SLOTS s . a7 settlement, and the Utes were in such force that i seemed impossible that they could have entirely given | up hope of overcoming the besieged. But while Buffalo Bill was studying over this mys- tery, Alf Granger, the mine superintendent, came to *him in a great flurry. “Holy hoptoads, Cody!” gasped Granger. “What th’ dadburned deviltry d’ye s’pose has been played on us now?” . “T don’t know.. What is it?’ questioned the scout. — “That sluice robber has been at it again. Every riffle cleaned out durin’ the night—or while we was fightin’ them reds. What d’ye say to it?” Buffalo Bill was frankly. puzzled. “D’ye s’pose the reds themselves robbed ‘the sluice . boxes?’ demanded Granger. “Indians wouldn’t be likely to do that: And there weré practically none of the reds down that way.” “Right ye aire, Cody. Besides, I seen the marks of them snowshoes ag’in. And thar’s a mule missin’ from the corral.” “Nile? © o “That’s right. ‘A’ mule. Just one critter missin’. The Injuns never got him, for if they’d got one they’d got others.” “That is right. But why a mule?” “To pack away the gold, of course,’ cried Granger. “Let me tell ye, Cody, that altogether there must have been six thousand dollars’ worth of cleanings taken in the three robberies. Some heft to that gold— what?” “TI presume you are right, Granger,’ admitted the scout. But just at this time Buffalo. Bill was more inter- ested in the maneuvers of the redskins that had cost Cimaroon Bar so many lives that morning. ¥ 4 - CHAPTER XV. THE TAKING OF JACK LORRING. To return to Pawnee Bill and his companions watch- ing the battle in the mountain cove the evening prev- ious to the concerted attack upon Cimaroon Bar. The three frignds of the baron, behind the fringe of bushes on the top of the crag, could see all that went on among the Indians; but Jack Lorring and his brother desperadoes were out of-sight. The three Indians who trailed after the baron, pushing his plump body before them as a shield, had come within easy pistol shot of the pulpit behind which the desperadoes knelt. es It was impossible that Lorring and his crew would let them come nearer, because they cared anything for the baron’s life. Pawnee Bill saw that the scoundrels below were letting the reds get close that they might kill them the easier. And they would kill the baron, too! We fe 28 THE BUFFALO “Boys, murmured the bowie man; “we've got to do something to get the Dutchman out of that pickle.” “By gorry! what’s the game?” asked Hickok. “Er-waugh! grunted Nomad. “I'd like ter go down thar an’ go through them reds liker dose o’ wolf pizen.” / : “Tt isn’t alone the reds,’ said Pawnee swiftly. “Those devils down below won't save the baron unless we put the fear of death into them.” “By gorry!’ “Er-waugh !”’ “That’s the ticket, boys. We've got to save the baron. Jack Lorring won't help.” ( “And wot kin we do?” panted the old trapper. “Spread out here,’ commanded Pawnee Bill, “and each pick his Injun—of the three behind the baron. I’ll take the man nearest to Schnitzenhauser; Wild Bill must shoot the second; Nick, you catch the third.” The others nodded. They oe along the edge of the crag until they could all get bead on the three stoop- ing Indians. No shot had been fired from below as yet. Down the hill the three anxious whites could see the Indians drawing in closer for a concerted attack when their three braver comrades sprang for the - whites behind the pulpit. Almost simultaneously the three pistols of the men on the crag spoke—and their speech was deadly! Each Indian, with a ball in a vital spot, rolled over upon the rocks, screeching. At the same time Pawnee Bill’s clear voice was heard shouting: “Run for the rocks, baron! Straight ahead! 1? Then, as the surprised German leaped forward, Paw- nee Bill addressed the desperadoes in hiding: “Below there! If you don’t receive the baron, or you let harm come to him, T’ll stay here and shoot every last one of you with my own hand! Sabe?’” Pawnee depended upon his threat Gdiaa the hands of the desperadoes for a time at least. Night was almost come. The darkness might bring forth a big change in the situation. The baron disappeared. The reds broke into a wild yell and fired hotly for some minutes. And they sent their bullets for the most part through the sa of brush on the top of the crag. The Utes realized that the enemy had gained unex- pected reénforcements. They did not know how large BILL: STORIES. You, Jack Lorring, and the others! a party of white men were on the crae. And the com- ing darkness would keep them from finding out at once. The reds got tired of shooting at nothing, and the forest quieted down. Soon it grew too dark for either party to see each other. Nomad and Hickok remained sharply on watch, however, while Pawnee Bill began to carry out the further plan that he had made. Nomad had a good lariat with him—a rope strong enough to hold a bull buffalo. The end of this Paw- nee weighted with a stone, and then fastened to it a piece of paper on which he had written some instruc- tions. As soon as it was so dark that he was sure the redskins could not see the rope against the face of the rock, he dropped over the weighted end and lowered it until the weight struck the rock pulpit behind which the desperadoes and the baron crouched. “Below there!’ sang out Pawnee Bill, modulating his voice just so as e be sure that the other white men heard. “A message.” wl He heard a grunt of delight from the baron, ‘and another man swore. The bowie man waited. He knew that they could easily scratch a match and read the message. By and by there was a tug on the rope, and he drew it up. There was his own paper attached, with a scrawl on the back of it. Pawnee retired from the edge of the rock, scratched a match, and read the following words swiftly: “We're glad to git rid of Dutch. But if you want him you got to promise you won't hold us, nor Jack, neither. If you don’t agree we'll take our chances with the reds—and Dutch stays with us.” Pawnee had not been unprepared for this reply. He immediately wrote on another paper and lowered it: “You are in no place to make Bene whe ‘pads will get you at daybreak. We cannot hold them off, and they will learn how small our party is when it grows light. I am giving you all a chance for life; but Jack Lorring goes to Fort Lester.” Ina few minutes he felt another tug at the, ins and pulled up the a powing : “Not much. We got Dutch, and he'll rot here along with us if you don’t promise to let Jack go.” Now, Pawnee had chanced to see some writing of Jack Lorring, and he was positive that these. words were likewise scrawled by as hand. ue OE ds i THE. BUFFALO The bold defiance of the desperadoes might only emanate from Jack himself; his mates might feel en- tirely different about it. Therefore, the bowie man cautiously wrote: ’ “No exchange. The baron will have to take his chances. Jack Lorring is a prisoner of the’ Federal Government, and 1 am not empowered to make any terms with him. Will do my best to make it light for his helpers. But, unless you all agree to be drawn up as I suggest, you will be scalped in the mornine by the reds.” There was no doubt about that. Pawnee Bill was stating the plain truth, and the fellows below must have realized it. But after Pawnee had lowered this last message there was a long wait. The rascals were evidently discussing the matter of surrender. To choose between a jail sentence at Fort Lester and sure death at the hands of the Utes shouldn’t be such a hard task. But suddenly a startled shout came from the baron. Then a pistol shot. Pawnee yelled: “Harm a hair of the baron’s head and I'll do for the whole of you!” “Don’t fear!’ panted a voice. “It’s Jack we done for. .Wé got him tied, by Jo!” ” “?Sh! warned the delighted Pawnee. Then, after a little, when the line tugged, he drew up the follow- ing message, printed in another hand entirely: “We ain’t goin’ to lose our skulps fer Jack. He's tied fast. Haul up Dutch and then him, and we'll come after. We got Jack gagged, too, so he won't do us ¢ all dirt with the Injuns.” It was plain that there had been a serious falling out among the gang. Pawnee quickly called his two friends, lowered the noose of the lariat, and in five minutes the baron “walked” up the rock and came puffing and blowing over the edge of it. “Vale! idt iss like comin’ oudt of de grave—yes!” he whispered. “I nefer oxpected to see you pards again, aind’t it?” “Is Jack really tied up?’’ demanded Wild Bill. “Like a chicken—yes,’ declared Schnitzenhauser. “Dose fellers haf soured on him, by shiminy! He vas villin’ to sacrifice dem all to esgape himselluf, undt dey vouldt not seed idt.” There was no more whispered discussion then. The BILL. STORIES. oe ee four lowered the rope again, and up came the dead weight of the tied and gagged murderer. His whilom friends had done a good job while they were about it. The rolling eyes of the desperado threatened venge- ance; but he was helpless. In half an hour the three men who had befriended the murderer stood beside the pards of Buffalo Bill on the summit of the crag. They had barely escaped with their lives, and danger still pressed very close to all; but the open forest was before them. @ .! aetna tad CHAPTER XVI. ic YELLOW GOLD AND A YELLOW MAN. The cessation of hostilities by the Utes about Cima- roon Bar continued to puzzle Buffalo Bill for some time. He ventured as far from the camp as he dared afoot, and then came back in an hour and organized a mounted party to scout for the reds. Meanwhile the camp doctor had his hands full with — the wounded, who were cared for on the lower floor of the Eldorado Hotel. The fires had been put out, and the camp was in considerable gloom. Twelve men had been shot dead by the redskins, and more than twenty were wounded. The loss to the Utes even Buffalo Bill could not compute; but he believed that it much exceeded the loss of the whites. With forty mounted men the scout finally left the confines of Cimaroon Bar and traveled east on the Fort Lester trail. Many ponies had been over the trail that morning, and the scout was sure they were Indian ponies, of course. The Utes going in this direction, and in such num- bers, amazed him. The white men kept a sharp look- out as they rode on, but they rode rapidly and went some distance beyond the spot where Buffalo Bill had before discovered the baron had been captured. And the further they rode without seeing Indians the more puzzled the scout grew. At last, however, the sound of distant firing reached the ears of the cavalcade from Cimaroon Bar. The shots were not fired behind them, but ahead. “Thar’s another fight yander, Buffler,” declared ‘one old miner. ‘“Mebbe some wagon train has been jumped by the tarnal reds.” : “It’s a fight, all right,” returned the scout, spurring Bear Paw forward. ‘‘Come on, boys! we want to be in on it.” 30 THE BUFFALO He did not give his companions a chance to discuss the point. Buffalo Bill feared that Pawnee Bill and his pards were in trouble, and he wanted all the help he could get for them. “ But as the party rode hard along the trail. they realized that there was a big battle in progress. It sounded like soldiers firing by platoons, so heavy were the discharges. In the distance, in a valley into which they rode, smoke rose among the trees. Then they heard the clear, sweet notes of a bugle sounding ‘ “Charge! 1 At that Buffalo Bill and his ce cheered. They knew what it meant. The troopers from Fort Lester had arrived and the Utes had gone out to meet them. Thundering down into the valley the cavalcade crossed through the grove and came out into a great meadow. it, and on this smooth lawn a desperate battle had been in progress for an hour. There were hundreds of redskins—afoot and on ponies. Black Water and his chiefs had gathered at least five hundred braves to the standard he had set up, and learning of the approach of the troopers, he had flung the entire strength of his army against. them. Little Cayuse, is to Fort Lester, had met and warned these troopers of the fore. With the troopers Buffalo Bill saw the remainder of his pards —the two Bills, Nomad, and the baron. There were three other white men doing yeoman service with the troopers, although they and the baron were’ un- mounted. eee a There were less than two hundred of the troopers, but as Buffalo Bill and his forty came into the field, the soldiers were forming for another charge. With wild whoops the scout and his riders sailed into the battle, caught Black Water’s crew on the flank, and within the’ next ten minutes the hardly contested bat- tle became merely a rout of the redskins. Many were killed. A hundred and fifty dasmiounied bucks were rounded up, disarmed, and made. pris- oners, and the remaining Utes scattered like fall leaves before a gale. Black Water unfortunately escaped; but Buffalo Bill knew that he was wounded. And that when General Lawton sent the chief of scouts the proper force the remaining Utes would be rounded up and taken back ~ to their villages beyond the western range of hills. For the time, at least, all chance of an Indian war was quelled. The beating they had received at Cima- There was scarcely a clump of brush upon — BILL STORIES. Ze Xs delighted. roon Bar, and the worse punishment by the soldiers, — took all the fight out of the Mountain Utes. we In the mélée, unfortunately, Jack Lorring escaped. Pawnee Bill and his friends, together with the pris- oner and his three companions, had fallen in with the troopers before the battle. The prisoner, Jack Lorring, had been turned over to the troopers, and it was their fault, not the bowie man’s, that the gambler escaped. | Pawnee Bill and his mates were glad indeed to meet with their chief. 1"? “By my sacred O-zu-ha, necarnis!” exclaimed Lillie; “I thought one while we'd never mix medicine again.’ “Undt I haf losdt mein peautiful Toofer,” the baron. groaned But Buffalo Bill was able to reassure the German on that point, and he was made happy. ~The pards hurried on to Cimaroon Bar with the party of miners from that settlement, and the news they brought delighted the whole town. But Granger, the mining superintendent, was not He carried a face about him as long as his forearm. “I'm jest likely ter git the bounce from the com- pany, Cody,” he said, “if I can’t stop them sluice rob- beries, and git the feller that done it, and git-back the clean-up. I don’t know what ter do.” “T do,” said Buffalo Bill quietly. “And now that the war is over, I'll find your sluice robber and get back the gold—I hope—in short order.” He took Pawnee Bill and Hickok the very next morning, and, with Granger trailing them, they set forth afoot, but well armed, into the forest to the south and above the huge bank where the gold-bear- ing earth was sluiced down. Buffalo Bill struck a cold trail not two hundred yards up the hillside from the edge of the bluff. It was the trail of a single donkey, and, walking beside it, had been a man. “On-she-ma-da!” ejaculated Pawnee Bill, when he saw the prints of the man’s feet. ‘‘Here’s that Chine again, Granger.” : | “Louie Gow!” yelled Granger, clenching his fists. “Tll break the neck of that yaller-faced mutt when I git him.” “Now, the thing is to ee him,” dryly. ‘But they found within the hour’a deserted cabin of. some lone prospector in which the Chinaman had un- said Buffalo Bill THE BUPEALO doubtedly been living since his departure from Cima- roon Bar. With other things in the hut they found an old pair of snowshoes which the Chinaman had twice worn when he descended upon the sluice boxes. | “But the gall of the feller!” ejaculated Hickok. ‘““To go right down there and gather his yellow gold when the whole settlement scurce dared peek out of their houses for fear of the redskins.”’ “But the reds didn’t come over this way at all,” ex- plained Granger. Meanwhile Buffalo Bill searched the vicinity of aus hut. He called the others to him. “Although Louie Gow got away with his last clean- up night before last, and with the mule as well, he did not light out of here until this morning. Here is a fresh trail.” They all saw the scout was right. In a minute the party had started off at a good clip after the thief and his donkeyload of gold. And they had only to follow on for a couple of hours. They traveled much quicker than the China- man with his ill-gotten gains. The trail Louie Gow followed led along the brink of the bluff which bordered the river. Some miles be- low Cimaroon Bar the river trail crossed at a ford and led away into the desert. The banks of the river on both sides became high and perilously steep. The party of trailers followed the western bank of this river, mounting higher as they went on. The river roared below, as it flowed through the cafion. It was called Lost River, and miles away the stream disappeared under the lip of a great cavern in the mountain. The Indians pronounced the place “bad medicine.” But the party of trailers had not to follow Louie Gow anywhere near to the spot where Lost River dis- appeared in the mountain wall. Fifteen miles beyond the hut, where the Chinaman had been in hiding for so long, they sighted him lead- ing his donkey. The donkey bore two sacks on his back, and one of those sacks.Granger was sure con- tained the gold stolen from the sluice boxes on Cima- roon Bar. Buffalo Bill warned all to approach the Chinaman carefully. But Granger got excited, and at the last moment he sprang out at the astonished Chinaman with a roar of rage, waving a gun at the Chink. The yellow man uttered a frightened yell; but in- stantly he brought his hand into sight from under his blouse, and a pistol barked at the superintendent. { BILL STORIES. ot “Don't shoot!” yelled Buffalo Bill; putt Gotee had already fired. The bullet, however, did a hit the Chinaman. stead it went through the pack mule’s shoulder, and with a frightened squeal the animal plunged and dis- appeared over the brink of the chasm! Louie Gow started to run, but they captured him in a minute. “You yaller son of perdition !’ “Whar’s that gold?” Louie Gow remained silent, his piglike eyes rolling. “Tell me or I'll sure squash ye!’ said Granger, threatening him. _ But the Chink refused to reply until Buffalo. Bill took him in hand. The scout got him to admit that he was the sluice-box robber, and that he had been on his way out of the country. “Where is the gold you stole?’ demanded Buffalo Bill. The Chink pointed over ne edge of the cafion wall. In- yelped Granger. “Down there,’ he grunted. “Heap fool Melican man shoot mule; him fall down hole, gold on back. Now nobody got gold.” ! But Pawnee Bill had already leaned over the sheer drop and could see the dead body of the animal and the two sacks lying on the rocks beside the river. “Don’t you believe that,” he said coolly. “W ell get that gold as easy as rolling off a log. If there is no ~ proper path along the river bank, or we can't sail that far down in a skiff, somebody can be lowered down this cliff—it isn’t more than three hundred feet here— and the gold can be hoisted up.” “Right you are, Gordon,” said Buffalo Bill. “I wish it was as easy to settle the Indian troubles as it is to recover Mr. Granger’s gold.” So they went back to Cimaroon Bar with their pris- oner, confident that the six thousand dollars’ worth of gold would be easily recovered. THE END. The story for next week is not a story of the sea, but most of the action takes place, nevertheless, upon . the water or near it. The Bills and their pards come quite unexpectedly upon a mysterious river, full of perilous rapids, cataracts, and hidden dangers. Their voyage on a raft and the narrow escape of the baron — from a horrible death make up a tale of thrilling in- “The title is “Buffalo Bill on Lost River; or, No. 53a. Cnt terest. Pawnee Bill’s Battle in the Hap k - . next week. bey CRT ER ERE CHREBET STAE SETAEROR a The snost popular publication for boys. The adventures of Frank and Dick Merriwell can be had only in this weekly. High art colored covers. Thirty-two pages. Price, 5 cents. a g74—-Frank Merriwell’s Daring Deed; or, The Race for a Hun- dred Lives. #75—Frank Merriwell’s Succor; or, The Redemption of “Babe” : Silver. . “976—Frank Merriwell’s Wit; or, Thwarting a Governor. 777-——Frank Merriwell’s Loyalty; ‘or, The Land of the Lost People. a 778—Frank Merriwell’s Bold -Play; or, The Checkmating of Felipe Lopez. 7790—Frank Merriwell’s Insight; or, The Brand Blotter of the - X Bar 780—Frank Merriwell’s Guile; or, The Queen of the Matadors. 781—Frank Merriwell’s Campaign; or, Fighting the System. 782—Frank Merriwell in the National Forest; or, Outwitting the Timber Thieves. 783—Frank Merriwell’s Tenacity; or, The Mystery of the Famous Scientist. 784—Dick Merriwell’s Self-Sacrifice; or, The Man Who Could ump. 785—Dick Merriwell’s Close Shave; or, The Man With a Grouch. 786—Dick Merriwell’s Perception; or, The Brains of the Varsity. 787—Dick Merriwell’s Mysterious Disappearance; or, The Game in the Balance. 788—Dick Merriwell’s Detective Work; or, The Case of the : Varsity Shortstop. 789—Dick Merriwell’s Proof; or, The Problem of the Stubborn Crew Man. 790—Dick Merriwell’s Brain Work; or, The Frustration of the Sneaky Tutor. 7o1—Dick Merriwell’s Queer Case; or, The Lure of the Ruby. 792—Dick Merriwell, Navigator; or, The Adventure on ‘the Sound. Ce Merriwell’s Fellowship; or, The Man with the Wrong ea. 794—Dick Merriwell’s Fun; or, Buckhart ‘as a Reformer. (es Merriwell’s Commencement; or, The Last Week at ale. eel at Montauk Point; or, The Terror of the ir, s 797—Dick Merriwell, Mediator; or, The Strike at the Plum Valley Mine. NICK CARTER WEEKLY The best detective stories on earth. covers. Thirty-two big pages. Price, 5 cents. 733—The Abduction Syndicate; or, Nick Carter Against the Short Interest. 734—The Silent Witness; or, Nick Carter’s Quandary. 735—A Woman of Mystery; or, Nick Carter’s Silent Witness Remembers. 730—The Toils of a Siren; or, Nick-Carter’s Busiest Day. 737—The Mark of a Circle; or, Nick Carter's Seven Sworn - _ Enemies. 738—A Plot Within a Plot; or, Nick Carter Foils a Master Rogue. Ca beet Accomplice; or, Nick Carter Finds an Unusual ue. g4o—A Mysterious Robber; or, Nick Carter’s Counterplot. y41—The Green Scarab; or, Nick Carter’s Beautiful Mystery. y42—The Strangest Case on Record; or, Nick Carter’s Guessing Contest. ¥43—A Shot in the Dark; or, Nick Carter’s Midnight Adventure. 744—The Seven Schemers; or, Nick Carter Foils a Splendid Plot. 745—The Hidden Crime; or, Nick Carter’s Telephone Clew. Nick Carter’s exploits are read the world over. High art colored 746—The Secret Entrance; or, Nick Carter and the Child Stealers. 747—The Cdvern Mystery; or, Nick Carter’s Pie 6: the Leather Bag. AA eerie Fortune; or, Nick Carter’s Fish Line ew. 749—A Voice from the Past; or, Nick Carter’s Phonograph Trap. 750—The Search for Xonia; or, Nick Carter’s International Case. 751—The Crime of a Century; or, Nick Carter and the Chief of i Conspirators. 752—The Spider’s Web; or, Nick Carter’s Coney Island Case. 753—The Man With a Crutch; or, Nick Carter)on the Trail of Dickie Ducie. 754—The Rajah’s Regalia; or, Nick Carter and the Fallon Twins. 755—Saved from Death; or, Nick Carter’s Service. 750—The Man Inside; or, Nick Carter’s Final Move. 757—Out for Vengeance; or, Nick Carter and the Mystic Mes- sage. 758—The Poisons of Exili; or, Nick Carter on. Death’s Trail. 759—The Antique Vial; or, Nick Carter’s Curious Mystery. 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Leeks yen LATEST ISSUES™_ TIP TOP WEEKLY BUFFALO BILL STORIES ISSUED EVERY TUESDAY BEAUTIFUL COLORED COVERS There is no need of our telling American readers how interesting the stories of the adventures of Buffalo Bill, as scout and plainsman, really are. These stories have been read exclusively in this weekly for many years, and are voted to be masterpieces dealing with Western adventure. Buffalo Bill is more popular to-day than he ever was, and, consequently, everybody ought to know all there is to know about him. In no manner can you ecole so thoroughly acquainted with the actual habits and life of this great man, as by reading the BUFFALO BILL STORIES. You can have your news-dealer order them or they will be sent direct by the publishers to any address upon receipt of the price in money or postage-stampbs. We give herewith a list of all of the back numbers in print. 283—Buffalo 285—Buffalo 287—Buffalo 288—Buffalo 292—Buffalo 293—Buftalo 298—Buffalo 299—Buffalo 305—Buffalo 306—Buffalo 308—Buffalo 309—Buffalo 312—Buffalo 314—Buffalo 315—Butftalo 316—Buffalo 319—Buffalo 321—Buffalo 324—Buffalo 325—Buffalo 326—Buffalo 327—Buffalo 328—Buffalo 329—Buffalo 330—Buffalo 331—Buffalo 332—Buffalo 333—Buffalo 334—Buftalo 335—Buffalo 336—Buffalo 3: 37—Buffalo 338—Buftfalo 399__B uffalo 340— Buffalo 341—Buffalo 34: 2— Buffalo 343—Buffalo 344—Buffalo 345—Buffalo 346—Buffalo 348—Butffalo 3849—Butffalo 350—Buffalo 351—Buffalo 352—Buffalo 353—Baffalo 354— Buffalo 355—Buffalo 356—Buffalo 357—Buffalo 358— Buffalo 359—Buftfalo 360—Buffalo 362—Buffalo R Falo 264—Buffalo 366—Buffalo 367—Buffalo 368—Buffalo 369—Buffalo 370-—Buffalo 371—Buffalo 372—Buffalo 374—Buffalo 375—Buffalo 377—Buftalo 378—Buffalo 379—Buffalo 380—Buffalo 381—Buffalo 382—Buffalo 383—Buffalo 384—Buffalo 385—Buffalo Aba from this office, Bilt Up sa Stump ei ss rye Bill’s Master-stroke. Bill and the Brazos Terror. Bill’s Dance of Death....... Bill’s Medicine-lodge........ atl aie rile eres: clots Bill’s Black Hagles.......... Bill’s Desperate Dozen. Bill and the Barge Bandits. Bill, the Desert Hotspur. 5 5 5 Bill’’s Whirlwind Gea. ictous 5 Bill’s Red Retribution. BUS oDeach «Jum prs ss ateve Bill in the Jaws of Death.... z Bill’s= Aztec: Runners. ..>.%:. Bill’s Dance with Death..... Bil’s Mazeppa Ride........ Oo BUESSGVDSy Soe Sie eee Bill’s Cowboy ards ses Bill and the Emigrants...... Bill Among the Pueblos..... Bill’s Four-footed Pards... BSE OUCE Os oo eee. ol ou Bill’s Pick-up... Bec osere cee SiS ahs HUES @OUCSE Se ssc ce nS Bill’s Waif of the Plains. Bill Among the Mormons... BHUS” ASSIStances cs: fat ace Bill’s Rattlesnake Trail..... 5 Bill and the Slave-Dealers... Bill’s Strong Arm... Bits Girl Pardisc) sess ee. Bill’s Iron eae aiats Bill’s Jade Amulet. BulsoMacic2wariat.. 5.2262 Bill’s Bridge Oo Wire tcc oss Bus Bowlesst2. eae see Bills; “Pay-streak.... 3. ¢ 2 eeesis Bill’s Sine. Ves ere Woe Osten eis eee Bill’s Bill’s Bill Overpoaed Bee eeeenene sf BiPSS Ringe 2 sors Bill’s Big E Gontrace srere olden. 386—Buffalo 387—Buftalo 388—Buffalo 389—Buftalo 390—Buffalo 391—Buffalo 392—Butffalo 393—Buffalo 394—Buffalo 395—Buffalo 396—Buffalo 397—Buffalo 398—Buffalo 399—Buffalo 400—Buffalo 401—Buffalo 402—Buffalo 403—Buffalo 404—Buffalo 405—Buffalo 406—Buffalo 407—Buffalo 408—Buffalo 409—Buffalo 410—Buffalo 411—-Buffalo 412—Buffalo 413—Buffalo 414—-Buffalo 415—Buffalo 416—Buffalo 417—Buffalo 418—Buffalo 419—Buffalo 421—Buffalo 422—Buffalo 423—Buffalo 424—Buffalo 425—Buffalo 426—Buffalo 427—Buffalo 428—Buffalo 429— Buffalo 430—Buffalo 431—Buffalo og eee. 433—Buffalo 434—Buffalo 435—Buffalo 436—Buffalo 437—Buffalo 438—Buffalo 439—Buffalo 440—Buffalo 441—-Buffalo 442 Buffalo 443—Buffalo 444-_Buffalo 445—Buffalo 446—Buffalo 447—Buffalo 448—Buffalo 449—Buffalo 450—Buffalo 451—Buffalo mosa 452— Buffalo 453—Buffalo 454—Buffalo 455—Buffalo 456—Buffalo 457—Buffalo 458—Buffalo 459—Buffalo 460—Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane..... 5 BTU Se oar aT ers so egociae vols 5 Bill’s Desperate Plight...... 5 Bill’s Fearless Stand....... 5 Bill and the Yelping Crew... 5 Bulis: Guiding Hand... 2. 3. 5 Bill’s* Queer Quest. 25% 20. a. Bill’s Prize “Getaway” Bill’s Hurricane Hustle.. IB SMS Gare Play.cicis cs. cis oe Bill’s ff Bill’s Bill’s Billvand “the JBraviocscisreieieiss cs Billzand: the Quaker. ...5.. . Bill’s Package of Death..... Bill’s ‘Treasure. Cache. ...... Bells Privates wWials .4020e sen ae Bill and the Trouble Hunter. Bill and the Rope Wizard... BUS AACS Ga sete cee eer seen eke 5 Bill Among the Cheyennes... Bill Besieged Bill and the Red Hand...... Bill’s Tree-trunk Drift...... Bill and the Specter........ Bill and the Red Feathers... Bills King Stroke... ..:.'.. Bill, the Desert Cyclone.... Bill’’s Cumbres Scouts....... Bill and the Man-wolf...... Bill and His Winged Pard... & Bill at Babylon Bar........ BiG Se WOn SA PINs eo vers cece is clots Billis-Steel Arm -Pard. 2. Bill’s Aztec Guide.......... Bill and Little Firefly....... Bill in the Aztee City....... Bill’s Balloon Escape........ Bill and the Guerrillas...... E Bill’s “Border War: 22... Bill’s Mexican Mix-up....... Bill and the Gamecock...... § Bill and the Cheyenne Raiders & Bill’s Whirlwind Finish..... 5 Bill’s Santa Fe Secret...... Bill and the Taos Terror.... Bill’s Bracelet of Gold....... Bill and the Border Baron... Bill at Salt River Ranch.... Bill’s Panhandle Man-hunt.. Bill at Blossom Range...... Bill and Juniper Joe........ Bill’’s Final Scoop.......... Bill at Clearwater.... Bills wanning, bland. <....7. << - Bill’s Cinch Claim.. Billse Comradesse sco ecewk aise Billin. the -Bad- ands... <. Bill and the Boy Bugler. . ee Bill and the Heathen chee Bill and the Chink War. sD Bill’s Chinese Chase........ 5 Bill’s Secret Message....... 5 Bill and the Eorde f Her- Bill’s Lonesome Trail. Bill’s Quarry........ me oe Bill ine Deadwood o3o%s 600s 310 Bis WirsteAldsw.5t 6. Brees Bill and Old Moonlight. 3 Bill Repaid praets Bill’s TH RoW AGk Sues eetans tedebeises Bill’s ‘‘Sight Unseen’”....... Bis New. Pard<< 2-3 sects MOOT OVOVOTOTON 461—Buffalo 462—Buffalo 463—Buffalo 464—Buffalo 465—Buftalo 466—Butftalo 467—Buffalo 468—Buffalo 469—Buffalo 470—Butffalo 71i—Buffalo —Buffalo Butralo —Buffalo Buffalo —Bufralo —Buffalo 8—Buffalo 9—Buffalo 481—Buffalo 482—Buffalo 483—-Buffalo 484—Buffalo 485——Buffalo 486—Buffalo 487—Buffalo 488—Buffalo 489—Buffalo 490—Buffalo 492—Buffalo 493—Buffalo 494—Buffalo 495—Buftfalo ers 496—Buffalo 497—Butftalo 498—Buffalo 499—Buffalo 500—Butftalo 501—Buffalo 502—Buffalo 503—Buftfalo 504—Buffalo 505—Buffalo 506—Buftalo 507—Buffalo 508—Buffalo 509—Buffalo 510—Buffalo 511—-Buffalo pea ee ence ee 7 (3 7 it ie 7 78 7 Bill’s ‘Winged Victory’... Bills Pieces-of-Hight.. Bill and the Wight Vaqueros Bill’s Unlucky Siest idsemayero Bill's; Apaches Glue. 1. 3h. 2 5% Bill and the Apache Totem.. Bill’s Golden Wonder....... Billisishiesta Nis ES et ace ees Bill and the Hatchet ae Bill and the Mining Shark. Bill and the C attle Barons. Bill’s* Done: Oddses sees eae Bill, the ‘Peacemaker Sietepsie ss Bills7 Promise 2to: Pays 2 ses Bul’s: Diamond Eaten a. wear. Bill and the Wheel of Fate. Bill and the Pool of Mystery Bill and the Deserter....... Bill’s Island in the Air...... Biles lime ui. ceotvea sete. 5. Bill’s Test Bill and the Ponca Raiders... Bill’s Boldest Stroke Bill’s Enigma Bill’s Blockade Bill and the Gilded Clique.. 3ill and Perdita Reyes...... o Bill and the Boomers....... 5 Bill Calls “a: Halts ase « 5 Bill’s O. K : Bills at? Canon Digblove a. ils: DPran stems. eee s 5D Bill and the Red Horse Hunt- : Bill’s Dangerous Duty 5 Bill and the Chief’s Daughter Sill at. TinajacwWwellsics 2208.65 5 Bill and the Men of Mendon. Bill at Rainbow’s End....... Bill and the Russian Plot. Biles Red) iriangle ssn sees 5 Bi ROR HUSH Sot aeterste cs BilseOramipe Pardee cs wes 5 Bill on the Upper Missouri.. Bill’s Crow Scouts Bill’s Opium Case BUS sWiAtChGrattignn we «ore isterese Bill’s: Mountain Foes........ BHU Seba ttleuGrywindeesysteslerecere Bill’s. Fight for the Right. 5 CLOTLOTOLOTOT ON OF CLOTOLOTOTOT ON CLOVOTOTOUOT CLO 512—Buffalo Bill’s Barbecue 2.00... 5. 06.4 5 513—Buffalo Bill and the Red Renegade .... 5 514—-Buffalo Bill and the Apache Kid ...... 515—Buffalo Bill at the Copper Barriers ... 516—Buffalo Bill’s Pacific Power 517—Buffalo Bill and Chief Hawkchee 518—Buffalo Bill and the Indian Girl 519—Buffalo Bill Across the Rio Grande 520—Buffalo man 521—Buffalo 522—Buffalo 523—Buffalo 524—Buffalo 525—Buffalo 526—Buffalo 527—Buffalo 528—Buffalo 529—Buffalo 5380—Buffalo 531—Buffalo Bill and the Headless Horse- 5 Bill’s Clean Sweep Bill’s Handful of poe: as Bills Puchlos MOesewt iss sis 6 Bills, Taos. Notem;. es... 5 Bill and the Pawnee Prophet 5 Bill and Old Wanderoo..... 5 BUNS MECTPY. Wain at siete o 0s ox 5 Bill and Grizzly Dan...... Ae Bill at Lone Tree Gap...... Bilss rail or Deaths. <5: Billat CimaroonwBar ci. 26 csc 532—-Buffalo Bill and the Sluice Robber... 533—Buftalo Bill-on Lost River..........- 534—Buffalo Bill’s Thunderbolt. 535—Buffalo Bill’s Sioux Circus. Byihsiss spunea you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot procure them from your newsdealer, they can be obtained direct Postage-stamps taken the same as money. STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS, 79-89 SEVENTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY