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No. 283. NEW YORK, February 9, 1918 ., — Price Six Cents.
age
fam
~ knew instantly what it was.
Buffalo Bill on the Trail of Death:
OR,
PAWNEE. BILL'S DISCOVERY.
By the author of ‘BUFFALO BILL.”
- CHAPTER. I.
BACK TO THE GAP.
ae most graceful and beautiful figure of the forest and
plains is the deer—and the most timid. A white-muzzled
doe came softly down to the ¢creekside over the soft turf,
and, after an anxiops glance up and down the stream and
all about the glade, she plunged her muzzle into the cool
water.
It was almost daybreak, and the deer woul soon seek
the upland pastures for the day, where there were few
‘Springs. Therefore she drank long.and deeply.
Gliding out of the brake behind her, but to one side,
came an animal on all fours. _ This animal was meant to
go erect, however; but now he kept a brush clump between
him and the dtinking doe, and he ne over the ground
as softly as a serpent.
He was a young savage, dressed in the simple garments
of his tribe, and with an eagle feather stuck in his black
hair.
But his weapons were those of the white man, and he
wore a loaded cartridge belt.
Now, crouching behind the bush, he poked the muzzle
of his rifle between the twigs and drew bead on the drink-
ing doe. And so sitre was his shot that the animal gave
but a single leap into the air, falling dead in the middle of
the shallow creek.
With a satisfied “Wuh!” the Indian sprang out of con-
cealment and ran toward the spot. He reached the edge
of the stream and stooped to seize a still quivering leg of
the doe when a most startling and eerie scream shook the
morning air.
Heard in the dark at’a distance, that cry might have
been mistaken. for the wail of a lost woman or child. The
Indian might have believed the sound the cry of a lost
soul traveling the forest.
But, shocked as this young warrior was by the yell, he
tipward and over ‘his shoulder.
There, crouching close on the horizontal branch of a
He. threw a quick glance
tree, and within easy leap, was the drab: beast that had
uttered the cry of rage and challenge. The panther, with-
out doubt, had marked the doe for his own, and mere man
had stepped in and deprived him of his kill,
Again the terrifying yell was emitted from the beast’s
throat, and the lithe body was launched straight at the
stooping Indian. The latter could scarcely have avoided -
the attack. His rifle was empty. To draw and fire his
pistol would take some seconds, and the panther came like
a flash of light. |
But even in mid-air the frightful screech of the savage
beast was cut off, the creature writhed and flung itself
sideways, and the report of another gun echoed in the little
lade.
: The ted man escaped the stroke of the panther’s paw
by a hair's breadth, and the beast splashed into the shallow —
- pool, at the water was churned to foam by its expiring
struggles.
At the same moment the figure of an old borderman,
his garments made partly of the skins of beasts that had
fallen under his rifle, including the coonskin cap upon his
head, came hurriedly across the glade from the other direc-
tion, reloading his weapon as he ran.
“By the jumping horned frogs o’ Texas!” ejaculated the
white man, as the. red scrambled to his feet. “How old
aire ye gotter be, Little Cayuse, before ye l’arn ter load yer
weeping as quick as ye’ve fired it? You ain't no Injun;
ye’re a reg’lar tenderfoot!” he added, in disgust.
The young red man bowed under this abuse. And, al-
though his black eyes flashed, he looked with gratitude upon
the old man who had saved him.
“Nick Nomad—him good friend Little Cayuse,” the: red
said. “Wubt
“OL Nick o’ th’ woods sartainly turned th’ kyard fer
ye thet thar time, younker,” agreed the trapper. “Now,
snake them Carcassés out 0° thet thar water. You flay ta.
doe, an’ I’ll remove the skin o’ thet thar catamount—et 's er
mighty likely pelt, Little Cayuse. It was wuth goin’ out so
airly for.”
2 is NEW BUFFALO.
t
~ In a short half hour Little Cayuse had the best of the
deer flesh in shape to carry, and the trapper had skinned
the big cat. Then, each with his own load, the two
strangely assorted friends started up the creck bank, walk-
ing briskly for another half hour.
By. that time the sun’s jolly red face appeared over. the -
eastern heights, and the hunters came in sight of thr ‘amp
which they had left before cockcrow in hope of furnishing
fresh meat for the first meal of the day.
The young Piute Indian bore on his shoulders a gen-
erous supply of venison, and the breakfast fires were just
being blown into flame by the men who were astir.
The camp was a large-one, but was no stable affair.
There were two or three shelters of pine boughs, and that
was all.
One of these shelters was completely closed, and a hand-
some plainsman lay before it as though he had slept there
all night as a guard. As old Nomad, the trapper, and Little
Cayuse, the Piute Indian, came into the forest. opening
where the camp had been pitched, this handsome plains-
man rose up and welcomed them.
“By my sacred O-zu-ha!” he exclaimed. “You have got
a bag of game this morning, and no mistake.”
“And Little Cayuse come near. being inside the painter |
before I could kill it,’ grunted Nomad. “Ye never see
sech a careless redskin!’’
“Wuh! Little Cayuse go shoot deer—not see um. cat,”
explained the Piute. ‘Him. Pawnee Bill all same see pelt?”
‘He was as proud of the panther skin as though he had.
shot thé beast himself.
“Tas a, hot moment, as ye might say, Pawnee,’ con-
cluded old Nomad.
“On-she-ma-da! 1 believe you,’ responded, the plains-
man. ;
‘Whar’s Buffler—and the rest?”
“Buffalo Bill, with Wild Bill and the baron, are down
to the creek, I reckon—and I'll follow.them. 1 reckon Miss
Gregory won't mind waking up now.’ *
.. At his words the barrier of green branches was pushed
aside and a fresh and beautiful face appeared in the open-
ing—the face of a gently bred and refined young girl whose
‘presence in this wilderness was surely a surprise.
“T am awake, Major Lillie,” she cried to the handsome
plainsman, “and I have slept as though such a thing as
bloodthirsty Indians did not exist, and as though I were
back in Missouri.”
This young woman, fresh from the East with a party
of emigrants that had suffered extinction through an attack
of the Mountain Utes then raiding out of their own terri-
tory beyond the Western range, had passed through a ter-
- rible experience during the past three days.
She had been settled at the mining town of Lone Tree
Gap, nearly two hundred miles by wagon train from this
camp. From the edge of that town she had been stolen
by three Indians. Major Gordon W. Lillie, or Pawnee Bill,
as he was called familiarly, had chanced to be at the min-
ing camp. Alone he started in pursuit of the red abductors,
and alone he had captured and killed, one after another,
the three reds, and rescued the girl from death.
They had been joined by the majors own friends and
comrades, including Buffalo Bill, the famous scout, Nick
Nomad, Wild Bill Hickok, Little Cayuse, and Buffalo
Bill's Dutch pard, Baron Villum yon Schnitzenhauser. In
addition, a party of miners and old bordermen from Lone
‘Tree Gap, headed by old man Turnbull, had likewise come
up at the finish, and all these had camped for the night in
this forest opening, intending to start back for the Gap on
this morning.
Major Lillie smiled upon the pretty girl and said:
“Glad to see you feel so well, Miss Anna. lll have a
bucket of water brought you. You'll have time to get an
appetite before breakfast.”
lt was Little Cayuse who gravely brought the leather
horse bucket of clear water from the creek. But the baron
had te come along as attendant and congratulate Anna
Gregory on her appearance.
“Vale, vale!” exclaimed the German, puffing out his red
cheeks and bracing his round body firmly on his thin legs.
“Tdt iss mit gr-r-reat bleasure dot I see you so-o fine dis
pootiful morgen, yes! eve
“Undt mit all you haf peen trough yedt, Mees Krek-
BILL WEEKLY.
ery! Ach, himmelblitzen! For a pootiful young laty to
pe stolen py dem redskins oder carried off by dem like some
pody snatchers—no, no, kit-napers, I mean!—idt sure vos
a terrible oxberience,” a
“Tt certainly was, sir,’ said the girl demurely. “And I
can neyer stop thanking all you gentlemen for running
after, me.” Ryans
“Ach, dot.iss. wot is de fate yor mosdt.pootiful laties,”
declared.the baron solemnly, but with a twinkle in his eye.
“De mens iss su-ah to chase dem.” as
“Now, baron!”
“Undt you .can. pet me mein life,” added the German,
srowing enthusiastic, “dot yen dere iss any females dis-
ad in, dot Puffalo Pill undt Pawnee Pill undt Vild
Pill———
“The three worst pills in all this Western country, I
assure you, Miss Gregory,” broke in the hearty voice of
Buffalo. Bill himself, who came up from the creek to
greet her.
~ But the baron went on like Tennyson’s brook; once
started conversationally, it was mighty hard to stopper
Buffalo Bill’s Dutch pard.
“tndt Vild Pill undt olt Nomat undt Leedle Cayuse— .
ven dere is de pitzness of rescuing young laties in distress,
dey iss-de fellers to do idt—aind’t idt?”
“And the Baron Schnitzenhauser?”’ , suggested Miss
Giecorye (7)
The baton smiled broadly and bowed.
“T do meinselluf too much honor yedt,” he declared.
The venison steaks were already sizzling on the coals, and
an aroma of real coffee filled the glade. Buffalo. Bill and
his partners had come down from Lone Tree Gap with
horses, and they had led Pawnee’s Chick-Chick and a
saddle pony for Miss Gregory as well. But Turnbull and
his men were afoot. As soon as breakfast was dispatched,
Turnbull came to the girl.
“Miss Anna, me an’ my friends will git back to town—
and the old lady will be mighty glad to know you're safe.
We'll go the short way and perhaps beat you to it; but
remember that you aire expected at the Old Homestead
Resterraw.
“And you can bet that we will keep our eyes on Jube
Wakeman, and he shan’t git out o’ town until thar is a
chance to look into them mining properties of his’n an’
make sure jest wot he done with your money.”
With this old Turnbull left her, and, with his neighbors,
tramped away. toward the north, while Buffalo Bill and
his friends made their preparations for departure in a
more leisurely manner. ioe
CHAPTER If, ~
THE RED ON THE SPOTTED HORSE.
: Anna Grtegory had experienced two great and irre-
deemable- losses. in her life, although she, was only yet
within sight of her twentieth birthday. . Me
When she was a child her father and mother had joined
an emigrant company moving West, and had left her in
the care of relatives. News traveled slowly in those days,
and Utah was a long, long way from Missouri. In some-
thing like two years word came back to the old home that
the emigrants had been completely wiped out by the Indians
—and this massacre had happened not far ftom the very
spot where the girl was now encamped in the care of
Buffalo Bill and his partners,
Then, within a few months of this time, the girl's foster
parents, the Gregorys, had likewise determined to make a
home in the rich, new West: The old farm, which had
once belonged to Anna’s own father, was found to be rich
in mineral wealth, and-it had been sold by her father’s
executor, a man named Jubal Wakeman, for forty thousand
dollars. x
Wakeman had. become interested in some mining prop-
erties called the Three Pinger,.at Lone Tree Gap, and he
was on the properties. Having the power—as the girl was
not of age and made no objection—Wakeman had invested
her entire. fortune-in the Three Finger Mine, or so. he
claimed. ae at ie et
Anna had come West with the Gregorys to have a final
papa
NEW BUFFALO
settlement of accounts with Wokerman. A hundred miles
or so from Lone Tree Gap, the Mountain Utes, under Fly-
ing Feather, had come down upon the emigrant train and
killed every soul but Anna herselt.
The Utes had carried her away as far as Sandeman
Pass. There the renegades had been overtaken and
whipped to a finish by Buffalo Bill and his company of
scouts, backed by Major Pringle and a troop of pony sol-
diers from Fort Prevost. Anna was likewise rescued at
that time, as she had been on the second occasion that
the Indians had. captured her, by the personal effort and
bravery of Major Gordon W. Lillie, Pawnee Bill.
And this keen plainsman had been first to spy out the
fact that Jubal Wakeman was a dishonest man, if not a
criminal of even deeper stripe.
The Three Finger properties had been opened, had
proved very valuable, and looked like a “sure-enough good
thing.’ And then suddenly the mines were flooded.
Jubal Wakeman, with much outcry, told of his bad luck.
For four months he tried to pump the water out;
in just as fast as the pump pipe spit it out into the creek.
So he had finally given it up, and when Anna Gregory
was brought to Lone Tree Gap to demand an ‘accounting
of her father’s executor, Jubal Wakeman pointed to the
water-filled shaft and told her that her forty thousand
dollars, as well as his own money and all that had been
invested by other people in the Three Finger proposition,
was under that water!
Pawnee Bill had “sized up” Jubal Wakeman and be-
lieved him to be a liar, and therefore in all probability a
thief. And in addition he found reason to suspect that
this same Jubal Wakeman had stirred up the renegade
Utes to attack the wagon train with which the Gregorys
traveled, and to steal the girl away on both occasions.
These last facts Miss Gregory herself did not know.
But Buffalo Bill had discovered that Wakeman had opened
a passage between the creek and his mine so that as fast
as the water was pumped out of the shaft the same quan-
tity ran in,
the stock in the mine, freeze out Miss Gregory, or perhaps
frighten her into. selling her claim to him, and then ‘dis-
cover’ that the mine could be easily emptied. The claim
was undoubtedly a rich one.
Buffalo Bill and his friends were now determined on
taking the girl back to Lone. Tree Gap and to straighten
out her financial affairs, as well as punish Jubal Wakeman
for his perfidy. If it could be proved that he had been
behind the Indian outrages, or had aided and abetted
Flying Feather and his gang of cutthroats in the recent
troubles, his finish was sure.
Therefore, soon after old man Turnbull and his men had
started north, the scouts and Miss Gregory broke camp
and rode out of the forest into the plain wagon trail which
some miles to the east joined the road to Lone Tree Gap.
The baron and his famous mule, Toofer, were joined
in a continual warfare over one narticular point Toofer
was a big mule, with the longest ears that ever grew on
one of his kind, and those ears were barometers that it
_ were better not to overlook. He often had long spells of
good behavior to his credit; he could run like the wind
and could fight a whole corral of vicious cow ponies and
thrash them all.
Again, he was viciously and piggishly determined to
do nothing that bis master desired. He would’ sometimes
balk at a most important juncture, leaving the baron in
most uncomfortable predicaments.
The point on which the baron and the mule’ usually
joined issues was the position of Toofer in any procession.
The baron believed in making himself of as much impor-
‘tance as possible, and he therefore was inclined to ride in
Eas of any cavalcade, unless otherwise expressly for-
i
Toofer, however, frequently vetoed this desire. He
cared not a hang for the baron’s vanity, And it was often
“possible to make the big, mouse-colored mule follow the
ponies rather than lead them.
Héwever, in starting from camp on this morning, the
baron managed to get Toofer in the lead, and he kept that
lead for’ at least an hour,
it came ©”
He had evidently planned to get hold of all -
oe
BILL WEEKLY. 3
Then suddenly, without warning and without apparent
reason, Toofer halted in the trail, spread his four feet
as though to brace himself against any human urging, and
pointed his great ears forward as though he were an ani
mated Gatling gun taking aim at a brush clump on the
edge of the forest not thirty yards away.
“Vos iss?” bawled the baron, tugging on the lines, and.
then belaboring the mule with his gunstock. “Hi! You
vos detérmined to blog de roadt here yedt? Vell, now!
Gid oop mit you! Himmelblitzen, musdt I to you speag
some more—vot?” —
Toofer was as solidly placed as one of the mountains
itself. The baron began to take notice.
“Vos iss? Vait!” he cried in a hoarse whisper to those
behind. “Dere iss somedings bodderin’ Toofer yedt.”
“Er-waugh! Ef I was Toofer’s rider you can bet some-
thing would be bothering him!” growled old Nomad.
“No, no!” coughed the Dutchman. “Idt iss somedings
dot he sees, or hears yedt, or smells i
Little Cayuse suddenly uttered a startled “Wuh!”
“Iss idt Inchuns?” demanded the baron anxiously.
Buffalo Bill and the others had now come up, and were
halted in the path by the barrier of the stubborn mule.
Suddenly the girl screamed:
“Oh, oh! Colonel Cody! See there!’
Out of the brush clump there appeared with startling
suddenness two figures—two figures that brought to the
lips of) all the riders observations which expressed their
varied feelings—two figures which set the horses to danc-
ing like circus ponies.
But Toofer shot back his ears again, stiffened his tail
as though it had been left out. by accident through a long
arctic night and frozen so stiff that the frost would never
again get out of it—and then he sent out a riot call that
shook the echoes.
“E-haw! e-haw! e-haw!” Toofer bellowed.
“Shut 1. up!” cried Wild: Bill,’: “By gorry, that’s the
worst voice I ever heard!”
“Cut its throat, Dutch!” ordered old Nomad. i
“Vot!. Idt soundts py an understudy for you, old Nomat
—undt dot iss so! Toofer can say ‘Er-waugh!’ choose so
easy as you say idt yedt.”
But ‘the others,-and the nervous ponies, were giving all
their attention to the man and the beast that had come
out into the trail; The man was dressed in bearskin, and
his face was hairy and his skin cap was pulled tightly down
over his ears. He scarcely looked human, save that he
walked erect and carried a rifle as he strode down the
trail toward the cavalcade.
And dehind him, as-unnoticed by the strange traveler
as though it were a terrier dog, waddled a half-grown
grizzly bear, snuffing at the man’s heels and giving the
company ahead mighty little attention.
“Ob, the bear! “The bear!” cried ‘the girl
“Hey, Dan! Send that pet of yours back into the bush
if you want to be friends with me!” shouted Buffalo Bill,
spurring ahead to meet the strange being who had so
startled them all.
“Whup! Git out!” commanded the hermit, and the: bear
growled a little and sneaked into the brush.
“Why, he will spring out on us and kill us,” whispered
Anna Gregory to Pawnee Bill. y
“Not a bit of it! That grizzly is one of those that Dan
shooed away from us yesterday in the pit up there i in the
mountains.’’*
“Oh!” cried the girl again.
“T reckon he’s got ‘em under pretty good control,” said
Pawnee Bill, chuckling. “But I didn’t think they were
any too tame when they had us treed.”
“What a strange being that man must be!” said the girl.
“He is odd, all right. There is something quéer about
him.” :
“Why, if he can hold such beasts in subjection”
“A man who is a little less sane than his neighbors has
usually developed a sixth sense---or developed one of our
usual senses toa higher power than the oe
ones Nuw BUFFALO BILL WHEKLY, No. ‘282,
\
}
t
{
x
4 NEW BUFFALO BILD WEEKLY.
'"And this is the case with this—this Grizzly Dan, do
you call him?”
“That is how hé is known. I am not sure that Dan is
his name.”
“And he is mad?”
“T wouldn’t say that.”
“But what is the matter with him?’
“He’s not just right-in his head. At times he has con-
vulsions, or fits. His brain is doubtless seriously disturbed.
i re you see him with that hairy cap off?”
vel Oo.”
“Well, his head’s not a nice sight,” explained Pawnee Bill.
“He was scalped, you know.”
i “Oh ve
“You see, years ago old Nomad and ‘some others found
this fellow lying under a heap of dead redskins and white
men in the middle of a burned wagon trail, which had been |
attacked as yours was, and the people killed.
“It had taken two reds to kill this fellow, and so they
had sealped him to the ears——”
“To lall him ?” |
“On-she-ma-da!” exclaimed Pawnee Bill. “They thought
‘they had killed him, And perhaps it would have been
better had they finished the job. He was out of his mind
for some time. Then he took to living a hermit life in
the forest and mountains. He does not like his fellow
men to see |him when he is attacked by his epileptic par-
oxysms. aee
“The poor man!” ie
“He has been of assistance to you, oddly enough, on
several occasions, Miss Gregory.”
“How is that?” .
“When you were captured the first time by the reds,
Grizzly Dan helped us track the Utes, and he was there
ata had our fight with Flying Feather’s crowd in the
ass.
“Ah, indeed?” BON
“And yesterday he jumped in among those bears, as you
saw yourself, and knocked ‘em right and left.”
“Oh! I'd not like to see hint do that again,” she mur-
mured, “but I am interested in him. He and I have both
cruelly suffered because of the red men.”
“On-she-ma-da! You and Grizzly Dan have a bit in
common, haven’t you?” was Pawnee Bill’s comment.
Meanwhile, the cavalcade had moved ‘on, but slowly.
Grizzly Dan walked by the side of Buffalo Bill’s mount,
coliversing earnestly with the scout.
Little Cayuse, who knew that he was persona non grata
to Grizzly Dan, had spurred Navi, his pinto, ahead. He
had gone out of sight over a mound. Suddenly he came
flying back, lying closé on his pony’s neck, and his appear-
ance warned them all that something had startled the keen-
_ eyed Indian lad.
“Close up! Close up!’ called ‘Pawnee Bill in a low
voice, beckoning the baron and the others ahead.
Buffalo Bill sat straight in his saddle and gave his atten-
tion to the Pitite instead of to the hermit.
“What is the matter, Little Cayuse?” demanded Cody.
“Pa-e-has-ka come quick to hilltop—see um spotted pony
and Ute we see um beyond mountains!” And his sweep-
ing gesture indicated the high range of hills to the west,
behind which lay the villages of the Ute, and where Buf-
falo Bill had accompanied Major Pringle and his soldiers
only the week before.
“The red on the spotted pony?” repeated Buffalo Bill,
with sudden animation.
“Pate-has-ka know? Him’see spotted horse——”
“Er-waugh!” bellowed old Nomad. “That Injun we
thought was Flying Feather himself, Buffer!’ _
“The one that tried to tempt us from the trail when we
were making for Lone Tree Gap from the other side, by
gorry!” added Wild Bill. _
“And over on this side of the range now, eh?” queried
Buffalo Bill slowly. “Besides, Dan, heré, was telling me
that he found fresh signs of Indians this morning.”
“Ach, himmelblitzen!” squealed the baron. “Tdt iss goin’
to pe some fun, meppeso—yah?”
“Shut up!” commanded Pawnee Bill. “Don’t you see
that the young lady.is getting frightened?”
But they were all very much excited by the Piute’s news.
CHAPTER Itt.
AL SHE EXPENSE OF THE REDSKINS.
Major Pringel and his pony soldiers and “walk-a-heaps,”
as the Indians called the infantry, had awed the Mouh-
tain Utes into submission, and Buffalo Bill and his scouts
had been ordered to round up the renegade chief, Flying
Feather, and the gang that traveled with him.
These reds were’believed to have been guilty of most of
thé atrocities of late occurring on the Sandeman and Lone
Tree Gap Trails.
The Mormons had come into Utah some years before
and had made friends with the redskins; and it was gen-
erally believed that the Mormons often stirred up the reds
a those whom the “Latter Day Saints” called “Gen-
tiles.”
There was no Mormon colony very near this place, how-
‘ever, atid Buffalo Bill had reason to believe, as we have
seen, that the reds had been sent out on this last raid by a
white man who had no affiliation with the Mormons. .
The scout had warned the postmaster and one or two
other stable citizens of Lone Tree Gap not to let Jubal
Wakeman out of the camp until the return of the girl.
But of course the men in question had no control over
Flying Feather and his band. If this was the renegade
chief that Little Cayuse had described, he must have
brought his band through the range—and of course by
the Sandeman Pass—during the night, :
. Jubal Wakeman could have got word to his Indian allies
as soon as Buffalo Bill and his party had left Lone Tree
Gap on the trail of the abducted girl, and Flying Feather
could have made off at once for this locality, hoping to
be strong eriough to meet Buffalo Bill’s party in action,
or to harass them at least.
Buffalo Bill’s first thought was for the safety of the
girl that circumstances had placed in his charge. He ‘
wished that the party with Turnbull had not. separated
from them, for he did not know how large Flying Feath-
ers war party might be.
_ “What do.you think of it, old son?” he asked of Grizzly
Dan, the hermit.
“T don’t spose thet thar pizen Injun of yours has been
lying to ye, eh?” asked Dan, scowling at the young Piute,
for he hated and distrusted every Indian.
“Come, come, Dan!” exclaimed Buffalo Bill. “‘You were
just telling me yourself that you saw Indian signs this
morning.”
“Waal, I did,” admitted the hermit.
“Afoot or on pony back?”
“T seen where the pizen critters crossed the creek down
yander at a ford below the reg’lar trail.”
“How far away?’
“Six miles, p’r’aps.”’
“And you followed the trail >”
“Me and John follered it,’ grunted Dan.
“Himmelblitzen!” gasped the baron, who was listening,
with his ears stretched like those of Toofer’s. “He means
dot Hans bear dot he carries mit him aroundtt”
“Yah!” snorted Grizzly Dan. “Thet b’ar kin smell In-
juns ez fur as he kin smell his dinner.” ,
“How many reds do you think are in the party, Dan?”
interposed Buffalo Bill,
“T ain't jest made up my mind, Buffler,” returned the
hermit, scratching his ear. “But ’tain’t no small comp’ny,
ye kin take it from me.”
“You follered ‘em?” asked Nomad, mighty interested.
“That's wot brought me and the b’ar out this vere way,’
admitted Dan. “TI lost the trail on that high, hard ground
yonder. They likely went across it puppussly ter blind the
trail if anybody follered.”
“But they are surely ahead of us?’.
“Tt looks like it ter me,” said Dan.
ie “Now,” said Buffalo Bill, with sudden determinatioy,
the rest of you remain here, and Little Cayuse and 1
will ride forward and see if we can spot this redskin on a
spotted horse.”
He unslung his glasses as he spoke, and the next moment
with the Piute, he dashed away from his comrades.
The scout and the Piute reached the top of the mound
from which vantage point a great deal of the open country
to the north and east could be seen. There was no moving
speck upon it that Buffalo Bill could see; but suddenly the
i Rae Ry ME ESE aly ESE “4
eyed
NEW BUFFALO
Piute uttered a cry and pointed off the trail with a tense
arm. |
“Pa-e-has-ka see!
bring um near. Wuh!
Buffalo Bill instantly had his glasses focused on the
point in question. The powerful lenses brought the thing
that had looked like a small dog to the naked eye so close
that its full proportions were revealed.
It was a spotted horse, black and white, and its rider was
most certainly an Indian. As Buffalo Bill was not at all
familiar with Flying Feather’s features, he did not know
for sure that this was the renegade Ute chief,
, It was a Ute, however, and he was undoubtedly on the
watch for the cavalcade of white people. For in a moment
the rider of the spotted mustang dug heels into flanks,
and the horse and rider disappeared from the pinnacle on
which they had stood—flashed out. of sight like a picture
from a screen.
“He certainly saw us, Little Cayuse.”
“Wuh!” agreed the Piute.
“While he is out of sight, and therefore cannot see us,
do your best to overtake him,”
“Wuh!” And the Indian youth made ready to fly.
“Get a glimpse of the gang; count them; return to us
as soon as you have done this.”
“Just so, Pa-e-has-ka!” declared the Piuté, and, with a
Much long way off. Magic tubes
4? Tsvig
wave of his hand in farewell, he rode away like the wind
upon his pinto.
Buffalo Bill returned leisurely to the trail and to his
comrades. To decrease Miss Gregory’s fears he said:
“A lone Indian. He may be sentinel for a band. Little
Cayuse has gone to see. But I apprehend no danger.”
They moved on again, and Pawnee Bill engaged the
girl in conversation to cover the. disctission between his
friend Grizzly Dan and old Nomad:
_“Wot’s the facts in the case, Buffler?” asked the trapper
in a low tone. isa
be the same spotted mustang we saw beyond the
ills.”
“T told Dan, yere, that the Injun had good sight.”
“Yah! snorted Grizzly Dan. “TI don’t doubt the Piute’s
sight; but he’s Injun and ain't tet be trusted. Some night
he'll cut all yet throats.”
“That's a point we shall never agree on, old son,” said
Buffalo Bill easily. “But it is not the subject under dis-
cussion just how.”
“Wot'll ye do?” asked Nomad.
“Keep on moving. No use in stopping here. When
Little Cayuse learns how many there are we can better
| make plans.”
more eer
“They've come over yere tér do us dirt, Buffer,” declared
the trapper.
“Can't be much doubt of that,’ agreed the scout.
“T wish ter thunder that gal warn’t yere,” sighed the
old borderman. ‘“Wimenfolks is in th’ way w’en it comes.
ter a suré-’nuff scrap.”
“Say!” drawled Grizzly Dan. “Wot kind of a hoss is
this yere you say the Injun rides?”
“A mighty swift spotted pony,” explained Nomad.
“J been wantin’ a fast hoss,” considered Dan; ‘a re’l
fast one. No Injun ain’t got a right to a good hoss. How
*bout you an’ me makin’ a try for this yere spotted one?”
Old Nomad grinned. “I’m wi’ ye, Dan, ef Buffler says
the word.”
“I don’t know about dividing our small force,” hesitated
Buffalo Bill. “But if you have a good idea in that old
head of yours, Grizzly Dan——”
“Them Injuns won't likely ’tack you to-day. They'll
wanter rest up, for they sure traveled last night, and mebbe
all day yesterday.”
“Right, old feller!’ agreed Nomad.
“They ll spy on whar ye camp,’ pursued Dan. “Then,
‘bout sunup ter-morrer they'll come b’ilin’ down on ye.
\ Thet’ll be erbout their plan.”
“Tt sounds reasonable,” admitted Buffalo Bill,
“Waal, then, me an’ Nomad’ll sashay round, find whar
they corrals their ponies, an’ ef thet thar spotted hoss is
as good as you-all think it is, we'll jest natcherly snake him
out o’ the bunch an’ stampede the others. Git my idee,
Buffler ?”
The scout laughed.
BILL WEEKLY. O
“You seem more intent on getting a good mount at.
ae Cees of the redskins than anything else, Dau,” he
said.
“Put it thet thar way if ye wish,* grunted the hermit.
“I don’t know but yout scheme is good,’ added Buffalo
Bill. “Go on, you two hardshells! Jf you meet up with
Little Cayuse, Dan, don’t mistake him for a bad redskin
and scalp him. Remember I want to use the boy yet.”
“Tl don’t Want yer pizen red,” growled Dan. “But. I-do
want this yere spotted hoss ye tell about.” And with old
Nomad the strange fellow moved swiftly away, for, al-
though unmounted, he traveled at good speed, a hand
resting on the borderman’s saddle.
“Oh!” gasped Miss Gregory, pointing to the fringe of
brush beside the trail again. ‘‘That bear is going, too.’
“I am gladt of dot!” declared the baron. “Dot Hang
pear vos a goinbanion dot I vouldt nodt like to vaké oop
undt find mein ped in yedt.” i,
ac not alone in that [celing, Dutch,’ declared Wild
ill.
Meanwhile, Buffalo Bill and Major Lillie had a word
together.
“There is peril in the air, Gordon,’ said the scout con-
fidently.
“No doubt of it, necarnis,” agreed the bowie man.
“We want to choose a good camp for this night. You
have been over the trail with the girl before. What is
your advice?” >
“T will show you a hill. There is a small.grove upon
it. From that grove one can scan a mile of.clear prairie,
rather rolling, on all sides.”
“Water?” : .
“At the foot of the hill. The spring can be covered by
rifle while the water carrier keeps the camp supplied.”
“Good! Let us make for this place. As long as-we are
- uncertain about the number of these reds, I take it we'd
best take every precaution.”
“An-pe-tu-wé!” said Pawnee Bill, and the party spurred
on along the trail, under the keenest apprehension regard-
ing a possible Indian attack.
CHAPTER IV.
“HESPOILING THE EGYPTIANS.”
Both Nick Nomad and Grizzly Dan were of that breed
of white men. who were originally most successful in bor-
der warfate and who did much toward extending the
atl of civilization without being at all civilized them-
selves. ;
Although Grizzly Dan had been only fifteen years or
so in the wilds, his forefathers had driven the savages out
of the Mississippi Valley, and he had been nurtured with
the same beliefs regarding the redskins that Nomad held.
Besides, the harm that had befallen Dan through the
bloody work of the savages had made the strange man hate
the reds with all the strength of his passionate nature.
The old men believed the reds had no souls—no more
than had the beasts of the field. They firmly held that
the only good Indian was a dead one. And as for the
Indians’ rights—why, they had none.
In traveling with Pa-e-has-ka, who was always just in
his dealings with the reds, Nomad rather modified his
expressed opinions; but deep in his warped mind he was
just as savage in his hatred of the reds as Grizzly Dan
himself.
The laws of Indian warfare held that anything which
would hurt or hamper the enemy was fair. he reds
would steal from the whites: therefore, in the opinion of
both Nomad and Grizzly Dan, it was all right to steal the
reds’ horses—if they could.
Besides, it would greatly hamper the renegade Utés if
they were set adfift without ponies on this side of the
range. It would be a strategic move, and Buffalo Bill
had realized it when he let the pair set forth. (
One fights fire with fire. Therefore Buffalo Bill let these
two bordermen have their way without question in han-
dling the renegade Utes. in :
And Nomad and Grizzly Dan went about their very
perilous scheme as though it were a huge joke. They
followed on the trail of Little Cayuse for more than an
hour. Then they spied the Piute coming back.
=
4. NEW BUFFALO
By this time old Hide Rack, Nomad’s mount, had shown
such an aversion to the John bear that the trapper decided
that he would rather abandon the horse and walk with
_ Dan.
The Piute was signaled, and he reported that there were
at least thirty of the redskins, that the red on the spotted
mustang was their chief, and that they were traveling very
slowly, and evidently with an intention of cgtting off the
whites, following the wagon trail, but some miles ahead.
“Jest as I told Cody, Nick,” grunted Grizzly Dan. “They
ain't got any fresh mounts, and they ain’t any too fresh
themselves. They'll bog down somewhar, keeping tabs
on our crowd till they camp for the night.” © /
“By the jumping horned frogs 0’ Texas! Ye wouldn’t
try ter pull off any scheme by daylight, would ye?”
“Tt’s accordin’ ter how they camp—th’ lay of th’ land an’
all thet thar,” said Dan.
At any rate, Nomad gave his horse into the care of
the Piute, and the two tough old fellows, followed by the
half-grown grizzly, set off through the brush on the trail
that Little Cayuse had clearly pointed out to them.
Such men as these could outtravel an ordinary horse
in the long run. They did not have to stop for a noon
meal. Another reef taken in their belts, and they were
good to run all day.
But that was not. necessary. Before mid-afternoon they
struck the broad trail of fresh pony tracks that. showed
the Utes to be not far ahead.
he plain was rolling, brush-covered, with here and there
a rocky piece of ground, a good deal like an old New
England huckleberry pasture. The two bordermen slipped
through this low covert at a fast pace, taking every pains
not to be observed from any hilltop.
Once or twice they saw the spotted horse and rider
appear on a distant eminence and overlook the back trail.
The Utes were doubtless quite unsuspicious of a close
pursuit, but Flying Feather was taking few chances. ,
“He'll see that lubberly grizzly of yours, Dan,” com-
plained Nick Nomad.
“Waal, ef he does?” returned the hermit. “He'll be
all th’ less likely ter believe white men is near here.”
“Er-waugh!’’ grunted Nomad, agreeing. “Ye aire jest
tight, old son.”
Finally the two companions, with their strange trailer,
came up a rocky gully and out on a low plateau fringed
on its farther side with a scrub growth.
Grizzly Dan ordered the bear to lie down, and the huge
beast curled up on the sunny side of a rock and went to
sleep.
“YT know this yere coulee ahead, Nick,” said the hermit.
“It’s. jest the place ter tickle an Injun’s fancy for a camp.
Thar’s two coulees, in fact, j’ined together by a narrow
opening. You see how this trail goes?”
“Sure thing. The ponies kept south.”
“That's right; the hill all along this way is steep. The
pizen reds will ride around and enter the valley from the
other.end. If they camp in there by the stream, they'll
drive the ponies up into this first, or inside, coulee and let
‘em graze.”
“By the horned frogs o’ Texas! Thet won’t help us
none,’ growled Nomad. “How can we eit th’ spotted
hawse out?”
“The other side of the coulee is not so steep as this.
There is a path up that side. I know it—in the dark,
Nick.”
“Br-waugh !”
“If we kin git th’ spotted hawse—and another fer you,
old man—we'll hike out thet thar way, and I bet th’ pizen
reds will have hard work follerin’ us.” \
“But if we could only stampede th’ hull b’ilin’ of their
ponies 4
“An’ mebbeso thet kin be done,” said Grizzly Dan.
“Come on. Let’s creep over yon and see if the ponies is
whar I expect they be.”-
The hermit was as sure of all this territory as he was
of the clearing around his own cabin. For fifteen years
he had traveled day and night over the hills and valleys,
and knew almost every stone and tree upon them. .
He had not been mistaken in believing that the Utes
would take advantage of the arrangement of tle two little
valleys, or coulees, to make camp. They had traveled from
Nie
BILE WEEKLY. ;
‘away the other side of the western mountain chain since
the day before, and ere the two bordermen got to the edge
of the plateau, where they could look down, the pungent
smell of greasewood smoke proved that fires had been
kindled and the reds were going to feed and rest.
“Thar’s th’ caballos, Dan,” grunted Nomad, as quick
as he looked down the bluff.
“And th’ spotted hawse! Say, it’s a good one, Nick.”
“TI ain’t never got so close a look at him,” replied Nomad.
“He is er beaut.”
“Altogether too good fer a pizen Injun.”
“Thets jest so, Dan.”
“And thar’s a nice leetle roan,” suggested the hermit.
“T was lookin’ at et,” admitted the old borderman.
“Them two aire wot we want,’ said Grizzly’ Dan con-
fidently. “And ef we kin scare the rest of the bunch inter
that rocky hill yander an’ break their legs, all th’ better.”
“Er-waugh!’ And Nomad gave his wolf yelp under his
breath.
There were more than thirty ponies in the) bunch. The
Utes had come over this time with plenty of horseflesh,
for there were doubtless some extra ponies in the coulee.
“And not a red in sight!” grinned Nomad. |
“Wuh! Much hungry—Injun eat,” said Grizzly Dan.
“And then they don’t reckon they’re follered by two old
codgers like us, Nick. Ef we'd come a hossback they'd
spotted us, sure.”
“Reckon thet thar’s so,” agreed Nomad. “Waal, th’
table seems ter be spread fer us, too, Dan—heh?”
His grin was answered by one of the hermit’s widest
grimaces. Somewhere, almost within rifle shot, a horde
of bloodthirsty Indians were in camp, and only too glad
would’ those same, savages be to take the lives of the two
frontiersmen.
Yet Nomad and Grizzly Dan entered into this perilous
scheme they had planned like two schoolboys on a frolic.
CHAPTER. V.
THE WORK OF JOHN, THE GRIZZLY.
The hermit spoke softly to the huge and lazy bear, and
then, as he did not rise quickly, he kicked him good and
hard with his moccasined foot. The bear showed his teeth,
but only whined; nevertheless, Nick Nomad had his thumb
on the hammer of his pistol whenever John moved around
—though he could scarcely have punctured the thick hide
with a pellet from such a weapon.
oe Ye lazy nuisance!” growled Dan. “Come
yere!”
The intelligence of the beast was phenomenal. He
stretched himself and yawned, but all silently. Then he
moseyed along at the heels of his man friend. Nick
Nomad was careful to take the lead and to keep Dan
between himself and the John bear.
The odd trio descended the steep bluff into the little
valley; but the men were careful to keep well hidden from
the ponies, and this was easy, for the hillside was well
grown to scrub and there was a grove at the very foot of
the bluff. ‘i
In addition, the wind blew from the ponies, and there-
fore they were not likely to distinguish the presence of
either the men or the bear. The odor of white men is
just as offensive to the nostrils of Indian ponies as the
smell of the redskin is to most horses that are unused |
to the savages. A white man approaching a herd of Indian
ponies has often stampeded them.
At the foot of the bluff, when the young grizzly saw
the ponies feeding quietly on the turf, he. began to show
interest. But Dan spoke to him sharply, and he still slunk
behind his master and did not venture forth from the
covert. )
Old Nick Nomad had brought his own and an extra
lariat.-. Before coming down the bluff, too, the trapper
had prepared a couple of hardwood pins, and the end of
each lariat was fastened to one of these pins.
Their plan of procedure was arranged to the last act.
Both being ready, Dan commanded the grizzly to lie down,
and the beast did so right at the edge of the brush. Then
the men circled around and approached the bunch of ponies
from either side. ie
There was no Indian in sight. Indeed, this valley seemed
/
flanks—every pony was ready for him.
NEW BUFFALO
-so much like a pocket that the reds would not expect to
lose their mounts saying by an extraordinary accident—
and in broad day, too! : oa
But something extraordinary was about to happen’ in
- that coulee, and old Nick Nomad and his equally tough
partner were the boys to bring it about.
They approached the ponies in such a way that they
could easily jump between them and the lower valley,
where the Indians themselyes were encamped,
The half-wild horses looked askance at the white men
and moved away to feed nearer the upper end of the
valley. As Nick and Dan continued to approach, the
spotted horse, without douht the leader of the band, ran
out and snorted, pawing. the turf and tossing his mane
as he stared at the two marauders,
“He's sure er beaut,” said Dan to Nick in a low voice.
“I’q break my blame’ old neck ter git thet hawse!”
“Look out ye don’t break his neck,” chuckled Nomad.
“Ver line all right? I reckon we got ‘em erbout right, old
son...
Dan instantly pursed his lips and whistled, The horses
all stopped tugging at the short grass and lifted their
heads. And then, although they did not smell the bear,
they saw John rise up in the bushes and push out into the
open.
The spotted horse uttered 2 squeal of command. In-
stantly the whole gang of ponies traced away. But they
could not go far without getting among the rocks and on
the very rough ground of the other. hillside.
“Whup, John!” cried Dan, and the hig bear waddled
-eut into the open and sleepily watched the running ponies.
But when they turned about and rushed down the valley
- again the bear lumbered farther out into the opening and
helped the white men bar their escape down the coulee.
The spotted horse squealed again and whigled back, the
others quickly following him.. John, growling now, and
evidently remembering that pony steak was good, advanced
after the horses, and Dan and Nick went with him,
Around and around thundered the ponies, their cirele
gradually narrowing as the white men and the bear ad-
vanced. It was really the grizzly that disturbed them; the
white men were merely an irritating factor.
"Then the spotted horse changed his tactics. He neighed
| shrilly, and all the ponies ran together.
Then, heads to-
gether, rolling eyes looking back over their shoulders, and
“a circle of hard little heels ready to throw at instant’s
“notice, the gang of ponies awaited the attack of the grizzly.
It was the old trick of the wild horses when attacked
by bears or wolves. And these ponies were fresh from
the wild ranges beyond the mountains. The spotted horse,
too, was a good general.
The John bear moseyed up almost within striking dis-
tance and a nervous pony kicked out. The grizzly was
warned and he drew back a bit. Then he carefully en-
circled the whole mob. Hard heels, ralling eyes, quivering
Dan
“Meanwhile, Nick and Dan had got into position.
was to noose the spotted horse and old Nick Nomad had .
selected his roan. ;
“Whup!” yelled the hermit, and the grizzly’s hair began
to rise on his neck and his growl became more threaten-
ing. He advanced once more, and another pony kicked,
squealing viciously.
The bear tossed aside his head, but got the heels square
on the side of his neck, The force of the blow fairly
bowled him over, but he was not hurt; he was mad.
Up he rose, with a roar that shook the rocks.
“By the horned frogs 0’ Texas!’ bawled Nick Nomad.
©Thet thar settles et, Dan! Them Injuns will be yere on
‘the jump!”
As the bear dashed again into the fray, the two white
men whirled their lariats. So disturhed were the ponies
by the attack of the grizzly that they paid slight attention
_ to their other foes. :
The lariats were flung at almost the same instant. They
circled in the air, and each noose fell accurately. ‘The
spotted horse and the roan had their necks encircled, gach
by a taut noose, and immediatcly they were panic-stricken.
. The men ran to the end of their lines, stuck the pins
in the earth, and stood upon the lariat. te “snub” the
_- = Beasts-down when. they tried to get away, The ‘spotted
bat WEEKLY T
horse flung himself into the air, the rope jerked him back,
and he rolled upon the plain. The roan came to his knees
with a crash. aN
Their panic was contagious. The other horses broke and
ran. The grizzly, with one stroke of his paw, broke the
back of the last creature that had kicked him, and the
dying squeals of this poor beast added to the hullabaloo.
Nothing less than death itself could have deafened the ©
Utes to this riot and confusion. Their headdresses ap-
peared at the neck of the bottlelike yalley just as the mob
of ponies charged across to the rocky hill.
Dan and Nick Nomad had run to the horses they had
roped, and each had the rawhide bridle fastened around
his captive’s jaw before said captive was again onits feet.
“Erwaugh!” shouted the trapper. “Got him, Dan?”
“Betchu!” grunted the other. “Ready?” camer
Nomad flung a leg over the roan and the hermit leaped
ahoard the spotted horse. Both creatures dashed after
the running herd—exactly what the bordermen wanted
them to do! my
“Whup! Come on, bear!” yelled Grizzly Dan to his pet.
The brute was only smelling the carcass of the stricken
pony. He evidently did not consider it time to dine, after
all, for he glanced once at the coming Indians and then
galloped after the horses as hard as he could pelt.
With yells and pistol shots, Nomad and the hermit drove
the mob of terrified beasts before them. It was a stam-
pede for fair!
The maddened ponies dashed up the steep hill, leaping
and falling among the rocks. Nomad and Dan managed
to sit their mounts, and the hermit took the lead, guiding
the spotted horse in a winding path that he knew.
Inthe rear came the velling Utes—and net so very far
behind. It was indeed a moment of uncertainty, for if
either of the horses ridden by the escaping white men fell,
or threw its rider, that fallen man would almost certainly
he captured. Such a captive would come to such a finish
as only the ingenious cruelty of a redskin could invent.
CHAPTER VL
THE FIRST ATTACK.
It was not yet sunset when Buffalo Bill and his party
reached the hill that Major Lillie had indicated. As the
keen-eyed bowie man had declared, the tree-covered hillock
commanded open ground for a mile or more looking irom
every point of the compass. y
The grove on the hill had been used by innumerable
camping parties, and therefore the underbrush was well
cleared. There was plenty of firewood, In short rifle
shot, at the foot of the steepest side of the hill, was a good
spring. > ni
In some past time a careful pioneer, or perhaps the boss
of some freight train, had excavated a hole of some depth
and toted rocks to the place with.which to line the well.
The flow of water was good, yet it seldom rose above
the lip of the well to wander away through the lush grass
that grew in the bottom of the tiny valley. There seemed
to be sufficient underground drainage for this overflow,
and the spring was always clear. ae
But it was the only water within a radius of twenty
miles. Dan, the hermit, had told Pawnee Bill that.
Therefore, when camp was pitched by Buffalo Bill and
his friends in this spot, canteens were filled and a goodly
supply of water brought up for camp uses. The horses
and Toofer, the mule, were allowed to drink, likewise, and
were then picketed among the trees on the summit of
the hill.
Little Cayuse, who acted as scout for the party, had
come in again—he had previously brought back Nemad’s
horse-—-and reported no Indian signs.
But the camp was scarcely pitched when the baron
shouted excitedly from the western slope: .
“Dere iss goin’ to be visidors, Puffalo Pill! Ach, I gan
some fideings sce in de. offing—yes?”’ ree
The scout and Pawnee Bill hurried to him and deseried
mounted men riding like the wind.
“There are two of them, necarnis,” declared the bowie
man. : pen ; St ‘ :
- Through his glasses Buffate Bill saw the couple clearly.
'to be cloudy before midnight.
8
hee Chess en old Gee nes as F live, one of them
is riding the spotted horse!” -
“They've despoiled the Bovsuane, by pores! cried
Hickok, who viewed the race frora_another vantage point.
“There, Pa-e-has-ka!” shricked the Piute, daniping up
and down in his exciternent. “The Utes: follow um. Let
Little Cayuse ride Navi and help.”
2 “No,” said Buffalo Bill calmly. -
ives,
dust enough as it is—and‘ they seem to have a long lead
on the reds.”
The pursuit that had just come in sight did not number
more than half a score of Utes. The. race- was a pretty
one, however, and the camping party watched it for twenty
minutes,
Then it was sure that Nomad and Grizzly Dan had the
best of it. The Indians were far behind, although they
kept on doggedly.
“Say! We might go out and meet that squad and give
them a good Voki. necarnis;” suggested Pawnee Bill,
evidently as eager as the baron and Little Cayuse for a
hight.
“There are more behind that crew,” said Cody. “No use
in taking risks. It may be that they will oe us in here
for some time, and every man will count.”
Confound their red hides!” exclaimed Wild Bill.
“There’s sure something more behind this game than a
“No use in risking more
_ desire to get our scalps, Pard Cody.”
“We're pretty well assured of that,” was the scout’s
reply. :“Let’s see what news Nomad brings ‘us.
And the trapper and his. companion’ were soon riding
easily up the hill, Both bordermen were evidently in a
great tickle. ie
“Got ’em, Buffler! And we unhossed a whole heap o’
them reds at that. Ye see, thar’s- less than a dozen could
ketch their ponies in time ter chase us, Er-waugh! but
et war a good time.”
“You're a pair of reckless old scoundrels!” declared -
Cody. “I thought you were going to wait until dark?”-
“Shucks, colonel!” grunted Grizzly Dan. ‘Thar ain’t
more na handful of them reds, anyway. I hated to let
*em chase me.’
“But the others will come on.”
“Sure’s ye live,” admitted Nomad.
John bear——”
“Don’t ye. be too sure o’ that,
Them Injuns warn't feelin’
left ’em in the coulee,”
“Er waugh!” agrééd Nomad,
again.
In a few words, however, he reported. thet: attack upon
the pony herd, their success in stampeding the horses they
didn’t want, and how the Utes had chased them afoot for
a mile and then had set out capturing the scattered ponies.
The ten Indians now riding in sight had picked up the
trail of the two white men, and they rode almost within
tine shot of the hill. But they were too wary to attack.
They divided, however, and rode around and around
the hill at a distance, evidently waiting for their friends
to come up.
“Thar ain't more’n thirty of the cone at the most,” said
Nomad. “I don’t reckon thet they'll try ter do much till
ter-morrer. Injuns ain’t got much stomach fer fightin’ in
the night.”
“Ain't you jest right, old man!” “Why, we
Nick,” said the hermit.
like er b’ar hunt w’en w
Sever ar hunt wen we
and burst out laughing
agreed Dan.
can pick ’em off when they come down ter the spring fer
water—and they’ re bound ter want water fer th’ cattle and
fer themselves.”
“It’s going to. be a dark night,” said Cody quietly. “Likely
I grant you that they
probably will not attack us very courageously, but we can’t
‘very well keep them from the spring.’
Grizzly Dan got his war bag that he had left in the care
of. Wild Bill, and from this he produced a deerskin pouch.
whe see this yere?” he said. “Waal, thar’s bad medi-
cine in it.”
‘What is it, old feller?” asked Pawnee Bill. “Bad medi-
cine for reds?”
“And fer whites, an’ tee hosses,’! grunted the hermit.
'\ “What is it?” asked the bowie man curiously.
The others were watching at the edge of the grove, and
N EW. BUF i ALO )
Those two old sinners have: managed to kick up.
“But Dan’s: lost his
BILL Ween
the hermit and Pawnee Bill pee together in- she ‘middle
of, the camp. - >.
oo got thet thar stiff brought down fer me by zu . trader.
I'm goin’ ter git a power of wolfskins come th’ fst show,
major.’ ae
“On-she-ma- -da! Wolf poison, eh?} mh 3
“Strychnine,” grunted the hermit.
“An- -pe-tu-we ! You re tight when you call: it hoe. 0
cine.’
“And I gotter eee in my old haid,” chuckled the half-
mad hermit. “Ye got a plenty water yere?”’ ee
“Every canteen and the leather bottles are filled.” .
“Good! It'll last over a day wi some care, heh?”
“But I don’t see your point,” said Pawnee Bill, disturbed.
“There’s the spring——”.
“You betchu!. Thet’s wot I got my eye on,’ ’ growled
Dan.
“On-she-ma- -da!” * exclaimed the bowie man. “What are
you going to do?’
“As soon as it’s dark enough, Vl hb down ter thet
thar spring. A good dose of this yere stuff’ll fix ev Ty
pony them Injuns brings down ter drink—an ‘th’ pizen
reds ll drink wi’ their ponies.’
“Deserted Jericho!” gasped Pawnee.
Before he could say more a figure glided to his side, and
Anna Gregory placed a hand upon the bowie man’s arm.
“Oh, Major Lillie, don’t let him do such a terrible
thing!” cried the girl.
Grizzly Dan grunted his disgust.
the dusk, looked angrily on the girl.
re fergot we had wimmenfolks yere,” he snarled.
“Oh, sir!” cried she, appealing to the hermit directly,
“you would ‘not be so cruel to the poor horses—or SO.
unfair to your enemies?”
“Wot’s thet thar?” cried Dan in amazement and anger.
“Cruel ter them soulless red scamps? Ye couldn’t be cruel .
{»?
to them!
“It is inhuman!” she said firmly.
“And those Indians
have souls the same as white folks.”
“You say that, lady, because you don’t know,” oa Dan-
grimly.
“IT do know. It is beneath a white man to commit such
a crime.” And’ she was very emphatic.
Ot Ye don’t know wot ye say,” growled Grizzly
an
Pawnee Bill looked from one to the other, and kept
silent. The girl was in earnest, however, and she stepped
nearer to the half-mad hermit and looked searchingly into
his fierce face.
“Tt is beneath you, sit, to do sich a thing,” she said in
a low voice.
“Ye don't know wot ye aire talkin’ erbout,” declared
Dan roughly. “If ye know Injuns as I do——”
“Haven't I suffered at their hands?” she demanded
quickly. “I’ve lost——”
“Ve ain't lost wot I have at their cursed hands!” panted
Grizzly Dan, and the blood began to stffuse his face again.
“lve lost wife—child—home—— y, TVve. done lost
myself through their cruelty. Yah! ‘Nothin’s too bad fer
an Injun!”
“But many things are too bad for a white man to do,”
she said, more soothingly.
“Not fer a white man like me!” he shouted. Mpcker
me!” and he snatched the old mangy cap from his head
and revealed the quivering, raw scar caused by the scalp-
ing knife of the red man.
“See wot they done to me, lady!
wildly.
wot I be!
“Lemme tell ye,”
the girl shrank back and clung to Pawnee Bill’s arm, “I
come clean from ole Missouri,, hopin’ ter make a home
an’ git rich in this yere new land.
Aad more!”-he added
“The reds—mebbe not these Utes, but. some others—
got us in a pocket an’ killed every last one but me. I seen
‘em kill my wife. Why, we'd been talkin’ of our leetle
child we'd left back East, an’ hopin’ we could send fer her
jest as soon as we'd staked out our quarter section—we'd
._ talked erbout her within the hour.
“And down come them red devils and massacred ev'ry
livin’ soul! Yes, for they killed my soul, too!
His eyes, glowing in ~
“They killed the woman I loved. They made me
pursued the half-mad creature, while i
ah
See
Se ee
ee
-to the bag of strychnine.
NEW BUFFALO
“T seen ’em hatchet her ter death—seen the others all -
and they thought they'd killed ~
struck down! I seen it all;
me, too. I wish they had—I wish they had!”
With a great inarticulate cry, the man fell to the ground
and roiled there, foaming and striking with his hands.
The paroxysm had been observed by Pawnee Bill before,
but it was nevertheless terrible.
The kind-hearted plainsman put his arms about the
shoulders of the trembling girl, and she hid her face for
a moment.against his coat.
But when Grizzly Dan was more quiet she dropped on
her knees beside him, took his poor head i in her lap, and
begged Lillie to bring some water.
“But hide this,” she whispered, pointing with a shudder
“He shall not do such a ter-
rible thing.”
“Don't fear; Cody wouldn’t stand for it,”
said.
poisoned.”
By and by the hermit opened his eyes. He saw the
beautiful face of Miss Gregory bending pityingly above
him, and he looked at her for several moments in silence,
while she continued to bathe his head with her own hand-
kerchief. Then the unfortunate man said softly:
“Ye aire only a gal, but ye aire kind. I—I had a leetle
gal, ye see. She’d been like you, I s’pose. Mebbe she is
like you.”
He said nothing more, but rose up, a little unsteadily at
first, and went off to sit ‘by himself, as he always did after
one of these convulsions.
But Pawnee Bill’s face was very grave. He looked in a
puzzled way from the girl, who was now sobbing, to the
half-crazed hermit.
“By my sacred O-zu-ha!” he muttered. “I wonder——
What he wondered remained unspoken at that moment,
for he was interrupted by a sudden call from Buffalo Bill.
Then, out on the plain, came the long, wailing war cry of
the Utes, rand the bowie man ran to the edge of the grove.
©The other reds have _arrived, Gordon!” shouted Buffalo
Bill, “And they are going to charge!”
Pawnee Bill
99
Eyen as he spoke-the thunder of hoofs across the lower -
plain became audible. The mob. of redskins were attacking
in the half light of the evening.
CHAPTER VII.
THE NIGHT WATCH.
Buffalo Bill’s voice steadied his companions:
“Don’t waste your lead, boys.
as they like before you fire.”
The other two Bills and the baron, with Nomad and
Little Cayuse, had run to this side of the grove. Only
Grizzly Dan did not appear, and the girl remained cower-_
ing back in the grove.
“They're coming in a close mob, ” said Buffalo Bill
quickly.
“But they'll split before they reach — us, ‘necarnis !”
the bowie man. . “I know their tactics.”
“Don’t shoot till they split, then,” was the scout’ s com-_
mand. “They will empty their own guns first.”
“Thet’s right; the Injun ain’t born thet kin Hold his
fire,” growled Nomad.
The thunder of.the pony’s hoofs came on like the surge
of an incoming comber. In the dusk below, the group of
white men could see the black mass of ponies and men.
“Down on yer stummicks!”’ advised Nomad. “No use
tryin’ ter git any Injun bullets fer keepsakes. Er-waugh!”
His cry was echoed by the yells of the reds themselves.
They had burst out in caterwauling.
“Now!” shouted Buffalo Bill, sad: on the heels of his
command the reds themselves fired, while the white men’s
volley was not a second behind.
But the latter used skill and caution in shooting, and
some of their’shots, at least, were effective; while the bul-
lets of the red men sang among the trees and brought
nothing but twigs and leaves to the ground.
Nick Nomad’s wolf yelp cut the stillness that followed
the shooting, and he added:
“They split like I said they would, Buffler!”
Indeed, more than his sharp eyes had noted, several
Indians either tumbled from their saddles or " dodging to
“Tnnocent travelers might suffer if the spring were .
-Let them get. as near -
cried .
BILL WEEKLY: 9
the opposite side of the running ponies to escape “the hot
fire of the whites.
And, dividing,
side of the grove. But they followed the curve of.the hill-
side, evidently intending to ride clear around the camp. .
Before the whites could scramble to their feet there came.
a shrill scream‘ from the grove. -
“Tt’s the girl! They’ve played us a trick!” shouted Paw-
nee Bill, and he leaped away in the direction from which
the cry ‘sounded.
Hearing the charge of the Indians, Anna Gregory had
darted away toward the farther edge of the clump of.
trees, in a desire to get as far as possible from the scene
of battle.
In the dusk she came upon the edge of the grove, and
her light-colored clothing was marked by the Utes as they
raced past.
Flying Feather, the chief, uttered a boneaad ‘and
spurred his pony toward the spot where the girl stood,
Half a dozen of his wildly riding bucks followed him.
It was a perilous moment for the girl that Buffalo Bill
and his friends had taken so much pains to defend. Before
even Pawnee could have reached her the reds could have
either killed the girl or snatched her away, again a captive!
But suddenly the eerie battle cry of Grizzly Dan smote
the ears of reds and whites alike. There was not a brave
of the tribe of Mountain Utes that did: not know that
fearful cry of the mad hermit.
For years he had hunted them through the range. He
had trailed them to their death, attacked them while hunt-
ing parties sat around the camp fire; had, single-handed, -
performed acts of daring in battle that made the super-
stitious reds believe him invulnerable.
Now he ran, barehanded, out of the wood and dashed
like a tiger at the nearest redskin.
In panic, and shrieking like fiends, Flying Feather and
his bucks lashed their ponies on, leaving the cowering girl
alone. But the red that Grizzly Dan leaped for could not
escape!
His pony, in being twitched about by the frightened —
wretch, fell to his knees. The Indian, clinging like a
limpet to the beast’s neck, might, yet have escaped, for
the pony was up again, unhurt, in ten seconds.
But Grizzly Dan seized the "red by his hair, and when |
the recovered pony leaped away the white man literally
snatched the rider to the ground.
The red, with the death yell on his lips, fell with an
awful thud upon his shoulders. Grizzly’s: foot was on his
neck, and the hermit snatched the knife from the red’s own
belt.
The conqueror plunged the blade so savagely into the
red’s breast that the handle rapped against the bone.
Drawing the knife forth, and while the blood still fol-
lowed the blade in a spurting stream, the hermit seized
the Ute’s scalplock and. started to make the usual incision .
around it through the scalp, so as to strip. from the already
dead man’s head the trophy of war.
But at the moment, and while the other white men were
shooting from the edge of the wood after the flying In-
dians, a light hand dropped upon the arm of the enraged
hermit.
“Don't! Don’t do that, Mr. Grizzly Dan!” exclaimed
the girl’s voice. “For my sake, don’t do such a fearful
thing again. Remember, you are a white man!”
The panting man stopped in his awful work and looked
up at her with little, flaming eyes.
“Please! Please! You are a man!
thing!”
He dropped the Indian’s knife, then the oe of greasy
hair. Then he got slowly to his feet.
“You—you are like my Anna,” he whispeerd. “I—I——
She comes to me sometimes when I sleep; but never before
like this.”
The girl’s hand sought his own—all bloody as it was
—and she led him into the wood again. A moment later
Pawnee Bill came panting to them. :
“On-she-ma-da!” ejaculated the bowie man.
we'd lost you again, Miss Anna.”
Grizzly Dan started and looked keenly at the girl in the
half darkness of the grove.
“Anna! Anna!’ he muttered.
Don’t do such a
“T thought
“That is her name2”
the Utes, yelling again, paged on either -
10 NEW BUFFALO
- Lillie looked at him oddly, and ee questioned the girl
i 2 Tow Vora?
“Hasn't he got over that fit, miss?”
-“Eé takes me for his wifé-—I remind him of her,”
whispered,
By the . shades ‘of ‘Unk- tee-hee!” muttered the bowie
mati,
But theré was no time then to, pursue ae thousht that
had already fastened: itself in;Pawnee Bill’s mind.. Wild
Bill came tearing back through the half-lit grove. They
had not. dared start a fire for fear of revealing themselves
to thé enemy.
“The reds aré- riding around: and around the hill!”
Hickok shouted. “We got to watch on all sides, for
trebbe they'll charge again,’
“Ah, they got enough this first time,” duttered Pawnee.
“Comme on, old man! Get your hardware atid do a little
something for your grub and keep,” ‘said Wild Bill to the
hermit; and the man, gradually getting over his dazed con-
dition of mind, caught up his rifle and belt and followed
the Laramie man away.
“Keep close in the middle of the camp, Miss Gregory,”
advised Pawnee Bill before he left her.. “Theré may be
another attack, and you musti’t give them a show to get
Ou.”
“What a tereible sittiation I ‘have got’ you all into,
major!” she sighed.
“Well, it istit the first time any of us have smelled
smoke; So you needn’t worry on.our account,” chuckled the
handsome plainsman.
A little later the bowie man had a few minutes’ confer-
ence with his chief and good friend, Buffalo Bill,
“What's the matter with that -half-mad old codger, Gor-
don?” asked the scout.. “Had another fit?”
“And I tell
” she
“That's what he just: did,” replied. Pawnee.
you, -necdrnis, he a mea whole fot.”
“How's that?”.
* Major Lillie: repeated to the scout ie scene enacted
earlier in the evening between the hermit and Miss
Grégory.
“Well, we saw iii that way before.
him’ to ‘have: a convulsion—to a degree.
gitl saw it,”
“{ don’t know,” retuthed Pawnee Slowly.
has obtained an influence over him.”
“Well, I hope he can fight yet,” said Buffalo Bill grimly,
Fer it looks to me as though these confounded reds mean
businéss.” —
“An- pe-tu-we!
us, metarnis.’
“That's what puzzles me. They haven’t really got enough
to besiége us. If it wasn’t for the girl being with us, we
could ride out and fight our way through the mob.”
“Well, what's your opinion ?”
“That Flying Feather isn’t doing all the scheming in
this campaign.” —
“Shows more than ted men’s brains, eh?”
“That's exactly it. Or else the red devils expect re-
enforcements.”
“And on this side of the range?” cried Pawnee.
believe it.”
“Tt does séem a big mouthful to swallow.”
“And were so near the wagon trail. Why, we might
get help as easy as not. Some train coming along would
furnish us enough rifles to whip twice Flying Feather’s
toree,”
“Quite right, Gordon. But we can see in the morning,
perhaps.. If they don’t give up and fide away after day-
- light, you can take it from me that Flying Feather expects
some kind of help.”
The Indians did not try another charge just then, how-
ever. They contented themsélves with keeping a watch-
ful guard on the hill, and the shadowy outlines of' their
ponies pacing about the place, but at a very respectful dis-
tance, was all that the white men could see of them,
_ Buffalo Bill divided his forces, and half slept while the
others paced the edge of the eitcular grove. 6.) 7
“Where did it hit your” he demanded, grabbing the
baron by the shoulder. © SOON on fh
“kam tit de pack in,”
SRE Mee kn eo GG:
- “Undt de blood roons mein les down——”
reds were Lollowing the
gtoaned Schtiitzenhatiser. -
Wald Bill gave a yell—it. might have been of laughter,
but there was some anger behind it, too. -
“You blame’ Ditch fraud!” he cried. “You've got a
spent bullet in your cdntéen,; and the water is pouring
down your back. Plug thé hole if you don’t want to lose
the last drop of it!” et Sed es
“Ach, himmelblitzen! Iss idt so?’ gasped the baron,
and grabbed his canteen very quickly to save thé precious
fluid’: “Vale, vale; who vouldt haf COMBNG GEE Gy
‘Another volley ffom the réds and the white fuffians
beyond thé smoke madé them all dodge, for the bullets
sang close. The roan pony. that Nomad had stolen from
the Utes squéaled and fell down. . . eo sii
«The place was getting too hot for them. If the fire
did not burn the refugees to death, it seemed only a mat-
ter of a few minutes when the enemy would get their
range and would shoot them down without mercy in the
midst @f-the fire!
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LAST RESORT.
“Gtizzly Dan!’ exclaimed Buffalo Bill suddenly.
“The old man’s yere,” grunted the Man Who 'Tamés
Béars. :
“Look out. for Miss Gregory. We'll mount and keep
her in the middle of the crowd if we-can, -If your see
your chance, break away and maké 4 run for it on that
spotted pony of yours—and carry Miss Anna with: you.”
“And treat her just as though she were your- daughter
grown to womanhood, Dan,” exclaimed Pawnée Bill, who
happened to be fiext to the hermit. pees
“Her name’s Anna, the same as my poor wife, the same
as my little child I left behind in Missoufi,” muttered the
man. “I'll do it. Them reds shan’t git her—curse them!”
i
BILLAWEERLY.
“Are you ready, boys?’ sang out the famous scout, leap-
ine upon his, own horse.” “oneal pe
“All here, necarnis, and all accounted for,” exclaimed
Pawnee Bill “Even the. baron 1s recovered. of -his
wound,” And the reckless bowie man chuckled. .
The others exptessed their readiness, too, and then |
Buffalo Bill uttered his famous war.ery and.spurred his
horse straight into the smoke to the west.
Nomad lifted the wolf yelp, and the ‘eerie, wailing cry
of Grizzly Dan arose above all. The party charged
straight otit of the smoking grove. Already burning twigs
had begun to fall upon them, and the place was too hot
for anything but a salamander. EaUh ies be
But the scout had chosen the right moment in which to
make this desperate dash. The great wave of fire. set by
the Indians had reached that other crawling back. fire,
and there was nothing beyond for the flames to feed on.
- Buffalo Bill aiméd his snorting horse directly at that
point where he knew the fire would first burn itself out,
He dashed spurs to the animal, and, plunging and. snort-
ing, the brute led the way into the hot smoke...
Behind rode Nomad, the. baron, .Wild Bill, and Pawnee!
with Grizzly Dan andthe girl, side by. side, and in the
middle of the hollow square formed by the scouts,
“Ride like. kildee,. boys, when I give the word!’ Buf-
falo. Bill yelled. —- my ice
“Er-waugh!” yelped the old borderman,. and they
swept on through the. smoke. Bee it a
Here and there yellow tongues of flame shot out. at
them from brush clumps; the. horses squealed and
jumped; the men could scareely control them, and -had
it not been for the..iron hartid,.of . Grizzly. Dan. on. the
bridle of Miss Anna’s pony, he would. have bolted and
catried the girl into the midst of the waiting Indians.
Again the reds. and. their. white allies: fired a -volley;
but the bullets” all passed. behind. the little cavalcade |
making for the west. ~ ree eae
“Now, boys,” shouted Cody again, “when we're clear |
of, the smoke and can see to put our bullets in -the red
devils, don’t hesitate to fire!”’ a he
.. The-yells of his brave followers. answered him. - They
dashéd forwatd ih solid phalanx, burst.through the cloud
of smoke, and reached. the barren and blackened, prairie.
Wild’ shrieks from the. savages announced their ap-
pearatice—and a dropping fire from the unprepared -reds.
\, The return fire from ihe .repeating tifles of the fugi-
tives did much damage.. For the first time they had
caught the Utes really near enough to do good -exect-
tien.
An even half dozen reds were tumbled out of -their
saddles—dead!.. Several more of Flying Feather’s squad-
rom were woufided and had to.retire from the conflict.
And the reds lost several .ponies.. ae
With only the.Utes te contend with, even at this ex-
tremity Buffalo Bill and his companions would have won
the fight—and won it fight. there!
But as they cleared the smoke, and the Indians, with
wild shrieks, began to spur out of the path of. the -gal-
lant band, down upon them from either hand—from the
north and the south—rode the white renegades. .
Three on either side they came, and they were as well
pe and as well armed as Buffalo Bill and his com-
rades.
At their first volley, Toofer threw his great ears for-
ward and brayed with indicnation, A long streak of red
appeared along his flank,
_ Mein graciousness!” bawled the baron, “dey is shood-
img toe low!” —.
, Fhe next moment the horse Miss Gregory had. been rid-
ing plunged forward and fell on its nose. It did, indeed,
turn almost a somersault, and had ifot Gfizzly Dan
grabbed her off her saddle, the girl would certainly have
been killed, :
.. The white ruffians were shooting. low. -It might be
that even yet Jubal Wakeman hoped to eet the gitl alive,
even if he killed her defenders.” Cts
_ The little cavalcade swept on, however, léaying. the
dead horse, behind. The spotted pony, snorting wildly,
ran as easily under double weight as he had before.
But the reds were tallying behind the six. scoundrels
who had taken the lead in the attack on Buffalo Bul and.
NEW BUFFALO
his friends. They came on, shrieking and firing wildly ;
‘but the white ruffians tried to make every bullet they
Fina shower.
| Go on undt leaf me mein fate to!
| yedt, mit mooch desberationness !”
fired. count.
The scout and his partners were not idle, however.
And their bullets were sent with more precision.
Pawnee Bill had the luck to knock two of tne white
' men off their horses in a double shot. Then the enemy
held back, riding parallel with the flying fugitives, but
keeping at longer range. 2
Buffalo Bill himself was bleeding from a scratch upon
his arm, and Pawnee had a spent bullet in the fleshy
part of his thigh. This last was not a serious wound,
however, and he did not even speak of it at the time!
Suddenly Toofer, who had been galloping along at .
good speed after being hit, put a hoof in a hole, and
down he came with a crash. The baron sailed over his
head like a frog making a dive into a pond—and his
_ rifle and other possessions were scattered about the prairie
“T am done for dot time.
“Himmelblitzen!” he yelled.
I vill sell mein life
But none of them were willing to leave the German
f behind. They all pulled up—even Grizzly Dan.
| “That blasted Dutch emigrant will cost us our lives!”
declared the hermit. “Shoot him, or else bring him along,
one of you!”
| “Bud I gannot leaf mein Toofer mu-el
| baron.
| Toofer had lain down. It looked as though he had no
| intention of getting up again.
| And the baron was no light weight. It would not be
' easy for any horse to carry him and its rightful rider
also, :
“Tt might as well be here as anywhere!” crief Buf-
| falo Bill, with a keen glance around. “We've got to
| make a- stand.”
| This fact had already been appreciated by Pawnee
| Bill and Hickok. They had seen the futility of trying
/ to outrace the enemy.
_ With a rush they came back to the spot where Toofer
‘had fallen. Leaping from their own mounts, they threw
| the horses down in a rough sort of a circle. ‘All but
' the spotted pony. He was unused to such warfare, and
| was altogether too wild, anyway.
Snorting and squealing, he broke away from Grizzly
Dan when the latter flung himself off the horse, still
bearing the almost unconscious girl in the hollow of his
roared. the
ad
m left arm.
“Er-waugh! let him go!” yelped Nomad.
| “Ye well say thet thar!” *croaked Grizzly Dan.
lost the roan and now ye wanter see——”
| .The spotted pony actually jerked away, tumbled over
| backward, and then scrambled up and made off as tight
, fas it could travel. ‘
A couple of the Utes separated themselves from the
rest and went after the runaway. ~They. noosed the
| spotted pony in a few moments, evidently at the com-
mand of their war chief.
| Meanwhile Buffalo Bill and his companions had squatted
down behind the horses, continuing a desultory firing at
the enemy so as to keep them at a respectable distance.
The reds were riding slowly in a circle about the
place where the whites had made their stand. At one side
Jubal Wakeman and his three remaining companions
consulted with Flying Feather over what should be done
NERC.
Some plan would be conceived by which the enemy
should come down upon Buffalo Bill and his pards, kill
01 capture them, and so get hold of the girl whom Wake-
man wished to secure alive.
CHAPTER XV.
LITTLE CAYUSE ON TOP.
Lowrie, Jubal Wakeman’s friend, met his death at the
hand of Pawnee Bill in the fight just recorded. The
bowie man would have killed the scoundrel with greater
satisfaction had he known in what an inhuman manner
Lowrie had treated Little Cayuse.
The young Piute, friend of Buffalo Bill and Pawnee
Bill, had been left to untold sufferings, chained down as
(
Ve
‘
19
BILL WEEKLY.
he was in the ice-cold stream on the bank of which he |
had been attacked.
The huge rocks on either side held fast the thongs of
buckskin tied to his wrists. Little Cayuse could not
struggle free. i
He came to the surface to breathe, but™could not hold
his face out of the water:more than a minute at a time.
The position was too cramped. ony
Then, when he sank again, he was well-nigh strangled.
But although he was at first terribly frightened, Little
Cayuse began to get a grip on himself. If he was to die
in this horrid fashion he wanted to sing the death chant
as was the ritual of his religion.
He began to breathe more carefully, filling his lungs
when he had to sink, and expelling the air and taking in
a new supply when ,his face was at the surface of the
stream. «
The chill of the water was paralyzing. Even if he could
have kept up this bobbing up and. down indefinitely, the
chill of the water would soon make him helpless.
But then, with a thrill that inspired every nerve in his
body, the Piute made a discovery. He could smove his
wrists! } . in
Although he could not wriggle his body from between
the heavy stones, the rawhide that bound his wrists
was stretching! |
And this was the most natural thing in the world.
Soaked in the stream the dry thongs were bound to
give and stretch. If he could hold on long enough
—bobbing up and down for breath—he would be able
to work his wrists out of their lashings. es
With his hands free it would be too bad if he could
not struggle out of his predicament!
Little Cayuse took heart. He was no coward—unless
it came to facing “whiskizoos.” mh
He worked intelligently, steadily, confidently at the
“hongs which held his wrists crossed before him. Ow
-tand then he fell back under the water and almost choked
"because of not holding his breath properly.
But he kept cool and quickly overcame that. Indeed,
he remained underneath as long as he could, for then
he could devote all his muscular energy to working at
the bound wrists. aay
How long he was engaged in this task Little Cayuse
could never have told. But at length he managed to
slip the lashings, and his wrists were free. ie
The fact delighted him. He wriggled himself from
under the strained rawhide thong which had held him, and
in a few moments was able to sit upright in the stream.
The white men had robbed him of his pistols, but they
had not taken his hunting knife. Instantly he seized this
implement and cut the thongs that bound his ankles.
So doing, he crawled out upon the bank of the stream.
But there he sat for some.time, shaking so that he could
not stand, and his teeth chattering like castanets.
He had ridden as hard as. he could pelt through the
night, and had been overheated when the villains grabbed
him and flung him in the stream. The shock of the cold
water, and his long immersion in it, were enough to have
killed an ordinary human being.
But the Piute was as tough as a pine knot. After he
had shaken in that deadly chill for a bit, he struggled to
his feet and made his way to where Navi was grazing a
little. off the trail...
The white ruffans had not cared anything about. the
into. They had been in too great a hurry to get away
to meet Jubal Wakeman.
The Piute was mighty glad to get hold of the pony,
however. He crawled upon the back of the brute and
sent him off at a lope upon the hill trail that lay before
him.
The sun was now up, and its warm rays began to put
new life in the shaking Indian. But he was almost ready
‘to fall from his horse when he came into the single street
of Lone Tree Gap.
Navi stopped before the hotel, and the proprietor ran
out. It was too early for many of the miners to be
astir.
“Buffalo Bill’s Injun, as I’m a sinner!” exclaimed the
“man. ‘“What’s wanted?’
Then he saw the Piute’s’ face, and his. stiffened lips
trying to speak. He believed he had just the stuff that
the redskin wanted—and needed—and he yelled for his
assistant to bring a big drink.
They had the fiery stuff down Little Cayuse before the
young brave realized what it was. As the warmth of
the spirits went through him he threw up his head and
put up a supplicating hand. é
“No. ke-luck-cotta. (yellow medicine—whisky). Pa-e-
has-ka no want Little Cayuse drink um; heap bad medi-
cine,” croaked the Piute.
“By jings! 1 reckon thet’s right,” grunted the hotel
man. “Redeye ain’t-no good for Injuns.”
But the stuff had stung the Piute to a better understand-
ing of where he was, and what he had to do.
“Kasener,” he stammered. “Me want um Kasener—
heap want um.”
“Kasener, the postmaster?”
“Wuh!” grunted Little Cayuse, nodding.
“Buffalo Bill sent you to old Kasener?”
“Wuh! Got find quick.” |
“T reckon there’s suthin’ doin’,” muttered the hotel
man. “The redskin’s ‘most in, too.”
He ran up the street and snaked the postmaster out
f bed. In five minutes there was a small crowd about
the Indian, who still clung to Navi’s back, and Kasener
was listening to the young Indian’s story.
Instantly there was something doing in Lone Tree
Gap. The miners did not go to work that morning—
at least, not at the regular hour.
The saloons and the Old Homestead Restaurant were
deserted. A big posse was made up, and more than
twenty men, all heavily armed and well mounted, rode
down the mountainside in less than an hour after the
Piute reached the town.
As for Little Cayuse, he had been revived by a big
feed and was loaned a fresh mount. He led the troop
of white men, and a prouder Indian could not have been
found in all Utah at that. hour!
He had done what Buffalo Bill had told him to do,
and, in spite of great difficulties, he had escaped that»
which had seemed almost certain death and had reached
Lone Tree Gap. .
And now he was riding at the head of a company
of friends who would turn the’scale in favor of Buffalo
Bill iy his partners—if they got to the scene of the fight
in time!
CHAPTER XVI.
CONCLUSION.
The sun was going down—a red ball of smoldering
fire in a cloud of smoke. For although the fire had
raced away across the plains and hills to the east, the
‘wind had grown lighter, then shifted, and now the smoke.
drifted back toward the western range.
But although east of the wagon trail everything seemed
as black as a cinder, the fire ;
Almost within pistol shot of this trail to Lone Tree
Gap, was the spot where Buffalo Billi and Pawnee Bill,
ith their friends, had made their last stand.
Behind the horses which, lying down, made them a
small shelter, the whole party had lain for more than
an hour while the bullets of the redskins: and those
from the rifles of Jubal Wakeman and his three remain-
_ ing ruffians had either sung over their heads or plunked
into the burned sod near them.
The fugitives were smutted and dirty—their faces
looked more like those of negroes than white folks.
They were gasping for breath, too, their water was all
gone, and several were wounded.
But the skillful shooting of Cody, Pawnee Bill Hicko
and old Nomad had kept the gang of cutthroats ‘that
reunded them at a distance.
_ Flying Feather and his braves were undoubtedly get-
ting restless, Half of the chief’s band had heen lost in
this campaign, and the reward promised him seemed just
as far away as ever!
He had seen Pa-e-has-ka and his scouts shoot down
two of Wakeman’s men, too, Now, as one of the whites
rode a little too near, Pawnee Bill sprang erect and stood,
NEW BUFFALO
had not erossed the trail. .
BILL WEEKLY.
in spite of his wounded hip, taking deadly aim x the |
fellow.
The latter twitched his horse about and tried to ¢. |
cape. But the bullet found its billet, and the man pitcheq |
forward over the pony’s neck. e rode away, but he
carried with him his death wound!
These losses took the heart out of the redskins. Aj.
though few Indians lack personal bravery, a chief that
goes out with a band and loses his men without an ample
show of scalps and booty for their lives, soon loses
prestige. i
And Flying Feather saw that he had been led by Jubal
Wakeman into a position where he would be obliged to
explain to his. people when he went back to the other
side of the range.
As much as the redskin hated Pa-e-has-ka, Kulux-
Kittybux, Man Who Tames Bears, and the others of
Buffalo Bill’s party, he saw that they seemed to be able
to defend themselves. .
Even the high-powered rifles carried by Wakeman and
his gang did not bring down the fugitives. Whereas
Pawnee Bill and Wild Bill, to say nothing of Cody him-
self, were picking off reds and whites alike with un-
fortunate frequency.
Flying Feather rode to Jubal Wakeman, and said:
“White men are squaws. They are better armed than
Flying Feather’s bucks. Let them lead the way and the
Utes will follow. We will ride down the Long Hair and
his braves and kill or be killed.”
But Jubal Wakeman had no stomach for such a reck-
less piece of business, He had seen blood enough. De-
spite his desire to get possession of Anna Gregory and
to see Grizzly Dan killed, he did not want to take a
very active’ part in the proceedings.
Heretofore, when the fighting was going on, Wake-
man had kept as far from the muzzles of the guns of
the enemy as possible. Now he tried to temporize with
the fiery chieftain.
“You will hold them here and I will get reénforce-
ments,” he declared lamely, although in his heart he knew
that he could get no more ruffians to join him.
“No. Utes have fought hard; no food; no water.
Have lost braves and ponies, and Flying Feather’s white
brother is not a warrior. He fears Pa-e-has-ka and the
other palefaces.” :
“Well, what of it?” demanded one of the other white
men. “I’m not going to git plugged for no redskin.
for some other place. Sabby?”
Flying Feather stared with blazing eyes at the white
renegade. Then, like a flash,*he seized the tomahawk ai
his belt and flung it with his powerful arm straight at
the man who had spoken!
_The blade cleaved the fellow’s head almost in two
pieces, and the blood and brains spattered upon the hor-
tified group of whites,
“That is the way Flying Feather answers a coward,”
said the chieftain to Jubal Wakeman. “My white broth-
ers men are false to him. But if they try to run they
shall be killed,”
Jubal Wakeman’s savage desires had inspired the red-
skins at the beginning of the fight; but now, having been
so badly punished, the Utes were determined on venge-
ance,
The white men were well armed, and the reds coveted
their weapons and horses. Wakeman and his remait-
ing two comrades knew their fate right then and there!
But even as the Utes might have leaped upon the
three and killed them out of hand, there sounded a cheer
from the little company of refugees.
The enemy was startled into renewed attention. They
turned to behold a cavalcade of wildly riding horsemen
coming down the trail toward the scene of the fight.
At the head rode an Indian—Little Cayuse of the Piutes
and riding like the wind. The men behind him were detet-
mined whites and armed to the teeth !
Up leaped Buffalo Bill and his squad of partners. i
a command they made their horses get up, too. vel
Toofer leaped to’ his feet as though eager to have 4
part in what was to follow.
Me °
NEW BUFFALO
_ Wild Bill could not manage his mount, for his arm
f was useless for the present. He remained with Anna
| Gregory while the others tore off across the burned
f prairie to join in the pursuit of the Indians and white
F renegades. - ;
| For the enemy had broken at once, and were putting
forth every effort to get away. The volleys fired by the
force behind picked off several men. One of the whites
was toppled off his horse, and an Indian seized the bridle
of the pony and the man’s rifle as he fell.
' Then they saw Flying Feather deliberately knock an-
‘other white man from his saddle. Only Jubal Wakeman
) was left alive with the gang of Utes as they dashed into
H the forest and disappeared from sight.
| Why he was reserved was explained the next morning
Mm when the men from Lone Tree Gap and Buffalo Bill's
) party, all refreshed and able to journey on, took the trail
i for the range. ”
' Old Nomad’s quick eye spied a horse running beside
) the trail. It was the spotted pony that Flying Feather
| had ridden, and which Grizzly Dan and Nomad had’ once
f stolen from the Ute chieftain.
f The horse ran so peculiarly that Nomad said to the
) Man Who Tames Bears:
_. "That caballo hez got suthin’ hitched ter him, old son.
| Let you an’ I mosey over thar an’ see ef we kin pick th’
by
a
ij
i
f critter up ag’in.”
© As the spotted horse was traveling parallel with the
| trail, Buffalo Bill made no objection to the two border-
| men going after the steed. And it was so fagged out that
hit was easily captured.
1 But when they got their ropes on the spotted horse they
made a terrible discovery. The beast was dragging be-
| hind him, hitched tightly to his tail, the body of a man!
P It was the body of a white man, but his clothing was
) torn-to tatters, and the pony’s heels and the stones and
) stumps had battered the face of the dead man to a pulp.
| They knew it was Jubal Wakeman, however, by cer-
! tain marks upon him. He had doubtless been tied to the
| tail of the half-wild horse and set adrift by Flying Feather
| and his crew.
| The remaining Utes of the band had crossed the range
| during the night, but they had settled with the white
f man who had led them into this useless fight, before leav-
| ing the eastern valleys.
' Some weeks later Buffalo Bill had the pleasure of
Mm rounding up Flying Feather and the remainder of his
) band, and saw them in prison at Fort Prevost, where they
/ were amply punished for their misdeeds,
| It did not take the testimony of the Utes, however, to
f prove the traitorous work of Jubal Wakeman. When
f the scoundrel’s papers were examined it was discovered
)that he had deliberately hidden away Anna Gregory's
| forty thousand dollars, and had planned to steal the Three
| Finger mining property entirely.
| The mines were easily pumped out when it was under-
| stood where the water came from, and in a few months
| the proper owners were making a fortune out of the
vein,
| The principal owner did not prove to be Miss Gregory,
|, however.
_ The discovery that Pawnee Bill had made at a time
| when they were all too excited and,in too great peril to
| be interested in such a matter, was explained by the
| bowie man, first to Buffalo Bill and then to Anna Gregory
herself.
| The inflience the girl had over Grizzly Dan had per-
| haps prepared her for the discovery that the hermit of
a the mountains was her own father.
Grizzly Dan’s own story—as he could remember it—
helped prove the case, too. And as he gradually grew
P quieter under the influence of his daughter's presence,
| he began to recall things that had happened before he
started to cross the plains so many years before; and he
| slowly forgot his wild life in the mountains.
| The forty thousand dollars, therefore, in time made
Grizzly Dan the controlling owner of the Three Finger
‘claim. Some years later he and his daughter sold out
and went back to Missouri to live.
The old man always wore a black silk handkerchief
‘wrapped turban fashion about his head to hide the
BILL WEEKLY. | 21
frightful scar upon it; and he never cared to talle of his
tame grizzlies, or his battles with the redskins.
But whenever any of the men who had been his com-
panions in the wilds—especially those who had aided in
the release and defense of his daughter when the Utes
abducted her—came as far east as Missouri, he who had —
been known as Grizzly Dan, as well as his charming
daughter, welcomed them most hospitably. ae
“THE END.
In the story for the next issue there is a vivid example
of the injustice and horror of the once popular lynch
law of the West.
is haled before a mob of lawless miners, for alleged mur-
der, on the roughest sort of circumstantial evidence, and
the baron’s finish is very near. at hand when the powers.
of law and order intervene. In addition to this incident
there are some ripping chapters of Indian, trailing and
fighting in the story, and you mustn't miss it. The title
is “Buffalo Bill at Cimaroon Bar; or, Pawnee Bill’s Clean-
up.” No. 284. Out February 16th. This number will
also contain another installment of Edward C. Taylor's
absorbing serial and the news of the world.
‘THE LAST OF THE HERD:
Or, A Big Contract Well Filled.
By EDWARD CG. FAYLOR.
(This interesting story began in New BurraLo BILL WEEKLY
No. 279. If you have not read the preceding chapters, get the
back numbers which you haye missed from’ your news dealer.
if he cannot supply you with them the publishers will do so.)
CHAPTER XV.
OFF TO THE RESCUE,
There was a sort of drop in the festivities at Sunset
Ranch house when Ted Strong bade them farewell and
trotted away on his little black pony. Daisy Miller very
plainly showed that she was disappointed that Ted had
gone. Louise may have felt the disappointment quite as
much, but she’ concealed her feelings more. It was as
natural for her to keep up a certain reserve as it was
natural for Daisy to show every emotion on the spot.
A waltz followed’ shortly after Ted’s departure, and
Louise had Kit Summers for her partner. Every one in
the room noticed what a handsome couple the two made
—Kit with his dark hair and dark eyes, and Louise with
her blond coloring that made her noticeablé-wherever she
went. Bob Martin danced with Daisy, and in a very few
moments: had her laughing again. Daisy was’ quite fond
of the companionship of the little fellow because of his
flow of humor and high spirits, and, no matter how blue
she felt, Bob could always cheer her up. Beanpole was
refused a dance by a very fat, buxom girl to whom he
had taken a violent fancy and who had already chosen
Carl Schwartz for her partner. Thaddeus went away mut-
tering gloomily, to where Ben Tremont was lounging in a
corner near a window with his head thrust altogether
outside.
“T ook out there!” said Beanpole, joining him. “You'll
catch cold, sitting that way with your head out in a drait.”
Ben brought his head in a moment and glanced at Bean-
pole, then thrust it out again. hurriedly.
“Pm having a quiet smoke,” he said, “If I went out-
side all by myself they would think it queer, and I haven't
any use for dancing. I'd rather, a heap sight, lounge about
here and smoke. 1 don’t want to smoke in the room where
the ladies are, and so I keep my head outside the window
ou the rest of my person remains within the room.
See?”
Having delivered himself of this speech, which was an
unusually long one for him, Ben thrust his head out of
the window and betook himself to smoking again.
Our old friend, Baron Schnitzenhauser, .. -
“It’s dangerous, all the same,” said Beanpole. “But I
don’t care whether I catch cold or not to-night. My sys-
tem is all run down, anyhow.”
“Humph!” was Beén’s rejoinder to this mournful state-
ment. el
Beanpole stood at the window ledge beside Ben and
thrust his head forth also.
“I’m ‘getting desperate,’ he said. “My health is simply
‘on the hog, and I am getting so thin and pale that the
girls won't dance with me.”
~ “Lucky boy!” said Ben between puffs.
“Ti’s a darned shame,” went on Beanpole. “I feel that
appendicitis is stealing over me. I’m getting weaker and
weaker every day. And then when Jane Cummings turned
me down to go and dance with Carl Schwartz, who doesn’t
do anything when he waltzes but spin around like a top
——well, it simply makes me sick of life and everything in
it. I believe I will simply stop trying. I'll just give it up.
T’ll let my constitution take its natural. course and carry
to an early grave a being who was always too delicate
to take any enjoyment out of life.”
“Don’t do anything rash,” said Ben Tremont.
“Rash!” cried Beanpole. “I am ready to do anything!
I actually believe that I will stop taking medicine.”
“Good thing if you did,” said Ben.
a sighed Beanpole, “I suppose it would be a good
thing.” !
The boys remained silent for a little’time after this,
looking quietly out into the great, starry night.
became absorbed in his own thought, and after a time
began to forget about the smaller things of life and think
more of the greater. Beanpole forgot his imaginary ail-
ments, and Ben let his’ pipe go out—both forgetful of
everything but the majestic beauty of the night and the
stately march of the glittering planets over their heads.
Presently they forgot about the sky and stars, the night
winds and the prairie scents, in a sound which was borne
faintly to their ears.
They were listening intently, their ears strained and their
faces puzzléd, when the music within came to a standstill
and the dance ceased.
“Whatever are those two boys looking at, with their
‘heads thrust out of the window?” said Daisy, as she sank
into a chair near by.
“T guess I could make a safe bet on it,” said Bob. Bean-
pole is thinking how sick he is, and worrying about his
' appetité because he didn’t eat any more than three ordinary
men to-day, and Ben is thinking what a fine thing tobacco
is, and what a stupid thing dancing is.”
“T think that he is stupid himself for holding such opin-
ions,” said Daisy, “though he’s nice, too. I like Ben
becatse he is so big and strong and quiet.”
“Just like me,” said Bob; “but you can’t blame people
for having different tastes. You know what Shakespeare
says: ‘Let the cobbler stick to his last, for a last is the last
thing any one else would want. sticking to him, and the
lasts that stick the best are not the lasts that last the
pees, The longest last that ever lasted could not out-
ast
“Such nonsense!” laughed Daisy. “Let’s come over and
see what they are doing.”
They went up behind Beanpole and Ben, who were busily
engrossed in the distant sounds that were wafted to them
on the wind.
“What's up, brothers?” said Bob. “What's at the steer
kimmer, as the Scetchman says, although I don’t know
what a steer kimmer is?”
“Get Bud Morgan,” said Ben shortly. “I want him to
listen. Some one is giving the long yell out on the prairie,
and we heard shots.”
Bud and Kit came to the window, but no further sounds
came down the wind.
They looked at each other with puzzled faces.
“Funny thing to hear shooting out there,” said Ben,
knocking the ashes out of his pipe into the broad palm
of his hand. “No one has any business to be shooting out
there this time of night.”
‘ oe left here alone a short time ago,” said Kit. “Could
it be——”
At that moment the door was flung open and Reading
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NEW BUFFALO
Each.
BILL. WEEKLY.
stalked into the room. He was in a perspiration; he was
dusty and muddy, as though he had ridden hard, and his
face had a frightened, scared look that impressed all who
saw him. re x
“Where did you come from, and what makes you look
that way?” asked Kit. “I thought you were in bed.”
“J was out on the prairie, and I want to speak to some
of the young range riders in a hurry.”
He stepped out on the porch, and the young riders fol-
lowed him in a group, leaving the girls and other’ boys
behind them.
Kit grasped him by the arm. ;
“What is it you have to say? Say it quick!” he said..
“Has anything happened to Ted Strong?”
“Yes,” said Reading, with a queer sort of swallowing
motion in his throat. “He’s out there with a lot of fel-
lows, enemies of his—Roaring Bill’s old gang and Earl
Rossiter—who are going to tar and feather him:”
“Good heavens!” yelled Kit. ‘Get the horses!”
“Wait a bit!” said Ben Tremont. “How does this. man
know about this?”
“I know about it. I was in the plot.
me, and Rossiter and I planned revenge. I only had in-
tended to give him a laying out. But Rossiter seems to
be crazy. He wants to half flay him with a whip, and he
is going to tar and feather him.”
“And you were in this plot!” yelled Kit. He sprang
at Reading like a panther, and was bearing him to the
ground when Ben Tremont interfered and pulled him off.
“He backed out of it,‘and he is going to tell us where
Ted is,” said Ben. “The thing to do now is to help Ted,
not to fight this man. Reading, can you’ guide us to the
spot where they have Ted Strong?”
~~ Reading nodded.
“Was that his shouting that I heard when I leaned out
the window ?”
“He was shouting and fighting with them when I rode
away. I could stand it no longer. I determined to make
a clean bréast of it and ride back and tell you fellows.
I may have a bad temper, but there are some things that
I can't stand for’?
“Good heavens!” cried Kit. “Bob, Bud, Beanpole, Car!
—the horses! Get them saddled up! Ted is being mur-
dered!’
Kit led the way to the stables, and the others followed
at a run. It was generally understood that when Ted was
absent Kit Summers, the dashing, dark-haired boy, was to
Strong thrashed
act as his lieutenant and take command. He proved him-
‘self, on this occasion, well qualified for the position.
“Saddle quickly, lads!” he said.
in your weapons. See that both cinch straps are pulled
tight. Here, Reading, swing a lantern down so the boys
can see.
In the narrow box stalls, by the flickering lanternlight,
the boys saddled as speedily as they knew how, and, even
though they are boys, they can come pretty near the army
record held by the Sixth Cavalry at that game. Then the
“And slip cartridges
_ long cartridges were slipped into the weapons which ordi-
narily were kept unloaded, and they were siung in their
holsters, ready for the hand. Each boy stood at attention
at the head of his horse.
“Lead out!” cried Ait; and the boys, grasping the
bridles, swung outdoors in a line under the stars and rising
moon. The girls and boys, gathered on the porch, could
see them arrayed like a platoon of cavalry, warlike and
ready.
“Reading,” said Kit Summers, “get on the back of your
horse and lead us straight to the place where you left Ted
Strong. If so much as a hair of Ted’s head is hurt, it
will go hard with you and all your crew. Prepare to
mount! Mount!”
At the last two commands the boys placed foot’ in the
stirrup and then leaped lightly into the saddle.
_“Column of two—for’ard march!” Kit’s voice rang out
like the notes of a bugle, and a shrill cheer arose from
the girls on the porch as the young range riders swung
out.
“Trot! Gallop!” cried Kit, and the young plainsmen
were away across the prairie.
NEW. BUFFALO
“CHAPTER: XV rT
A. BOLD GET-AWAY.
“When Rosatter saw that no inumidauen on his. part
could frighten Ted Strong, he felt an. odd twinge ‘of dis-
appointment in his heart: Although * he ‘swaggeréd and
boasted: about having’ the yours: ranchman in his power,
he knew in his inmost ‘soul that the real victory, thé real
triumph~which was- the -éffect -of “courage and character,
rather than of brute force, belonged to Ted Strona). |
“Strip him, boys!” he said, stepping back a little. “Strip
him! Take the clothes off his’ back and let me get at him.
I’m-glad he refused. I’m glad he’s stubborn. a will
make my revenge all the: sweeter.”
To strip Ted Strong ‘of his clothes it was necessary to
untic his hands: Ted was calculating on this. As soon
as the ropes: were loosed he swung outward with both
his arms in as hard and wide a sweep as he could swing
them. He used them as a switimer uses his arms, only in
Ted’s case there were two hard fists at the end of the
atms, instead of opén anon At the same time he tushed
forward blindly.
‘Fhe two men whe were holding him were sent stapeering
back, aid another man who was standing in front’ o
him feceived the full impact of Ted’s shoulder as he
charged him like a football player. Rossiter sprang at
him, “ealling upon the others to follow. -Ted dodged one
man and went full tilt into Rossiter. Rossiter went down
like a tenpin, and then Ted dashed past him, kicking the
tripod that held the bucket of far as he went.
Over. went the tripod,-and thete was a great fcc
as the tar it contained struck fhe flames and took fire.
This had been carefully thought: out, and fora moment the
lad was eee from his enemies by the bright glare of
the fire. Rossiter leaped to his feet and tan for him, but
at the same instant Ted swung a great burning log out of
the flames, poised it. over his head j in both hands, and sent
it: whirling into the crowd of men who were coming for
him in a mass. They scattered and ducked-on all sides.
The Jog struck one man fairly on. the ‘chest and ‘sent
him down in a shower of sparks. For a moment the men
wete ata standstill, unable to ste far. before them. The
blazing. tat sent up a great cloud of flame and smoke, and
for a tioment it appe eared to Rossiter’s s gang that the young.
ranchman, in @ paroxysm of terror, had dashed directly
into. the fire.
But such a thing was far from the. thoughts of the quick-
witted Ted, Never had there beeti greater need for his”
shrewdness and quickness than at that moment, and never
had he planned more wisely or executed more daringly.
While Rossiter and his men were still trying to cross the
river of burning tar that was in their path, he was away in
thé shadows on thé other: side, running like a deer for the
coulee where he had caught sight of a line picketed with
horsés.
They caught sighs of ew in a moment, and he could
hear their cries and oaths, but he never turned his head to
look, Then came the crackle of firearms atid the splinter-
ing sound of bullets striking near his feet, the whizzing
sound of them cleaving the air near his lead. Still he
ran like a deer, and presently he was among the horses.
The men were all running for him now at top speed, but
none of them had the fleetness of foot of Ted Strong.
They were afraid to fire now for fear of injuring their
own horses, which were already leaping wildly and tugging -
at the picket line. ~
As they reached one énd. of the cotlee, Ted Strong
dashed out of the other, mounted. Bullets were flying
about his head as he swung out on the open prairie and
headed his Horse instinctively for Sunset Ranch. He bent
low over the neck of his animal and listened for the
sound of hoofbeats behind him. They came fast enough.
The men were enraged at the tough fight theif captive
had put up, and more determined to catch and tar and
feather him than ever. They streamed out in an irreg-
ular bunch, cursing and urging on their steeds, their pistols
flashing fitfully as they fired upon the fugitive.
Ted had little fear of stich wild shots: He had fears,
however, about the speed of his horse—the horse he had
taken from the picket line. He had taken it at random,
as he had no time to pick or choose, and now he noticed ”
stepped around his body
aE EER : 9%
that the. s animal y was not very’ ‘spe oy, that neither splirring
not coaxing could trge it to a’ faster gait than’ it, had
started with. He heard the hoofbeats sounding nearer +0
him, and knew that the random shots were coming closer
to him than before.. The pursuers eee not euly getting
his ‘range ; they: were ‘coming closér to Buns
“Too bad,” he muttered into the pony’s mane, as he fe
forward on its ‘neck; “I ghess: 1 nave picked out the slow-
est horse in the bunch, Oh, for a w jeapon! “Vd @ive any-
thing for my revolver. I guess YE could stop a few of those
fellows who are after. me. But: this horse is: tired, - it
cati't hold out much 4tonger.””
-He looked back, being careful the alia! fer eae a
little possible mark: ‘for: his followers. He could | see tha
Rossiter’s gang was strung out into a long, irreg nilar line.
At the forefront rode a “fall, lanky man, mounted on a |
big roan, long-legged and shad- bodied, but: evidently Can
pable of great speed:- Next to him came Eart Rossiter
himself, mounted on his thoroughbred bay. it ed col uld tell
it even -at that distance: -
The other outlaws were bunched a. tittle behind, - but
stringing out more and more as the horses showed: ‘what
they wére made of Lor a long rum =
“That first fellow. is distancing all the others,” mutt tered
Ted. “He'll be a hundred yards ahead of Rossiter in a
few moments. He's a fool to come at me alone, but i
don’t object. I’ve got a little plan up my sleeve yet. “He’
thinks that bécause | am unarmed 1 am not dangerous...
I'm: not unarmed as lone as J am on a horses F can use’
a horse asa weapon aswell as a gun. Mya fimal is fut
vety speedy,’ but he’s sure on his feet, ‘short, atid a triffe:
heavier than that animal behind,”> i
Thése thoughts were running through Ted’ 5 mind as he
raced. along: He -watched: and ‘saw fh the first’ of the’
pursuers’ was gaining: more and morte ‘over the’ others.
“Good-enough!” he muttered, ‘and gl lanced ahead,
‘There was a ttirn in the road not a quarter of a mile’
away. The road—or, rather, the trail, for it was nothing
more than-a dimly- marked track across the open prairic
—swune round a chimp of timber at this point, and for
a little “distance farther was screened bythe trees. Ted>
had been waiting anxiously, as ‘he rode, for this tarn in
the trail to°come in sight. As he neared it” he ‘drew for-
ward in the saddle and caught the reins ina tighter g7 aD.
As he rounded the turn he bent inward; forcitig his
horse to swing around in a large circle without slowing his
pace in the least. The wideness of the trail, and the f ACE:
that there. was absolutely flat prairie land on the side of |
the trail, enabled him ‘to do this.. As he swung ar ound he
listened. Hé heard the foremost horseman coming up to
the turn, He Swung around the clump oi ‘trees, and, as
he did so, he met Ted Strong, the boy he w as /chasi ng,
chatging fot him,
This was just ag Tet. had calculated. Ts ad's “Here é struck
the other atliimal in the flank, and struck it when it was a
little off its balance. owing to the turn. There wasa crash, -
a grinding of leather, and a clotid of dust. Then Téd’s
horse staggered ‘on, while the other tottered and fell to-
the ground, pinning its rider underneath it and knocking
hit senseless. Ted dropped from his\own steed, and a
pcan later had in his hand the revolver of the mah
who had been are him. His belt of cartridges was still
so he was now armed and stip-
plied with ammunition. ‘But theré was no titne to lose.
He vaulted to the back of his steed oncé more, just as
Earl Rossiter, leading the remainder of his followers,
came swinging around the turn. Their pistols blazed with
a sudden volley as they came around and caught sight of
the dark heats of the young ranchman, who had wheeled
his animal once more and was riding away at the topmost -
speed at which it. could carry, him. Bullets sang on either
side of him and sent spurts of dust from the ground before
him, Ted Strong swung around a little in the saddle,
rested his newly won revolver on his crooked elbow, and
sent two shots back at those following him.
He could see one horse stagger as thougit it had is
hit, but the others came on. a
The figure of the man Ted had charged “upon. oe
thrown was still lying in the trail near the trees. Evidently
the others had charged right past it without. stopping to
see whether the man were alive-or dead. Ted felt his
| NEW BUFFALO
24
4
horse failing under him, and those. behind were coming
nearer and nearer. He was giving himself up for lost,
for he knew that this chase could not last long, when
suddenly his heart gave a great leap. Hoofbeats sounded
on ‘the trail ahead of him, coming his way.
2
were cut off from civilization; for, owin’ ter the fact
thet the messenger from the pope hadn’t never returned,
~ people began ter think as how he had been scalped by ther
Injuns an’ that ther monastery must have heen raided by
them. ee ee
People thought it wasn’t safe ter venture-in thet there
direction no more; an’ so this monastery, situated in a
beautiful green valley in ther midst of ther Prairie, was
cut off altogether as though it was in another world. One
by one the monks took sick an’ died, until finally the wicked
abbot, the feller who was ther worst in ther. outfit, an’. who
had proposed .throwin’ ther s
“dungeon—-he died hisself,”
They |
Pore messenger down in ther
BILL WEEKLY.
“My word!” said Kit. “I never heard the whole story
before, but it’s a doleful one” =
“It’s jest what I’ve heard told around the camp fires on
ther old cattle trail,’ said Bud. “Jumpin’ sandhills! Them
there old cattlemen useter helieye it like it was gospil
.
- a
Fa =
See Se SEES = ee ee = ee ° "2 os a Se =
ae Se eR ea ee ea ee eee ceieiiinmataiiaie eta —.
on
Na
er
ew Buffalo Bill
Weekly
ISSUED
EN. BR YY.
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 of Western adventure fiction.
Buffalo Bill is more popular to-day than he ever was, and, consequently, everybody ought to know all there is
to know about him.
great man, as by reading the New Buffalo Bill Weekly.
We give herewith a list of some of the back numbers in print.
In no manner can you become so thoroughly acquainted with the actual habits and life of this
You can have your news dealer order them or
they will be sent direct by the publishers to any address upon receipt of the price in money or postage stamps.
61—Buffalo Bill's Treasure Train.
62—Buffalo Bill Among the Blackfeet.
63—Buffalo Bill’s Border Beagles.
64—Buffalo Bill and the Bandits in Black,
65—Buffalo Bill on the Deadwood Trail,
66—Buffalo Bill in the Cafion of Death.
67—Butffalo Bill and Billy, the Kid.
68—Buffalo Bill and the Robber Ranch.
69—Buffalo Bill in the Land of Wonders.
70—Buffalo Bill and the Traitor Soldier.
71—Buffalo Bill’s Dusky Trailers.
72—Buffalo Bill’s Diamond Mine.
73—Buffalo Bill and the Pawnee Serpent.
74—Buffalo Bill’s Scarlet Hand.
75—Buffalo Bill Running the Gantlet.
76—Buffalo Bill’s Leap in the Dark.
77—Buffalo Bill’s Daring Plunge.
78—Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Mission.
79—Buffalo Bill’s Ghost Raid.
80—Buffalo Bill’s Traitor Guide.
81—Buffalo Bill’s Camp Fires.
82—Buffalo Bill Up a Stump.
83—Buffalo Bill’s Secret Foe.
84—-Buffalo Bill’s Master Stroke.
85—Buffalo Bill and the Skeleton Horse-
man.
86—Buffalo Bill and the Brazos Terror.
87—Buffalo Bill’s Dance of Death.
88—Buffalo Bill and the Creeping Terror.
89—Buffalo Bill and the Brand of Cain.
90—Buffalo Bill and the Mad Millionaire.
91—Buffalo Bill’s Medicine Lodge.
92—Buffalo Bill in Peril.
93—Buffalo Bill’s Strange Pard.
94—Buffalo Bill in the Death Desert,
95—Buffalo Bill in No-Man’s Land.
96—Buffalo Bill’s Border Ruffians.
97—Buffalo Bill’s Black Eagles.
98—Buffalo Bill’s Rival.
99—Buffalo Bill and the Boy Bugler.
100—Buffalo Bill and the White Specter.
‘101—Buffalo Bill’s Death Defiance.
102—-Buffalo Bill and the Barge Bandits.
103—Buffalo Bill, the Desert Hotspur.
104—Buffalo Bill’s Wild Range Riders.
105—Buffalo Bill’s Red Retribution.
106—Buffalo Bill’s Death Jump.
107—Buffalo Bill’s Aztec Runners.
108—Buffalo Bill’s Fiery Eye.
109—Buffalo Bill’s Gypsy Band.
110—Buffalo Bill’s Maverick.
111—Buffalo Bill, the White Whirlwind.
112—Buffalo Bill in Old Mexico.
113—Buffalo Bill’s Flying Wonder.
114—Buffalo Bill’s Ice Chase.
115—Buffalo Bill’s Gold Hunters.
116—Buffalo Bill and the Wolf Master.
117—Buffalo Bill’s Message from the Dead.
118—Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Dozen.
119—Buffalo Bill’s Whirlwind Chase.
120—Buffalo Bill Haunted.
121—Buffalo Bill’s Fight for Life.
122—Buffalo Bill and the Pit of Horror.
123—Buffalo Bill in the Jaws of Death.
124—_Buffalo Bill’s Dance With Death. -
125—Buffalo Bill’s Hidden Gold.
126—Buffalo Bill’s Outlaw Trail.
127—Buffalo Bill and the Indian Queen.
128—Buffalo Bill and the Mad Marauder.
1 29—Buffalo Bill’s Ghost Dance.
130—Buffalo Bill’s Peace Pipe.
131—Buffalo Bill’s Red Nemesis.
132—Buffalo Bill’s Enchanted Mesa.
133—Buffalo Bill in the Desert of Death.
134—Buffalo Bill’s Pay Streak.
135—Buffalo Bill on Detached Duty.
136—Buffalo Bill’s Army Mystery.
137—Butffalo Bill's Surprise Party.
138—Buffalo Bill’s Great Ride.
189—Buffalo Bill’s Water Trail.
140—Buffalo Bill’s Ordeal of Fire.
141—Buffalo Bill Among the Man-eaters.
142—Buffalo Bill’s Casket of Pearls.
143—Buffalo Bill’s Sky Pilot.
' 144—-Buffalo Bill’s Totem.
145—Buffalo Bill’s Flatboat Drift.
146—Buffalo Bill on Deck.
147—Buffalo Bill and the Bronchobuster.
148—Buffalo Bill’s Great Round-up.
149—Buffalo Bill’s Pledge.
150—Buffalo Bill’s Cowboy Pard.
151—Buffalo Bill and the Emigrants.
152—Buffalo Bill Among the Pueblos.
153—Buffalo Bill’s Four-footed Pards.
154—Buffalo Bill’s Protégé.
155—Buffalo Bill Ensnared.
156—Buffalo Bill’s Pick-up.
157—Buffalo Bill’s Quest.
158—Buffalo Bill’s Waif of the Plains.
159—Buffalo Bill Baffled.
160—Buffalo Bill Among the Mormons.
161—Buffalo Bill’s Assistance.
162—Buffalo Bill’s Rattlesnake Trail.
163—Buffalo Bill and the Slave Dealer.
164—Buffalo Bill’s Strong Arm.
165—Buffalo Bill’s Girl Pard.
166—Buffalo Bill’s Iron Bracelets.
167—Buffalo Bill’s ““Paper Talk.”
168—Buffalo Bill’s Bridge of Fire.
169—Buffalo Bill’s Bowie.
170—Buffalo Bill and the Forty Thieves.
171—Buffalo Bill’s Mine.
172—Buffalo Bill’s Clean-up.
173—Buffalo Bill’s Ruse.
174—Buffalo Bill Overboard.
175—Buffalo Bill’s Ring.
176—Buffalo Bill’s Big Contract.
177—Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane.
178—Buffalo Bill’s Kid Pard.
179—Buffalo Bill's Desperate Plight.
180—Buffalo Bill’s Fearless Stand.
181—Buffalo Bill and the Yelping Crew.
182—Buffalo Bill’s Guiding Hand.
183—Buffalo Bill’s Queer Quest.
184—Buffalo Bill’s Prize ‘‘Get-away.”’
185—Buffalo Bill’s Hurricane Hustle.
186—Buffalo Bill’s Star Play.
187—Buffalo Bill’s Bluff.
188—Buffalo Bill’s Trackers.
189—Buffalo Bill’s Dutch Pard.
190—Buffalo Bill and the Bravo.
191—Buffalo Bill and the Quaker.
192—Buffalo Bill’s Package of Death.
193—Buffalo Bill’s Treasure Cache.
194—Buffalo Bill’s Private War.
195—Buffalo Bill and the Trouble-hunter.
196—Buffalo Bill and the Rope Wizard.
197—Buffalo Bill’s Fiesta.
198—Buffalo Bill Among the Cheyennes.
199—Buffalo Bill Besieged.
200—Buffalo Bill and the Red Hand.
201—Buffalo Bill’s Tree-Trunk Drift. °
202—Buffalo Bill and the Specter.
203—Buffalo Bill’s Secret Message.
204—Buffalo Bill and the Horde of Her-
mosa.
205—Buffalo Bill’s Lonesome Trail.
206— Buffalo Bill’s Quarry.
207—Buffalo Bill in Deadwood.
208—Buffalo Bill’s First Aid.
209—Buffalo Bill and Old Moonlight.
210—Buffalo Bill Repaid.
211—Buffalo Bill’s Throwback.
212—Buffalo Bill’s ‘“‘Sight-Unseen.”
213—Buffalo Bill’s New Pard.
214—Buffalo Bill’s Winged Victory.
215—Buffalo Bill’s ‘‘Pieces-of-Eight.”
216—Buffalo Bill and the Wight Vaqueros.
217—Buffalo Bill’s Unlucky Siesta.
218—Buffalo Bill’s Apache Clue.
219—Buffalo Bill and the Apache Totem.
220—Buffalo Bill’s Golden Wonder.
221—Buffalo Bill's Fiesta Night.
222—Buffalo Bill and the Hatchet Boys.
223—Buffalo Bill and the Mining Shark.
224—Buffalo Bill and the Cattle Barons.
225—Buffalo Bill’s Long Odds.
226—Buffalo Bill, the Peacé Maker.
227—Buffalo Bill’s Promise to Pay.
228—Buffalo Bill’s Diamond Hitch.
229—Buffalo Bill and the Wheel of Fate.
230—Buffalo Bill and the Pool of Mystery.
221—Buffalo Bill and the Deserter.
232—Buffalo Bill’s Island in the Air.
233—Buffalo Bill, Town Marshal.
234—Buffalo Bill’s Ultimatum.
235—Buffalo Bill’s Test.
236—Buffalo Bill and the Ponca Raiders.
237—Buffalo Bill’s Boldest Stroke.
238—Buffalo Bill’s Enigma.
239-—Buffalo Bill’s Blockade.
240—Buffalo Bill and the Gilded Clique.
241—-Buffalo Bill and Perdita Reyes.
242—Buffalo Bill and the Boomers.
243—Buffalo Bill Calls a Halt.
244—Buffalo Bill and the Ke-Week To#™.
245—Buffalo Bill’s O. K.
246—Buffalo Bill at Cafion Diablo.*
247—Buffalo Bill’s Transfer.
248—Buffalo Bill and the Red HoS¢ Hunt-
ers.
249—Buffalo Bill’s Dangerous Dr-¥- i
250—Buffalo Bill and the Chief’; Daughter.
251—Buffalo Bill at Tinaja Wel5:
252—-Buffalo Bill and the Men 1 Mendon.
253—Buffalo Billat Rainbow’ End.
254—Buffalo Bill and the Russ22 Plot.
255—Buffalo Bill’s Red Trian¢®:
256—Buffalo Bill’s Royal Flus'-
257—Buffalo Bill’s Tramp Par...
258—Buffalo Bill on the UpperMissouri.
259—Buffalo Bill’s Crow Scout
260—Buffalo Bill’s Opium Case
261—Buffalo Bill’s Witchcraft.
262—Buffalo Bill’s Mountain FoS-
263—Buffalo Bill’s Battle Cry. ..
264—Buffalo Bill’s Fight for the tight.
265—Buffalo Bill’s Barbecue. :
266—Buffalo Bill and the Red Renéade.
267—Buffalo Bill and the Apache Ki:
268—Buffalo Bill at the Copper Barris:
269—Buffalo Bill’s Power.
270—Buffalo Bill and the Chief Hawkch®-
271—Buffalo Bill and the Indian Girl.
272—Buffalo Bill Across the Rio Grande.
273—Buffalo Bill and the Headless Horse-
man.
274—Buffalo Bill’s Clean Sweep.
275—Buffalo Bill’s Handful of Pearls.
276—Buffalo Bill’s Pueblo Foes.
Dated December 29th, 1917.
277—Buffalo Bill’s Taos Totem.
Dated January 5th, 1918.
278—Buftalo Bill and the Pawnee Prophet.
Dated January 12th, 1918.
279—Buffalo Bill and Old Wanderoo.
Dated January 19th, 1918.
280—Buffalo Bill’s Merry War.
CE, SIX CENTS PER COPY. If you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot procure them from your news
dealer, they can be obtained direct from this office.
Postage stamps taken the same as money.
REET & SMITH CORPORATION, Publishers, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City