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_ Issued Weekly. Entered as Second-class Matter at the New York Post Office, by STREET & SMITH, 79-89 on Ave., New York.
Copyright, 1917, by STREET & SMITH CORPORATION.

 

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No. 273. NEW YORK, December 1, 1917 Price Six Cents.

 

Buffalo Bill and the

Headless Horseman:

OR,

PAWNEE BILL RIDES THE

BOUNDARY.

By-<the airthor of ““BUERALO’ BILL.”

CHADPIER I
THE AMERICAN AT CIUDAD SONORA.

Ciudad Sonora, a little Mexican town among the hills
and just across the Rio Grande del Norte from the Big
Bend country of Texas, had a visitor—in fact, it had two.
Visitors were not common to Ciudad Sonora, and there
was some small stir in the town. Besides, one of the
guests was in the little adobe jail situated right behind the
bank of Sefor Enrique Dejais, and not far from the office
of the alcalde.

The guest who remained free was an Americano, and

the people of Ciudad Sonora did not love Americanos.

The nativity of the man in the jail was in question; but

che had been. dressed like a Spaniard of wealth and rank,

and the Americano was the cause of this man’s arrest and

‘detention by the alcalde.

There was a buzz of excitement in the town, especially

‘after night fell and the supper had been eaten, and every-

body appeared on the plaza as usual. The arrest, and the

meaning of it all, was the single topic of conversation.

In- mid-afternoon three
all halting at the smithy of
Pedro Hojaré, who was the best horseshoer within miles.
Pedro himself, after the incident, had closed his smithy,
washed up and put on holiday - attire, and appeared now
on the plaza, eager to tell his tale to all who would listen

To begin at the beginning:

smith favored.

“It was like this, neighbors and caballeros,” he said.
“T was at work in my shop—you all know it. There rode
first to the door the handsome young stranger—oh, so
richly caparisoned!—and his bay horse with the white tail
is lame of the right forefoot. The shoe is missing.

“The caballero dismount; he treat himself the bruised
foot. Then he request me to have a care with the shoeing.
While I work, two strangers—Americanos and determined-
looking men—come also to my shop and dismount. They
stare at my customer; they are offensive, without doubt.

A AI col il ta Bl a

quite.

- He does not trust to its walls and bars,

His listeners agreed—unanimously—with this statement.

“As I am about my task to finish,” pursued Pedro
Hojaré, “my patron pick up for himself a horseshoe nail
—a bright, white nail—and hand it to me. I am in need
of one for the last hole at the moment. Instantly | use
it—I drive it home, caballeros. It drive like any other
nail, but it is bright—it. may be of silver, like they say;
buts caramba !—it is a hard-finished nail,-and how may I
tell?”

He shrugged his shouldersvand shook his head.

“You see how it ts, caballeros; but I am innocent—
Then the two Americanos they spring upon the
man whose horse I ‘have just shod. They hold pistols
to his head. They disarm and tie him. Then they carry
him before the alcalde and acctise him of being that Sil-
-vernail whose name has become a household word along
the Rio Grande del Norte.

“My patron deny—he deny vigorously—the accusation;
but the-alcalde must hold him for examination to-morrow.
The Ameticanos are vociferous. They speak grandly of
one Buffalo Bill, a famous Americano officer of the law,
with whom these two associate. This Buffalo Bill is now
here, across the border, so they claim. One of them—he
is called Major Lillie, and must therefore be a military
man—ride away in ‘search of this Buffalo Bill, who is like-
wise an army man and bears the title of colonel.

“The man who is left remains about the jail to watch.
it would seem.
Ha! there will be amusement enough before the alcalde
to-morrow. And the beautiful bay horse with the white
tail is in my care.’

It a6 said oe Silvernail rides such a horse, Pedro,”
said one listener.

“Hal if he does? Who am I to say there are not more
‘than one bay horse with a white tail in the world?” cried
the smith. ¢

“But,” said another, “it is also said of the famous bandit
that he always has a silver nail driven into each shoe
that is put on the feet of. his horse.”

These Yenkhees have no manners, as you well know, “Well? And what then?” snorted Pedro. “I am not
brothers.” fa a miner; I do not know silver—perhaps.”
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9 | NEW BUFFALO

“Is he a Mexican—a brother—this Silvernail?” de-
manded a_ third. :

“Chited it is foolish to ask.” What know I of Silver-
nail?” returned the smith, shaking his head. wy

“This strange caballero, then—the man in jail—what -

‘is he?’ ae
“He may be Americano for all I can = say,” declared
Pedro. “It is not my business. We shall all learn at
the examination to-morrow. before the alcalde.”
“But what, I wisli to know, is the business of these
Americanos over here?” demanded another hotly. “Is

their own country not large enough? “Why do they act

instead ‘of the rurales?’”
Pedro laughed.. “When was it thou sawest a rural
last, Felipe?” he demanded, “These bandits ply their
trade on either side of the Rio Grande del Norte. If
this Colonel Buffalo Bill, and this major, and this third
man who guards the jail-—it is’ whispered he is a wild
man, too—see fit. to chase ‘outlaws through our back
yards, will not the government at Mexico City uphold
them in their actions, Chito? Thou knowest!”
And so the groups about the plaza buzzed. . Some
blamed the alcalde for holding the accused man at all
—as only the Americanos were his accusers. Yet all

men knew that Silvernail was the most atrocious brigand —
that had been let loose onthe Olando Trail for many :

years. If this were he—— © .

Not many of the townspeople cared to cross the path
of the. Americano who had ‘remained on watch. He
marched around the small square on which the jail was
situated, and his determined face, and the guns swinging
from his belt, made him seem ‘a ferocious object to these
people, who, if they fought at all, fought mostly with
knives. An

Wild. Bill Hickok—for it was. the: Laramie. man—had
mighty little use for greasers, and he was distrustful of
the whole lot of them at Ciudad Sonora—from the al-
calde down!

Just as Pedro, the smith, had said, Wild Bill and Pawnee
Bill, Buffalo Bill’s pards, had run by chance upon an indi-.
vidual whom they were confident was the king-pin bandit
of the whole gang then infesting the boundary - country
between Mexico: and the United States. The Bills were
down here in Old Mexico, just across the river, for the
express purpose of running down a mess from the holdup
men and brigands then making so much trouble for the
peaceable people on the border.

Having captured this man, whom they believed to be |

Silvernail, Pawnee Bill had hurried away to find. their
chief, while Hickok remained to watch proceedings in the
town. They knew that this fellow, Silvernail, must have
plenty of friends among the poorer Mexicans, for he
robbed the rich and gave to the poor—which has been
the habit of pirates and brigands of all ages; and down
to:our present-day financial outlaws. ey

So Hickok determined to'remain awake all night and
hang about the little adobe building in which the suspect
was locked and barred. At the back: this building ad-
joinéd the bank of Sefior Enrique -Dejais, which. faced
the public square. At about ten o’clock, while still the
“majority of the townspeople were on the plaza, a caval-
cade of horsemen rode up to the side entrance of the bank
building. © Bee

Hickok was merely curious,: He halted at the corner
of the jail and watched. There had been a light in the
bank building all the evening. ‘There were four of these
men who had arrived, and two of them bore heavy sad-
dlebags, which they removed from their horses when they
dismounted. : ae

It was plain that the party was expected, for a rap on
the side door of the bank brought somebody to that
portal, which was opened. The four passed within with

the bags. Hickok made it out to be a guarded messenger _

—or messengers—from a distance, with coin for the local
bank; or, it might be, the arrival was from some neighbor-_

be deposited for safety in Sefior Dejais’ bank.

Two of the men came out after a bit and rode away,
taking the other two horses with them. There chanced
to be no passers-by at the time; at least, nobody but
Hickok paid the least attention to these maneuvers. -And

ing mine and the bags contained gold dust, or bullion, to /

ry

iy

 

BILG WEEKLY, a

an hour slipped by. Then the whole town’s attention was

called to the bank of Senor Dejais! — ae le
Hickok was again at the corner of the jail building.
He had heard nothing from the bank, nor had he seen

anybody leave the building. There was still the half-

shrouded light inside. oy

Suddenly the air rocked with an explosion—aye, the
whole town seemed to rock! Hickok was thrown to
the ground. With a splintering crash, a big piece of the
side wall of the bank building was blown outward. into
the street and a flying chunk of the wall hit Wild Bill
such a blow that he lay down and went to sleep for the
next few moments.

When he aroused and scrambled to his feet, bleed-
ing like a stuck pig from the wound in his brow, the
natrow alley and the square before the bank were. full
of excited folk, The alcalde and all the principal men
were there. Sefior Enrique Dejais was very much in
evidence—he was watching over his vault, the door of
which had, fortunately, withstood the explosion.

The Mexicans chattered like parrakeéets. The robbers:
had failed and had ridden away at breakneck speed. Many

had seen them fly; many more had heard them.
The atcalde recognized the Americano as he staggered
into the building, his neckerchief tied about his head.
“There is indeed need of rounding up these brigands,
sefior,’ he cried to Hickok. “How bold this was! How
easily they might have blown the door from the vault——”
Hickok shot a keen: glance about this rear room of

‘the bank. The door of the vault was somewhat scratched
with tools, perhaps, but the explosion had not marred it,
It was the wall of the building—at the corner—that had —

suffered from the explosion. And the rear wall had a

gap blown in it, too:
“Where does that go to?” demanded the American,

pointing to this yawning hole. ne
“Into the rear part of the jail, sefior,” said one.
Instantly Hickok doubled up and darted through the

opening. He found a smoking lantern hanging from a ~

peg, and with it searched the jail thoroughly. There was
no sign of human inhabitant!

He came out into the bank room amid the chattering

throng. The alcalde was about to speak to him again,
but Wild Bill got to it first.

“You thundering fool!” the Americano yelled. “That
' gang didn’t: try to blow open the bank vault. They were.

after Silvernail—and, by the jumping horned toad, they
got him, too!” ea

CHAPTER TL
WILD BILL IN THE TOILS.

If he had thrown a giant cracker into a cage full of.
monkeys, Wild Bill would have got quite as much sense

out of the long-tailed bunch as he could out of those greas-
ers during..the next few minutes. And the alcalde: and
Sefior Dujais, the banker, were quite as excited as the
rest of them.

And, in addition, the American was not at all sure
that there wasn’t treachery afoot. Somebody had been
in that bank all the evening, and had let in without ques-
tion. the four men who had plainly wrecked the wall and
allowed Silvernail to escape.

“A. little more,.and they would have croaked me, too,
perhaps,” muttered Hickok. “It’s me for the tall timber.
These oilers are as treacherous as all get out, This very.
Seflor Dujais may be in cahoots with the bandits. From

_ private banker to brigand is, sometimes, only a step.”

He slipped. away from the chattering mob and found
his horse-in a shed beyond the jail. He had been uncon-
scious while the jail. breakers—and the prisoner—were
making their actual get-away, and did not know’ for sure
the direction they had taken. ay

“But, by gorry,” exploded Wild Bill, as he straddled
his steed again, “it’s dollars to the hole in a doughnut that

this yere Silvernail never went without making a play for ©

that silver-tailed horse of his!” ;
Hickok rode straight for the smithy on the outskirts

of the town, where he and Pawnee Bill-had captured the

man they believed was the bandit. This was in the direc-

tion of the Olando Trail,°a well-used highway through .

that part of Mexico.

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NEW BUF FALO

The smithy of Pedro Hojaré and the cottage Ole
side of it were deserted. The stable. and shed behind
needed no searching. Hickok saw the corral gate open
and was assured that the bay horse with the white tail
and mane had been removed. He got down and exam-
ined the ground, however, and was “surprised to discover
that there were few marks of hoofs, or of men’s feet,
near the gateway of the blacksmith’s corral.

It seemed as though the escaped prisoner must have
come to the place alone and ridden away without com-
panions. The marks of the bay charger’s | hoofs were the
only fresh ones in the trail.

‘lf they separated, all the better for me—and all the
worse for Brother Silvernail,’. grunted Hickok, mount-
ing into his saddle again. ‘It’s me for the dust of this
‘tarnal outlaw—for a spell, at least. Happenchance, it
seems to be aiming straight for the Olando Trail, and
Pawnee will bring “Cody ‘and the others back that way.
And won’t my report just about- make them sick? By
gorry!”

His mount was fresh, and he used the quirt unspar-
ingly for the first half hour; but then he halted to listen,
and could hear not the-faintest sound up themtrai, tt
the bandit—or his friends—had gone this way, they were
better mounted than Wild Bill. So he jogged on after
that at an easier pace.

He knew just enough of this country to be pretty sure
that Pawnee Bill would be obliged to bring their leader
over some part of the Olando Trail to reach this road to
Ciudad Sonora; therefore, when he reached the junction
of the two trails, he unsaddled, picketed his horse, and
camped in the open for the remainder of the night.

At daybreak there was not a sign of his friends on the
Olando Trail; indeed, he could not really expect them so
early. Pawnee Bill might be until noon. striking the
trail of Buffalo Bill and Nomad—and the whereabouts
of the baron and Little Cayuse had been a mystery to
the two Bills the day before, although they had “smoke-
talked” with the king of-scouts.

Being supplied with a light camp outfit, some jerked
beef prepared by old Nomad while they were all at the
rancho of -‘Sefior Junipe y Morada, across the river, and
some parched corn, Wild Bill made his own breakfast
beside the trail, where he could watch the road in three
directions. Being so much engaged in looking three ways,
however, he could not pay attention to the fourth—which
was behind him. Therefore, he was quite unprepared for
what happened to him.

f a sudden a sash or scarf was flung over his head,
drawn tight across his face, and tied, and he was jerked
backward to the ground, with another lashing been his
elbows together pretty near the small of his back!

He was helpless, although his feet were still free: but
he could not speak, nor could he reach either of his
guns. He could see, however, and he looked with surprise
into the faces of three Indians!

They were not of any breed that Wild Bill Hickok had
ever seen before.

“By gorry,” he thought,
down on this side of the big ditch!
Tl were It!’

The trio of savages were painted for war, and stripped
pretty close to what they had on when they were born.
He did not see that they bore firearms of any-kind, how-
ever, and they did not even take away the guns that swung

“they have new styles in Injuns
And it looks to me

at Bill Hickok’s belt.

They showed no,tenderness for their prisoner; one
kicked his little camp fire into a better blaze, while an-
other went to a near-by thorn bush and plucked a hand-
ful of sharp barbs some three or four inchés in length.

The quiet, businesslike way of them held Wild Bill’s
undivided attention. Unlike most of those aborigines with
whom he was more or less familiar, they did not seem

to be in the habit of saving prisoners for the torture.

They went right to work at the game, evidently intending
to have the fun all by their lonesome.

ey sorry, it won't be no fun for me—that’s sure?”
thought the Laramie man.

One, of the Indians ripped open the white man’s shirt
and bared his breast. With only a guttural grunt now
and then to each other, the other two kneeled down and
began the operation. oy

 

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PILL WEERTY 2 6 3

And it was no pleasant experience for Wild Bill. How-
ever, the immediate pain of having. the thorns stuck into
his flesh in a tasteful, if. not ornate, Indian scrollwork
pattern, was as nothing to the agony that was promised
when the thorns should be set afire.

So eager were the trio of red devils to bring the game
to its gayest state, that the third) man hovered around
with a lighted brand long before his brothers had finished
puncturing Wild Bill’s carcass with needlelike thorns. And
therefore Hickok got in the first good blow. He landed
the toe of his riding boot, as the third man bent over,
just where a certain prize fighter at a later date found his
opponent’s “solar plexus.” Mr. Injun doubled up like a
decrepit jack-in-the-box, and rolled completely through the
fire, suffering from some of the same pains that they had
hoped to inflict upon the white man.

The others set up echoing yells, leaping about the pros-
trate white in their rage; and one of the scoundrels began
kicking Hickok soundly in the ribs with his moccasined
foot. Wild Bill couldn’t. object, for his mouth was cov-
ered by the bandage; but he did his best to roll over ‘to
escape the kicks.

He had enraged the three Indians, and as he rolled
over he drove the thorns deeper into his own flesh. They
surely would not spare him now; but they did not kill
him at once, as the frontiersman. had almost hoped they
would. He saw no escape: from the torture, and that tor-
ture could only end in death. A quick end would be
preferable. :

CHAPTER Th
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE TWO SMART BOYS.

But just as the kicked Indian got his breath again, and
the two others stretched Wild Bill out to finish their game,
a fourth person appeared from the chaparral. But it,
was only another Indian!

Instantly, however, it was apparent that this fousth
Savage was a person of authority. He was young, rather
handsome, as copper-colored folk go, and spoke as though
he expected to be obeyed on the jump. -And it was cer-
tain that the trio who had started to have so much fun
with Wild Bill bowed to this newcomer’s directions with-
out question.

The scarf was removed from Wild Bill’s face, and his
features were the better revealed. Instantly the new-
comer, who swung/in his sash a revolver of American
make, began to berate his tribesmen volubly—for, al-
though Wild Bill could not understand a word of the
gibberish spoken, he knew what was meant by the tone
of the young chief’s voice, and by his actions.

With his own hands the chief unbound the Laramie
man, and then, as he would have risen, he pushed him
gently back upon the ground and as easily: as possible
drew. the thorns from his flesh. Hickok’s breast was a
sight; but the smart was all that was serious about it.

“You're an all-right hombre,” grunted the American, :
as the young chief ministered to “his wounds by smear-
ing upon them the healing salve which every Indian carries
in his pouch..

Ley ou Americano,”
ping his breast, he added:

said the young chief. Then, tap-
“Me Xuku—ime friend Pa-

e- has- ka. You ‘sabby Pa-e-has-ka?”

“Bet your sweet life I do!” cried Hickok. “Where
is Buffalo Bill? You see Pa-e-has-ka hoy? Sabby?”

“Si; esta manana,’ declared the Indian, nodding em-
phatically,

“Where?”

a pointed to the south, along the Olando Trail, and
‘Sai

“Los Touvas. Pa-e-has-ka, him there temprano.”

“Bully for you!” cried Wild Bill, getting to his feet
and pinning his torn shirt together over his wounded
chest. “And do you know if Pawnee got to him?”

This query was beyond Xuku’s comprehension; but then
Hickok reverted to the sign language—some form of
which every wild tribe knows. After a little he learned
that just at sunup a lon@ American had joined Buffalo
Bill, and the Laramie man was convinced that this must
be his partner, Pawnee Bill. Then he likewise made out
that the only plain trail from this place, Las Touvas, to the
junction of the Ciudad Sonora trail with the Olando stage
road was by the latter highway.

ABR. ek mts Me oma

 
  

NEW BUFFALO

“Bueno! Then it’s me for this trail—and I'll hit it

now,” thought Wild Bill, “before this Xuku Indian changes
his mind!”
_ Therefore he saddled his horse, shook hands with
the young. chieftain of the Yaquis, and galloped down
the stage road. He was mighty sore, and the hard rid-
ing shook him up a good deal, but he felt safer away
irom those redskins than he did in their immediate neigh-
borhood. He had seldom come so near going to the
happy hunting grounds by the torture route!

It was past noon when a balloon of dust in the distance

announced the coming of a cavalcade of riders—and they -

were coming fast. Wild Bill pulled off the trail and
waited for the party to be revealed to him. When he
finally saw a pair of long, mouse-colored ears wagging
through the dust cloud, and in the forefront of the caval-
cade, the Laramie man could have no doubt, at feast,
of the presence of Toofer in the party. And where
Toofer went, the Baron Villum von Schnitzenhauser was
bound to go also—if he could.

There was no doubt of the baron’s presence, for an
eruption of “delicatessen” English, of the true Schnitzen-
hauser brand, came from somewhere back of the mule’s
ears;

“Ach, himmelblitzen! Idt vos so-o! JI haf:nod hat
dime to schleeps, aber I ged de’ chancet I schleeps me
a veek, yedt! Schust you vaid und see,’ Pawnee. [|
dr-ravel all lasd night to dell Puffalo. Pill dot de oltest
Smar-rt poy he gome home to San Enrife, to de house
of de Perfessor Cralé; und now ve ride avay to dis blace
where you and Vild Pill ketch de Silvernail bandid—aind’t
idt? Vot chancet haf I vor sleebin’ yedt?”

“You could have remained at Marengo, at the foot
of the mountain,” Pawnee Bill said, with a laugh.

“Und miss seein’ dot Silvernail triet und hung—nix!”
cried the baron excitedly.

Just then the head of the procession came opposite
Wild Bill, and he spurred out into the trail to confront
his friends.

“Hi, hombres!” he: cried. “If you're going to the
hanging of that ornery Silvernail, you got another guess
comin’—and that’s no dream!”

“Vild Pill, or I’m a Dutchman!” gasped the baron,
jerking on Toofer’s bit till he managed to stop the mule.

The compadres were all there—Bugalo Bill himself,
Little Cayuse, old Nomad, as well as Pawnee and the
baron. The report of the release from jail of the famous
bandit and his escape from Ciudad Sonora was counted
by all as a disaster. Buffalo Bill and his comrades had
been sent across the border to round up. the numerous
outlaws infesting the territory, and the capture of the
famous Silvernail had been a matter for rejoicing.

The border king took the announcement of the bandit’s
escape composedly, however. While the others were ex-
pressing ‘their disappointment and anger, he drew Wild
Bill aside and got the particulars. He learned, too, of
the Laramie man’s holdup by the Yaquis and his rescue
by Xuku, who had been Buffalo Bill’s guide across the
country from San Enrife the night before.

“Lucky we made a friend of that Yaqui,’ said Cody.
“T believe that the greasers are going to have trouble
from that quarter. There will be a general uprising.”

“And, holy smelts!” groaned Wild Bill. “They’re some
Injuns! Their taste in the line of torture needs no train-
ing from the Apaches across the boundary.”

_. “You are right there, old pard,” said Pawnee.
in bad shape.”

“T ean ride yet.
the Laramie man.

“We certainly shan’t go to Ciudad Sonora at present,”
returned the scout. thoughtfully. “Silvernail will fight
shy of that place.”

He remained thoughtful for some moments, and then’
turned to Little Cayuse, asking:

“How_about it, boy? Can you take the back track
to Pen, Enrife that we came through with that Yaqui last
night?’
The Piute nodded emphatically.

“Cayuse can... He sabby trail.
Cayuse go.”

“We're all going,” grunted Buffalo Bill, with decision.
“There may be something due.to happen in San Enrife

“You're

Where are we going now?” demanded

Pa-e-has-ka say so,

BILL WEEKLY.

yet. Professor Cralé telegraphed for rurales to be sent

- there, and he has gone home by way of the death mesa

—the old felow is more interested in that oil well his
men struck there, the gas fumes from which killed three
of them, than in anything else. For a noncombatant, the
professor has ’em all skinned alive on courage.”

“Hasn’t he, though!’ cried Pawnee Bill. “Why, he
never showed the white feather for a moment when he
was shooting down that flume with me in the ore box
—though I'll tell you the fact, hombres, I scarcely ex-
pected to get to the bottom alive !”*

“Take the lead, Cayuse,” ordered the .king of scouts,
and the party rode on. While the others were full of
talk and chaff, Buffalo Bill did a little serious thinking.
There had been a thread of mystery running through the
work of the last few days, like the red string in the rig-
ging ropes and hawsers of the old British naval vessels.

Before crossing the Rio Grande to beat up the coverts
of these border bandits, and while still the party were
the guests of Sefior Luis Junipe y Morada, the king of
scouts had been interested in the young nephew of the
Senior Junipe, Rawdon Smart. But more than that, he
had become interested in the story of Clifford Smart, the
older brother of Rawdon, who was a fugitive from the

‘courts of Texas.

Some years before, Clifford Smart had unfortunately
killed'a man over a card game. The victim of the affair
was a notorious gambler, and was said to have been caught
cheating over the pasteboards; nevertheless, the law would
have laid its heavy hand upon the shoulder of Clifford
Smart had he not fled the country. In his passion he had
killed his enemy, and, whatever the cause may have been,
he was in fact a murderer.

While Buffalo Bill and his companions were at~ the
Junipe Rancho, a blacksmith working for the sefior was
murdered in his shop. The crime was attributed to Silver-
nail, and the scout and his friends had attempted to over-
take the murderer; but they were unsuccessful.

The night before the Americans started on this pres-
ent bandit hunt below the Rio Grande, Sefior Junipe,
in much trouble of spirit, had come secretly to Buffalo
Bill and showed to him a beautifully painted miniature
of the mother of his two nephews, in a diamond-set fraine,
and stated that he had picked the miniature up in the
blacksmith shop directly after the discovery of the smith’s
murder.

The sorely troubled old man told the scout that at first
the finding of the miniature had made him believe that
young Rawdon Smart knew more of the killing of Pas-
quale, the smith, than he was willing to tell, for he knew
the boy wore just such a talisman. Rawdon had dis-
played his picture of his mother, however, and told his
uncle that the only other miniature like it had been in
the possession of his brother Clifford.

That being a fact, how had this miniature come to be
lying on the floor of poor Pasquale’s shop?

Clifford had not been across the Rio Grande—or so
it was believed—for years. Rawdon was now eager to
go with the American scout and his friends, because they
had made San Enrife a rendezvous, and it was at San
Enrife that Clifford Smart was supposed to be engaged
then in assisting a Mexican scientist, Professor Cralé.
Sefior Junipe was almost afraid to allow Rawdon to meet
his brother, because of the unwelcome suspicion that had
entered his mind regarding that lost miniature.

However, it had been finally agreed between the old
gentleman and Buffalo Bill that the boy was to go, was
to be watched over by the scout, and that Clifford Smart
was to be examined by the scout regarding the second
miniature. Indeed, the scout carried the precious token
in a pouch under his own shirt and hoped to have a séance
with the exiled young man before leaving Rawdon as his
brother’s companion.

Exciting incidents happening in and near San Enrife
had rather sidetracked Buffalo. Bill’s original plans. It
had been necessary for the scout and his friends to make
their stay in that village very brief, and at the time Clif-
ford Smart, as well as his employer, was away from
home. The scout had learned several things, however,

 

*See New BuFFrato Birt : 9 “Buffalo Bill
Across the Rio Grande.” WEEKLY, No. 272, B

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
    

   

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. Clifford Smart, the mysterious.

will probably be back shortly.

which had lent color to the suspicion gradually growing
in his mind that the assistant of the famous Professor
Cralé and the bandit Silvernail were one and the same
person!

When the report had been brought to. him that Sil-
vernail was captured by Pawnee Bill and Wild Bill at
Ciudad Sonora, and almost simultaneously—and this by
the baron—that Clifford Smart had returned to San En-

rife, the king of scouts had been forced to believe, with’

huge satisfaction, that his suspicion was unfounded.

Now, however, the matter was again in an undigested
state. The notorious bandit had escaped from the jail
at Ciudad Sonora the evening previous; whereas Clifford
Smart had only returned to San Enrife at sunrise this
very morning. A swift horse could have made the jour-
ney between Ciudad Sonora and San Enrife, if its rider
knew the blind trails through the wilderness!

It was these facts, therefore, that had set Buffalo Bill
upon the road back to San Enrife. He felt that the
matter must be settled immediately—and not alone for
his own peace of mind. If Clifford Smart was an out-
law, his young brother--who was a high-tempered and
imaginative youth himself—must not be left an hour
under Clifford’s influence. And, too, if Clifford Smart
was an outlaw, having committed crimes on both sides
of the big river, he must be apprehended and brought to
punishment !

These were the serious thoughts in Buffalo Bill’s mind
as the cavalcade rode on. Little Cayuse, with that extra
sense which is the possession of the American Indians
of all tribes, seemed fairly to smell out the trails. over
which the savage Yaqui had brought them during the
night. . Before sunset they came to the valley in which
San Enrife lay, surrounded by its great fields of maize
and beans.

When last Buffalo Bill had seen the little town, it had
been seething with riot like a vat of small beer; but
Father Josefo, the little priest, had returned, and threat
of the wrath of the church had sent most of the Mexi-
cans scurrying to their homes. There was no mob now
before the casa of Professor Cralé. Nevertheless, when
the party rode up to the gateway, the king of scouts was
astonished.

Mojé, the Indian maid who served the professot’s
daughter, Seforita Maria, opened the gate and giggled
a welcome to the amorous baron—who had been delighted
to return to press his suit for her hand—but nobody else
Was in evidence.

“The sefiorita?” demanded Buffalo Bill, before he dis-
mounted.

“Is within, sefior,
declared the maid.

Therefore, while his friends rode around to the rear
courtyard to feed and care for the horses, the king of
scouts entered the house and presented himself before
the lovely girl, who, he understood, was affanced to

and will gladly see you at once,’

“The -brothers are here?’ ejaculated Buffalo Bill.
“Surely they have not deserted you, Sefiorita: Maria?”

“Oh, we need no guard now. Little Father Josefo is
guard enough.’ And the girl laughed.

But Cody thought that the laugh was not natural. There
seemed to be anxiety in both her face and voice. ©

“Where has Rawdon gone?” demanded the scout.

“He rode away with his brother.”

“And where has his brother gone?”

“Why, really, Colonel Cody, I could scarcely say. They
Some little matter of
business called Sefior Smart out of town again, and his
brother begged to ride with him.”

The reply troubled Buffalo Bill greatly, and his keen
a tried to read the girl’s features as he sat silent before

er.

CHAPTER IV,
A NUT TO CRACK.

“My dear Sefiorita Cralé, I wish to be your friend,”
said the scout at last.

_Why—surely—Sefior Cody has already put me under
sufficient obligation,” she stammered. “You and your
friends fought for me——”’

NEW BUFFALO

IEE ulead raphe

     

BILL WEEKLY. 5

“Pshaw! That was nothing, possibly, to what I -may
be able to do for you in the future,” he said crisply.

“But—but-——”

“Beating off a few ignorant villagers is a small matter

“No, no! That Juan Caseano, the dwarf, is as vicious
a man as ever lived in San. Enrife. He would have
had my life had you and your friends not beaten off
the mob,” declared the professor’s daughter. “Juan, of
them all, has not dared return to the willage, I understand.
He is a bad man,

But Buffalo Bill would not: be led away from the sub-
ject he proposed to discuss. He pinned her right down -
to it now:

“We will let Juan Caseano pass—and all the other!
Johns. I want you to be frank with me, sefiorita.”

“About what °” she breathed.

“Tell me,’ he said bluntly,
Clifford Smart?”

The girl half rose from her seat, but sank back again,
too stricken to, stand. Her dark and usually glowing face
was pale; her eyes wide open with fear; and her lips,
when finally she spoke, trembled visibly.
_ “T do not understand you, Sefior Cody.
what you mean,’

The lie could be forgiveny for it was on delicate ground
that Buffalo Bill was treading—and well he knew. it.
But he believed that his duty called him to interrogate
the girl, and he did it with the feeling that a surgeon must
have when he operates for the life of a patient.

“Do you know anything of Clifford Smart’s past life?”
demanded the scout, kindly yet firmly.

“You—you mean———”

“Exactly. Of his life before he came into your life.”

“Before he came to work for my father ?”

\ “Previous to his residence in Mexico, yes.” f

“He—he has told me all,” she said, her graceful head:
sinking upon her breast. 5

‘Are you sure you know all?’

“We are to be married, Sefior Cody!” cried the girl,
with a little flash of anger. “LT am not a child... Yes-he
Caner: of the man he shot down.”

ba i

“T do not condone his fault—aye, his crime!” cried the
girl. “But I believe he is truly remorseful. Are you
hounding him for that?”

“Tam not hounding him at all.”

“But you afe suspicious of him,”

“And you?” suggested the scout pointedly.

“The girl suddenly wrung her hands, and the tears
streamed from her eyes.

“Madre de Dios!’ she sobbed.
to think.”

“Why has he gone away so suddenly—and so soon
aiter his return this morning?” asked the scout.

“He said——”

“That does not exactly answer my question,”
posed Buffalo Bill, but smiling kindly upon her.
not wish to know the excuse he gave;
you think he went away.’

“Oh; Sefior Cody, you are so hard!’ wailed the girl.
“TI believe he went so hurriedly because he feared
you would return.”

“Just as I supposed. And why should he fear me if
he is not guilty-——”

“But he is guilty!” she cried. ‘“‘We both know it. I told
you that he has confessed all to me.”

“Humph!” returned Cody slowly. “You mean he has
told you all about the shooting of Snip Rogers, some
years ago! ey

‘St, sefior.”

“But that should not make him fear to meet me,” re-
turned the scout gravely. “Don’t you see? [ could not
touch him for that crime. He is-in. Mexico, I have no
warrant, and at the time the crime was committed there
was no extradition treaty -between Mexico and the
States.”

She looked at him wonderingly. “Then, oh, why is
he so troubled by your presence here?” she cried. 2

Buffalo Bill had proved his suspicions. Clifford Smart
had deliberately left San Enrife so as to escape any meet-
ing with the scout—that was plain enough,

“what you fear regarding

I do not know

“T do not know what

inter-
eh do
but tell me why
\

6 2 Z ‘ :

NEW BUFFALO

< Lido) not wnderstand it: Tt is’ a hard nut to. crack,
I admit to you, sefiorita,” said the scout. “But what wor-
ries me more than aught else is the fact that he has
taken young Rawdon away with him, for the boy is really
in my care and I am answerable to his uncle, Sefior
Junipe y Morada, for him.” :

Buffalo Bill’s anxiety was deep-rooted, although his
suspicions of Clifford Smart were so intangible. He
feared the elder brother’s influence over the high-strung,
couragous Rawdon.

CHAPTER V.
THE MAIL ROBBERY. _

_The National Railroad of Mexico connects with the
Southern Pacific at El Paso, Texas, and that junction
was a long way from San Enrife, the little town where
Buffalo Bill and his companions were at the moment
located. But the Mexican National—scarcely completed
at that time—ran south through Chihuahua State, and its
route lay within a sharp two days’ ride of the Olando
Trail on which Silvernail, the bandit, was so prone to
appear. ;

A fast mail train, going south, halted briefly at the
little station of Del Norte di Bois. This was not a
stopping place; but the time was early evening, and there
was a red lamp setting between the rails just beyond the
station.

With much profanity the engineer brought the loco-
motive to a panting stop with the pilot almost touching
the red lamp. Nobody appeared about the little station,
and there was only a handful of adobe houses in sight.
A figure ran out from the gloom beside the roadbed and
snatched up the red light, then disappeared.

The engineer cursed the forgetfulness of the station
master at Del Norte di Bois, all his works and ways, and
his latter end! Meanwhile, he put up the speed again
and the train, which had merely hesitated, thundered away
into the south and into the night.

The second car from the tender was the mail car.
The narrow front platform of that coach and the back
platform of the baggage coach ahead were dark. Un-
known to the train crew, when it had pulled down so
abruptly at Del Norte di Bois, two figures had flitted
out of the darkness on the side opposite the lighted sta-
tion, and crept up the steps between the mail and bag-
gage cars.

There was a single-paned window in the door of the
baggage car, and, although little light came through it,
anybody might see out upon the narrow platforms, es-
pecially if the door of the mail car chanced to be opened.

he two men who had crept upon the platform were
masked with black cambric sacks that passed over their
heads-and flowed upon their shoulders. In the starched
fronts of these bags narrow slits had been cut for the
eyes to peer through—that was all. A more effectual
mask could not be imagined.

Now the smaller man of the two produced a piece of
black cambric and a box of glue. He touched the four
corners of the oblong piece of cloth with the glue, and
so spread it softly and smoothly across the window in
the door of the baggage car. If one looked through that
window, or tried to, he would see nothing but darkness
~-supposedly the darkness of the night. If the door across
the platform was opened, anybody in the baggage car
would be none the wiser.

Instantly the taller man upon the platform forced the

point of a jimmy into the crevice of the sliding door of
the mail car right beside the lock. Having got it into
place, he beckoned the smaller’ man to take hold with
both hands and prepare to swing out upon the bar, his
back to the open steps of the car, for this was long before
the era of vestibuled trains.
_ The taller man prepared to throw his weight against
the bar as well. As they stood, the little man would
almost be sure to be flung backward down the steps of
the rapidly running car, if the lock burst, or the jimmy,
for any other reason, gave suddenly.

But the small man wore a broad leather belt about
his waist, and to it was attached a shorter strip of leather,
with a hook in the end. This hook he fastened over
the brake whecl, so that, when he swung back, the con-

BILL WEEKLY.

nection of the taut leather to his belt would hold him
from falling down the steps.

A grunt from the bigger man, as he forced. himself
forward; the little man threw his weight back. The
door splintered all about the lock. Another jab of the
bar into place, and another struggle, and back rolled the
door!

The small man would surely have toppled over and
fallen off the train had his leather and hook not held.
For the taller robber paid him not-the slightest attention.

The moment the door sprang. back in its groove, he
dropped the bar, tore the sliding door wider open, and
leaped into the lighted mail car. Like magic a gun had
appeared in either hand. The two mail clerks, amazed
by the splitting open of the door while the train was
running at such speed, had not time to grasp their guns,

“Hands up, sefiores!” shouted the man in the mask,
and upon the tail of the words he fired a single shot
at the nearest clerk. The builet struck the unfortunate
fellow in the mouth, and blood sprouted from the wound.
The villain had not waited for his victim to obey.

The second clerk stood on tiptoe, the higher to hold
his hands. The shorter robber remained on the plat-
form, guns out, and watching alternately the door of
the baggage car and the whole length of the lighted mail
coach. If anybody opened the rear door of the latter
car, the littlke man on the front platform could easily
have shot, such a yenturesome person down while his
companion held the two mail clerks at bay.

Indeed, the wounded clerk was already collapsing when
the taller robber commanded the other clerk to grab his
friend and drag him into a closet. There the mail robber
turned the key on both clerks, and then proceeded to go
through the registered-mail pouches, slitting open with
his knife such bags as were locked.

He stuffed a black cloth bag that he had brought with
him with the packages and letters which he had reason
to believe contained money. This he finally tossed to his
confederate, who immediately put up his own guns and
slipped down on the lower step of the mail car, prepara-
tory to getting off.

They were running through a black forest—as black
as midnight; but the robbers must have had some means
of knowing just where they were, for they waited some
moments, the taller man staring ahead, his neck craned
out beyond the side of the car, until he saw some land-
mark known to him. He was in this position—the lower
part of his body revealed in the light from the mail car
—when the conductor, chancing to come through from the
rear of the train, opened the other mail-car door with his
key. He beheld the open front door and the figure of
the principal robber.

He saw the velvet trousers, flaring wide at the bot-
toms, and all trimmed with bullion cord and silver but-
tons up and down the legs. The jacket, such as he saw
of it, was likewise ornamented with silver gewgaws.

Then he saw the man spring back, reach a hand for
the bell cord and pull it twice. ‘

_ “Here! What's that for?” yelled the conductor, charg-
ing into the car.

The locomotive engineer, however, had answered the
signal. with a single toot of his whistle, and the brakes
already bit upon the wheels. While he ran, the conl-
ductor tried to draw a gun from his hip pocket—where it
was about as much use to him as a last year’s bird’s nest!

Before his fingers more than clutched the handle of
the pistol, the man who had pulled the bell cord put his
masked face around the angle of the doorway and let
drive with one of his own guns. The conductor plunged
forward on his knees, and the blood spurted from his
mouth, but the wound was much more serious than that
of the mail clerk. The robber’s bullet had torn through
the unfortunate conductor’s right lung, and before the
train came to a slow pace the man was dead, with the
blood still pumping from his lips.

The train did not really halt; as it pulled down the
murderer reached and again signaled the engineer by
the bell cord, this time for “full speed ahead.” The
locomotive jerked the string of cars faster. The two
robbers dropped off safely and disappeared instantly in
the darkness as the lighted cars swept by. Several miles
beyond, the baggage master, going back, found the cut-

 
    

  

 

  

ts
‘i

 

 

 

been flung off, too.

-chuckled Pawnee,

NEW BUPI

 

tain pasted over the window of the rear door, and. know-
ing that something was wrong, he opened the ‘door and
beheld the looted mail car, and the dead conductor on
the Hoor.

There was the station of Parabeaua just ahead, and
the express was bound to stop there. Mail should have
The baggageman and forward brake-
man rescued the two clerks from the closet, and the
wounded man was taken off at Parabeaua, while the blood

_ and torn papers were cleared up from the floor of the

mail car, and the single clerk went back to his work .of

| sorting mail, and the train rushed on into the south again.

The two robbers, who had probably obtained several
thousand dollars in cash, were miles away, and neither

| the railroad officials at Parabeana, nor the rurales,. seemed

to consider it their duty or desire to pursue the bold
rascals.

CHAPTER Vi.

A COLD TRAIL.

”

“It’s a peg above me, necarnis,” said Pawnee Bill, when
the king of scouts took the bowie man into his confidence
regarding the mystery of Clifford Smart. ‘As far as 1
can learn from the Indian girl, Mojé, this assistant. of
the old scientific sharp don’t own a bay horse with white
tail and mane,” .

‘He; of course, -has Paredeeatae ais Silvernail,” re-
turned. Buffalo Bill thoughtfully. “The old professor—
or the girl—are-not in. en any crooked game.”

“On-she-ma-da! I should say not!” declared Pawnee,
with decision. /‘That innocent old guy who took the
ride down the flume with me has got a nose for science,
and that’s all.. If the young fellow is crooked, the Cralés
don’t know. it.”

“My belief, exactly,” agreed Buffalo Bill. “That's why
J am so sorry for the seiorita—if the fellow is really an
outlaw.”

“And you really haven't anything but suspicion to back
you in that belief; necarnis,’”’ said) Pawnee.

“Quite right. Clifford Smart may really have business
that calls him away from here so frequently. The baron
says that Clifford told him he had once been held up and
robbed by this Silvernail. That would account: for his
not having this picture of his mother in his possession at
present.” “And Buffalo Bill tapped his breast pocket where
the miniature safely lay.

“Sure, Pard Cody; but it. might have been told just
to throw dust in the eyes of us—sure! He may stspect
that the lost picture has been found.”

“More than likely Rawdon told him of it.”

_Keno! {

“And I am worried that young Rawdon should be in
his company as long as this suspicion hangs over the
elder Smart,” declared Buffalo Bill, “And I tell you what
lam going to do, Pawnee.’
“Shout it, pard—shout it!”

“We will divide forces again,
to send you alone, Pawnee.

WI hat I} Ido, necarnis?”
man, “Just put words to it.”

“You .will ride the border—ride it from the bottom
of the Big Bend as far up the river as El Paso. Get
amiltar with the people, with the traders, w ith the smug-
rlers, even; and particularly, if you can ‘fall in with any
bunch of cattle thieves or other outlaws who work with

?

but this time I am going

demanded the willing bowie

a0) ih

pot

Silvernail, so mutch the better.”

“You mean for me to join with such a bunch?”

“If you can—and without raising their suspicion,’
mitted Buffalo Bill.

Pawnee chuckled. “I’m to be the wooden duck floating
abead of the gun-cover, vehi Pt

“Something like that,” returned the king of scouts. .

“And how will I communicate with you?”

“You won't. Keep out of trouble, if you can, but make
a name for yourself as a border rider. You'll know us
when we get busy—and we'll be busy soon, you can bet.”

“Suppose I take this Silvernail alone, necarnis?”
in high fettle because of the danger
and daring of the scheme Buffalo Bill had mapped out
for him.

alt you do, wate it. will be one oF the best things you

Pade

 

FALO

BO CAS hele fT RO

 

BILL WEEKLY.

ever did,” declared the king of scouts, wringing his friend’s
hand.

Pawnee Bill rode away that next. morning, and the
remainder of, the party, all save ‘the baron, was not far
benind the bowie man in leaving the house of Professor
Cralé and San Enrife.

Because of the baron’s assumption of innocence, and
the fact that most people were bound to take him for
a fool, Buffalo Bill considered him the best one to leave
here to watch events. As long as Wild Bill’ or Pawnee
Bill was about the casa of the professor, Buffalo Bill
could not expect Clifford Smart—if he were the mys-
terious Silvernail—to show up, for both the Bills had
observed the outlaw keenly and closely. The baron had
not, however, been able to give a sufficiently intelligent
description of Clifford Smart to identify him with the
man the two Bills had captured at Ciudad Sonora.

The baron was not altogether loath to remain at San
Enrife. He had a really desperate flirtation under way
with Mojé, Sefiorita Maria’s maid. . Mojé giggled at the
pink-cheeked baron and said: HFleem owful funny mans!”
Nevertheless, it was noticeable that she put on ali her
finery for him, wore red ribbons and silver ornaments in
her hair, and every’ moment she could spare from her
duties she put herself in the baron’s way.

In riding out of San Enrife the famous scout and his
cavalcade met the good priest, Father Josefo, as he was
coming from a sick parishioner.

“Sefior Buffelo Beel,” said the little man, in tolerable
English, “I. would. thank you—and your brave cabal-
leros—for helping my good friend, Professor Cralé’s
daughter, and for the restraint you lay upon yourselves
in handleeng. these poor, ignorant people of mine when
they would have attacked the sefiorita. They have learned
now, sefior, that the terrible tragedy on the mesa above
was a mysterious act of nature, and not attributable to
the hand of man. You see, they are at peace again—all
but that vagrant Juan Caseano! Ah, he is a trouble
indeed !”

“What has become of the dwarf?” asked Buffalo Bill,
with interest.

“Por Dios! .That I could not say,” declared the priest,
wageing his head under its shovel-shaped hat. “But he
will come to the bad end—mark me that, sefor!”

“He’ Tl come to a bad end ef ever I meet up wi? him
again,’ growled old Nomad, as the troop rode on after
saluting Father Josefo. “Thet thar leetle Mexican John
is sure a bad aig.”

“He’s all of that, old man,” agreed Wild Bill. ‘Prom
what you-all have told I judge this Juan Caseano person
to be more kinds of uselessness than you can shake a
SHCK at.

Buffalo Bill did not consider it wise to institute any
further inquiries regarding the course followed by the
missing Smart. boys—especially among. the rancheros
around “San Enrife. He did not know who might be
Clifford Smart’s friends—aye, who might be Silvernail,
the bandit’s, friends! And, if his suspicions should. in
the end. prove wrong, the wily scout did not wish to in-
spire others with his own. doubts.

He could trust his friends and companions; yet old
Nomad and Little Cayuse, the Piute boy, and even. Wild
Bill Hickok himself, did not entirely understand. what
their chief was aiming at.

This chasing around. the country seemed to ‘them: only
aimed at the discovery, and—if possible—arrest of such
outlaws as fell into their clutchees. Thus far other ad-
ventures had taken preéminence on this side of the Rio
Grande Del Norte. From now on the king of scouts
kept his force together, and they rode hard, up and
down the trails, to and from distant ranchos, and all on
the chance of coming upon some of the bandits of the
border country whom they-had heard were so bold.

But news of the presence of the Americanos had eyvi-
dently gone abroad from San Enrife, as well as from
Ciudad Sonora, where Pawnee and Wild. Bill had cap-
tured the supposed Silvernail. Now Buffalo Bill rode.
west and north of the Olando Trail, and so, in the early
morning of the third day, came into the railroad town
of Parabeaua,

The people of Parabeaua were wildly excited; there
had that napyeiee in the night which set most folks by

i

Fo6S 82 BS EA OD

 

  

    
      
 

  

8 . NEW BUFFALO

the ears this morning. There were groups of chatter-.
ing Mexicans in the streets and at the drink shops. The
principal posada was crowded; the market on the plaza
was more noisy than. businesslike, while about the rail-
way station lingered a curious crowd.

Not far from the railway. was the casa of Doctor
Mogelian, and a rurale stood here to warn the excited
people away. There was a wounded man inside the good
physician’s house. He had been brought there from the
train. before midnight. Buffalo Bill and his companions
heard the story long before they galloped up to the
railway station, and later rode to Doctor Mogelian’s
door. : Le
The mail car on the evening express to the south had
been robbed.. The details were as varied as the number
of the men who had eagerly discussed the incident with
the Americanos. They had run the gamut from a lone
highwayman to a band of fifty in these stories; Buffalo
Bill and his friends had no idea of the real facts‘/in the
case until they reached the physician’s house.

There the scout had his friends await him while he

insisted upon seeing the physician. Finally the rurale
called the doctor out. He was a little man, with the
alert, brisk manner of a bird, and he shook hands with
Buffalo Bill and welcomed him in English.
- “Eet ees to you, Sefior Cody, that we may look for
somé help to punish these villains,” he cried, ushering
the scout into his office. “Pah! these constables of ours
—pooh! they are as nothing. Besides, there are too few
of them—far, far too few,.sefior. Now the outlaws be-
come bolder and bolder; they come far south in their
raids. Look you to last night’s beezness.”’

“And what happened?” queried the scout, interested. -

Very clearly, as he had heard it from the uninjured
mail clerk at the station, while the express train had yet
delayed, the doctor repeated the account of the bold
robbery. The details were exact—as far as they went.
Buffalo Bill obtained a good account of the methods—and
work—of the two -train.robbers.. Any description of the
two villains was not. forthcoming, however; the little
doctor had not. gone into.that particular with the mail.
clerk who had gone on, while. the wounded man now in
his care could not speak. sn

“Is he dangerously ill, doctor?” asked Buffalo Bill,
with anxiety. :

“He is seriously hurt—but not necessarily in danger.
We have found the bullet; he lost two teeth; he was shot.
in the mouth.” ;

“Ah! that is why he cannot speak?”

“St, senor!”

“Can. he understand questions, and can he write?”
eagerly. demanded the American scout.

“Sure—surely, Sefior Cody—in moderation.”

The scout explained quickly what he desired. He
wanted as clear an account as the wounded man could
give of the personal appearance of the two men.

“But they were masked, my friend—both of them,”
cried the doctor.

“Their clothing—especially that of the larger man—
the man who did the shooting. Particularly his dress,”
urged Buffalo Bill, and then he waited impatiently for
the doctor to go in to his patient, question him, and bring
out the written reply. ’

It was written in English, and it was evident that the
wounded mail clerk had powers of observation beyond
the ordinary—which was only to be expected considering
his business! He wrote:

“There were two robbers; one, the smaller man, being
entirely under the direction of the leader... The latter
was tall and slender, quick of movement, and graceful:
I watched him carefully until he shut us in closet; I was
not senseless at any time until I fainted from loss of
blood in closet. He wore gold spurs with long rowels
of steel—wheel rowels. -He was dressed like a rich
Mexican caballero; his ‘pants flared at the bottom, and_
were trimmed heavily with silver.. The jacket likewise.
His linen was of fine quality. He wore two handsome
guns, and in front of him, Americayg style. His sash
was of fine silk, and was arranged to partly hide his
loaded cartridge belt. His hat was high in the crown,
and loaded with silver braid, or chains. His‘hands. and -
feet were small, the former having long, dexterous fingers, —

Bil  WEERE ¥

: . The other man was. shorter and slighter, and did
not speak. He remained upon the half-lighted platform,
and I could not tell how dressed.” ~~

The particulars of the principal robber’s dress led Buf-
falo Bill to believe that Silvernail had left. the Olando
Trail and had turned his attention to ‘another branch
of the profession; but, more than that, the brief de-
scription of the second robber unfortunately fitted the
terrible-suspicions that the scout held regarding Clifford
and Rawdon Smart. These mail robbers might be the
two brothers, as far as the description went. At least,
if the elder Smart were the famous Silvernail, and had
engineered the murderous attack on the train, ‘young
Rawdon fitted the description of the second robber!

Buffalo Bill came out of the doctor’s house and swung
into his saddle. His face was set grimly, and the lines
of determination in it assured each of his companions that
_there would be “something doing.” 2

Twenty-five miles—or thereabout—above Parabeaua,
the two mail robbers had left the train after rifling the
registered. mail bags. - That is where the trail began.
It was a cold one, at this distance’ and time, but the fa-
mous scout had made up his mind that he would find it,
stick to it, and that wherever it led he would follow till
he had run his cunning—and dangerous—quarry to earth!

CHAPTER VII.
THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN.

.The details of where the two. robbers had left the ex-
press train, Buffalo Bill had received from not only the
docter, but from the railroad men at. the’ Parabeaua
station—and they hit it within five miles. From a greaser
trackwalker the scout finally got the exact facts—and saw
the steep sidehill of sand into which both men had jumped.

The robbers had doubtless laid their plans’ carefully.
They had. known just where they were when they left
the train. They had timed their act carefully, for not
many rods from the sidehill of sand, old: Nomad found the
spot where the horses had been. tied to await the com-
ing of the mail robbers. :

“Them hawse hoofs tells me thet th’ trail is nigh a day
old,’ declared the trapper. “But they foller a course
yander through sloppy ground. They warn’t expectin’ ter
be follered at all, I reckon.”

‘Good chance has put us on the trail, cold as it is,” said
Buffalo Bill. “But we'll stick it out if we can. And
u ie we'll beat up this whole country for the scoun-

rels,

With such trailers as old Nomad and Little Cayuse,
the party could not go far wrong, even on as ancient a
spoor as this of the two escaping mail-train robbers.
Besides, for miles the robbers had made no attempt to
hide the trail, and it was only the fact that they finally
reached a hard-beaten path that made the footprints hard
to. follow.

Their course swung around toward the Olando Trail,
and nearer to the great river. For this reason, if for
no other, Buffalo Bill was more and more inclined to
believe that the larger of the two train robbers was the
king-pin bandit of the border, Silvernail>

They asked no questions of the stray Mexican whom
they occasionally passed; but having reached this beaten

_ highway, which seemed to head for the river, they were

fain to drop a query here and there regarding two riders
who might have rapidly passed that way within the pre-
vious twenty hours. At one rancho, however, they struck
a quite foreign, but interesting, bit of news.

The boss of the outfit was a wrinkled old Mexican who
was evidently shrewd and far-seeing. He welcomed the
American scout and his party, and insisted that they share
the family dinner of beans and coffee. —

“The: sefiores I have heard much of,” he declared.
“You are the br-rave Americanos who have come here
to drive off-the brigands that infest our country. It
is to you we must look for help; our own rurales are
inadequate. The border riders laugh at them.” “

“Are you often troubled by these bandits, old man?
queried Buffalo. Bill. ;

“Caramba! has not this Silvernail himself run off one. —

of my best stallions? He rides the creature now, I am

   

    
    
   
   
   
   
  
 
    
  
   
  
   
  
   
   
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
   
   
   
    
   
  
  
  
   
  
 

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told—a bright bay with silver tail and mane. That horse,
sefiores, was worth five hundred good Mexican dollars—
not less!”

“Has this Silvernail been seen lately in your neighbor-
hood ?” queried the scout.

“Of that I am not so sure. He rides the Olando Trail,
as-you must know, sefiores, and he stops the stagecoach
‘when he chooses. But another ruffan has joined him now,
I understand. He has a partner.”

When they were in the saddle again, and, with re-
freshed steeds, rode once more toward the river, Wild
Bill, who had been studying pretty hard for a time, urged
his mount close to that of Buffalo Bill,

“Look a-here, Pard Cody,” he said.
what’s a-eatin’ of me?”

“Couldn’t guess,” laughed Buffalo Bill. “Out with it,
old man.”

“That greaser back there mentioned the fact that this
very bay critter that Silvernail rides. was a stallion.”

“So ‘he did.”

-“Now, do you know, Pard Cody, I had an idea that
the horse that feller rode when Pawnee and me caught
him at Ciudad Sonora was a gelding.”

“Humph!” Bri

“Reckon the old man made a mistake—or didn’t I notice
pertic’lar ?” re Feet

“T reckon that- you were too excited to notice what
sort of a horse hé rode,” chuckled Buffalo Bill.

“Waal, I’m going to put it up to Pawnee when I see
him. If he says it was a gelding, then you take it from
me, the old greaser lied—and he lied intentional!”

This idéa, though it made some impression upon the

“Do you know

mind of Buffalo Bill, did not disturb him much, for there

were quickly other matters to take up his attention. Little
Cayuse, ever on the sharp lookout for strangers in their
vicinity, was beating the side of the trail they: followed
when he suddenly wheeled his pinto and came tearing back
to his friends, using the qitirt unsparingly.

“Hello! -wot’s the matter wi’ thet thar young redskin?”
grunted old Nomad. ‘‘Hez he took er kerniption fit right

out yere on-the per-rairie?”

Little Cayuse brought his pony to a stop by the simple
process of jerking so hard on its bit that it sat down,
and, leaning from his saddle, cried eagerly:

“Oh-ee! Pa-e-has-ka, him know Injun?”
“Thunder -and- Mars, boy!” grunted Wild Bill. “Long

Hair knows ’most any kind of Injun you could name.”
“What is it, Cayuse?” asked Buffalo Bill, seeing how
earnest the Piute was. *
“Pa-e-has-ka sabby Injun we ketch—him go free?”
“Xuku, the Yaqui!” ejaculated Buffalo Bill: “Sure!”
“Wow, wow!” cried Wild Bill. “And I got good reason
to know that same redskin, too!”
Cayuse stretched an arm to the northward with a
sweeping gesture.
“Him ride that way, Pa-e-has-ka,” declared the red
“The Yaquis !”
“Jest same—Yaqui, Pa-e-has-ka.
“A-war party!” cried Buffalo Bill.
“Where'd ye see ’em, Leetle Cayuse?” demanded old
Nick. Nomad- “Ef we’re goin’ ter mix it wi’ a passel
of reds we wanter know how many they is of ’em.”
“We're not going to mix things, as you call it, old man,

Much brave——”

| with any Yaquis—not if we can help it,” declared Buf-

 

| possible, while we're this side of the -big river.

falo Bill firmly. . “That’s one thing we’re going to dodge, if
We've

| made. friends with Mojé’s brother; his friendship may

| stand us in-good stead yet.”

“It sure was good for me,” muttered Wild Bill, pat-

: ting himself softly on the chest, where he was still sore
f because of the thorn pricks that had been inflicted upon

him by the Yaquis before Xuku had come on the scene
and saved the bowie man from further torture.  °
“Come on!” exclaimed Buffalo Bill. “Show us the reds,
Cayuse,”
| The young Piute charged across the open country again
(to a hillock from the summit of which he had beheld
jthe tossing spear points of a cavalcade of Indians de-
| scending an arroyo in the distance.. The feather-trimmed
Pspears could belong to none but the Yaquis—for Little

| Cayuse and the baron had once been chased by these

   

BUDBALO

‘’em than I’d fancy meetin’ up wi’, day or night.

pt RS te AR RO oy tt NN Nd Oe

 

BILL WEEKLY.

same Indians, and he knew very well how they were
panoplied for war.

“We'll trail on behind these for a while—they seem to
be going our way—and see what they are doing,” sug-
gested Buffalo Bill,’ ‘Keep your eyes open for ambush,
boys, for unless young Xuku is with this bunch we may
have to trust to our horses’ legs to get us out of trou-
ble.”

- “Then wot aire we gittin’ inter the zone of trouble fer,
Buffler ?” demanded Nick Nomad, with solid good sense.

“Because I am curious, Pard Nick—mighty curious,”
said Buffalo Bill gravely. “If you have noticed, wher-
ever this Silvernail bandit is supposed to be, the Yaquis
seem ‘to be busy, too, 1) am. not at all sure: that the
scoundrel is not friendly with Xuku’s folks, and that
the reds cover his retreat after he makes a raid.”

“Sho, now!” exclaimed Nomad, in surprise.

“Silvernail was on the Olando Trail, and Little Cayuse
and the baron found the shoe his horse cast. Immediately
the Yaquis appeared, and they were chased by the reds as
far as the mesa of death above San Enrife. Isn’t that so?”

“Betcher life, Pard Bill!” cried Hickok.

“Wild Bill, here, was following Silvernail, after the
bandit’s escape from the jail at-Ciudad Sonora, when he
was pounced upon by those Yaquis, who seemed anxious.
to send him to the happy hunting ground over the torture
route.”

“Ugh!” exclaiméd Hickok again.
right?) :

“And now we are.trying to trace these two mail rob-
bers, one of which is more than likely Silvernail,- and
here a bunch of red wariors appear.”

“By gorry!” agreed Wild Bill Hickok; “it locks like
a safe bet.” ;

“Reckon yer right, Buffler,” declared old Nomad.

But Buffalo Bill had another reason up his sleeve for
suspecting that the chief bandit of the Mexican border
was working with the Yaquis. He said nothing of it at
the time to his pards, but he remembered that Mojé, the
Indian handmaiden who served Sefiorita Cralé was own
sister to the young Yaqui chief, Xuku. Perhaps, through
Mojé, Clifford Smart had become acquainted with Xuku
and his tribe. And if Clifford Smart were Silvernail, the
bandit’s connection with the Yaquis was all the more
probable!

In fact, it was another rivet to clinch the structure of
evidence that was being builded upon the supposition that
Smart and the bandit were one and the same person.

The party soon reached the place where Little Cayuse
had seen the tossing spears of the Yaquis disappear. And
he had not been wrong in his surmise. There—plain as
could be—was the trail’of the Indians—and there must
have been more than a score of them.

The trail was so worked over that it was impossible
for even old’ Nomad to untangle it and state positively
the number of redskins that had ridden that way within
the half hour.

“But I’m handin’ it ter ye straight, Buffer,” said the
old trapper, “when I say thet thar is a hull lot more.o’
Mebbe
this yere Xuku chap ain’t with this yere bunch. Mebbeso
he ain't so high er muck-y-muck in his tribe ez he gives
off he is. We might run right into a hornet’s nest wi’
th’ hull hornet fambly ter hum!”

“But he stood for Wild Bill, here, and saved him,” said
the scout. i

“Thet’s all right,” commented .Nomad. “Thar warn’t
but three o’ them braves thet grabbed Bill—and them
young fellérs—heh?” }

“By gorry, you’re right!” admitted Hickok.

“We'll go slow,” said Buffalo Bill. “But follow this
gang I will. Especially as it seems that they are going
in the same direction that those train robbers. took.”

“You're th’ doctor, Buffler;” said old Nomad, and he
spurred Hide Rack, his bony steed, along the sandy trail.

The king of scouts took few reckless chances, however.
As they followed on in the wake of the Indians, he sent
Cayuse out on the right, and Nomad out on the left, and
so swept a wide territory as they pressed on, making it
impossible for the Indians to send back any party to flank
them. And at the pace the reds seemed to be traveling

“Ain’t you mighty

they plainly had* no intention of watching their rear.

  
 
 

Bh RB I Ai tN sh lS a aR
10

  

They: had a.destination up ahead, and were evidently rid-
ing for it full tile!

It was mid-afternoon when Little Cayuse. had first
sighted the bunch of reds, and Buffalo Bill and his friends
‘had taken up their chase, Just before dusk a house was
sighted ahead—a lonely hacienda. They approached it
very cautiously, but need not have done so, One end of
the dwelling had been destroyed by fire—and that eévi-
‘dently at a time now. long since past.

Grass and weeds overgrew the paths about the house;
the stables and. sheds. were tumble-down. The. entire
vicinity seemed peculiarly lonely and deserted.. And the
ol had ridden by the ruined hacienda without stop-
ping!

‘But Hickok, who had undertaken to examine the out-
buildings, suddenly called. his friends to him with a shout
of surprise...

- “Hold on, old man go. easy on the -voice- -culture busi-

an ff advised Buffalo. Bill... “‘We don’t. know who.may

be 1 ingering about here, after all.” :

> “Say,”- declared the excited Hickok, ‘I can tell you

right. now, Pard Cody, who has been - about this yere

place, if they: ain’t yore: now.

~The reds??

- “We know. they’ ve gone on,

Laramie man. “Well, see yere!”
He came forward with his hands: full of torn papers.

don't we?” snapped the

Buffalo Bill examined. them. for..a-single moment, and
then emitted.an excited ‘exclamation himself.
“Torn envelopes—letters—stamped ‘and -all!”: he. gasped.

noe. cae ene jingo, Hickok! the mail robbers. have been
here | ss
“Right in» that shed, Yo ghd Wild Bill, with danfdence,
“those two scalawags tore open - the letters they. stole,
and sorted out the cash. -You-can take my steer for it!”
“Can’t call the turn on. that card, Pard. Hickok!” ad-
mitted Buffalo Bill, ne Pel robbers were here, that’s

CAR that thstant. there came a shrill call fron old Nick
Nomad. It was, for all the world, like. the hoot of an
owl, but.the. two Bills knew that the old: trapper sum-
tioned them to the presence of. danger.

The horses of the. party. were hidden back | in the
chaparral, with Little Cayuse to watch them.
gone nearer the hacienda, and now the Bills, replying to
the hooting owl, and following the trapper’s cry, found the
latter ensconced. in another ruined ee very near
the half-burned. dwelling house.

“What's the matter, Nick—reds ?” queried Wild Bill.

“’Tain’t no Injun I seed,” responded the trapper, in a
whisper. “But thar’s at least one ctitter movit’ erbout
thet thar greaser’s domicile—waugh!”

His friends saw a shadow suddenly flit across the
veranda. The moon was coming up, and long shadows
moved across the open space in front of the ruined house,
But this which had attracted the attention of the three
Americans was the shadow of a man!

The moon rose higher, and every minute the space
before the house was more brilliantly lighted. The shadow
of the man did not appear again. The trio looked at
each other to see if each man’s opinion was the same,
Something should be done to stir up the nest. If there was
one man in the house—or a dozen—Buffalo Bill and his
pards wanted to know it.

-Suddenly the old trapper utteréd a sharp hiss. He
craned his head out of the broken doorway of the shack.
He cocked his kéen old ear to listen.

There was the sound of a step—but not the footstep of
aman. Rather it rang like that of metal upon stone. A
horse stamped upon the other side of the ruined build-
ing.

“By eityt Can it i the Yaqttis are come back for
us?” pheaghed Hickok.

Before he could be ariswered—by either Buffalo Bill
or Nomad—another shadow floated out upon the level
green before the hacienda. It was the gigantic reflec-
tion of a man on horseback—and_ in a moment the horse
and rider in reality were revealed to the three watching
Americans. ~~

The horse seemed to be a large, black, animal—and of
fiery temper. It curvetted and stamped for a moment on

NEW BUFFALO

 

 

Nomad had ”~

BIULL Weeeiy,

   

the plain, while’ its rider seemed to hold the “yee
with difficulty.

“Lay yer peepers on that fallce Pard Cody !” whispered
Hickok. “We’re goin’ to get him, ain’t we2”

“Wait!” breathed the scout.

“I got him covered
lated Wild Bill, suddenly
“Where’s the feller’s head 2”

And at the selfsame moment his two eomuaulons fad
likewise seen the phenomenon that had startled Hickok
out of all caution. The powerful black horse was being
ridden by the figure of a man of ordinary size, At least
the legs, the torso, the shoulders, seemed all right—as
though they belonged to a man of good build and weight,

But the figure: stopped at the shoulders!

The head was seemingly lopped off: The apparition
possessed neither head nor neck!

Old Nomad shook like a. leaf.
anything in nature that was alive and understandable;
this was too much for his courage.

“Oh, Lordy-mighty.!” he gasped, and’ groveled con “ihe
earth floor -of the shed.

Nor were: either of his eommpanianttor thre moment—
much braver: ~The sight of the headless horseman was
sufficient to shock any human being.

But Wild Bill Hickok’s exclamation had. pyidently: ear
tled the strange being, . Without a. sound—save-only:the
ring of the horse’s Aoofs—the black steed was put under
spur, and, with its headless rider, in-a few seconds. dis-
appeared from: the wide-eyed vision of Buffalo re and
the Laramie man.

 

speaking right out -toud,

The. trapper could face
but

- CHAPTER VIL. :
THE YAQUI ATTACK.

Old Nick Nomad believed—and naught botild Se
that belief—in: what he termed “whiskizoos.’ Other folks
might call them ghosts,-or banshees, or just the leak
effects of punishing too much “red licker.”

Thereforé,. when Buffalo Bill and Hickok - looked. at
each. other, and both demanded at the same. moment:
“What was it?” Nomad came in with his famous declara-
tion.

“Whiskizoos—an’ don’t you two gents.say it ain’t !

Wi ild Bill shook his head and really looked Serious.

“I dunno exactly what the old man means, Cody, but
by the piper that played before Pharoah, 1 believe he’s
right!”

‘Buffalo Bill had been shaken for the moment, but he
was too level-headed. and too broadly educated to be very
superstitious, He shook off the feeling that had gripped
him when the headless horseman appeared, and walked out
of the shed, staring down the trail after the flying mys-
tery. Horse and rider were now entirely out of sight;

y?

indeed, the sound of the hoofs was drowned in the silence

of the evening.
That was no Injun,” declared Wild Bill.
“] tell ye——" began old Nomad angrily, but the scout
held up a warning hand,

“Never mind what it was,” he said. “It is a mystery. that
we must look into later. We have other work now. Go
and tell Cayuse to bring up the horses, Nick.”

“All right, Bufiler, , erumbled the old man, and sh
fled off.

“Now, Hickok,” said the king of the border crisply,
“neither you nor I, nee in such things as headless
horsemen ! Jed

“By gorry, only when we see ’em!” chuckled Hickok.

“Or when we think we see them?” -

“Well, what did you set your peepers on, Pard Cody?”

demanded Wild Bill seriously.

“A horseman who appeared to have no head.”
“Humph! then you been drinkin’ the same kind of licker
as. me,” said the Laramie man, still chuckling.

“Neither of. us has been drinking. And. neither of us |
believes in ghosts. Some masquerader has been trying
to fool us’

“And, by gorry, he succeeded !”

“Perhaps.”

“T wish I’d plugged him.”
“I don’t know but it would have. been a “good thing |
if you had.”

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' Buffalo Bill thoughtfully.

39

 

“But a man without a head

“Stop it, Hickok!” commanded Buffalo Bill, “You
know very well—as I know—that -he must have had a
head !”

“Well, I’m a jumping sand flea if I saw it!” declared
Wild Bill, with decision. “And my eyesight ain’t so bad,
as I ever heard.”

‘In some way he gave.us the impression that his head

had been lopped off——~

“He gave us that impression, all right, all right
Wild Bill. ‘

“And it’s likely he is not masquerading entirely for our
benefit.”

“Say, do you think he was one of the train rebbers?”
demanded the Laramie man suddenly.

“IT certainly don’t think that an Indian would have played
such a trick,” admitted Buffalo Bill.

“Then one of these chaps that we have been trailing—
and who surely were here ie

“They most certainly tore up the money letters here,”
said Buffalo Bill.

“Then this guy was one of ’em

“And was it Silvernail? That is the question,” said
“Tt is a puzzle, Hickok. It’s
a puzzle that gets blacker and more complicated every
moment—-or so it seems.”

“We'd ought to chase that headless horseman,” sug-
“We got him betwixt us and the In-

7?

grunted

 

”

 

“Maybe. But first, before Nomad and Cayuse come
with the horses, I want to examine this half-burned
hacienda.”

“By gorry, suppose some more headless horsemen are
hived up in there?” suggested Wild Bill>

But he was reckless enough for any venture, and espe-
cially ready for any venture that Buffalo Bill might sug-
gest. z

“Just you go around one end of that house, Hickok,
and I’ll go this other~ way,” commanded the king of
scouts. “And keep a gun in your hand. Don’t shoot me,
but if you see anything else moving it might be well to
take a shot at it and inquire into what it is afterward!”

“I’m with you, Pard Cody,” declared the Laramie
man, and he started off at once. The partners rounded
the ruined hacienda, however, without starting even a
rat. Buffalo Bill had a bottle of sulphur matches, and
one of these he lit and investigated the space underneath
the high gallery that had once run clear across the rear
of the house.

Here was plainly a sort of stable.
and stubble sufficient to make a good bed for a horse;
and there was a ring set in a stanchion to which—with-
out much doubt—the steed of the headless horseman had
been tied.

“What do you think of it, pard?” demanded Hickok
breathlessly.

“I don’t. know what to think,” returned the scout, let-

ting the match drop from his fingers. He carefully put
his foot on the glowing spark and made sure that the
fire was out before they left the empty stable.

Nomad and Cayuse came up with the horses, and the
two Bills got aboard their own steeds.

“Where away, Pard Cody?” asked Hickok. “After the
Injuns—or the man without a head?” —

“Both,” was the reply, “especially as they both seem to ,

have followed the same trail.”

The moon now lighted the track brilliantly. The party
moved cautiously and not too fast, for, as easily as the
trail was revealed to them, so their moving figures must be
oe to whoever might be watching the trail for
them, a

They were not molested, nor did anything of moment

q happen, until they had ‘ridden quite half an hour from

the hacienda. Then it was Nomad who, looking back,
uttered a characteristic grunt:
Waugh! somebody’s lit up fer us, pards, an’ no mis

fb take.’

A light glowed in the sky behind them. Soon leaping

. flames appeared, and suddenly Wild Bill shouted:
» . ‘That’s the hacienda, boys!
| it afife again when you dropped that match in the horse

Cody, you must have set

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NEW BUFFALO

There was straw .

 

By ae 27

“No,” said Buffalo Bill decidedly.

“But that’s what is burning,’ declared the. Laramie man.

“Waugh!
Nomad.

“I admit that the fire is at the old casa we just passed,”
said Buffalo Bill. “But it has been set afire by another
hand than mine. I was particular in putting that match
out, Hickok.”

‘‘T reckon you was,” said the puzzled pistol king.

“You think um Injuns?”’ demanded Little Cayuse.

“T don’t know. . But the fire was set for a purpose, we
can be sure of that,” said the king of scouts. “Keep your
eyes peeled, partners. There may be as many enemies
behind us as there are ahead.”

It was impossible for the party to note the tracks of
the single horse that had come this way from the hacienda.
It was easy to trace the Indian ponies, however. The
moonlight was amply sufficient for that until long after
midnight. The party of Americans had rested but little
since leaving Parabeaua, the horses were now showing
fatigue, and the men were hungry.

“But it’s got to be a cold bite,” said Buffalo Bill, when
finally he gave the word for a halt. “No smoke or light

here. The moon will soon be beyond that line of hills
yonder. Then we must go-.on carefully—and lead the
ponies. I have a hunch that those Indians are not so

far ahead of us.” :

“You can bet that they are near,” grunted Wild Bill.
“Tnjuns don’t travel much by night if they can help.”

“Waugh! That’s right,” agreed the old trapper. “They'll
start airly in the morning, mebbeso.”

“And we want to be near them when they start. They
certainly won’t cross the river,” explained Buffalo Bill,
who knew a whole lot more about these Yaquis than any
of his friends. ‘They belong back in the mountains.
They’re out of their element so far toward the river.
I believe they propose to make an attack, and they cer-
tainly will do that about dawn.”

Here Little Cayuse became excited. The boy was anx-
ious to distinguish himself, for he was as vain as a school-
girl with her first long dresses, and craved Pa-e-has-ka’s
praise as a dog craves its master’s commendation. He
stood up suddenly before the three men.

“Wuh! Pa-e-has-ka let Piute brave go on. Him find
um Injun camp—count Injun—see when Injun start. Come
back—tell um Pa-e-has-ka.”

“Thet thar sounds all right, Cayuse—only th’ part
erbout you bein’ er- brave ain’t so,” chuckled the old
trapper. “I never see sech a perky boy in all my life,
did you, pards?” :

The Indian lad grew red under the copper hue of
his skin, and his eyes sparkled. He liked to “swell all
up,’ as Nomad called it; and the old trapper was always
the one to puncture the bubble of the Indian boy’s conceit.
However, Buffalo Bill, who knew well the Piute lad’s
ability, nodded slowly as he said:

“Let Little Cayuse remember Pa-e-has-ka’s words—
and have a care. If the Yaquis are encamped, they will
have two lines of sentinels about—and the first line will
probably be a long way this side of the camp—so far that
the Piute cannot count the fires of the Yaquis.”

“Cayuse, him be careful,” grunted the boy submissively.

“Very well; you may go. Return in two hours at the
longest. Understand what Pa-e-has-ka says?”

“Wuh! Me understand um,” said the boy, and instantly
he glided away, and the shadows swallowed him as though

- he had dived into the sea.

“Thet thar’s sure er smart lettle feller,’ admitied
Nomad; “but he’s got ter be took down er peg—and took
down frequent.”

Buffalo Bill laughed. “You feel as though it was your
fatherly duty to teach him his place, eh, old man? But
Little Cayuse has made us all sit up and take notice before
this day—eh, Hickok?”

“That’s right,” mumbled Wild Bill, who was already
rolled in his blanket; and in a moment more he was
snoring.

It was old Nomad’s watch—they had cast lots for it,
and the chance had fallen to him. To keep awake le
remained standing, while the two Bills snored in their
blankets. The minutes crept on as slowly as usta! at
that hour of the morning. It was long before there- was

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~NEW BUFFALO

12

the least streak of silver in the east to announce the com-
ing of the sun. ‘

Then suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes just
behind the position of the old trapper. Like a shadow
he slipped behind the nearest tree trunk and listened and
watched. The rustling went on; then there was a little,
grunting squeak.

“Waugh!” muttered the trapper.
reckon.”

One of the horses stamped upon the other side of the
camp, and Nomad turned to look in that direction. Almost
instantly a hand fell lightly on his shoulder—and had
not Cayuse’s other hand seized the old fellow’s. wrist,
Nomad would have popped away at him with his gun
before he turned,

The Piute hoy grinned into the trapper’s flushed face.

“Piute brave no porkypine;’ he whispered. ‘What um
say now—wuh!”

“Ye ’tarnal leetle nuisance!” grunted Nomad. But then
he laughed. He was too honest not to admit that the
boy had fooled him—had caught him napping. “I reckon
ye got th’ best of it, son. What erbout th’ Yaquis?”

“Me. wake Pa-e-has-ka,” grunted Little Cayuse, who
would: never report to anybody but the chief, if he could
help it.

In a moment he had both Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill
on their feet. The Yaqui camp was not three miles be-
yond this spot, and it was already astir.

“Yaqui make um quick move—early start.
clared Cayuse, “Them braves paint for war!”

“They ‘will attack somebody, or some place, at sunrise,”
declared the scout. “J wish I knew this country better.”

“Well, what will we do—try\ to put the greasers wise
to what’s coming to them?” demanded Wild Bill.

“The Mexicans are white men,” said Buffalo Bill. ‘‘Al-
though I really feel much interest in these Yaqui Indians,
and know that they have been ill treated since ’way back
when the first Spanish conquestadors struck this country,
- still we must admit that the Indians’ own cruelties put
them beyond the pale. White men should help white
men :

“Is these yere greasers relly white?” growled old
Nomad.

“Well, they're nat red,” said Wild Bill, “I reckon
Pard Cody is right. If we kin put a crimp in these Yaquis
it’s our duty to do that same—muy pronto!”

Buffalo Bill led the way, and he led his own horse, too.
They could not risk riding farther along the trail.
sky grew rapidly lighter as they advanced.
could very easily trace the hoof marks of the Indian
ponies. But they came, too, to the place where they had
left the more or less beaten path and plunged down a
gulch. Below, so Little Cayuse said, was the camp itself.

At that moment certain sounds reached Buffalo Bill’s
ears which assured him that the Yayuis were in the saddle.
Then there sounded the rush of unshod hoofs, which rap-
idly died away. |

“They're off!” ejaculated Wild Bill.

“Aire we ter foller “em, Buffler?” demanded old Nomad,
as he climbed upon Hide Rack.

“No. Follow the beaten trail. This leads soon to some.
settlement, and the Indians will—like enough—make a
flank attack upon that very settlement. Come on, boys!”

In a moment their own horses were racing along the
narrow path through the woods. The way was rough,
and they could not see twenty yards ahead at any time.
But suddenly they rounded a spur of the hill and came
out upon a narrow plateau. From this height they could
see down into a valley where a small stream meandered.

The group of houses below could scarcely be called a
village; it was like an enlarged rancho. And at this hour
——before actual sunrise—there was not a soul in sight
about the buildings or in the cultivated fields which sur-
rounded the group of human habitations.

The grain was yellow for the harvest, and there were
acres and acres of it about the rancho. At that hour it
was a most peaceful scene that the scout and his friends
looked upon as they drew rein upon the plateau.

Then in an imstant it was changed. Out of a gorge
across the valley there suddenly rode the head of. the
cglumn of Yaquis that they had been following for fifteen

“A porkypine, I

Wuh!” de-

 

The ,
Soon they ~

BILL: WEER EY,

hours or more. It was too late for the Americans then
to warn the people of the big rancho.

The Indians divided their forces, and the two columns
rode away from the mouth of the gorge in either direc-
tion. One column forded the stream and spurred around
the valley to the east. The other came in the other direc-
tion, and, as the thin line of reds strung out, they began
to yell. Their war cries must have been the first sounds
to arouse the inhabitants of the group of houses in the
middle of the plain by the river.

Out of these houses ran the people like ants, and most
of them just as they leaped from their beds! The Amer-
icans could see, women and children running about in ter-
ror; the men seemed to get their arms and try to make
preparation to receive the Yaquis when they should charge
near enough to meet the Mexican bullets.

But this did not happen at once. The Indians seemed
determined to surround the whole plantation first, and,
although there were more than twoscore of the reds in
sight, they were still entering from the gorge. The war
party was much larger than Buffalo Bill and his three
companions had _ believed.

CHAPTER IX.
THE BURNING OF THE GRAIN CROP,

Old Nomad smelled the battle like an old warhorse,
and the fact that the people threatened by the Indian raid
were “only greasers” was seemingly forgotten by the old
redskin fighter. ae

“Sufferin’ catamounts, Buffler! D’ye see wot them poor
critters down thar is up erg’inst? Thar’ll be er mas-
sacree!’’

“Not if we
excited.

But the king of scouts restrained his companions.

“Wait a little. Let us see what it is all about. There
looks to be too biga party for us to swallow down and
digest comfortably. We must go slew,” was Buffalo Bill’s
advice.

And it seemed to be mighty good advice, for the In-
dians continued to appear from the gorge until there were
between fifty and sixty of them in sight. They seemed
to follow a strict plan, and their discipline was quite
perfect.

By this time the Mexicans at the center of the valiey
were buzzing about like a nestful of bald-headed hornets.
But they ‘did not accomplish anything. The Indians cir-
cling the valley kept out of the reach of the guns, and
Buffalo bill and his friends, being out of sight of both
parties, watched the trend of affairs with keen interest.
Racing their hardy ponies, the Yaquis sped around the
valley, keeping close to the rising ground and on the outer
edge of the grain fields.. As they traveled, however, the
leading Indians were allowed to get farther and farther
apart until, in a very few minutes, the entire valley was
surrounded by the chain of reds. There was no escape
for the Mexicans unless they fought their way through
this chain.

And it did not seem to be the Mexicans’ intention to try
this. Although some of the settlers were armed with
rifles, and the Indians appeared to have no firearms, the
whites did not possess any great degree of courage. Be-
sides, there was but a handful of the armed Mexicans,
and sixty Indians was an army. .

From the plateau the Americans could see all that went
on. They saw the half-dressed women and children
driven back into the principal house. The armed men
did not venture forth from the settlement; but, posted on
the roofs of the outbuildings, they could watch every move
of the redskins.

And the actions of. the Yaquis seemed to have been
deliberately planned, and the plan was being carried out
without a hitch. Once stationed around the valley, it sud-
denly became noticeable that the redskins—every mother’s
son of them—bore something beside their ordinary arms.

Behind each man was a bundle of straw or débris of
some kind, and this had been strapped with a thong to
the pony’s back. At the far end an Indian tossed uP
his spear and caught it again dexterously. It was 4
signal. Instantly every red slid off of his pony, and,

can pfevent it!” cried Wild Bill, quite as

 
    

 

 
 
 
  
   
   
  
  
  
   
 

 

    
  
 
   

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holding the beast by its long reata, plumped the bundle
of straw upon the ground and stooped above it.

“Whatever in the world are those reds doing now?’
demanded Wild, Bill, vastly interested by these strange
proceedings.

“It’s a grand-stand play they are making, whatever it
is,” said Buffalo Bill, but he was puzzled himself.

It was Little Cayuse who first discovered what the
reds were really up to.

“Wuh!  Pa-e-has-ka see spark fly?
flintstone and steel, Sabby?”

“And, by the e-tarnal fishhooks!’’ burst out old Nomad.
“He’s right! Them red raskils is a-strikin’ fire. Waugh!”

“They're burning the bunches of grass they got,” mur-
mured Wild Bill,

“By Heaven, I see through it now!” ejaculated Buffalo
Bill. “It’s the grain! There they go!”

Indeed, as he spoke, more than half the Indians had
succeeded in getting their bundles of débris alight. IJn-
stantly they leaped to the backs of their ponies, and, with
the blazing bundles of rubbish bounding behind them
at the ends of the reatas, they charged directly through
the grain fields!

These fields were divided by no fences. Here and
there was a path which the Mexicans used; but the
Indians paid no attention to these. Following routes
which made the spokes of a wheel toward the group
of houses, the reds tore through the maize and other
grains, the flaming packages at the ends of their ropes
setting a dozen fires a minute!

It had to be quick work, otherwise the hair ropes would
burn off and the fire would not spread as rapidly as the
Indians wished. The determination of the Yaquis utterly
to ruin the crops of that settlement was unmistakable, and
their success in this evil work was assured. —

The Mexicans dared not go out and face the Yaquis,
nor could the four spectators on the hill overlooking the
scene do aught to halt the destruction.

“It’s a blamed mean job, Pard Cody,”
Bill, “But tt ain’t our funeral,”

“T am not sure whether it is our business of not,” said
Buffalo Bill, much troubled. “If those redskins charge
that crowd there and try to kill the women and babies re

“Waugh!” grunted old’ Nomad. ‘Then it’s sure our
bizness, Buffler. We can’t stand fer thet thar perceedin’.”

“No, we can’t,” agreed Wild Bill. “But if they don’t
do anything but burn the corn i

“Well hold off for a while,” said the famous scout.
“The Indians are too many for us to monkey with if we
don’t have to

Just then the rifles began popping in the valley. They
could just: hear the explosions, and the puffs of white
smoke betrayed the fact of each discharge. Suddenly one
of the cavorting Indian ponies went down in a heap. A
bullet had evidently found its billet in the beast’s body—
and in a vital spot, for the pony did not rise.

Its rider, however, got up in a hurry. He had been
one of the most successful in setting the grain afire. He
was now surrounded by leaping flames—flames through
which he would have cruelly forced his pony, but which
evidently intimidated the warrior.

The onlookers could see him running about—frst in
one direction, and then in another. He was‘ evidently a
frightened redskin, and just here the fire burned brightly
and threatened completely to surround him. He was shut
off by the wall of flames from all sides save that directly
toward ‘the settlement.

Buffalo Bill and his friends, from the heights, could
see all this drama; and it was evident to them that the
dismounted Indian’s tribesmen had not observed his trou-
ble. They continued to ride swiftly back and forth
through the grain, carrying the fire wherever they rode.
None paid the s lightest attention to the one oon,

Desperately this fellow plunged toward the Mexicans,
who, partly hidden as they lay on the roofs, could see
him plainly, Several took pot shots at him, and) just
as the Indian got beyond the line of fire for a moment
one of the bullets evidently struck him.

He whirled about and fell, knocked down by the impact
of the rifle ball. . But the ‘wound did not appear to be
serious. At least, through his powerful field glasses Buf-
falo Bill could see the wounded Yaqui streaking it through

Injun, him got

grunted Wild

 

 

 

 

BUFFALO

 

 

 

 

 

BILL WEEKLY:

  

the unburned grain—wriggling like a serpent, and close
to the ground in an attempt to reach the river.

But two of the Mexicans, emboldened by the fact that
the reds did not seem to have the courage to attack them,
dropped off the roofs of the buildings and ran after the
escaping and wounded enemy. The Yaqui stumbled on,
unnoticed by his friends, but his course revealed both to

the pursuing Mexicans and the Americans on the heights.

Suddenly the Mexicans both fired at the Yaqui, The
latter plunged forward on his knees, and for a moment
lay still, Then the wind carried a sea of flame between
the. Mexicans and their prey; indeed, the fire seemed actu-
ally to pass.over the spot where the latter lay.

The Mexicans turned and ran back out of the grain
field, and were pursued to its edge by the fire.

“Waugh !” exclaimed old Nomad. ‘“Thet thar was a
near ’scape fer them oilers—wot? And th’ Injun is done
Ter)

‘Not so!” ejaculated Buffalo Bill, with enthusiasm, for
he could admire courage and grit displayed by either red
or white. | “There goes the Yaqui!”

“Where, Pard Cody?” demanded Wild Bill,

Then they all four saw the smoking, blackened shape
that dashed forward, out of the smoke, and plunged into
the river! The wounded Indian had been able to reach
the stream.

CHAPTER: X.
MAKING FRIENDS ON BOTH SIDES.

Buffalo Bill shut the glasses with a sharp snap and
slipped them into their case again.

‘That’s a plucky redskin. He’s paddling downstream
this minute, with only his face above water. See it,
Hickok ?” said the scout,

‘“T bet you’re right,” declared Wild Bill, with es

“We can mosey along that way,” said Buffalo Bill, with
a gesture. . “There’s a good scrub growth to hide us from
the reds on the mountainside. Besides, they’re too much
interested in’ what they’re doing below. They haven't
spotted this fellow in the river at all,”

“But, say, Buffer!” objected Nomad.
charge the settlemint ?”

“They are not going to attempt it. They have a hearty
respect for the Mexicans’ guns. They are merely doing
them as much harm as possible. The spoiling of the grain
is a trick that beats killing off a few of the greasers.
Whoever is engineering this campaign against the Mex-
icans.is quite a general—for a red!”

Little Cayuse already had his. pinto under way, ‘for
he was interested in the Indian that had made the break
through the fire line and plunged into the river. There
was an increased hubbub in the valley, and the smoke
and flames hid many of the wildly riding Yaquis. The
smoke drifted across the houses, too, and only the flashes
of the guns from that vicinit revealed the presence and
alertness of the Mexicans to Bu flalo Bill and his friends.

The quartet rode swiitly down the hillside to the river’s
brink. They were hidden there by a piece of wood that
touched the river in this vicinity. And they were not fat
ahead of the half-drowned Yaqui.

The current of the river was so swift that, when. he
was out of sight of the besieged Mexicans, the injured
Indian could not beat his. way ashore. Nor did any of
his tribal friends. observe him.

Little Cayuse, with old Nomad, a lariat around his waist,
rode his pinto straight out from the bank; and there, while
the pony fought to keep his feet against the current, the
Piute youth coiled his own rope and flung the noose. of
it over the bobbing head of the Yaqui.

The red man struggled to escape the coil, and was nigh
choked to death before they could get him ashore. But
once on dry land, the prisoner quickly discovered that he
was among friends, and not enemies.

The fellow seemed to understand that these Ame ricanos
would not have taken the trouble to save him from. the
stream if they had meant him harm. Besides, he could
understand some Spanish,

“You are a follower of Xuku, the Yaqui?” demanded
Buffalo Bill, when the red had coughed the water out of
his lungs and could sit up on the shore oi the river,

"$1, Americano,”

“S’pose them reds

  
    

 
  
  
    
     
    
14

NEW BUFFALO

“Ts Xuku with, those Yaquis now attacking the Mexican
village ?” :

“Si, Americano. You are Pa-e-has-ka?” returned the
redskin with some difficulty.
“IT am,” said the scout:

“Then Yaqui and Pa-e-has-ka friends. Pa-e-has-ka’s
braves my friends,” he added, with a gesture that took in
the scout’s three companions.

“Glad to hear it,” grunted Wild Bill.

“Who is your chief? Who leads yonder?” demanded
Buffalo Bill, pointing toward the valley where the noise of
the desultory firing proclaimed that the battle was still in
progress.

“Xuku,” said the young Indian, with pride.

“But he does not expect to kill those Mexicans?”

“We spoil harvest. We drive out yellow-faced men.
They steal our lands. We spoil their crops. . They starve
if stay. Ugh! Xuku cunning man.”

Buffalo Bill was somewhat relieved at this news, how-
ever. He had suspected that the Indian attack would not
compass the death of the Mexicans because of the Yaqui’s
hearty respect for firearms. y

This Yaqui’s name proved to be Sindra, and he was
an intelligent fellow. From him Buffalo Bill gained a
considerable knowledge of the movement of the Yaqui
Indians against their age-old oppressors. It was a young
man’s movement. The young bloods of the tribe were
following Xuku and other young chieftains. They were
forming war parties and striking small settlements and
villages where the Mexicans had trespassed upon. what
the Yaquis believed to be their own lands.

The headquarters of the fighting tribesmen. was in the
mountains to the westward—in that great range lying
between the states of Chihuahua and Sonora.- From
those mountain fastnesses the bands of young bucks were
oe forth to strike the whites and to lay waste their
fields.

This Sindra was an enthusiastic partisan in the fight,
and Buffalo Bill was careful to drop no hint that he and
his friends were friendly with the Mexicans. But before
letting the* Yaqui go to rejoin his party, that was then
drawing off through the same gorge by which they had
entered the valley, the scout made him a present of a good
pocketknife and told him to carry to the chief, Xuku, the
news that Pa-e-has-ka was in the neighborhood and would
like to have a conference with the Yaqui chieftain.

They fed the Yaqui then, and let him go. And the
four travelers were themselves glad to get a comfortable
mea] again before moving on. Fear of attracting the
attention of these very Indians had kept the party from
having a fire the evening before.

Now they saddled up again, and, before mid-forenoon,
rode into the flame-scorched valley. The destruction of
the maize fields had been complete. The Mexican farmers
had lost their entire crop, and, when Buffalo Bill and
his friends reached the settlement, they learned that all
the stock of the place had been run off, likewise, save a
cow or two that were being milked for the children, and
were therefore kept close to the houses overnight.

The active men were already marching about the val-
ley, their guns on their shoulders—very brave, indeed,
now that the redskins had disappeared. Nobody had been
in the least injured by the Indians, although several flights
of arrows had been shot at the houses before the Yaquis
retired.

The oldest man at the place—his name was Manuel,
and he was as little and as wrinkled and as aged looking
as a grandfather monkey—sat on a bench beside the door
of the casa. He wagged his head and talked with the
Americanos in broken English: ~

“Madre de Dios! These young folk would not believe
me—me, Manuel, who haf lived so long! I told them
trouble on wings was coming. I awoke my son—ugh, he
is a fool, sefiores! He would not believe what Manuel
say. .

“And you knew the Indians were coming?” asked Buf-
falo Bill, smiling. é

“St, senor.”

“How was that, old father?”

“Because, as I sat at the window before dawn—oh, an
hour and more before dawn—I saw the spectral rider pass

the house. Si, sewor, I, Manuel, saw him,”

BILL WEEKLY.

“The spectral rider!” exclaimed Wild Bill, nudging the
scout. “Hear that, Pard Cody?”

“And what is this spectral rider?” demanded Buffalo
Bill, with interest.

“The headless horseman,” replied Manuel, wagging his
head. “It betokens trouble—always!”

“Waugh!” gasped Nomad. “Whiskizoos! Wot did I
tell ye, Buffler, erbout thet thar critter we\seen ?”

But Buffalo Bill hushed him and turned to the old
Mexican again, asking:

‘Who is the headless horseman, daddy ?”

“Quién sabe? Nobody knows, but many have seen.
Anciently he rode the border, it is said.. Now he returns.
It foretells trouble—much trouble and danger.”

Later, when the scout interrogated the younger Mex-
icans, all were unanimous in scoffing at Father Manuel.
The old man said he had seen a strange and headless
man ride furiously through the settlement before dawn.
Such a rider was the subject of a legend in the country
thereabout, but nobody had of recent years spoken of see-
ing the apparition.

“Ah!” mumbled Manuel, wagging his head. “All the
young are fools. It is only the old who know.”

But, although they were plainly on the heels of the
mysterious being Buffalo Bill and his pards had seen back
at the ruined hacienda, there was another thing that was
not at all clear. The scout made inquiries of the Mex-
icans regarding the bandit, Silvernail. Had he been ob-
served in this vicinity recently? Did they know anything
at all about the outlaw?

And, while the denials were vociferous, they did not
sound honest. At least, so Cody confided to Wild Bill.

“IT believe that either the greasers are more scared
of Silvernail than they are of the Yaquis, or else the out-
law is friendly with the whole crowd here. And perhaps
their ‘scoffing at the headless horseman has a meaning, too.
For that masquerader is an outlaw also. You can take
my word for it.”

“Tll_ take your word, all right, Pard Cody,” grumbled .
Wild: Bill. “But, by gorry, I’m mighty sorry we lost him
so easy last night! And we’ve lost the mail robbers, too.
a this Silvernail seems as elusive as a drop of quick-
silver.

“Ah, but all these trails seem to lead toward the Rio
Grande. We'll be there in less than twenty-four hours,
Hickok,” declared the king of scouts. “Perhaps something
will turn up then.”

CHAPTER XI.
TROUBLE AT DEL VERDE.

_ “Major Gordon Lillie,” read Albona Ben, slowly spell-
ing out the writing on the register of the Grand Hotel
at Del Verde, just across the Rio Grande in the Big Bend
country of Texas. The Big Bend, in those days, was
famous for its border riders, and bad men generally. Two
hundred miles wide, from point to point on the Rio
Grande, it was sparsely settled and made good hiding
ground for smugglers and the like. The few towns scat-
tered along the river’s edge were bad places for a timid
man to be caught in, especially if he rode alone.

And the nee who had written his name as quoted
above on thé Del Verde hotel book had ridden into town
alone that very afternoon. ae

“Who is this hombre?” demanded Albona Ben of Chihi
Pinkney, the bartender. :

“Thet thar’s all the statement he gimme,” replied Chihi,
nodding at the book.

“What-for sort of a lookin’ feller is this hyer major?”
asked another idler, who had trailed in after Albona Ben,
hoping for a drink.

“Is he er sure-’nuff major in the army?” gruffly de-
manded the big and ugly frontiersman known as Albona
Ben. “We ain’t welcomin’ no sojers down in this yere
kentry.”

“You better ax him,” said Chihi carelessly. “He got
a room, turned in, an’ didn’t even buy no drink.”

“Didn’t buy a-drink!” -

It was uttered in a simultaneous roar of horrified sur-

prise, and by the whole company before the bar. That

is, by all but one man save the bartender. This indi-
vidual was the only man who looked like a Mexican in

 

 
  

Lenty se 5 SN ONE, ee pemes? §

 

 

the establishment. He wore velvet, bell-muzzled. trou-
sers, and a jacket of the same material, all trimmed with
silver braid, and his high-crowned hat. was heavy with
bullion cord. He wore a tightly curling black beard, and
his eyés were very sharp and bright, while his full lips
were startlingly red. He was not with the riotous fellows
at the bar; but. that was not to be wondered at, as they
probably would not have welcomed a greaser as a familiar
companion,

‘Albona Ben was taking the lead in the discussion of
the stranger. who patronized a. Del Verde hotel without
likewise patronizing its bar.

“Sech a crawfish as thet ain’t got no. right to a decent
lodgin’!”. the big borderman bellowed:. “Why, ’twas a
insult to the Grand Hotel of Del Verde, an’ to them that
does patronize et.. Ain’t thet so, pardners?”

“You're. mighty right, old son!’ cried one who was eager
to see trouble begin for. the stranger.

“Whar is-this.yere major?” roared big Ben.

The barkeep told them which room the guest occupied.

“Rouse him out o’ that!” commanded the bully. “We
wanter see him, We wanter see him drink. An’ ef he
won't drink, gosh-all-Friday, we'll see him dance! Ain't
thet so, boys?” :

The boys were eager and willing to see..any tender-
foot or stranger made a monkey of, and they acquiesced
joyfully in the program. that Albona. Ben laid-out. The

_ bartender, nothing loath, seized a..piece of. two-by-four
“ scantling and went to a certain part of the oe barroom.

ne house was. mainly all one room on the. first. floor,
the kitchen being in a shed at the back. The big barroom
was. not plastered. The. beams and planks of ‘the single
floor above. were uncovered. Those beams.and planks were
marked off in red chalk.into squarés or oblongs, the marks
following the partitions of. the sleeping rooms on the sec-

‘ond floor. It was a handy arrangement. when a guest left

word for an éarly call, there being no bell boys in. this
hotel. .The barkeeper and clerk merely walked out under
that section of bare floor above which the aforesaid. guest

lay and thumped upon the boards with a piece of scantling,

until he was assured. that.the sleeper was .aroused.

Now the bartender proceeded to pick out the square
which marked the bedroom occupied. by the guest who
had signed. the register that afternoon, and then beat a
tattoo onthe ‘planks which made them jump.

Instantly somebody in boots’ was heard to spring. ua
the céuch upon the floor. Albona Ben led the roar of
laughter that followed. The gang became quiet, however,
as the bartender returned to his usual place, so that they
might hear what the man upstairs was doing.

They were not left in doubt upon this point for a mo-

ment. The guest had evidently been lying on the bed fully
dressed. He walked firmly across the floor, opened the
sagging door of his room, which moaned painfully as it
was drawn back, and then they heard. him start for. the
stairs.

The stairway was open, and for half its length could
be viewed from the big barroom. The gang before the
bar. stared eagerly as the guest. began to appear coming
down the stairs. First came his high, polished riding
boots, with good-sized spurs in the “heels, Above the
hoots appeared yellow riding breeches. And. then came
into view a belt, with a pair of holsters, and those holsters

each contained a most businesslike-looking gun, with a
ee barrel. Beside this hardware the gold-adorned handle
of a great bowie was in evidence at.the belt aswell.

There was a murmur from the gang. This man com-
ing down the stairs’ was armed for war, and no. mistake!

‘And he was no tenderfoot, decked out in weapons
that he did not know how to use. That was évident the
moment that his face came into view. He was. bronzed
handsomé, with keen eyes, and a devil-may-care air
him that ‘made even. Albona Ben hesitate,

The stranger shot at the group a single glance; notes
their’ attitudes. ‘and weapons, and then “shifted. his gaze
to the bartender. And he looked somewhat irritated as

he strode to the end of the bar and beckoned the server -

of liquid refreshments to him.
“Are you the inconsiderate son of. a.read: runner who
just disturbed ‘my siesta?” he demanded, in a low voicé,

but with a glint in his eye that made the barkeeper feel ~

a draft on the back of his neck. “Don’t you allow a guest

   

NEW BUPFALO BILL

 

 

WEEKLY. 45

a night’s occupancy of 4 root when he has paid. for it
in this shack? Come! . I’m speaking to you.”

The chill traveled straight down the fellow’s spine and
back again, and he swallowed hard beforé he could speak.
The guest made no threatening move toward his weapons,
oe his eyes punctured the very lining of the barkeep’s
sou

“These—these gents was, wantin’ you to drink with ’em,”
faltered the barkeeper stammeringly.

The stranger. overlooketl the gang before the bar in a
way that made some.of them shiver, But Albona Ben
bluffed well.

“Say, you. Major What’s-yer-name!” he growled. “Ye
ee walk all over thet sandpiper. It’s me called you

own

“Oh, it was you, eh?” returned the stranger, ‘and he
slipped along the bar with a catlike motion that made
several of the other, men get quickly out of his path and
left him face to face ‘with their leader.

“That’s wot I said!” said Ben, “I want ye ter. drink

wi? me—understand ?”

“On-she-ma-da!- I understand what you say,” ‘purred
the other. -“But I don’t understand. what right.a big’ stiff
like you has to interfere with a gentleman’s peaceful
dreams! That is. what I don’t understand!”

lf he intended this for a stick to stir up the caged wild

. beast in Albona. Ben’s..soul, it. succeeded. With. a iFoar,

the bully swept his left arm aside, pitching. his.nearest

“friends away from the bar, and with his right he grabbed

a gun. And then he found that he had hold of one of

the most foolish and uséless weapons thatthe brain of
“man éver invented. ~

A loaded. revolver, in the: hand of a man with ¢ a “quick
eye and steady nerves, is sometimes a most appealing argu-
ment in an emergency. But there are times when such a
weapon is of less: value than a lone deuce in a poker deck,
This was.one of those. occasions.

“Big Ben had scarcely. gripped his’ gun when he found the
ered chin. The.razorlike point(of the bowie man’s blade
fairly scratched AbonaBen’s cuticle. The fellow. might
have pulled the trigger of the gun he had drawn, but ‘his
antagonist. would have.pitched forward upon him, and
that “tetrible knife would have slit Albona Ben’s wizzand
like that of a dressed fowl.

The Del Verde gang of rufhans had tried to “start some-
thing” with this stranger. It looked right then as though
that “something” wasn’t going to work out altogether as
the rufhans expected.

CHAPTER XII.
TWO STARTLING EPISODES.

“Put up your gun!”

The stranger in Del Verde, who had so ae the
gang that evidently ran the town about as it please e
no louder than before; but Albona Ben o!
quick as his trembling hand would let him

'*That’s better,’ said Major Gordon Lillie, and He flashed
his knife back into its sheath. “Gun fighti i
my friend; but the man with the bowie ¢s
the vest like a dried codfish while you aré
your finger around the trigger Of @ ¢

“You murderin’ greaser!” panied
ened bully. ‘I believe you'd ha’ plunk
toad sticker, too!”

“On-she-ma-da!” exclaimed the bowie man.
just right! I certainly would, have panctur ed yi
you could bore a hole in me with that ¢

“And I was only invitin’ a ter have a drink!" whined

  

    
   
 
  
 

 

Ben.

“T don’t drink,”

“Wa-al, a rel white man don’t fight wi a
grunted Albona Bén.. “Thet. thar’s.a gredser’s, tri

“You ought-to tell that to Colonel Jim Bowie,”
the stranger.

“Waal, we don’t count a man.a-re’l man. yere in Del
Verde ‘nless he kin shoot some,” declared Albona Ben,
gradually getting back some of. his courage.

“Oh, is that what’s eating you?” returned Pawnee Bill
good- -naturedly.

   

  

         
 

te NEW BUFFALO

He turned to the frightened barkeeper and asked ‘for.
a handful. of corks. The man handed over five. Pawnee
Bill. placed two of them on the end,of the bar, and at a
distance of four or five inches apart. Then he turned
with the other three in his hand and waved the men aside
as he drew one of his guns.

“I’m perfectly willing, gents,” he said, “to prove that I
can shoot, but it isn’t my way to practice on any man’s
carcass. A man is a big mark, anyway—a greenhorn ought
to. hit him at almost any distanee with a good gun. But
here are three. corks—and there are two standing on the
end of the bar. My back’s to the bar, and the two corks’
are eight yards away—eh?”

“About, stranger,” grunted Albona Ben.

“Allright. Now, I’m going to toss these three corks
into the air. I'll split all of ’em, one shot to each, and,
as I’m shooting, this bewhiskered old son’—indicating
Albona Ben—‘“can sing out which o’ them corks at the
end of the bar he wants shot off with the fourth ball—
the left one or the right. Savez, old son?”

“T’m. on,” grunted Albona Ben, while the others were
backing out of range.

At once Pawnee Bill tossed up the three corks. They
spread apart in a fan shape,\and his gun popped three
times in lightning succession. Above the explosions of
the cartridges the booming voice of Albona Ben shouted:

“Left!” :

And the left cork-on the bar leaped against the distant
wall in pieces, for Pawnee Bill whirled like a top and
caught it with his fourth shot. .

An exclamation of wonder burst in~chorus from the

‘lips of the eight or ten men present. The shots brought.

into the hotel a number of loiterers from the street, and
the barkeeper was instantly made busy passing out liquid
refreshments to the men who wished to pour. libations to.

the stranger who had proved himself such a clever shot. .

- Pawnee Bill was excused from drinking; even Albona
Ben admitted that such a. quick trigger and handy man
with the bowie deserved to have some idiosyncrasy—like
being teetotal—if he wished. The noisy crowd gathered
around Pawnee Bill and congratulated him, béing as sud-
denly friendly as they had been unfriendly in the begin-
ning,

“I reckon you air the Gordon Lillie that’s pard wi’ thet
thar Buffler Bill Cody we hear so much erbout down yere,
heh?” queried one old-timer. “Ain’t you the feller they
calls Pawnee Bill?”

“That is what I am called at times,” agreed the visitor
to Del Verde. ea

“Waal,” declared Albona Ben, “ef ye’d signed thet name
to the hotel register, ye wouldn’t hev been disturbed in
yer sleep, friend.”

“What’s yer business down yere, Pawnee Bill—not that
[’m cur’ous?” queried another of the men.

“I expect to meet Buffalo Bill and some of my other
pards along the river here,’ returned Pawnee carelessly.

“They ’round yere, too?”

“They were across the river when I saw them last,” said
Pawnee.

“Wot! In greaser territory?”

“Yes. I only crossed over from Mexico myself last
evening,” said Pawnee.

“I kin tell ye wot’s brought ye down inter the Big Bend
kentry,” said Albona Ben, “an’ I kin tell ye quick.” He
smote his hairy hand on the bar in emphasis, and flung
another glass of liquor under his belt.

“All right, old son. Maybe you can,”-admitted Pawnee
noncommittally.
~“T heered tell of yer bein’ down on‘old Sefior Junipe’s
rancho.a fortnight érgo. And I hearn tell thet the old
Me ay a visitor thar from acrost the Rio Grande.”

66 el ee “

“Thet visitor was Silvernail!” declared Albona Ben.

“Humph! We don’t know that,” said Pawnee Bill,.

“He shot down Pasquale, the blacksmith, didn’t he?
And Pasquale was a decent sort—for a greaser. Silver-
nail done it, all right—and Buffalo Bill and his pards have
ie _after that same holdup gent ever since. Ain’t I
rig t ye f i

“You think you are, anyway,” grunted Pawnee Bill, not
at all anxious to have the affairs of his chieftain discussed
in this open manner. 4

‘ing in the distance.

BELO WEEE Y?

At-that moment the Mexican—he with the black, curling
beard—stole out of the hotel. He went no farther than
the porch that ran the entire front of the building. -

Nightfall was approaching. There were few people in
the single street of Del Verde. The man who appeared
to be a greaser cast swift glances up and down this street,
then he crept to the nearest window, looking into the bar-
room which he had just left.

Pawnee Bill, surrounded by several of the natives of
the settlement, including Albona Ben, was now seated

at one of the round tables. The Del Verdeans were drink-

ing, but the bowie man refused their pressing invitations
to partake of the liquid refreshments on sale at the bar
of the Grand Hotel.

The man outside the window glared in upon the scene,
his black eyes glittering like those of a rock rattler when
it is about to strike. Another glance he shot in either
direction along the darkening sireet. There was no human
being in sight at the moment. a

With the rapidity of lightning the bearded man drew a
gun from beneath his blouse. He aimed quickly through
the window, and his hand was as steady as a rock. The

finger pressed the trigger the next second, and there was ~

a crash of glass and a wild yell of agony from within the

~Troom.

Leaping away from the window, the murderer vaulted
the porch rail and then ran like the wind for twenty yards
up. the street. . There was a horse rack in front of the
general store, and tied to the rack were several ponies.
The bearded man-selected one to mount, slashed the tie
reins of, the others with his knife, and, leading the ponies
behind “his own, set out up the road at a pounding gallop.

His little cavalcade was at the edge of the town before
anybody appeared from the hotel, for everybody in the
barroom had ‘run first to see who had been shot.

Circumstances had favored the murderer thus far. At
the edge of the town he let the other ponies go where
they listed,. while he spurred ahead on the back of the
best of the bunch. If there was: pursuit it was so far
behind that the fugitive heard no sound of it.

CHAPTER XIII.
BESIEGED.

The man who looked so much like a Mexican, and
who dressed like a well-to-do ranchero from across the
Rio Grande, had been paid very little attention while he was
in the barroom of the Grand Hotel. He had watched all
that went on; he had observed the marksmanship of
Pawnee Bill; he had seen him make friends with the rough
hangers-on of the hotel. ;

And he had heard, too, all that was said at the bar.
He had been present when Silvernail’s name was men-
tioned, and he had observed that Pawnee Bill did not
deny that he and his friends were endeavoring to mark
and run to earth the border bandit who was known far
and wide by that name.

For some reason—and that reason could be found among

the facts above related—the man with the curling black

beard, which made his face look so long and sallow, was
an enemy to Pawnee Bill. It was the bowie man whom he
watched through the window, and it was at Buffalo Bill’s
pard that he aimed his gun when he fired the fatal shct
that threw the barroom of the hotel into confusion.

But at the very moment of pulling the trigger Pawnee
Bill had flung himself sideways in his chair. He had
chanced to look up, seen the evil face at the window, and
intuitively realized that peril threatened.

It was an act quite involuntary, but it surely saved Paw-
nee Bill's life. The bullet smashed the windowpane, raised
the hair upon Pawnee’s forehead, and a wild yell from
behind him marked the impact of the ball. A man sitting
at another table, an entirely inoffensive fellow, received

the ball at the base of his brain, and was probably dead |

before the yell was well out of his mouth. e
The rabble rushing together, overturning chairs and
tables, held Pawnee Bill in the midst of the crowd for
several moments. But he was first to get otitside the door
and see-the murderer, with the band of ponies, disappear-
And right behind Pawnee was the
huge figure of Albona Ben. Ce

i

 

 

Ak oh

pee eee tet Se

Tm AS

7
em

 

 

NEW BUFFALO

“Thet’s th’ greaser!” roared the big fellow.
all-Friday.. He’s got my hoss!”

“And mine! And mine!” was the chorus of. several
who appeared from the store and the hotel.

In fact, the murderer had been smart enough to grab
every horse in sight, and so retard the chase which, he
knew: would be begun as quickly as possible. No Mexican
could shoot a white man down in Del Verde without pay-
ing the final penalty—if he were caught.

But while the Del Verdeans scurried hither and yon
for horses, Pawnee Bill knew just where his mount was
—in the shed behind the hotel. He got it in two min-
utes. When he-arrived before the hotel again, big Ben
and a few_others had managed to secure steeds.

“Come on!” shouted Pawnee Bill. ‘Let the others trail

“An? gosh-

after us. You boys know the trails hereabouts. Let’s
stick close to the tail of that skunk!”
“Right you are, major!” roared Albona Ben. « “Stick

to me, and I warrant we'll run down thet thar greaser.
He had no bizness killin’ Lone Joe Appleby. Appleby
never did htm no dirt.”

“The pistol ball was meant for me,” said Pawnee, as
they. rodeout of town. “No doubt of that.”

“Think so?” gasped Ben.

“T saw him at the window.
time.”

“Then you know that greaser?”

“Never. set eyes om him before that I know of.”

“Didn’t you see him in the hotel?”

“Why, I saw. him,” admitted Pawnee, “but I didn’t give
him. any particular attention, old son.”

“He’s been hangin’ around yere for a-day or two,” said
one of the other Del: Verdeans, who rode close to Pawnee
Bill, now in the lead of the furiously riding cavalcade.

‘“Gosh-all-Friday !” yelled Albona Ben.. “He'll sure hang
around yere a hull lot—w’en. we gits our fins on him!”

There was no time for further conversation. The crowd
of pursuers were riding just'as fast as their horses could
lay hoofs to the ground. . The evening was. deepening,
and the greaser had every chance of escaping if he knew
the territory at all.

The fellow had taken the trail up the river, however.
Big Ben yelled to Pawnee that the path led to a ferry
run by a man named Liscom, who lived on this side of
the river.. There was scarcely. a chance that the fugitive
would leave the trail until after he passed the ferryman’s
house.

“And unless I’m much mistook,” was shaken out of Al-
bona Ben, as his mount pounded along, “the greaser will
try and cross by old man Liscom’s boat.” Ef he ain’t
too fur ahead, we'll have him, sure, then.”

“How’s that? If he takes the ferryboat across the river

I flung myself back just in

99

?

“We'll cut the rope—sabby?” shouted big Ben, his eyes
shining ferociously in the semidarkness. “Ef th’ current
once gits holt of thet thar driftin’ punt, we kin ride erlong
the bank an’ pick Mr. Greaser off in time.”

But it was still some miles to the ferry, and the gang
behind the fugitive plied spur and quirt without mercy.
The hare had never so eager a pack of hounds behind him.
This murderer should have laid a better plan had he
desired to commit this crime at Del Verde.

[t might have been different, however, had the person
killed been the man whom he aimed at.

It was a question in Pawnee Bill’s mind if these Del
Verdeans would have so eagerly taken up the trail of
the criminal had the man killed not been one of their
own friends. But his prompt leadership of the posse had
made him popular with these rough fellows. The dead
man had been well liked; the supposed Mexican was going
to have the time of his life escaping from the posse.

And, although it was fairly dusk by now, as the pur-
suers mounted a hillock and sighted the river they sighted
something else. It was a single horseman lashing his steed
along the path, and almost at the ferry. Even Pawnee
Bill knew that it was the ferry ahead, for he saw ‘a-single
point of light. dancing out there on the river. :

It was the lantern of the big punt with which the river-
man, Liscom, ferried his customers and their horses across
the Rio Grande. This boat was aided in the crossing by
a great hawser that worked around a drum on either bank,

The question. was: Was Liscom then_ pulling. over to

BILL WERE 2 17

the Mexican shore, or was he approaching the Texan
side? Ifthe latter, the fugitive would be likely to reach
the ferry just. about as Liscom pulled in at the shore...
Under duress, the ferryman might help the murderer away
from Texas, and to cut the hawser and shoot the fugitive,
as Albona Ben suggested, would be to injure the ferry-
man’s property. and endanger his life as well as that of
the murderer. :

So it was with great anxiety that Pawnee Bill watched
the moving light» on the face of the turbulent waters.
And in avery few moments he saw.that the ferryman was
drawing his punt closer to the Mexican shore.

“We'll either get that greaser at the ferry or he'll go
on beyond,’ Pawnee Bill shouted. to his companions.
on be stuck there if he waits for that boat to come

ac Pike ;

‘“Ain’t you mighty right!” roared big Ben.
oiler—dead !”

As it proved, Albona Ben was a mighty poor prophet.

“We got the

’ The fugitive was undoubtedly halted at the ferry.. But-
- he was better than a dozen dead men when the. posse

reached that spot.

In the first place, they found big Ben’s horse lying on
the ground before the door of Liscom’s cottage. The.
beast had fallen and was unable to get up.

“The cruel critter!” roared the owner of the. steed. :
“That’s another count against the greaser. Whar’s the
murderer gone?” : eee |

His answer was a shot from the darkened house, and
a bullet that spun the hat fromBen’s head. Instantly the
posse scurried to a distance.. ee

The fugitive had got into Liscom’s house. Liscom him-. -
self. was: across the river, -but the men from. Del .Verde
looked at each other in horror and amazement.

“We can riddle that house—it’s nothing but a shack.
Some of you men carry heavy rifles,’ said Pawnee Bill -
eagerly. ae :

But Albona Ben put up his hand...

“Gosh-all-Friday!” gasped: the big fellow.
do that, major.”

“Why not?” :

“It’s Liscom’s house,” said another of the Del Verde
men.

“Whatet ite?

“And.Liscom’s folks aire maybe thar,” said Albona Ben.

“On-she-ma-da!” cried Pawnee Bill. “Has he a family?”

“Yep. And they sure aire white folks,” said Ben. “Lis-
com’s wife an’ darter.”

This statement put another complexion on the state of
affairs. Pawnee Bill was for the moment as much at sea
and quite as helpless as his companions. But finally he
said:

“We've got to find out if the women are really in that
house—and we want to surround the building and be sure
that the greaser doesn’t escape.”

“That’s right, too,” agreed Albona Ben. ‘“Liscom him-
self will be soon back, and he can tell us, of course.”

Meanwhile, under the directions of Pawnee, the men
spread out, keeping well away from the shack, and made
a cordon around the ferryman’s home. The fugitive would
stand. small chance of getting through the line, for the
moon was already rising and it would soon make the river
bank as light as day.

’ Pawnee went down to the shore with Albona Ben when
the bobbing lantern proclaimed the fact that the boat was
near the Texas shore.

“Hello, there, friends!” cried the ferryman.
git acrost?”

Ben was known to Liscom, and in a few words he told
what had happened. The ferryman leaped ashore, and
would have torn up the slope to his house—and been shot
down by the fugitive—had not Pawnee and the other held
him back. is

“Gosh-all-Friday, don’t do that!” yelled Ben, “We got
ter use strategy. That greaser’s got us whar th’ ha'r’s.
short; an’ no mistake.”

“But. it’s my old’ woman—an’ Bessie—he’s got in thar
wi? him—ef he ain’t kilt "em a’ready,” gasped Liscom. ..

“That’s very true,” said Pawnee. “But it isn’t. going
to help matters a particle for you to be shot, likewise—
is it

“But the villain!

OWe ean ts

“Want to

Wot will he do to them?”

 
 

18 NEW BULEALO

“Probably nothing.”

“I don’t b’lieve myself he'll hurt the wimmen, Liscom,”
added Albona Ben.

“You ain’t got na surety for that,” groaned the ferry-
man.

“And you’re mighty right there,” admitted Ben. “But
it stands ter reason th’ pesky sarpint won’t make matters
wuss for himself by doin’ them harm.”

“He knows what you boys. will give him when he’s
caught,” groaned Liscom. “He’s bound to die.”

“You bet he is!” agreed Ben. “He. killed. Lone Joe
Appleby, an inoffensive cuss as ever drew the breath of
life.”

“Then wot does he care?” cried Liscom. ‘He kin do
any old thing to my womafi and Bessie.” ‘
“Don’t. you believe it, mister,” said Pawnee Bill sooth-

ingly. “He’s got his hands full. He don’t know when we

will rush him. He is too scared, it’s likely, to pay much
attention to the women.”

“I got to try and git them out-o’ there!” declared Lis-
com wildly.

‘Hold on!” exclaimed Pawnee Bill. “You. leave it to

me. Let me try first, will you?” And without waiting for
_ the two to reply, the bowie man started. up the bank toward
_ the ferryman’s fiouse, in’ which the murderer lay..

GHAPTER XIV.

PAWNEE BILL’S BRAVERY.

_.. The bowie man had a-deep scheme in his mind, but it
_ took some.courage—and that of a high quality—to put it
into execution. He did not believe that a fugitive lying
under the guns of more than a score of desperate men
would add to his bad estate by injuring Liscom’s wife and
- daughter. But he did not blame the ferryman for fearing
for their safety. And Pawnee wanted the women out of
the house, too. oe t : rr

With the women out of the way, the posse could advance
- and riddle the thin-walled shack with bullets. Some of
those bullets would be pretty sure to place the supposed
Mexican on his back, But this attempt could not be made
while the women were with the fugitive.

Pawnee made a quick circuit of the house and spoke
to each of the Del Verde men on watch. He told them
what he was about to try to do, and gave them instruc-
tions how to act. The door was heavily barred, and the
windows of the shack were shuttered, and the shutters
clamped into place on the inside. But there were port-
holes in the shutters and in the upper part of the heavy
plank door, and through these holes every moving cbject
about the cabin could be scanned by the fugitive within.

Suddenly Pawnee appeared right in front of the house,
but so far away that the murderer, who had secured Lis-
com’s own fifle to help him out, would not be likely to
try a shot at the bowie man.

“Hello, the house!” called Pawnee loudly.

“Well, you know I am here, sefior,” shouted back the
man who held them all at bay.

“You know who I am?”

“T ean see you clear enough to shoot you, sefior,” snarled
the man in the shack.

“Tf that was so,’ chuckled Pawnee to Albona Ben, who,
with Liscom, stood near him, “he’d shoot me at once. For
1 am the fellow he is after.

“Tam Pawnee Bill. You tried to shoot me in the hotel
and killed another man. If I give you a fair shot at me,
will you trade something for it?”

The man in the house evidently could not understand
what the bowie man was getting at. He was silent for
some minutes. :

“Aren't you a little hard of hearing this. evening?”
drawled-the bowie man. i

“I don’t sabby what you mean,” grunted the besieged. .

Pawnee repeated his statement.

“What do you want in exchange, sefior?” asked the other
quickly. tes

“Liscom’s wife and daughter,” said Pawnee quickly.
“Remember, if you injure them it will be all the worse
for you. They are in your way there. Let them out and
give them a running chance, and I will stand out here,
without my guns, and give you a shot at me” __

BILL WEEKLY.

“Tt is a trick, sefior. Ain I a fool?” cried the fugitive.

“T don’t know whether you are a fool or not. But my
offer is no trick. It’s bona fide.”

“I shall shoot you, sefior,” cried the man from inside,

“Well, I’m taking that chance.”

It was evident that the fugitive was secretly considering
the idea. He wanted to “get” Pawnee. No doubt of that.
That desire had been the starting of his whole trouble.
In shooting at the bowie man he had killed Appleby, and
he now had a chance to bring about the death of Pawnee
Bill, and so fulfill his first intention, even if in the end
these men from Del Verde got him.

“Come a hundred yards nearer, senor!” shouted the fugi-
tive from justice.

“All right.”

“And leave yout guns behind.”

“All right.” ee

“Let us see you start; sefior,” said the scoundrel, with a
hoarse laugh. :

“Let the women out of the door first. Hold them under
your guns. Make them wait until I am near enough to
suit you, Mexiean. Then, when you fire at me, they. can
PUN : ‘

“Great heavens, sir!” gasped Liscom, behind the intrepid
partner of Buffalo Bill. ‘You are accepting death in their
stead.” Hi

“It’s all in the day’s work,” laughed Pawnee Bill, with

-a wave of his hand.

’“Gosh-all Friday!” grumbled Albona Ben. “I don’t like
sech days work.” ©.
-“There’s the-chance that he isn’t as.good'a shot as he
thinks he 1s—especially with yoyr rifle, Liscom.”

“It’s murder, sir!” cried Liscom. sl
. But Pawnee stood out farther in the moonlight .and
shouted toward the house: ary anne

“Ym ready, Mexican! Let the ladies out.”

“Throw down your guns!” commanded the man within.

Pawnee Bill did this, tossing both his pistols to Albona
Ben. But as the fugitive said nothing about his bowie,
the major did not remove that from its sheath,

Suddenly the-voice of the fugitive’ was heard more
clearly. : u

“Remember !’’ he shouted. “If any trickery is tried, 7
will kill the women on the doorstone! Am I understood?”

Albona Ben swore at him heartily, and Liscom muttered
threats in his beard; but Pawnee Bill yelled in reply;

“Go on, Mexican! Nobody’s going to trick you. You're
such a fine shot that I’m going to give you another chance
—that’s all. Let the women out.”

The door of the shack swung suddenly halfway open.
Through the aperture appeared two slénder figures—evi-
dently the wife and daughter of the ferryman.

“Now let that.dog come forward—one hundred yards!”
cried the fugitive strongly. “If he doesn’t do it, Pil shoot
the women. If any other men try to creep up on me, [’ll
shoot the women. Do you all understand?”

A groan answered him. Every man there knew that
the wife and daughter of the ferryman were in greater
peril than they had been before. This thing must. go
through now to a finish. If Pawnee Bill’s courage failed
him, the women would doubtless be sacrificed to the rage
of the murderer.

But Pawnee Bill was laughing. He showed no signs
of developing a case of “cold feet.” He had agreed to
a daringly desperate act, and anybody who knew the bowie
man well would have been sure that there was no chance
of his going back on his word. He would pace forward
the ae yards as agreed. And the women would be
saved,

The result to Pawnee Bill himself? Ah, that was an-
other matter entirely!

But the bowie man was the least disturbed individual
—to all appearances—at present gathered about the fer-
ryman’s house. He calmly secured a cigar from his hat,
bit off the end, ignited a match and then the cigar, and,
complacently puffing on the weed, advanced the number

of paces demanded by the murderer,

The ignited cigar glowed brightly, and, even if a shadow
chanced to cover the moon, its glowing point would reveal
Pawnee Bill’s situation to the man who, desired his Hie.
It would scem as though this cigar smoking was a bit of
uncalied-for bravado.

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NEW BUFFALO

On the other hand, however, it was the single thing
Pawnee did to try and keep from being shot. That red
point of the cigar could not fail to attract the attention
of the man drawing a deadly bead upon him. If a man
aims a gun at your heart, he stands a pretty good chance
of hitting some part of your anatomy. But the head is
a much smaller object, and much more difficult to hit at
a long range. The glowing cigar point, if it caused the
murderer to aim at Pawnee Bill’s head, would lessen the
chance of the bowie man being hit-at all.

Finally the man in the house yelled: ‘‘Stop!”

Pawnee Bill had not advanced the hundred yards, nor
had he expected to. The fellow in the house was fearful
of trickery, and, despite his wishing to make a target of
Pawnee Bill, he feared to let him come too near.

On the other hand, Pawnee was very sure that the fellow
would shoot first at him; then the women would run, and
their chance for escape was excellent. It would help the
murderer not at all to shoot down either of the women.

The moonlight revealed objects before the house very

clearly. Yet there is a quality about moonlight that makes
it difficult. It casts such very black shadows, and so un-
certain. Figures standing in the flood of white brilliance

seem, too, to have a halo about them.

Pawnee, when he was told to stop, turned his side to
the partly open door of the shack and folded his arms,
But his face he kept full front to the house and puffed
strongly on the cigar. The glowing point. was plain
enough, but the smoke helped to make the position of the
head uncertain.

“Stand there!” yelled the man behind the barricade.

Pawnee Bill made no move. He seemed quite uncon-
scious of any danger. Yet at any moment might sound
the shot which would be the signal for the.two women to
run—that shot which would be aimed to take the life of
the brave bowie man! | :

CHAPTER. XV.
THE OLANDO STAGE HOLDUP.

The Baron Villum von Schnitzenhauser was having the
time of his life. For the baron certainly loved good eating,
and in the establishment of Professor Pasquale Cralé, at
San Enrife, the culinary operations were conducted by
Mojé, the handsome Yaqui girl, and the baron stood ace-
high with Mojé.

The baron, however, although he was stationed most
frequently near the kitchens of the Cralé-domicile, knew
all that went on in the front of the house. He had been
left here by Buffalo Bill to watch proceedings, see when
Clifford Smart and Rawdon returned—if they returned at
all—and report to the scout any important happening which
to the baron seemed of particular moment.

The baron had been taken into Buffalo Bill’s confidence
regarding the king of scout’s suspicions, and he was on
the sharp watch for anything which might bear upon the
mystery of Clifford Smart’s seeming determination to keep
away from Buffalo Bill.

For fear that Sefiorita Maria might suspect that she and
her household were being watched, the reason given out
for the baron’s remaining at San Enrife was Toofer’s in-
disposition. But the only real indisposition that the big
mule ever had was a distaste for work. There was noth-
ing the matter with Toofer but laziness, and at times he
was so stuffed with meanness that he seemd to be skin-
full of it!

It was several nights after his friends had departed from
San Enrife—Pawnee Bill to ride along the big river, and
Buffalo Bill and the others to try and strike Silvernail’s
trail beyond the Olando road—that the baron was awak-
ened out of his sound sleep by a disturbance in the stable
yard. The room in which he slept overlooked this court-
yard, and the baron crept to the latticed window and peered
out. ;

Professor Cralé himself was now at home—a little, ab-
sent-minded man, with a pointed gray beard, who peered
through very thick spectacles and seldom listened to what
one said to him. Since his return to San Enrife he had
been more than ever ‘deeply engaged in the problem of
rock oil that he believed richly underlaid the mesa back
of the town. Although his fellow townsmen looked at

me he ips Pre ren oie oe

 

BULL Via. 19

him askance, the professor paid no attention to their ill
looks, and went mooning about as was his custom. The
only thing that seemed to trouble him was the fact that
none of the San Enrife men would work on the mesa
again, and that he missed his assistant, Clifford Smart.

Now, there were no other men about the Cralé premises
—that the baron knew anything about—save the professor
and himself. But here was another man in the courtyard,
and Mojé was with him. The baron’s eyes fairly bulged
out at that, and he felt poignant pangs of jealousy.

The Indian maiden fed the horse on which the man
seemed to have ridden very hard into the stable, and
brought out another—one of the professor’s best. This
she began to saddle, while the man who had ridden to the
house at that strange hour of the night went in through
the kitchen.

Now, the baron wasn’t altogether a fool; but sometimes
he did unnecessary things. He knew that he was clumsy,
and prone to stumble over things when he tried particularly
to be quiet. He wanted to know what the stranger did in
the house, and he dared not go downstairs and search
about for him-without a light.

Therefore he pulled on his pants and socks, and still
wearing a voluminous nightgown, which he affected when-
ever he got a chance to sleep in a real bed, he took a
lighted candle and started through the long hall which led
to the front stairway. If he had chanced to meet any
member of the family—or the intruder himself—he might
have been taken for a ghost.

But on reaching the head of the flight of stairs he heard
voices below in the main saloon. He soon learned that
both the professor and his daughter were there, and the
third voice must proclaim the presence of the stranger
who had ridden in at this hour.

Down the broad stairway crept the baron in his night-
shirt and carrying the lighted candle, like Lady Macbeth
in the sleepwalking scene. He came close to the curtained
doorway, and there stretched his -ears...And immediately
he knew that the midnight visitor was Clifford Smart.

“Rawdon will be here with the mules and with some
workmen to-morrow,” the elder Smart was saying. “I
merely rode on ahead, because I knew that you would be .
anxious to communicate with the University of Mexico.”

“Very true, my boy, very true,’ said Professor Cralé.
“T thought I might have to go myself; but as you have
come &

“T will start again in half an hour.
horse. for me.”

“But, Senor Clifford, to go away again so quickly!”
cried the sefiorita.

“T wish to catch the Olando stage,” said Clifford hur-
riedly. “I can ride straight across to the trail and meet it
going down to Olando at Manual Alsando’s house. The
up stage passes the other there, and there is usually a
wait for the passengers to get refreshments from Manuel’s
woman. ‘Thou knowest,” concluded the young man.

At that moment the girl uttered a terrified scream. She
had glanced through the parted curtains at the doorway.
There, projected across the floor, was a distinct shape—a
figure in flowing draperies with what seemed to be a sword
in its hand, the tip of the weapon being of flame.

Perhaps both the professor and his daughter were a
bit superstitious; they were Mexicans. But Clifford glided
swiftly to the door, and he drew a very businesslike-look-
ing gun from his belt. hat he Saw halted him in sur-
prise, if not in terror.

Stalking across the wide hall was the pot-bellied baron,
the nightgown flapping about his thin shanks, and the
candle held rigidly in one outstretched hand. The Dutch-
man walked straight to the big front door, tried all the
fastenings, seemed satisfied that they were secure, and then,
wheeling, started back toward the stairway. His eyes were
wide open, but he passed Clifford Smart without appearing
to notice him, and started up the stairs again.

“Sh! He’s walking in his sleep,’ whispered Clifford,
with a chuckle, as the professor and his daughter crept
forward, too.

They saw the baron disappear at the head of the flight
of stairs, and gave him no further attention. But the
baron was very much awake. He*was very much excited,
too. He felt that Buffalo Bill should know that Clifford

 

Mojé is saddling a

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DO

Smart was starting on the journey of a thousand miles
and more to Mexico City. ;

Smart was going south by the Olando stage to the rail-
road; Buffalo Bill—so the baron believed—was looking
for the professor’s assistant, and for Silvernail, near the
Rio Grande,

From his window he saw the young man start away on
a fresh horse. Mojé sleepily closed the stable and the
gate after his departure, and then went to her bed.

‘“Undt in de morgen she vould haf toldt me noddings
—noddings!” grunted the baron, shaking his head. “Sich
iss de perfidty of yomens!”

But the baron spent no time in bewailing this fact. He
merely waited for the house to get quiet again. Then he
descended from his window, got Toofer out of the stable,
opened the rear gate of the Cralé premises, and was
quickly riding rapidly into the hills in the direction that
he supposed Clifford Smart to have taken.

Toofer*had had such a good rest that he should have
been grateful and willing .to travel. Instead, he seemed
to take a distaste for traveling, and threatened to balk a
dozen times before the baron reached the well-trodden
road known as the Olando Trail. This was after sunrise,
and there was but one house in sight. This was Manuel
Alsando’s, house of call.

The baron got down and examined the trail. A coach
had passed to the south already. He hurried to Alsando’s
and made inquiries. The coach going north was late. He
did not need to ask if Clifford Smart had gone on the
diligence toward Olando and the railroad, for there was
the horse he had ridden away from San Enrife in Man-
uel’s stable. The baron put Toofer in the stable, likewise,
after making a bargain with Manuel for his keep. It was
almost with tears that the baron left the mule, but Toofer’s
peculiarities of temper were too evident at present for
Schnitzenhauser to risk trying to make the trip to the
river on the mule’s quarter-deck. :

The northern-bound diligence came into sight shortly,
and the baron elimbed to the seat beside the driver. The
mules were changed, and shortly the heavy vehicle, with
several passengers inside, as well as the Dutchman beside
the driver, rolled away toward the distant boundary. The
baron didn’t know whereabouts he would hit Buffalo Bill’s
trail, but he felt that his friends must be somewhere to-
ward the big river, and wherever the stage halted during
the following four days he inquired for news of the Amer-
icans.

They had not been seen on the Olando Trail, however;
at least, the baron heard nothing of them.

As they bowled along, just at evening of the fourth day,
through a wooded glen, the baron was nodding on his Seat,
running the risk of rolling off at every jolt, when suddenly
he heard the driver utter a frightened cry.

The baron came awake in a hurry, and just in time to
seize the lines slipping from the hands of the stage driver.
That individual, with another horrified cry, rolled off the
seat, leaped over the front wheel, and plunged into the
underbrush like a jack rabbit into its burrow.

The baron, busy with the mules for a minute, did not
understand what ailed the fellow. He brought the six
draft animals down to a walk, and then stopped them dead.
And, looking up, he found that there was a good reason

for their stopping. Directly in the middle of the road was’

a horseman.
“Ach, himmelblitzen! A holdtoop!” gasped the baron.
And then he came near tumbling off the seat as the
driver had. He was held speechless and motionless by ter-
ror. The horseman that confronted the diligence was
without a head!

CHAPTER XVI.
THE TRAGEDY AT THE FERRY.

The astonishing figure on horseback was no apparition,
however, There was nothing melting about it: it didn’t
disappear like a wraith. Instead, it rode straight up to
the stage, and there was light enough for the baron to see
two big pistols, one held in each of the headless horse-
man’s hands, and aiming straight at him!

The figure seemed to have had its head lopped off at its
shoulders; but this decapitation had evidently caused it

NEW BUFFALO BILL WEEKLY.

7

‘no physical trouble.

It had not even stifled the voice of
this strange and gruesome holdup man.

“Put your hands above your head, sefior!” said the
voice of the road agent, said voice appearing to proceed
from his chest.

The baron’s hands shot into the air. He knew when
it was well to play caution three ways! Although the rob-
ber seemed to have lost his head, Baron Villum von Schnit-
zenhauser did not lose his.

Having lost his head, it would seem that the headless
horseman must have parted with his eyes, too; but when
one of the passengers opened the door of the coach and
started to climb down, a pistol ball in his direction seemed
to indicate that the robber’s eyesight was particularly good.

“Stay in there—every man of you!” cried the voice
from the chest of the headless horseman. “Throw your
purses and valuables into the road, but do not alight,
sefiores !”

A chorus of appalling shrieks came from the interior of
the diligence at this. Not until then had the passengers
beheld the robber in the full horror of his masquerade.

“The Headless Horseman!” they bawled, and were too
panic-stricken for the moment to obey the robber’s com-
mand, ;

And then something intervened—a quite unexpected
something.

From down the trail, from up the trail, and from both
sides of the trail there appeared mounted men. A shrill
war whoop brought the baron to sudden life and action.

“Ach, himmelblitzen! Idt iss Puffalo Pill!”

The scout and Wild Bill, with Nomad and Little Cayuse,
jumped the headless horseman as successfully as he had
jumped the diligence. A lariat hurtled through the air,
and the masquerading robber was noosed by Little Cayuse.
The villain’s pistols exploded, but they did no harm to
his captors. Indeed, he was forced to drop them in the
road, and his horse went mad with the pain of one of the
bullets.

It cavorted across the road, and then started to run.
Little Cayuse could not release the rope from his saddle
horn. The headless robber was snatched from his saddle
and came with a fearful crash upon the ground.

Buffalo Bill and his mates, who had been following the
road agent for more than two days, immediately dis-
mounted and surrounded the fallen man. The entire upper
part of his body was covered by a brown sack which looked
like a coat, the top of it being held expanded like a pair
of very broad shoulders. But the man tinder the sack
was a much smaller fellow than he appeared to be before
his costume was disarranged.

When they tried to lift him he screamed with awful
agony. The fall had seriously injured his spine, and there
were internal injuries, too. Buffalo Bill cut the sacking
away and revealed the evil face of Juan Caseano, the
dwarf of San Enrife.*

The unfortunate man was almost at his last gasp. Buf-
falo Bill bent down and asked him if he could do anything
to alleviate his suffering.

“Sefior, you can do nothing,” whispered the dwarf. “I
—I haf been one wicked man—si, s1/ The leetle Padre
Josefo told me how it would be. I am dying—dying!”

“You were one of the men who robbed the mail car
near Parabeaua, were you not?” asked the anxious scout.

“St, sevior. We robbed the mail. Some of the money
you will find inside my clothing. Si! I haf been the
wicked one.”

“And you rode to that ruined hacienda and there divided —

your spoil ?” ee

“St, Sefior Buffalo Beel. Thou knowest. When you
came I set the old casa afire on the inside and escaped.”

“And your partner in crime? Where was he?”

The man was silent, staring up into Cody’s face with a
wild look, i

“Was he Silvernail?” demanded the scaut earnestly.

“He—he 39 ‘

The dwarf's voice trailed to a whisper. He glared up
at the American. He said no more, for the breath had
left his body.

A little later the driver of the stagecoach came in, the
inside passengers were pacified, and the coach went on

 

 

*Sce New BUFFALO BILL WEEKLY, No. 272.

‘

 

 

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NEW BUFFALO

toward the river with Buffalo Bill and his friends riding
as a guard to it. On the way the baron found time to
make ‘his report to Buffalo Bill regarding the whereabouts
and future intentions of Clifford Smart.

“Then it looks as though Silvernail and Smart are two
distinct persons,’ said Buffalo Bill,

Of this he was sure the next morning, when they arrived
at the ferry run by a man named Liscom. Across the
river the scout and his friends could see a small house
surrounded by some tw oscore men, who seemed to be
besieging it.

The ferryboat came across: and took Buffalo Bill-and
Wild Bill, with their mounts, across first; and on the way
Liscom, the ferryman, related the incidents which led up
to the bes sieging, in the ferryman’s hotse, of the Mexican
renegade.

Pawnee Bill had borne off all honors hors: He: had
risked his life to save the wife and daughter of the ferry-
man from harm: He had: boldly approached the house,
without his guns, at the murderer’s command. The women
had been allowed to run, and the man inside the shack
had tried his best to shoot down the bold pard of Buffalo
Bill.

But at the first shot Pawnee cast himself forward on
hands and knees. He had escaped the bullet, and, quickly

rolling over and over, got into shelter while the villain |

emptied his gun.

Pawnee came through the scrimmage without a scratch.
All night the men from Del Verde had kept up a terrible
fire on the shack, which was now riddled with bullets;
ie just as Buffalo Bill stepped ashore from the ferryboat

the house started to burn, having been set afire in some
fashion.

The watchers gathered in a closer circle about the shack,
expecting the Mexican to appear, in a sudden dash for life
and liberty. If he remained, he would be burned to death
amid the ruins of the rapidly burning shack.

“He has a horse here, Colonel Cody,” said Liscom. “I
remember the dog—a handsome fellow, with a beard——”

“Oh, father!” cried the daughter, Miss Bessie, suddenly
“That beard was false: He is a smoothly shaven young
man. And I’am not sure at all that he is a Mexican.”

“A false beard, eh?” exclaimed Buffalo Bill. “How do
you know that, miss?”

“Because it became disarranged when he came into the
house last evening and forced ‘mother and me to help bar

the windows against our friends.”

“Well,” said the ferryman, “we’ve got the horse. A
handsome bay with a white mane and tail. He left it here
when he went into Del Verde.”

‘‘Silvernail!” cried Buffalo Bill, startled by the descrip-
tion.

“By gorry! And that wouldn't | de sur prisin’, ” said Wild
Bill. “We thought he was working this way.

“Screechin’ catamounts !” erunted old. Nomad. “Ain't
ye jest right! It’s thet thar “scoundrel, I bet er good b’ar
hide!”

Pawnee Bill, who had come forward to welcome his
friends, added : S

“That bee has been buzzing in my head all the time. |
believe he is this Silvarnail, necarnis. That’s why he was
so anxious to put the kibosh on me.” ee

“Tt looks like it, old man,” agreed Buffalo Bill. “And
if he doesn’t come out of that hot box mighty soon he

As the scout spoke, the roof of the ferryman’s hous
fell in. Instantly the, walls caved. A great geyser .
flame shot into the air. Then it simmered down ve ary
quickly into a great heap of glowing coals in which no
creature could have remained alive. i

“On-she-ma-da!” ejaculated Pawnee Bilk> “It’s a-center
shot that Silvernail, the king-pin bandit of the border,
is a very dead issue !”

And they all agreed with this statement.

THE END.
“Buffalo Bill’s Clean Sweep ; or, Pawnee Bill’s Race

with the King-pin Bandit,” is the story for next week,
and it is a corker. There’s excitement in every line of

it; and after you've made up your mind as to just how
it is going to end, you get the surprise of your life, for

BILL. WEE. 21

it doesn’t end that way at all. It will be No. 274 of the
Weekly—out December 8th. This issue will also contain
another generous installment of Edward C. Taylor’s splen-
did serial, and the news of the world.

 

THE RIVAL MINERS;
Or, Ted Strong on the Trail.

By EDWARD C. TAYLOR.

(This interesting story began in New BUFFALO BILL WEEKLY
No. 269. If you haye not read the preceding chapters, get the
back numbers. which you have missed from your news dealer.

if he cannot supply you with them the publishers will do so.)

CHAPTER XI.
EARL ROSSITER’S PLOT.

That evening after his meeting with Ted Strong in
the woods, Cole Carew walked into the office of the
Eagle Hotel, in Crook City, and lounged about there
for a ‘while. He was moody and discontented, dissatis-
fied with himself and with everything else. He knew, in
his heart of hearts, that he was acting foolishly in his
quarrel with Ted Strong, but so great was his stubborn-
ness and’ tenacity of disposition that he would not admit
it to ahy one.

While he was sitting there, Earl Rossiter sauntered
through the office and met him there. Earl had been out
risking a few dollars at one of the gambling houses of
the town, and for once luck had been on his side, and he
had come out of it a heavy winner. His face was flushed
and there was a good-natured, conceited smile on it that
irritated Cole especially.

Rossiter looked at him in silence for a moment, but
Cole did not meet his gaze, but turned his eyes on the
bare boards of the floor. Earl could see a good-sized
bump under the sandy, curly hair of Carew, ‘where his
revolver. butt had left its mark. » Somehow, the sight
of this bump made him feel more complacent and happy
than ever.

“Hello, there, Cole!” he said.
ing 2”

‘Pretty good,” growled Cole.

“How’s that bump on your head?”

“All right. None of your business, anyway.”

“Look here, old man,” said Earl, laying his hand on
his friend’s shoulder, “I am sorry I hit you that time.
Really I iam. I had lost my temper and didn’t know
what I was doing. | am aw fully sorry. Really. 1 hope
it doesn’t hurt much, e

it's all right.”

“No hard feeling about it, I hope, Base I want
you for a. friend, and I think I can give you something
to make my friendship worth while. When we get
that Yellow. River Mine, I am going to make you a
partner in it.” La

“Took here,”. said Carew, sitting up suddenly, “I don’t
know as I want to be a partner in that Yellow River
Mine. It seems to me that those fellows own it all
right, and that there din’t no use your fighting for it,
Let ’em keep: it.” iN

“You've gone over to the enemy,” said Rossiter ex-
citedly. “You’ve made friends with Ted Strong. 1 didn’t
think that you: were that kind of a fellow, Cole.”

“T haven't made friends with him,’ said Cole. “I
Ww anted to fight with him to-day, but he refused.”

“He's afraid, You could lick him in a. punch.”

“That’s what I told him. But he didn’t seem to pay
such. attention to what I said.”

Earl Rossiter took a cigarette from his case which
he held in his hand, lighted it, and eyed his companion
through the wreaths of smoke. ‘that he sent curling from
his. lips. :

He knew Cole pretty well, and, poneraily speaking, knew
how to manage him. He knew the revengeful, im-
placable, slow nature of a boy, and he set himself to
work to inflame his anger against Ted Strong.

“How are you feel-

 
 

22 ‘NEW BUFFALO

Rossiter’s hatred of the young range rider had be-
come a mania\with him by this time. He had been fhght-
ing him for a long time. At every point he had been
defeated. He was disgraced with his father, he was
shunned by many of his former friends; his pretty cousin,
Louise Rossiter, who had. been formerly Very glad to see
him, avoided him now. He had made a practical failure
of his ranching business, and he knew that the claim he
had staked out below Ted’s, on the banks of the Yel-
low River, was worthless, and that he would never get a
cent out of it.

Unless at the gaming table, he could make no money.
and his luck there could not last much longer. He knew
that if he went to his father for money, the old gentle-
man would lecture him first and send him to some re-
formatory school where the strictest discipline was main-
tained afterward. For all this misfortune Earl Ros-
siter laid the blame on Ted Strong, and at the present
moment he was thinking how he would love to plunge
a knife into the heart of the young range riders’ leader.

He knew that Ted was the life of the organization of
young cattlemen, and with him out of the way he would
be able to force his way into the Black Mountain Min-
ing Company. He looked at Cole again, and decided
that Cole would have to help him to get square with
Ted Strong. Cole was at heart an honest, honorable
kind of boy, and he knew that he must arouse him
to a passion to make him forget his scruples. He had
little doubt that he could manage him.

Carew had not a cent. Rossiter had invited him out
West, promising to make him a partner in his mining
-venture. If he broke with Rossiter, Carew would have
to obtain work of some kind or starve, and there did
not seem much chance of his getting a job in Crook
City, where he had no friends and knew no one.

“That was a great fight you and Strong had at the
Eagle Hotel a while back,” said Rossiter, rolling a fresh
cigarette between the palms of his hands and lighting
it. “Have a smoke, won’t you?”

Carew shook his head angrily. i

“It was all right for a fight, I guess,” he said, “but
there'll be a better fight than that between me and Ted
Strong some day. I am going to fight him again.”

“No, you're not.”

“T’m not, eh? Wait and see.”

“Till wait all right, but I won’t see. You'll never fight
him again. He knows too much to fight you again.”

“Til get square with him some way.”

“You'll never do it by fighting him, and you'll: never
do it without my help.”

“Tl fight him yet. He is bound to fight me some day
or other.”

“Not he. He says he has beaten you once, and he
doesn’t see why he has to fight you again. He says you
ate beneath his notice.”

Cole Carew glared and half rose out of his seat.

“He says that, does he?” he muttered. “I'll show him.
Pll show. him.”

“He says you offer to fight him now because you
ot he won't do it. He says you are really afraid of

im.

Cole Carew was leaning forward in his seat, his brows
drawn down over his eyes, his nostrils dilated, and his
freckled fists clenched hard.

Earl -Rossiter, watching him from behind the screen
of smoke that he was puffing out and that half obscured
his face, smiled quietly. _

“He was boasting about the way he gave you that
beating in the hotel the other day. He says that you
have been afraid of him since then.”

Rossiter felt delighted with himself now. He had pro-
duced the effect he had intended. Carew’s anger against
Ted Strong, which had been half slumbering, was aroused
now. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse and husky.

He raised one clenched hand in the air above his head.

“Td give anything to get square with that fellow,” he
said. “He sneers at me when I speak to him. He thinks
he is too good to fight me, I guess. He was smiling at
me when | wanted to'fight with him to-day. He has
plenty of money, and can do what he pleases. I have
no money. l’m nothing but a worthless loafer in his

 

BILE WEEKLY,

eyes, I guess. A loafer and a~bully who picked a quarrel
with him and then got beaten.” ;

“I guess that about sums it up,” said Rossiter coolly.

“Vd give anything in the world to get square with
him.”

“You can get square with him if you have the: nerve.
Pil help you.”

“How pie

Rossiter looked at his companion’s angry face and felt
that he was now in a condition to assent to any plan he
might propose.

“Tl tell you how,” he said-in a low voice and speak-
ing quickly. “This man Ted Strong’ has an appoint-
ment with my father up in Crook City to-morrow night.
He will likely come up alone, and he’ll ride back alone
to the Yellow River. He has to pass through a narrow
gully before he reaches the strip of timber that runs
along the sides of the river. If you come with me there
to-morrow night, we can lay for him. I may have an-
other man to help you. Maginn is still hanging about the
town, and he will come, too.. The three of us ought to
be able to handle him all right. If you have any courage

>at all, you will be one of the party. If you really want

to get square with Ted Strong, you will help me. Can I
depend on you?”

“You can,” said Carew huskily.

Rossiter smiled. Before this he had been afraid of
Carew going over to join forces with Ted. Now, after
this, Carew would be in the fight against Ted too deeply
to draw out of it. He would be implicated in a crim-
inal attack on the young range rider, and Rossiter felt
that he would be in his power after that. :

The next evéning, just after dark, three horsemen made
their way out of Crook City to the open prairie which
lay between the little town and the mining settlements
and stamp mills along the banks of the Yellow River.
The moon was just rising, and under its rays the three

horsemen looked out on a shifting sea of silver, for the

wind was stirring on the prairie.

Earl Rossiter. was the first of the three, and behind
him came Maginn, the red-bearded, shaggy-headed fel-
low, in a red shirt, whom Rossiter brought from Chicago
to Crook City. Maginn bore no good will to Ted Strong,
for in the general fight which followed the attack of the
young roughriders on the thugs he had been very roughly
handled. When Earl Rossiter had come to him in the
barroom of the Eagle Hotel and offered him twenty dol-
lars to assist in doing up the captain of the young ranch-
men, he had agreed readily.

“Of course I don’t want the fellow seriously injured,”
said Earl, with a sinister smile; “I simply want him done
up so he'll be lying in his bed for a week or two, and
need a lot of nursing. That’s all. He may be hurt in

the scrimmage, but I can’t help that. If he should be

seriously injured or completely put out of business, it
will be quite an accident. You understand, of course.”
“Of course I understand,” said Maginn, with a wink.
“That's all right.”
He pocketed the twenty dollars that Rossiter handed
over to him, and by appointment met Rossiter and Cole
Carew the following evening.

Maginn had looked with considerable disapproval upon.

Cole Carew when he learned that he was to be of the
party.

“We don’t want no more kids in this,” he said; “when
I_go along on this here little business I don’t need no
help from a passel of boys. I can attend to it all by
myself.”

“Carew has a grudge against the gentleman we are
after, just as well as you have,” said Rossiter. “We
need any help that we can get, anyway, and when it
comes down to a fine point, who is it that is bossing this
business, you or I>?”

Rossiter lighted a cigarette and peered through the
smoke at Maginn with cold and contemptuous eyes.

“I suppose it’s you,” said Maginn sulkily.

“Then Carew goes with us.”

In the meantime, Carew had said nothing whatever.
His face was pale as death beneath his freckles, and there
was a very strange expression on it.

“What's the matter?” said Rossiter; “are you scared?”

Carew nodded silently.
 

 

  

NEW BUFEALO

“First time I ever knew you scared at anything,’
Rossiter; “keep up your courage.
ing with fear much.”

Carew made no answer to this remark, and the three
started off in silence. It was a ride of some miles to
the coulee in which they intended to wait and watch, and
they moved along in Indian file, at an easy trot.

Carew rode last of the three, and a struggle was goin
on within him. He knew that the expedition he we
starting on was a disgraceful and cowardly ne Both
his. parents were dead, and the freckled-faced boy won-
dered vaguely if they could see him now and knew. what
he was doing. His mouth twitched a. little, and there
was. moisture in his eyes.

ed guess it doesn’t seem as if
tered; * they’d stop me if they did.
me-to stop now, | made up. my
get square with this.fellow Strong. There ain’t no other
way. to do-it, He just sneered at me when | wanted
to ight with him. He’s. well off and has plenty of money.
L guess he despises me beeause f am: poor -and am liv-
ing at Rossiter’s-expense. Jt seems: to. me that Rossiter
has. changed since he: was at school with me. He used
to be tricky in his way, but I don’t ot he would: ever
have done anything as desperate as this when |-knew him.
And here am I doing it myself.

. “L can't-help.it now, though, but it’s awful: It’s. cow-
ardly- and murderous. That fellow Maginn wouldn’t care
if he killed Strong.. [don’t believe that Rossiter would,
either, £.guess. But I gave my -word to go into this
thing, and 1 won't draw. out. J wish I had never come
West and never seen Rossiter. [-would.be happier black-
ing shoes-in New York.” ;

For. a-moment. Carew thought: of
and riding -off,-to leave his companions
But that would seem like base desertion,

* ‘said
You don’t see me quak-

o
ae
AS

they knew,” he mut-
But it’s too late for
mind that 1 ought to

wheeling: his - horse
then and: there.

it was: Garew’s

nature to be loyal to whatever side he leagued himself .

with. And, then, where could he go?- He had no. friends
in the West except Rossiter. If he went to the camp
of-the young- roughriders, they would sneer at him and
laugh at-him. ~ It was hard, che felt: - It. would: look. as
theugh he were trying to curry favor with Ted Strong
and make friends with him for his own ends.

~Carew. felt that he could never act that way... But
he did not want-to be mixed up-in this night attack on
the young roughrider. But he could not draw out of
it now.. He had rushed into it when angry, in the heat
of passion. He felt now that Rossiter had inflamed his
anger for the purpose of getting him entangled in it. He
thought and struggled with himself for a few moments

more. -Then he shook his head doggedly.
“No,” he muttered, “it’s too late now.

“What's that?” asked Rossiter; ‘‘too late now?”

In the earnestness of his thought, Cole Carew
spoken out loud when he was thinking.

a was only thinking,” he muttered, in confusion.

“Better not do too much of that there kind of think-
ing,’ growled Maginn; “it ain't a good thing to go around
thinking out loud in a little business of this.k ind, We
are layin’ fer a feller, an’ we wanter keep as silent as
is possible.” :

“lll keep silence,” said Carew, in a queer, | harsh voice.
“Go on and don’t bother yourself about me. ‘

Half an hour later they arrived at the coulee at which
they intended to lie in wait, and through which they
knew that Ted Strong must pass on his way back to the
Yellow River mining settlement. :

Rossiter slipped silently off his horse and stepped into
the shadow cast by one of the black walls of the coulee.
The other two: remained outside, in the moonlight

“Can you see me in here?” queried Earl.

“Can’t see hair or hide of you,” said Ma
as..dark as pitch: in. there. The moonlight
the shadows. blacker,”

“hobble

had

Tt looks
tnakes

 
 

sinn.
only
“All right,” said Earl ; horses in. here
and stand beside them.” < )

These commands were obeyed at. once, Carew moving.
mechanically; as-one in a dream.

“Scared out of his shoes,” was Maginn’s comment about
him -to, Earl. Rossiters: _

“Panny, Said ( Harl:
enough,”

your

“1 always “found. him “plucky

  

MAL SS:

BILL We! Os

OGY

Maginn made no Fenty: but drew his revolver and began
twirling the barrel about, looking keenly at the ends of
the cartridges to see that they were all right.

Rossiter ‘followed his example.

“Strong is liable to show up

6c

Yh

at any minute now,” he
said. ‘There is a rise just back of us that will hide him
until he is right on top of us

Carew had been standing dreamily by the side of
his horse. He heard the click of the revolver in Maslness
hand, and turned and looked at it with horrified eyes..

“Youre not going to shoot him, are your?” he whis-
pered.

“Going to try,’ said Maginn srimly. “I have an old.
erudge against that feller, and 1 guess we'll wipe it out
now.”

“Don’t do. that,”

7?

“Shut ,up!

said Carew; “it’s murder!”
whispered Rossiter, grasping his friend by
the arm; “here he comes,’ es
There was the. soft thud of a horse’s hoofs. on- the
grass, and the figure of the young range rider, mounted,
appeared over the rise, black ih the moonlight.

CHAPTER XII.

THE NIGHT ATTACK,

Ted. Strong. -had- no -thought: of danger as> he rode
slowly forward over the moonlit prairie, He was think-
ing ef the- new recruit: who had joined his band the day
before, and planning to give himm.a chance at ranching
up. at Black. Mountain ‘shortly. He -was. not altogether
satistied with him. .One thing was very puzzling, indeed:
The footprint that. he.-had discovered that morning by
the side of. the office window, the footprint of the man
who had come.-sneaking there. in the darkness, and who
had refused to answer when hailed by Kit. Summers,
matched exactly with the shoes of Alfred Ashford. -

' Ted was bothered a good deal by this. He could not
imagine what Ashiord wanted about the -office in the
dark. He could see no/reason why the new recruit should
wish to steal the gold-it contained. Young Ashford had
been made part owner of the mine along with the other
young roughriders. WI hy should he be trying to steal
the gold from himself?

Ted did not like to tell Mr.
not like to say anything te Alfred himself until there
was a better foundation for his suspicions. But, still,
the affair puzzled him a good deal, and, besides this, he
had taken a strange, indefinable dislike to Alfred Ash-
ford.

These thoughts were passing through his brain when
the black. opening of the coulee rose before him. In-
stinctively, he reined up his horse to go a little slower.
There was no danger, he thought, but it was better to
be cautious and vigilant at all “times. The horse itself
seemed uneasy. It lay back on its haunches for a mo-
ment and sniffed, picking up its ears and throwing them
forward.

Ted laughed and pressed the horse with his knees.

“What,” he said, “are you afraid of the. dark?”

The horse started forward again slowly, stepping gin-
gerly and trembling as if from cold or fright.

Ted Strong pulled it up sharply,

“There must be something wrong there,” he said,
Black Bess. wouldn't act like that.. I’d better dismount
and see what it is.”

The wind was blowing out of the dark coulee. Ted
Strong could feel it, cold as ice, in his face, as he slipped
off thé back of his horse. There was something in that
cold breath that made him shiver as the little black horse
shivered.

He threw the reins over the head of his horse and
statted forward on foot, peering into the darkness. It
seemed to him now: that he could see some dark figure
there, He heard a sound as of the stamping of a horse,
and then another .sound, that sent a chill through his
whole body.. It was a clear, metallic click. It was a
sound that Ted had heard often before, and there was
no mistaking it. It was a revolver.

Ted had been well taught°in the school of experience,
and that sound, although it warned him, did not fill

Ashford about it, and did

  
24

NEW BUFFALO

‘him with panic or paralyze his motions, as it might have
some people.

Like a flash he dropped to the ground, for he knew
that that click almost always preceded a revolver shot
by a very small interval, and he thought that the safest
way would be to give the bullet a wide berth. He was
not mistaken. He landed on his~hands and knees, and
even as his knees touched the ground he saw the dark-
ness flash fire before him and heard the banging report
of a big revolver.

Flat on his face went Ted, pulling out his own re-
volver with one hand, shading his eyes mechanically with
the other. Three more cracks and three more flashes.
Ted neither stirred nor spoke, and the little black horse,
rearing wildly and pawing the air, dashed off to one
side of the mouth of the coulee.

“We have him,” said a hoarse voice;
have thrown him that time.”

Ted had wheeled around on hand and knees, and was
wriggling his way out toward the mouth of the coulee by
this time. He.moved as silently and as swiftly ds a
snake, but just as he reached the wall of rock that. jutted
out on one side, and which he knew would give him
shelter, his revolver, which he held in his hand, struck
a loose stone with.a sharp rattle! |

“He’s moving, then!” cried. Maginn, from the coulee;
a guess he’s pretty near out, but I’ll give him another
SHO =

“the horse must

Ted heard the voice and recognized it now. He flat-.

tened himself out on the ground as well as possible, ex-
pecting the bullet to hiss past him at any moment. He
was now.unhappily in a position where there were no
sheltering obstructions behind him, and there was a
very good chance of Maginn’s hitting him. Ted was lying
waiting to be shot at, and it seemed almost as if his
heart had stopped beating.

‘But the shot he was awaiting did not come. Instead,
there came the sounds of a struggle down the coulee and
hoarse curses in the voice of Maginn.

“Let go my gun!” he cried; “let go, or I’ll brain ye!
Catch him, Rossiter, and hoid him!”

“L won't let- go!’ panted a yoice, which Ted recog-
nized as that of Cole Carew. “I’ve stood by in silence
long enough. I came very near letting you fellows com-
mit murder. I seemed to be asleep. I won’t let go. I’m
awake now.”

These words came in-bunches and jerks from the lips
of the freckle-faced boy, as though he were fighting
hard, hand to hand, with Maginn. Ted Strong could hear
the stamp and scuffle of their feet, the hurried panting of
their breath, curses and cries of pain.

“Catch him, Rossiter!”. cried Maginn; “he’s throttling
me.
“Keep away from me,” grated Carew, “or ’ll break
your jaw!”

The sounds of the struggle were renewed. —

“That fellow Carew is a scrapper,’ muttered Ted, ris-
ing to his. knees. * :

“Ted Strong!” yelled Carew suddenly, “I can’t hold out
much longer! These. fellows are trying to murder you.
Get on your horse, if you-can,-and get away.”

Ted was up and rushing for his horse.
standing, trembling, a black shadow to one side of the
mouth of the coulee. In a minute he was on its back, and
none. too soon, for. at the same instant there was a

sound of galloping hoofs, and Tom Maginn dashed. out .

into: the. moonlight. on horseback. Ted looked back’ over
his shoulder as he rode. He could see Maginn’s revolver.
gleam.in the dark as he threw it forward. oe

He wheeled in the saddle himself, fired, and -Maginn’s °

pore toppled to the ground, throwing its rider over its
ena

Ted wheeled his horse about with the swiftness of
thought. He saw Maginn and his horse lying in a
heap in the prairie. He stiil heard scuffing sounds
the dark. coulee.
tion immediately.
draw Maginn out
get a shot,at him.

ear from
He spurred forward in that direc-

into the moonlight, where he could
He did not understand what had hap-

pened exactly, but he knew from what he had heard
that Cole Carew, the freckle-faced boy who had been
sO anxious to fight him, had taken his part, and was at

He Jsaw it -

black -=

His flight had been only a ruse to

 

DIL WEERLY,

that moment fighting with his enemies. As Ted clat-
tered down into the coulee, another horseman rode away
out of it on the opposite side. It was Earl Rossiter,
and he was lost in the woods that stretched. out in the
prairie on the opposite side in a moment.

Ted pulled up his horse and dropped to the ground.
There was a black figure lying beside him at the bottom
of the gully. He fell on his knees beside him, and. saw
that it was Carew. The boy was lying back, very white
and still, a dark line of blood trickling down the side
of his face. In his hand was clasped a revolver, held
by the barrel, the bony. fingers twisted about it in a death-
like grip.

Cole Carew’s better nature had obtained the mastery
within him at the last moment. He had done his best
to save his companions from the crime of murder and
Ted Strong from death.

Now, as he looked at him, Ted Strong’s heart sank;
for it seemed to him as if the boy were dead himseli.
He placed his ear to his heart and breathed a great sigh
of relief to find that he still breathed. Then he set him-
self to examining the wound across his head. For the

)second time Rossiter had’ knocked his friend senseless

with the butt of a revolver, but this time he had left.an
ugly scalp wound. pean

Ted Strong had a roll of antiseptic gauze in his saddle-
bags and a little yellow iodoform powder. With the water.
from his canteen he washed the cut and bound it up with
strong and cunning fingers.. His army life in the Philip-
pines and Cuba had given him some little experience in
the dressing of wounds, and he handled his former enerny
as tenderly as a woman handles a baby. — :

Presently Cole opened his eyes and looked about him
vacantly. He raised one hand to his head, felt the
bandage there, and drew it away with a troubled look.
Then he gazed into the face of the boy who was bend-
ing over him.

“Ted Strong,” he said, “is that you?”

‘“That’s who I am,” said Ted; “how do you feel 2”

“All right,” said Carew shortly, and closed his eyes.
Presently he opened them again and looked up at Ted.

“Where’s Maginn?” he said. "

“Out there on the prairie”? said Ted. “I shot his
horse, and it threw him over its head. I guess he has
a broken arm or leg, at the least.”

“T am glad to hear it,” muttered Cole vindictively.
“Where’s Rossiter?”

“Skipped!” said Ted.
rap over the head?”

“He’s the bigger scoundrel of the two, and he got.
away, and you can’t prove anything on him, either.
Maginn will go to jail if he’s alive. That’s justice for
you. I suppose I ought to go to jail, too”? The boy
sighed and closed his eyes again.

“You will never go to jail on my complaint,” said Ted.
“You tried to keep Maginn from shooting at me. I heard
you. I know the whole thing.” Te

“And you are willing to befriend me?”

“Yes, we may have had misunderstandings in the past;
but I think you afe thoroughly disgusted with Rossiter.

“T suppose he gave you that

‘by this: time.”

You bet. dam,” said Carew. ~ :

“And there is no reason why we shouldn’t be friends.”

Carew sat up and looked Ted full in the eyes.

“You are a pretty square chap, I guess,” he said: “but
we can’t’ be friends. I hada grudge against you for.
licking me in the hotel a while back. I wanted to get.
even. I didn’t want to do it this way, though. You've
treated me all right, and that .makes me feel all the
worse, “

“Shake hands and be “friends,” said Ted generously.

“How do you feel now?”

op feel all right,” said Carew. “TI have a pretty strong
constitution, I guess, and a poke on the head doesn’t
seem to hurt me very much. I can stand up now; just

‘watch me,”

Without any very great effort, the freckled-faced_ fel-
low got to his feet and locked about him.

“T've got a horse back here a little way,” he said. “I
reckon I'll ride back to town on it, I can do it all
right.” te

 
Me

NEW BUFFALO

He stepped away from Ted and returned, leading his
horse by the bridle.

“Iam much obliged to you for tying up my head
and all that,” said Cole. “I guess not many fellows
in your place would have done it.”

“You did your best to keep those fellows from firing
at “me.”

“No, I didn’t. JI didn’t cut in until the last minute.
I might have done it before, but I had no use for
ot and, bésides, I- seemed to be in some kind of a
aze.

“Well, we can let~ bygones be bygones now, I sup-
pose?”

Carew shook his head.

“I can’t feel the same to you as I should to a friend,”
he said. “I wasn’t going to see you shot down, but I
didn’t interfere for the purpose of making friends with
you, you can bet your life on that. We are enemies
yet, all right. Once I make an enemy, he stays my
enemy.”

“That’s a-bad: plan,” said Ted.’

“It may be;” said Carew grimly, “but it’s my way. So
ong.

He swung himself up into the saddle, waved his hand
to Ted, and rode off. Ted*saw his figure growing smaller
and fainter across the moonlit prairie.

“He’s a queer chap,’ he muttered, “but there’s good
in him. I don’t know what he intends to do. He has
no friends: here but Earl Rossiter, and I guess Earl won’t
be much of a friend to him after this. He saved my life,
however, and whether he wants to call himself my enemy
or my friend; I am grateful to him for that.”

Then Ted turned and walked otit on the prairie, leav-
ing his: horse in-the gully. As he came up to Maginn,
he saw that the fellow was lying still, apparently uncon-
scious, beside his dead horse. He bent over him, when
suddenly Maginn straightened up and hit him a smash-
ing blow between the eyes. ~ a

A thousand stars danced before Ted’s eyes. He reeled
backward, and the next instant Maginn’s hands were
clasped tight around his throat. :

Back and down went Ted, Maginn above him. An in-
stant later, Maginn’s knee was planted on his chest, Ted
was looking up into his ugly, bearded face and panting
hard for breath. He caught Maginn by the wrists and
tried to break his hold on his throat, but it was no
use. Maginn had fastened a grip there that he could not
shake, and the young range rider felt that he was grow-
ing weaker with every second. :

He lay back, perfectly supine and passive, for a mo-
ment. Then, with a sudden wriggle, he put forth all
his strength and rolled over, throwing Maginn off to
one side. Maginn still maintained his grip at his throat,
and the two went over and over down one of the
gentle slopes of the prairie, each one fighting with every
ounce of strength that was in him, ho

At last they came to'a standstill, and this time Ted
Strong was above. Twice his right fist landed hard on
Maginn’s upturned face. With the second blow, his head
went back and his eyes rolled up, showing the whites,
and then closed. The grip at his throat loosened, and
ce pulling away from it, stood up, weak and trem-

ing.

When Maginn recovered consciousness from the knock-
out that Ted had given him, he was bound hand and
foot.

CHAPTER XIII
CHASING A RUNAWAY.

Ted Strong and Kit Summers were out at the Black
Mountain ranch house two days later, talking things
over.

“By the way,” said Kit, “I hear that that freckled-
faced fellow, Cole Carew, has a job on this ranch. Bud
Morgan hired him when you sent him up here. He didn’t
know that Bud was one of the young range riders, and
he doesn’t know yet that we own this ranch. Bud sent.
him out to a rodeo with a couple of Mexicans, and, from
what we hear, he is doing pretty good work. You are
not going to fire him, are you?”

“No,” said Ted; “I think he’s a pretty good man. He

 

BILL WEEKLY. . , , 25

may not want to stay when he knows that he has’ hired
to us, but I am glad to hear that he has thrown over
Rossiter.”

“IT guess Bud and myself will persuade him to stay,”
said Kit. “He has struck up a great acquaintance with
some of the other cowboys here, and I don’t believe that
he will leave. By the way, how is our new recruit, Alfred
Ashford, getting on down at the gold mine? You know
I haven’t been down there in the last few days.”

“He seems to be getting along all right,” said Ted. “I
have found out who it was who was prying around that
office that night you were guarding it.” i

“Who was it?”

“Earl Rossiter,” said Ted. “I found some of his foot-
prints in the coulee, where he attacked me, and they
matched exactly with the footprints we got beside the
office window. He. evidently has been trying to steal
our gold or has some plans of that nature on foot.”

Hot-headed Kit ground his teeth together.

“I .can’t see. how. you can’ stand it,’ he said. “You
ought to put him in jail. All that we have stood from
that fellow! When I think of it, it makes me wild.” 9 ~

“Never mind,” said Ted grimly; “there is a day /of °

reckoning coming pretty soon.”

As the days went on, Ted did not.overcome his dis-

like for Alfred Ashford; still, he did not show it even
by a look, for he was determined to give the young fel-
low a chance to prove himself worthy of the company
of cowboys to which he had been admitted a member.

One afternoon Ted Strong and Kit Summers were saun-_
tering along the main street of Crook City, having trans-*

acted the. business: that called them to town. Suddenly

Kit laid his hand on the arm of Ted, and exclaimed:
“Look there!

Daisy Miller?”

Ted looked in the.direction indicated by his companion, -

and was much surprised at what he saw. Daisy Miller
was cantering along, and heside her was Alfred Ash-
ford. Ted was surprised to see Miss Miller—for whom
he had risked his life, along with his band of range riders
—making a.companion of Ashford. His amazement
showed itself in his. face.

“Ves, I know,” said Kit; “it looks mighty queer, old
man. I suppose you feel a little cut up about it.”

Ted. said nothing, but gazed sullenly after the two fig-
ures which were moving now swiftly away across the
prairie which lay outside of Crook City. It was an ideal
afternoon for a ride, bright and sunny, but with a fresh
wind that made it pleasantly cool. Ted was thinking
it was an ideal afternoon for a ride.

“Let’s get our horses and go after them,” said Kit.
“Come on, Ted. We can catch them. That fellow Ash-
ford shouldn’t be trusted out on the prairie with a girl.
Why, he is hardly able to stay on the back of a horse
himself, and if her horse should become frightened, and
run away, or something like that, he wouldn’t be much
help. Come on and we'll ride after them.”

“No, we won't,” said Ted, with more bitterness in his
tone than Kit had ever heard him use before. “They
don’t seem to want any one else along with them. When

Who is that riding along there with

they go out alone together like that it would be an in- -

trusion on our part for us to go and join them.”

“Nonsense, Ted,” said Kit, with a laugh.
know Daisy. Miller too well for that.”

“I guess I don’t know her as’ well as I thought I
did,” said Ted. meee

Kit looked at his friend in surprise. It was evident
that Ted was worrying a good deal about something.
There were lines in his face that Kit had seldom seen
there, and Kit knew that it was not business that he was

bothering about, for the new mine was panning out hand-

somely, and bid fair to become a very valuable piece of
property.

“Come on,” said Kit, judging rightly that Ted’s un-
happiness was about Daisy. “Let’s get our horses and
ride after them. I am sure that Daisy will be very glad
to see you.” Ss \

“T am-stire that she won’t,” said Ted bitterly.

“What’s the matter with you, Ted?
stand you. I never saw. you-act this way before. Are

you anery at Daisy about anything?” : :
“Tt am not angry at her about anything,” said Ted

“T guess you

I can’t under-

 
‘eran

» Daisy Miller,

BUFFALO

26 NEW

slowly, “but she seems to be angry at me. J can’t un-
derstand it. I wouldn’t say a word about it to any one
but you. I called on her three times during the last three
days, but each time she was out—or, at least, | couldn't
see her. This morning I went to ask her to go out and
take a ride with me. Word was sent down to me that
she was quite sick and. couldn’t leave the house to-day.
In fact, the servant said that she was too sick to see
me. And now you want me to ride after her and speak
to her when I see her riding along with that fellow
Ashford. I can take: a hint a little better than that, I
guess.”

Kit was too astonished by what his companion had
said to utter a word for a moment or two. He had
known that Daisy and Ted had been the best of friends.
He was very fond of Ted, and his first thought was
indignation against the girl who would treat his friend
in that fashion.

“T think that’s a shame,” he burst out in his impetu-
ous fashion, “after all you have done for that girl) You
saved her. life, or, at least, saved ‘her from being mar-
ried against her will to that fellow Carillo down in
Mexico. You saved her from being shot, as like as not,
that time the train was attacked by robbers up near Win-

nipez Junction. You helped her brother to escape from
beine sentenced to a term in jail as a train robber. And
then she turns you down for this fellow who’s just come

over from England. .1 say that’s a shame.
‘will do anything like that is nothing but a flir Hee

“Here,” said Ted sternly, “you had better stop speak-
mg. richt away. [f you intend to say a word against
-L-won't listen to: you. Do you under-

2?

 

stand?” .. “ Pees Bele Uae
_ Kit understood. He understood that Ted was loyal in
his admiration of Daisy, no matter what her present ac-
tions were. He also understood that Ted felt badly and
was likely to be irritable. For once he was the cooler
of the two. pt
“All right, Ted,” he said, laying his. arm across the
shoulder of his. friend. “I guess I know how you feel.

I understand just about how you feel, I think. Let’s
not talk any more about it. We might as well get our
horses now and ride back to the Yellow River Mine. We

were to have dinner back there, were. we not?”

ves. said Ted: “Tam ready Come along,”

Their horses had. been hitched up at the sheds of the.
Eagle Hotel, near the railroad station. It was not long
before the boys were on their backs and leaving the
straggling little town behind them at a long, easy gal-
lop. It sent the fresh air rushing about them and sent
their blood tingling from head to foot. — vie

TO BE CONTINUED.

THOUGHT? HE WAS RIGHT.

A teacher was drilling the class in music. -.

“What does it mean when you see the letter ‘f’ over a
bar or stave?’ was asked. _ a

“Forte,” answered one of the pupils.

“And what does the character ‘ff’ mean?”

There was a short period of deep thoughtfulness on
the. part of the children, and then one-of them. shotited
triumphantly : ce at Pu
AG “Fighty.”

 

EXTRAORDINARY INTELLIGENCE.
_. Jiggs—‘Pshaw! any man of ordinary intelligence ought
to see that.” a
' Biggs—“That may be. But understand,

r 3 sir, that I’m
not a man of ordinary intelligence.”

A

REAR GUARD MARCHED AWAY.

- Doris was rather backward in her studies. One day
when her father was inquiring into her standing at school
she admitted that she was lowest in her class.

“Why, Doris, I am ashamed of you!” her mother ex-

 

A. girl that |

  

BILL WEEKLY.

claimed. “Why don’t you study harder and try to get
away from the foot of the class?” —

“Tt isn’t my fault,’ Doris replied, in tones of injured
innocence. “The little girl who has always been at the
foot has left school.”

WHY.

Guest (to waiter)——“I can’t drink this soup.”

Waiter takes it away and brings another kind of soup.

Guest—‘“‘I can’t. drink this soup.”

Waiter, angrily but silently, for the third time brings
another kind.

Guest (again)—“I can’t drink this soup.”

Waiter, furious, calls the hotel proprietor.

Proprietor (to guest)—“Why can’t you drink this
soup?”

Guest (quietly)—“Because I have no spoon.”

HE’S COMEDIAN ON AND OFF.

A great comedian was once served by a grocer named
Berry. On one occasion the latter had sent his bill before
it was due. The comedian remonstrated.

“You have sent in your bill,/“Berry, before it is due,
Berry; your father, the elder Berry, would not have been
such a goose, Berry; but you needn’t look so black,
Berry, for I don’t care a straw, Berry, and shan’t pay your
bill till’ Christmas, Berry.” Bt eae he

WHO'D BE A SOLDIER’S WIFE. .

General Sir Sam Hughes, of Canada, said, at a dinner
in New York: ety
“The wife of a Canadian soldier*and the wife of.a
South African soldier met in a London. boarding house.

“‘It’s very hard on us poor married women in South
Africa, the latter said. ‘I live with my husband on an
ostrich farm, and it’s nothing at-all for him to be away
two. whole days at a time on an ostrich.’
_ °‘Humph!) What of that?’ said the Canadian woman.
‘My husband is often away two whole weeks at a time
on a lark.”

ODDS AND ENDS.

Percy Adolphus Trane was once staying with a friend
of his, a, doctor, who was rather deaf, and one evening,
when coming home from the theater rather late, every
one being in bed, he rang the bell loudly, bringing the doc-
tor to the window not in a very amicable mood. The fol-
lowing dialogue took place: '

“What do you want?”

“To come in.” :

“Who are you?”

“Mr. Trane.”

“Missed a train, have you? Well, catch the next, and
be hanged to you!” and the doctor shut the window.

ae NOT A CHANCE.

“Close up, boys; close up!” said ‘a colonel to his regi-
ment. “If the enemy were to fire on you when you. are
straggling along like that, they wouldn’t kill a single man
of you.. Close up!” Re

 

COLDEST PLACE IN THE WORLD.

The lowest temperature yet registered is nowhere near
the north pole. In fact, it is almost exactly on the equa-
tor, but far up in the air. On August 30, 1908, this tem-
perature, 119.7 below zero Fahrenheit, was shown by 4
thermometer sent up in a “sounding balloon to a’ height of
twelve miles at Shirati, on Victoria Nyanza, It is not
to be supposed thaf if the balloon had gone up a little
higher, a still lower temperature would have been discov-
ered. There is now known to be a sharply defined limit.

 

  
Viab NEWS OF THE WOR

 

We
a

 

Sa

— ES

‘

 

Dog Commits Suicide as Ship Burns.

The wonderful extent of the mother-love instinct
in a dog was shown in a striking manner by Fannie,
a Yorkshire terrior, the mascot of the steamship
Navaho, a Standard Oil tanker abandoned afire at
sea on August Ist. The Navaho, which had won a
record several weeks previously by sinking a U-boat,
was returning to the United States, and was hundreds
of miles from land, when one of her fuel pipers ex-
ploded and set the oil on fire.

Fannie was the mother of six cute little puppies.
Her devotion to her family had been commented upon
by the officers and crew of the ship. They said they
never had witnessed such motherly care bestowed by
a dog.

When the vessel blazed up, and the lifeboats were
being lowered, Fannie was seen running about, carry-
ing two-of the puppies nipped between her teeth.
She finally put them down in what she must have
considered a place of safety and ran-’to bring her
other puppies there.

By the time she arrived with the second consign-
ment she found the fire approaching dangerously near
her loved ones. She nosed them away to a safer
spot, and then ran to remove the remaining two of
the litter from their bed.

When she discovered the fire drawing nearer and
nearer, in a rapidly decreasing circle, she appeared
to become crazed with anguish and excitement. Howl-
ing piteously, she licked the face of each of the pup-
pies and then leaped into the sea.

“Tt was a clear case of suicide,” said Third Officer
Edward Schafer.

The puppies were carried to the lifeboats by several _

of the crew. Fannie did not reappear on the surface.

. Policemen Injured in Fight with Outlaw.

Hanging by a belt strap from the top of his cell
door in the Canton police station, Frank Jordan, col-
ored, of Stemmers Run Road, the negro believed to
have been the perpetrator of the numerous crimes,
including murder, in the Middle River section of Bal-
timore County, Maryland, was found dead one morn-
ing recently by Patrolman Noppinger, of the county
force.

In the arrest of Jordan, the police undoubtedly
succeeded in capturing a dangerous outlaw. All the
recent attacks that have occurred in that section of
the county have happened within a radius of a mile
of the shanty where the negro was captured, and the
authorities ‘have discovered direct evidence to con-
nect Jordan with a number of crimes. A bloodstained
penknife found on the body of the man has been iden-
tified as the one carried by Andrew Foehrkolb, sixty-
eight. years old, of Rossville, Maryland, who was
beaten and robbed near the scene of the negro’s arrest
and who died a few days later. The police also found
at the shanty a quantity of groceries and canned goods
that were reported as stolen from a grocery store at

Stemmers Run, and, among other things, a number of
clubs similar to the one found near the scene of the
assault on William Eyring, who was robbed and beaten
several weeks agc

Marshal Cockey expressed satisfaction with the
work of the officers, and made known his intention
of publicly commending them for their bravery in

“making the capture.

At midnight the police went to the shanty, which
is located in one of the most desolate spots in that
section, and made réady to surround it. Lieutenant
Creamer knocked quietly, and, when the door was cau-
tiously opened a mere crack, he threw his weight
against it, at the same time flashing a light in the
face of a negro, who could barely be discerned in the
darkness. The negro evidently had an ax poised over
his head; in readiness for trouble, for, as the light
fiashed, he struck with it, and it was only the agility
of the lieutenant in dodging the blow that saved him
from serious injury and, possibly, death. As it was,
he received a glancing blow on the left side of the
head, resulting in a laceration of the scalp and one
ear. The loss of his balance gave the featr-crazed
negro an opportunity to strike again, but fortunately
he overreached his mark, the handle of the ax strik-
ing Detective Feehley, who was directly behind, on
the shoulder, flying from the assailant’s hand and
striking Patrolman Dotterweich, badly cutting one
hand.

Hudgins and the officers succeeded in subduing the

‘negro, and, after being doubly handcuffed, he was

taken to the Canton police station and held ona
technical charge of being a suspicious character,

Short-weight: Butcher Gets Jail Term.

The silver linings dropped out of all of Max Jung-
hanns’ clouds after three years of uninterrupted pros-
perity, and the silver likewise rattled out of his cash
drawers when he had to pay out seven hundred dol-~
lars to square up a year’s short weight, pay a one-
hundred-dollar fine in the municipal court in Minne-
apolis, Minnesota, and look for some one to handle
his affairs while he went to the workhouse for ninety
days.

While Junghanns prospered in his meat-and-pro-
vision shop, Gust and Harry Pantoplos, restaurant
keepers, were losing out, although they thought they
were doing a great business. Finally they bought
some scales.

City Weigher William P. Morgan went into the
kitchen to man the scales, and in one week, he told
Municipal Judge C. L. Smith, he weighed ninety-two
packages of provisions and found ninety’ of them.
short. He swore out complaints on two, one for a
ham two pounds short and another on a package of
veal seven pounds short. He said the value of the
short weight in actual cash was sixty dollars for the
veek.

Junghanns offered no excuse after Morgan told his

 
 

28 NEW BUFFALO

story.. He pleaded guilty, and said he would pay the
restaurant keepers seven hundred dollars in cash to
square up back matters and wouldn’t do it again.
“The sentence will be one hundred dollars for the
ham and ninety days for the veal,” said the court. He
granted ten days’ stay for Junghanns to arrange his
business before serving the full-weight sentence

Fortunes Wasted in Search for Lost Mines.

Missouri tradition is replete with stories of “lost”
mines, hidden*treasures of silver, copper, and other
metals, but there is one “lost” mine in the State the
existence of which has been partly verified. It has
been the object of search more than fifty years since
its disgruntled operator “buried” it to prevent it from
passing out of his possession.

Tn the search of fifty years hundreds of prospectors
have “gophered” its supposed whereabouts and thou-
sands of dollars have been spent in trying to reclaim
it, but it remains concealed,
~The mine is known as the Old Slater Mine, and is
supposed to be situated on the Jack’s Fork branch
of the Current River, near Eminence, the county seat
of Shannon County. Years of litigation have been
responsible to some extent for the lack of a more
exhaustive search, but this has been settled, and We
McClellan, a former State legislator and at present
prosecuting attorney of Shannon County, has begun
the search anew.

The history of the lost mine dates from pre-Civil
War days, before the creation by the legislature of
Shannon County. The story of the lost mine has been
retold so often by the old settlers of the Current River
hills that several versions have been evolved from the
original facts.

However divergent the stories, the fact that the
mine once produced copper in paying quantities to the
sum of more than one hundred thousand dollars is
history.

As the story is related, Joseph Slater, an English-
man and a practical miner, explored the Current River
in 1830, and some time thereafter, a short. distance
from Eminence, discovered rich veins of copper ore.
He immediately sunk a shaft and set up a mill, op-
erated by water power. His employees numbered
Six. )

Slater shipped his ore overland to the Iron Moun-
tain Railroad, some sixty miles distant, or floated it
down the Current River and the Mississippi. to New
Orleans.

About two hundred and fifty square miles of land
embraced by Shannon County were reserved by the
government as “copper lands.”

Slater is known to have been operating his mine
at the time the land was thrown open to entry. -The
story is that one of the Chiltons—pioneers of south-
eastern Missouri—went to:the land office and fled
on the land which embraced Slater’s mine. Slater
heard of Chilton’s plan and hurried off in- pursuit.
Realizing that Chilton’s advantage could not. be over-
come, Slater returned and ordered his employees io
“bury” the mine.

The shaft was filled with débris, and the veins, said
to have run near the surface, were covered with sod

&

BILL WEEKLY.

and trees. The employees are said to have taken oath
that they would never reveal the location of the ore
deposits.

His mine “lost,” Slater awaited Chilton’s action.
The fight for possession’ of the property followed, and
this litigation continued several years, when Slater
died. :

It was during the Civil War that fate came near
removing: Chilton as an obstacle in Slater’s path.
Bands of guerrillas overran the country, stealing and
murdering. They had destroyed the town of Emi-
nence, and were moving in the direction of Chilton’s
farm. The latter saw them coming and tried to flee
on horseback, but was detected.

He was pursued into a dense forest, and there he
abandoned his horse and concealed himself in an
ivy-covered tree. From his place of concealment he
could hear the bandits planning his murder, but they
failed to find him, and gave up the search. That
tree which saved Chilton from death still stands on
the Chilton estate.

With the death of Slater an attempt was made to
obtain from his former employees the secrets of the
mine’s location, but persuasion failed. The old pros-
pectors used the “divining rod,” and later mining en-
gineers were sent to Eminence to make reports on the
old mine. All agreed that there was evidence of abun-
dant quantities of ore.

The old settlers of the Ozarks clung long to the
belief that precious metals could be found in paying
quantities. mies cherished the traditions that the
Indians and Spaniards mined silver. and concealed the
sources. Mysterious markings on the rocks were
carefully preserved in the belief that they indicated
the neighborhood of silver ore.

Horse Thief Returned to Prison.,

Jerry Choteau, outcast from a wealthy. St. Louis

family, has begun a thirty-year term in the Kansas:

State’s prison at Lansing for horse stealing.

Choteau founded the Choteau Relief Fund for, con-
victs’ families, while serving a sentence in the Kansas
prison five years ago. This fund has now grown to
thousands of dollars, and is a permanent institution

at the penitentiary. All convicts contribute to its sup-
port.

Choteau is known as the “king of horse thieves,”
and seems to have a mania for this kind of stealing.
He became an outcast from his aristocratic family
because of it. He has received thirty-five years in
prison sentences for horse stealing in Kansas alone.

“

- Nippon Junk Dealers Arrested.

A dispatch from Los Angeles, California, states that
two subjects of the mikado were cited by License In-
spectors Allen and McPhillips for having engaged in
the junk business without securing a license. At the
same time Federal authorities were warned that Jap-
anese junkmen have been shipping hundreds of tons
of tin from this country during the past FO, months,
and an investigation is probable.

The inspectors allege that the junk dealers in Los
Angeles and in various other cities have been buying

 

 

ie ang ee en

 
 

 

  

NEW BUFFALO

#

up immense quantities of old tin cans, melting them
to secure the solder, and then rolling the strips of tin
flat. These strips have been shipped to Tokio in
large quantities, for use, it is claimed, in the manu-
facture of toys.

Inasmuch as it is unlawful, under existing condi-
tions, to ship metal out of this country, the activities
of the Japanese are likely to be rigidly investigated by
secret-service men. It is claimed that the two Jap-
anese men in question have been buying up great
quantities of woolen rags, paying oné cent a pound
over the’top price elsewhere.

Bank Cashier Sentenced as Embezzler.

August Begemann, cashier of the Farmers and
Merchants’ Bank, of Herman, Missouri, who last April
was found to be thirty-two thousand dollars short
in his aecounts, recently pleaded guilty to a charge
of embezzlement, and was sentenced by Circuit Judge
R.. A. Breuer to two years in the penitentiary.

At the same time, Buell L. Matthews, of Clayton,
filed a suit, asking that a deed Begemann made to all
his property in favor of the bank be set aside. Bege-
mann’s property, Matthews said, was worth about
twelve thousand dollars. }

Matthews said Begemann had been trading in stocks
and was a heavy buyer when the United States de-
clared war on Germany. Begemann, he asserted, was
caught in the ensuing drop in stocks, and the State
bank examiner found his account short thirty-two
thousand dollars. The night the discovery was made,
Matthews said, Leander Graf, a lawyer and. son of
a director of the bank, obtained from Begemann a
deed to all his property.

Mrs. Begemann, in the suit, asks the deed be set
aside on the ground it was not obtained according
to law.

Cow’s Queer Whim.

A few weeks ago Gerald Belch, of Ansel, New York,
. took his five-year-old daughter to the barn with him
to hold his cow’s tail while he milked; the flies bother-
ing the cow, she in turn ,switching her tail in his
face.

Now that the flies are not bothering the cow, Belch
decided to discontinue the child’s services. One morn-
ing he went to the barn without her and started to
milk. Belch avers that the cow jumped and kicked;
that he tied her tail, but it did no good. He again
had his daughter come to the barn. He says he un-
tied the cow’s tail, and as soon as the little girl held
it in her hand, the cow became perfectly quiet and
remained so while he milked her.

Belch now avers that he cannot take his daughter
to the barn during the winter, and, as he cannot milk
the cow without her help, he will have to sell the ani-
mal.

Six Killed as Result of Steel Plant Strike.

Six men met death in the plant of the United States
Steel Corporation at Gary, Indiana, recently, as an
indirect result of the strike of switchmen in the local
yards of the Chicago, Joliet & Eastern Railway.

Because of the strike there has been a shortage of
material in the mills, and, as a result, one of the blast

Pm ik ete th ga, since ames tim om Sm Sime am RIS ES

settled the aching tooth,-and no fee to pay.

BILL. WEEKLY. a

furnaces became clogged. Emory Padgett, a fore-
man, took eight men into the furnace to clean it. A
gas valve gave way and Padgett and five of his work-
men were asphyxiated.

Draws Tooth with Auto and Cord.

“A tin lizzie and a tow line beat a dentist all hol-
low for extracting teeth,” declared William B. Sinn,
a Patchogue, Long Island, New York, laundryman,
after performing a pulling operation upon one of his
aching bicuspids with his automobile and a .stout
string there yesterday.’ Sinn, who proudly exhibited
the tooth and described the incident himself, says
he was taken with a severe toothache while doing
the rounds of his business, and he just couldn’t wait
to get to a dentist’s.

He begged his driver to pull out the tooth, but the
driver said he had not sufficient nerve to tackle the
job. A few moments later Sinn went to the rear of
the car, attached one end of the string to the tail-
board of the car and the other to his tooth, braced
himself against a tree, and then told the chauffeur
to drive on down to the next block for a call. That

Youth Forced to Steal Automobile.

Jewel Blond Gooch, twenty-two years old, told the
police of Kansas City, Missouri, that he drove a stolen
motor car from Kansas City to Springfield last month
only because another man compelled him to.

‘Gooch said 4 man by the name of George Wilkerson
hired him to drive a car to Springfield. He said Wil-
kerson rode with him and held a revolver in his lap
the entire distance, threatening to kill Gooch if he
did not get to Springfield with the car.

Gooch was arrested and the car recovered by James
Orford, a Kansas City detective. The car belonged to
G. W. Coffey, proprietor of a hotel.’

Rich Farmer Slain by Posse.

John Conover, a wealthy farmer living near York-
ville, Illinois, who escaped about four months ago
from the Elgin Asylum for the Insane, was shot and
killed by a posse which he had kept at bay for two
days by barricading himself in a barn.

Conover disappeared after his escape from the asy-
lum, and was not heard from for some months. Finally
he appeared at his farmhouse, where his wife and
five children were sleeping. The family fled to safety,
and Conover, supplying himself with ammunition,
went to the barn and defied all who approached.

The posse thought Conover was asleep late last
night atid attempted to close in on him. He received
them with a charge of buckshot. The posse fired,
and Conover was found dead.

Girl Drowns Saving Cousin.

Miss Alma Marshall, nineteen, daughter of Mrs.
Bruce Miller, gave her life to save her cousin, Mrs.
Favor Broady, of El Reno, Oklahoma, from drowning
in Illinois River, near Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

   
 
 

30 . NEW: BUPFALO

Several visitors, including Miss Marshall and Mrs.
Broady, were swimming in the river when- Mrs.
Broady went beyond her depth and called for assist-
ance.

Miss Marshall swam to i rescue and brought her
to safety in shallow water. Exhausted from her ef-
forts, the girl probably fainted and sank before any of
the party could reach her. Her body was recovered.

Hard-luck Champion.

The hard-luck champion of the Middle West is A.
W. Bovey,:a farmer living near Kimball, South
Dakota.

While mowing hay, a spark from the mowing ma-
chine set fire to the grass. The flames set fire to
blankets on his horses’ backs.

The team ran to the barn, and en route the flames

caught a hundred-acre wheat field and destroyed it.

The horses dashed into the barn with the cutting
machine in flames.

The barn caught fire.

A heavy wind carried a shingle from the burning
barn to several stacks of grain, and they were de-
stroyed. a

Bovey thinks he’s lucky—he wasn’t hurt.

English Beauty Accused of Theft and Blackmail.

Believed to be a fugitive from the English police,
and known to have traveled from Liverpool to Canada
as a stowaway in a troopship carrying invalid sol-
-diers back to the Dominion, Mrs. Ethel Capper was
charged with theft of jewelry and attempted black-
mail of Winnipeg doctors.

Mrs. Capper entered Canada without obeying the
usual formalities of registration, and, although detec-
tives of the Federal service followed her closely, she
disappeared until about a week ago, when she was
arrested at Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada, for re-
fusal to pay hotel bills.

She filed countercharges, alleging misconduct
against the hotel keeper, and he, fearing the notoriety,
withdrew the complaints.

Commissioner Walker believes that. Mrs. Capper
who is a beautiful, educated woman of English birth,
is a fugitive from English police. The blackmailing
tactics, he asserted, are very similar to those em-
ployed by a notorious English woman crook.

Wild Turtle Attacks Woman.

The wild turtle that attacked Mrs. George Maury
on a business street in Evanston, Illinois, will never
attack another person. It was. converted into soup
by a local restaurant and brought quite a few extra
dimes to the till.

James Scully witnessed the attack and called the
police. By the time the bluecoats arrived, Scully had
captured the turtle and sold it to Thomas Kimm, man-
ager of a restaurant. Mrs. Maury, who was the vic-
‘tim of the turtle’s attack, had gone home.

She was crossing the street, she said later, when
she felt a tug at the hem of her dress. She looked
down. There was a huge turtle. She screamed and
Scully ran to her aid.

, & Union soldier in the. Civil War.

BILL: WEERLY,

The turtle weighed nearly forty pounds. How it
found its way to Evanston remains a mystery.

Retired Cattleman Charged with Murder.

D. W. A. Henson, retired cattleman, of Wichita,
Kansas, was found guilty of murder in the second de-
gree for having murdered ‘his wife by shooting her
at the Henson residence in Wichita two years ago.
Two previous trials resulted in hung juries.

Henson also is charged with having killed his step-
son at the same time Mrs. Henson was killed. The
youth, who was clubbed-to death, was a paralytic.

Henson’s defense was that the boy shot his mother
and then attacked him, and that he had to kill the
youth in self-defense.

Alleged Thief Released to Do His Bit.

George Burgess, of Collinsville, Illinois, escaped a
possible term in prison, and was released from the
Madison County Jail, at Edwardsville recently to do
his bit in winning the war,/ He went to Granite City
on being released on his own recognizance, and then
to Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky.

A short time ago Burgess joined the Third Ifinois
Field Artillery. He is charged with stealing a re-
volver just before leaving home. He said he bought
it from a boy. ~The gun was sold to a pawnshop.

As soon as Burgess writes Sheriff Jenkin Jenkins
from the military camp, efforts will be made to have
the larceny charges dismissed.

Woman, Ninety-one, Ignorant of War.

Mrs. Frances Hancknell, of Alton, Missouri, who
has recently celebrated her ninety-first-birthday anni-
versary, knows nothing about the great European
war. ne

During the Civil War her husband and two sons
were killed, and she suffered so much from the shock
that relatives thought best not to inform her of the
present war.

Mrs. Hancknell resides with her son Fred, who was
She has lived in
the same house continuously for seventy years.

Betrayed by Finger Prints.

Jeff Freed, wanted on a forgery charge, who worked
in the Excelsior Restaurant, at Eldora, Iowa, last win-
ter, was caught by a private detective and identified
through finger prints on a soup plate in the restau-
rant. The proprietor explains the durability of the
finger prints by saying that the plates were used only
for oyster soup, not served in summer.

Wireless Message Sent Five Thousand Miles in
Thirty-three Minutes.

The new naval wireless at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii—
the most powerful in the world—was opened recently
with a new world’s record for long-distance trans-
MSsion. ©

Messages exchanged between Secretary Daniels and
the naval commandant at Pearl Harbor were trans-

 

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NEW BUFFALO

| mitted between Hawaii and Sayville, Long Island, ap-
| proximately five thousand miles, within thirty-three

minutes.

The Pearl Harbor station is one of a great high-
power chain that virtually will encircle the globe and
keep American ships everywhere in constant com-
munication with the navy department at Washington.

Indian Sticks on Job When Leg Is Broken.

According to a recent report from Seattle, Wash-
ington, stoicism and Simon Booth are no longer things
of the past. Both were brought to light after the
ambulance had made a run to Smith’s Cove.

Booth is a graduate of Carlisle and, in his time,
was considered one of the greatest half backs in the
country. He held up his Indian traditions of stoicism
one day recently by working two hours with a broken
leg.

Simon is longshoring now, and, while aiding in un-
loading the plates from the hold of a vessel, one
swung, and, before he could escape, caught him on
the ankle. He gritted his teeth and kept on work-
ing for two hours, then gave, in and asked for a
doctor.

Snake Charmer Comes to Grief.

It took an Alabama moccasin to teach Clarence
Bixler, of Battery C, One Hundred and Thirty-sixth
(Third Ohio) Field Artillery, while at Montgomery,
Alabama, that all snakes are not harmless, and Bixler
may lose a finger, or even a hand, because he mon-
keyed with the Southern reptile.

Bixler has achieved fame as a snake charmer and

frequently has caused cold chills to chase up the
spines of his comrades when he would bring in some
snake he had found outside of the camp. A few days
ago, he captured a moccasin, and, while handling it,
allowed it to become angry and bite him on the finger.
Prompt medical attention was given, but Bixler’s
hand continued to give him considerable trouble.

Blind Twenty Years; Sight Restored.

J. E. Henhart, 2354 East Fourth Street, Long Beach,
California, has had his eyesight restored after blind-
ness of twenty years, by an unusual operation. An ar-
tificial pupil was made to take the place of the natural
one, which was covered by a membrane.

Indian Woman One Hundred and Fourteen Years
“Old Dies.

The funeral of Mrs. Cruz Real, the Indian woman,
who died at the age of one hundred and fourteen, was
attended by hundreds of persons at Pueblo, Colorado,
recently:

Mrs. Real was born April 20, 1803, at Santa Fe, New
Mexico. She was married the first time in 1821 to
Joseph Real, who died in 1880. Her second marriage
took place in 1885; this time to Appalonia Druala.
He died ten years ago at the age of sixty. At that
time his wife was old enough to be his grandmother.

The aged woman had been like a child in many
respects for the last fifteen years. She lived with a
son, Antone Real, who is now eighty years old. She

1h " rte on ee OR oS OT
PAO eM. at, ik Ah at et ln peice ae

BILL WEEKLY. 32

slept nearly all of the twenty-four hours of the day,
and had regained her childhood keenness of sight and
hearing. She came to Pueblo County in 1849, and for
years lived with the Indians.

Commemorate Historic Spots.

Proposals to mark with shafts historic spots in
Butte County, California, are in contemplation by a
committee with headquarters at Oroville, California.
The Hamilton City and Bidwell Bar sites of the court-
house have been selected for the first monuments.

It is planned to erect a concrete shaft with a metal
plate suitably inscribed at each of these. places, and
to plant a walnut tree near by to shade the shaft and
further commemorate the spot.

It was with difficulty that the site on Courthouse
Hill could be found.

The members of the committee are planning to take
advantage of a law which permits the Board of Super-
visors of any county to appropriate money from the
general fund for the erection of monuments. to- mark
historic spots within the county.

Mexicans Attack Rarich,

A recent report from Harlingen, Texas, states that
three armed Mexicans rode up in front of the house
on Three Wells Ranch, near there, and called out the
owner, A. Bunde Garza. As soon as he appeared at
the door, the three began firing. Mr. Garza dropped
to the floor and commanded the rest of the family
in the house to do l)cewise. One shot, which went
through the side of the house, struck young Rafael
Garza and killed him instantly. The quick wit of the
elder Garza led the men to believe that they had killed
him, and they soon departed. Officers who were put
on the case arrested Crescencio’ Garcia, and he was
identified by Garza as one of the men in the trio.
Garcia, however, proved a good ‘alibi.

Further investigation resulted in the fact that four
heavily armed men were seen coming from that. sec-
tion of the country at a late hour in the night. These
men are being hunted.

Relatives Left Five Dollars Each.

A contest of the will of the late Charles J. Hack,
rancher of Freeport, Sacramento County, California,
has been filed by Mary Oswill and Emma Landers,
sisters, Richard Stackhouse and Dolly Stackhouse,

nephew and niece, and John Hack, brother.

Each of the contestants was bequeathed five dollars
by Hack. The remainder of the estate valued at thir-
ty-three thousand dollars, was bequeathed to his
widow, Mrs. Annie Hack. They allege undue influence
upon her part and unsoundness of mind upon the part
of Hack. The will was executed on February 17, 1916,
and Hack died in September of that year.

Women on Island Forbidden to Talk.

The little Greek island of Fano, near Corfu, Greece,
has become known to the Entente fleets and armies as
a place where women are forbidden to talk. The
island has normally a population of 1,824 persons, but

oa La ee Me haan et ae ete

     
 
 

       

82 NEW BUFFALO

most of the men are in the United States, where they
work as waiters. :

The custom of the island for many years has been
for the young men to marry the girls they love best,
and, then, after a brief honeymoon, so to. America
to make their fortunes, returning in a few years to
their brides. During this period of the absence of
the husbands, it has become a custom for the wives,
women traditional for their beauty, never to talk to
men.

It is the business of the older women to watch over
the young wives, and when strange men approach, as
has happened frequently since the war, they are met
with a shower of stones.

Married ‘Twice in Two Days.

Elwood Brewster, of Placerville, California, and Mrs.
Evelyn Minerva Ross, of San Francisco, were married

at Placerville recently, the wedding being their second .

one in two days. The marriage license, taken out at
Placerville, gave the age of the groom as eighteen
years, and was given on the filing of his. mother’s
permission. The license taken out in Stockton a few
days before gave the lad’s age as twenty-one years.
Fhe young man has been attending high school in
Placerville. He met his bride in Sacramento a few
weeks before the wedding.

The elopement caused much surprise, and his par-
ents, Mr. and Mrs. Al. Brewster, decided to hold a
second wedding to make the affair legal. The second
wedding was at the home of his parents.

Crushed Body of Miner Found Below Cliff.

A recent report from Redding, California, describes
the finding of J. Whit George, old-time miner and
prospector, dead at the bottom of a cliff near Clear
Creek bridge, a mile east of Igo, California.

George left Igo at four o’clock in the afternoon,
three days previously, to ride a mule home, three miles
away. The riderless mule, with the saddle turned,
appeared at George’s cabin three days later. Then
it was known something had happened to the aged
man. A party of seven from Igo started to search
with lanterns and found the body soon after mid-
night.

The skuil was crushed and a leg broken. He prob-

ably perished the same evening that he started out,

his mule wandering the hills meanwhile.

George, aged sixty, was born in Shasta County, and
leaves a wife in Redding, a son in Mammoth, and a
daughter in Stockton. He was a Mason and Odd
Fellow, and had been mine watchman at Muletown,
near t Igo, for vay years. , F

Chinese and Young Woman Spread Smallpox.

According to reports to the California State Board
of Health,-an epidemic of smallpox in Nevada County
centering about Columbia Consolidated Mines in Grass
Valley, an Americanized Chinaman, living three miles
above the town, was found to have a severe case of
the disease, although he went and came about town
as he pleased.

At a party given in the bomaniniig between Wash-
ington and the 1 mines, Several cases dev eloped follow-.

   

 

‘reported. A girl,
_ scious of having smallpox, visited Grass Valley and

bark.

BILL WEE! SLY.

ing the attendance of several who had broken out
with a rash.

Three children are: among those down with the
disease near Washington, the. county health officer
in an advanced stage and uncon-

Nevada City.
Those afflicted, and the districts, have been placed
under a strict quarantine.

Drowns in Barrel of Water.

Thomas B. Roberts, a miner from Kennett, Califor-
nia, committed suicide in the County Hospital at Red-
ding, California, recently, —

His first attempt by slashing his throat with a razor
failed. A few minutes afterward, he went to a rain-
water barrel and stuck his head into the water until
he drowned. Roberts: was discovered in a few mo-
ments, but he was beyond: résuscitation.

Roberts was aged seventy-five years. Hé was born
in Walés,.and was a miner who was known in every
camp in Shasta County.

Robbers Dynamite Safe.

Burglars dynamited the safe of the California Gran- |

ite Company’s general-merchandise store at Rocklin,
California, recently, attempted to break open the cash
register, and escaped without securing anything of
value.

No cash was kept in the safe, the outer door of

which had been left open. After blowing open the
inner door, the cracksmen threw books and papers
about the floor in their search for valuables. *
.They then tried to pry open the cash register, but
did not succeed, although the front was torn off. No
clew to the identity of the men or: the dinceHon they
took has been secured.

The attempted robbery was not discovered until the
next morning, when the front door of the establish-
ment was found open.

Hurled from Auto, Killed by Train.

Mrs. George Greenlaw, of Spreckels, Monterey
County, California, formerly of Sacramento, was killed
outright when a railroad. train crashed into an auto-
mobile in which she was riding near Salinas, accord-
ing to advices received at Yolo by her parents, Mr.
and Mrs. W. R. Johnston, former residents of Oak

Mrs. Greenlaw was riding in an auto driven by Mrs.
C. E. Bradley, of Spreckels. Owing to a clump of trees
near a railroad crossing of the Pajaro Valley Con-
solidated’ Railway, they did not notice a train ap-
proaching, and drove on the track. Mrs. Greenlaw
was crushed to death. Mrs. Bradley escaped serious
injuries, but is prostrated by the tragedy.

Mrs. Greenlaw and her husband left Sacramento
two years ago, Since then they have resided at dif-
ferent intervals in San Francisco, Alameda,
Spreckels. Of late they have been living at Spreckels,
where the husband has been studying to be a master
mechanic at the Spreckels Sugar Refinery, under his
father, George Greenlaw, senior, who had also lived
in Sacramento many years.

and

   

 
   
   
  
 

 

 

 
 

ut

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id

 
 

ew Buffalo Bill
“2 Weekly 333

BV ERY COLORED
TUESDAY 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. In no manner can you become so thoroughly acquainted with the actual habits and life of this
great man, as by reading the New Buffalo Bill Weekly.

We give herewith a list of some of the back numbers in print.

 

 

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.

 

D7
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59

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94
95

96—
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98—
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105

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107
108

109—

7—Buffalo Bill's Rio Grande Feud.
Buffalo Bill in Tight Quarters.
—Buffalo Bill's Daring Rescue.
Buffalo Bill at the Torture Stake.
—Buffalo Bill's Treasure Train.
—Buffalo Bill Among the Blackfeet.
Buffalo Bill's Border Beagles.
Buffalo Bill and the Bandits in Black.
—Buffalo Bill on the Deadwood Trail.
—Buffalo Bill in the Cafion of Death.
—Buffalo Bill and Billy, the Kid.
—Buffalo Bill and the Robber Ranch.
Buffalo Bill in the Land of Wonders.
Buffalo Bill and the Traitor Soldier.
—Buffalo Bill’s Dusky Trailers.
—Buffalo Bill’s Diamond Mine.
Buffalo Bill and the Pawnee Serpent.
—Buffalo Bill’s Scarlet Hand.
Buffalo Bill Running the Gantlet.
Buffalo Bill’s Leap in the Dark.
Buffalo Bill’s Daring Plunge.
Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Mission.
Buffalo Bill’s Ghost Raid.
Buffalo Bill’s Traitor Guide.
—Buffalo Bill’s Camp Fires.
—Buffalo Bill Up a Stump.
Buffalo Bill’s Secret Foe.
Buffalo Bill’s Master Stroke.
—Buffalo Bill and the Skeleton Horse-

man.
—Buffalo Bill and the Brazos Terror.
—Buffalo Bill's Dance of Death.
Buffalo Bill and the Creeping Terror.
Buffalo Bill and the Brand of Cain.
Buffalo Bill and the Mad Millionaire.
—Buffalo Bill’s Medicine Lodge.
—Buffalo Bill in Peril.

Buffalo Bill’s Strange Pard.
—Buffalo Bill in the Death Desert.
—Buffalo Bill in No-Man’s Land.
Buffalo Bill’s Border Ruffians.
Buffalo Bill’s Black Eagles.

Buffalo Bill’s Rival.

Buffalo Bill and the Boy Bugler.
Buffalo Bill and the White Specter.
—Buffalo Bill’s Death Defiance.
—Buffalo Bill and the Barge Bandits.
—Buffalo Bill, the Desert Hotspur.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild Range Riders.
—Buffalo Bill’s Red Retribution.
Buffalo Bill's Death Jump.
—Buffalo Bill’s Aztec Runners.
—Buffalo Bill’s Fiery Eye.

Buffalo Bill’s Gypsy Band.

110—Bnuffalo Bill’s Maverick.

eh
de
113

—Buffalo Bill, the White Whirlwind.
—Buffalo Bill in Old Mexico.
—Buffalo Bill’s Flying Wonder.

114—-Buffalo Bill’s Ice Chase.

115—
116—
'117—Buffalo Bill’s Message from the Dead.

Buffalo Bill's Gold Hunters.
Buffalo Bill and the Wolf Master.

118—Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Dozen.
119—Buffalo Bill’s Whirlwind Chase.
120—Buffalo Bill Haunted.

TOT

—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—Butffalo Bill’s Outlaw Trail.
127—Buffalo Bill and the Indian Queen.
128—Buffalo Bill and the Mad Marauder.
129—Buffalo Bill’s Ghost Dance.
130—Buffalo Bill’s Peace Pipe,
131—Buffalo Bill’s Red Nemesis.

32—Buffalo Bill's Enchanted Mesa.
33—Buffalo Bill in the Desert of Death.
34—Buffalo Bill’s Pay Streak.
135—Buffalo Bill on Detached Duty.
136— Buffalo Bill’s Army Mystery.
137—Buffalo Bill’s Surprise Party.
138—Buffalo Bill’s Great Ride.
139—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. A
TO— ae Bill and the Forty Thieves.
Buffalo Bill’s Mine.
— Buffalo Bill’s Clean-up.
—Buffalo Bill’s Ruse.
4—Buffalo Bill Overboard.
75—Buffalo Bill's Ring.
176—Buffalo Bill’s Big Contract.
177—Butffalo 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.

a
1.
1

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.
°01—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—Burffalo 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 Hight 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—Buftalo Bill's Long Odds.
226—Buffalo Bill, the Peace Maker.
2: 27—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.
231 3uffalo 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.

39—Buffalo Bill's Blockade.
S49 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 Totem.
245—Buffalo Bill's O. K.
246—Buffalo Bill at Cation Diablo.
247—Buffalo Bill's Transfer.

248— Butal Bill and the Red Horse Hunt-

249-Buffalo Bill’s Dangerous Duty.
20 Buffalo Bill and the Chief’s Saunier.
51—Buffalo Bill at Tinaja Wells.
5: 52—Buffalo Bill and the Men of Mendon.
253—Buffalo Bill at Rainbow’s End.
254—Buffalo Bill and the Russian Plot.
255—Buffalo Bill’s Red Triangle.
256—Buffalo Bill’s Royal Flush.
257—Buffalo Bill's Tramp Pard.
258—Buffalo Bill on the Upper Missouri.
259—Buffalo Bill’s Crow Scout.
260—Buffalo Bill’s Opium Case.
261—Buffalo Bill’s Witchcraft.
262—Buffalo Bill’s Mountain Foes.
263—Buffalo Bill's Battle Cry.
264—Buffalo Bill’s Fight for Te Right.
265—Buffalo Bill’s Barbecue.
266—Buffalo Bill and the Red Renegade.
267—Buffalo Bill and the Apache Kid.
268—Buffalo Bill at the Copper Barriers.
269—Buffalo Bill’s Power.
270—Buffalo Bill and the Chief Hawkchee.
271—-Buffalo Bill and the Indian Girl.
Adar abe trict Bill Across the Rio paoande:
Dated December 1st, 1917.

278—Buffalo Billand the Headless Horse-

agi
Dated December 8th, 1917.
274—Butffalo Bill’s Clean Sweep.
Dated December 15th. 1917.
275—Buffalo Bill’s Handful of Pearls.
Dated December 22d, 1917.
276—Buffalo Bill's Pueblo Foes.

 

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