TT Mikey YW No. 290
ii SF | MARCH 30, 1918

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Far West Life

Issued Weekly. Entered as Second-class Matter at the New York Post Office, by STREET & SMITH, 79-89 Seventh Ave., New York.

Copyright, 1918, by STREET & SMITH CORPORATION.

 

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e s
No. 290. NEW YORK, March 30, 1918 Price Six Cents.

 

Butfalo’ Bill and the Talking Statue;

OR,

PAWNEE BILL'S GOLD TRAIL.

By the author of 'BUPRALO BILL.”

CHAPTER TL.
THE ENGLISH MAN.

He was a typical Englishman, from his spats to nie single
eyeglass.
“Cody,” he said, “it’s blooming good luck that I met
you.’
The place was the half-filled lobby of the Pilgrim's
Mecca, an adobe hostelry presided over by a Southwestern
specimen known as Persimmon Pete. The town was Her-
mosa, on the Mexican border. The time was night.

“Hamilton is my name,” the Englishman added; “May-
berry Hamilton—good old eet name. And here are
my credentials.”

From his side pocket he took an envelope, and from the
envelope a paper with a heavy. red seal... The seal was the
stamp-of the Mexican interior. department, placed on a

doctiment which authorized him to explore the San Felipe ~

foothills, lying over against the Gulf of California, and
to employ in his. service whatever men he chose.
“Pm needing some bally good fighting men,” he said, as

he passed over the document.

Glancing through it, the scout handed it to Pawnee Bill
for his inspection, then eyed the Englishman,

“Geographical exploration—nothing else,” Hamilton ex-
plained blandly. “There are Indians in those. foothills, and
I intended to go alone,
but if I can engage you and your friends to make the trip
with me I’d like to do it. You can name your own figures
for the wof

- Some men came in at the door, nak the scout took no
notice of them. He was wondering how much he could
believe of the Englishman’s statement, if anything. And
he ‘was trying to recall what he had recently heard of a
mysterious eld mine, or gold discoveries, in the region
mentioned. -
- Pawnee iad he ane. back, with the comment:
“The San Felipe foothills would be, right now, rather out
of our way, necarnis.”

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But, instead of instantly turning down the offer, Buffalo
Bill began to draw the man out.

Hamilton was a member. of the Royal Geographical
Society, he claimed, and a captain of the Irish Lancers.
At present he was on leave of absence for purposes of

exploration.

“I arrived in Hermosa yesterday, and——”

_A shot came, unexpected as a lightning flash, from the
group in the doorway.

Hamilton threw up his hands, stasECtsts and pitched

over on his face.

?

“Necarnis, this is——
Crack, crack!
Soap uggling a revolver. out of his pocket, Pawnee Bill had

fired twice, the two. shots putting out.the-only two lamps
in the room and plunging it in darkness..
There was a roar and a stampede, men flinging Hern:

selves. for safety out of doors. and windows, so that the

lobby was. almost instantly emptied.

Then Pawnee struck a match.

“Hurt, necarnis?” he asked.

Buffalo Bill was down on the floor, kneeling beside the
Englishman. °

“No; but I'm afraid our new English acquaintance has
got his ticket.”

There was a wet red spot on the Englishman’s shirt near

the throat.

“I doused the glims,’ Pawnee explained, “because a
thought that lead was meant for you, and expected more.’

Flinging a glance round the room before he extinguished
the match, he saw Persimmon Pete crawling out of his
desk, a man under a table, and two hiding behind chairs.
But the crowd was gone from the doorway.

“Are we alone?” whispered the man who was supposed
to be dead or dying, lifting his lips to the scout’s ear, as
the match went out.

It gave Buffalo Bill a start

“Nearly so,” he returned.

“Then take me up to your room “before any of those

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2 "NEW BUFFALO

men get back: and send out word that I’m in a bally bad
way. l’ve a reason for saying this.” See
_. “Kiss that candle on the desk with one o’ yer fire sticks,”
‘drawled Persimmon Pete, “and give us a light. Two good
lamps gone to the expense account. But what d’ye expect
in a country like this?”

“And a man killed!” said Pawnee, who had not heard
the whispers. “If I hadn’t shot thé lights out there might
have been others.” oe ee

“Wow! So ’twas you that done that?” said the pro-
prietor. ae:

‘He crawled to his feet and lighted the candle himself,
when Pawnee was slow in obeying.

The Englishman lay with eyes closed, flat on his back,
an arm twisted under him; but he was breathing faintly
and there was a pink flush in his cheeks.

“If you'll help here, Pawnee,” said the scout, “we'll see
if we can get him up to my room. Then we can send for
a aoetore

Persimmon Pete stepped to the door, locked it, and
dropped the key into ths pocket. As he turned back he
observed the figure under the table and the men behind
the chairs.

_ “The massacreein’ is all over,” he said; “so you lame
dué¢ks can now come out.”

. Then he looked at the man on the floor.

“This is one love of a country!” he grunted. “But there
must have been somethin’ back of that. Even down hyar
.men don’t pull guns and shoot ‘thout they think they've got
proper occasion. Them was Mexicans in the door where
the shot come frum—mebby you noticed?”

*T think that lead came searching for Pard Bill,’ de-
clared Pawnee. aS Q
_ Persimmon Pete looked at the scout.

- Y* come down hyar chasin’ somebody, I s’pose? In
cases like that the parsood gin’rally gits free and wicked
with their guns. You fellers ain’t mixed in with this gun-

. runnin’ and insurrecto bizness “long the border now? Bet-
ter fight shy of it, if ye aire—it’s my advice”.

They bore the Englishman. upstairs into. the scout’s
aay with the help of the man who had been under the
table. - uy

“Hustle some one for a doctor, Pete,” the scout now
requested. “And be quick about it. We'll.do what we
can here while he is coming.” — ae

_ Persimmon Pete departed hurriedly, with the man who
had come up with him.

..As soon as they were out. of the room, to the astonish-
ment of Pawnee, who had not been enlightened, the Eng-
lishman opened. his eyes and sat up in the bed. >
_ The coast is clear now, I believe,” he said, and winked.
“That was a. blooming clever trick I turned, wasn’t it—
what? 1 think I’ve lost my eyeglass, No, here it: is; the
cord held it.”

He glued it into his right eye.

“You're not what you seem to be,” said the scout,

“I’m not dead, if that’s what you mean. But I want
those blooming scoundrels down there to think that I am.
‘Turn the key in that lock, will you?”

- Pawneéé, who was “near the dooft, stepped . back and
“Tocked it: See rane at, oe Ae
"The Englishman swung his legs to the floor: :

- “T hope there isn’t a doctor in the town: but if there
is, I'll be ready to swing back into bed when he comes.”

oo was starting at the red spot on the Englishman’s
shirt. : ;

Noticing it, the Englishman latighed.

“It’s rather thin stuff for the vital fluid,” he said’ “but
it was the best I could do—red ink, that’s all. I had a
bottle of it in my pocket, and made use of it when the
lamps went ott.” .

“Carried it about with you,” said the scout, “for that
purpose? It’s an old trick. I’ve known it to be worked
before.” : fa ae
““VYou Yankees are good suessérs.”

“You expected to be shot at?”

_“T. was afraid that I might me. But I'll explain it to
you.’ ‘
= Buffalo Bill sat down expectantly. in the nearest. chair,
- “Explanations are in-order,”. remarked Pawnee, drawing
up. anothers “and, under the circumstances, they ought to

 

BILL WEEKLY.

be highly interesting. When a dead man, with a hole in
his breast, sits up in bed and begins to talk, he surely can
be expected to say something worth while. But time flics,
and the doctor is coming.”

“Vou recall what I told you—that I wanted to go into
the San Felipe foothills, and would like to employ you to
go with me? So far that was the truth, but not all of it.
Instead of mere explorations, I wanted to look at a cer-
tain gold mine said to be there. That is why I was shot
at. I dropped and showered myself with red ink to make
the rascals think they had killed me. That was so. they
wouldn’t shoot again, and perhaps get me the next time,
That’s clear, so far?”

Buffalo Bill nodded.

“You heard the proprietor say the men in the doorway,
one of whom did the shooting, were Mexicans. I didn’t
‘see them, but my surmise is that the man who sent the
bullet at me was Red Miguel, or Miguel the Red. He is
only half Mexican; the other half is Indian. Lately he
and a number of his men have come into this section and
have pretended to be insurrectos; but it is because I am
here, and they wanted to shadow me.”

“To keep you from going into the San Felipe?”

“They shadowed me to make sure that I am their man;
then they shot at me to keep me from going into those
foothills. And the reason lies right here. They are the
hired assassins of certain men who have gone secretly into
the San Felipe and are working that gold mine. -I have
evidence to that effect, which I can’t go over now. But
the Mexican government, which owns ‘the mine, and all
the mining land lying out there, has become convinced
that that'is the fact; and I have been commissioned to go
there and learn the truth. If it is the truth, and I live to
get back with that report, Mexican soldiers will be sent
in there, who will stop the work and kill the men engaged
in it. Do I make myself clear?” :

“T think we are getting it,’ said Pawnee.

“Another thing you are making clear,” added Buffalo
Bill, “is that you are still playing a double part.”

“Haven't I confessed it?”

“Playing a double part with us, I mean.”

“You mean I am still feeding you a blooming lot of
lies about the San Felipe gold mine?” =~

“No; [ mean that you are not an Englishman!”

‘The man stared, then laughed.

. “I got too interested in my story to keep that impersona-
tion ‘upto the proper notch, eh? Well, let it go at that.”

“You are an American.”

“Don’t whisper it outside of this room, please. Those
Mexicans don’t know it.”

“Why do you play the part?” asked the scout.

“I assumed it in the first place because I heard that the
man who is at the head of the gang secretly working that
gold mine‘is an Englishman, and I thought they mightn't
suspect me so quickly if I was found meandering in that
direction wrapped in the English flag, you know—figu-

‘ratively speaking. And now, for the sake of appearances

and other things, I’ve got to keep it up.”

‘He fiddled with the eyeglass. :

“Deuced hard, you know,” he said, drawling; “to use
one of these monocles; takes a dashed lot of practice, y
know. But I’m getting on. And when I don't get shot
at and thrown mentally out of gear, my bally blooming
English speech will pass muster—what?” -

He.glanced. at the door,

“Tf that doctor comes too soon, go-out and knock him
on the head—anything to hold him back from an inves-
tigation.” .

He turned to Buffalo. Bill.

“Anything else I can enlighten you-on? I’m in earnest
when I say that I’d like men of your stamp with me when
it-comes to fighting. The Mexican government can be
depended on to whack up the necessary amount of the
needful, so you'll have no’ cause to worry on the money
score. That gold mine is valuable, and old Diaz isi't
going to stand back and let:a lot of thieves pilfer it. So
what do you say?” fe :
ero not mixed up with the insurrectos?” said’ the

out. egies ce

_“Tt’s.a question you were asked by the fellow downstaits,

 

  
 
  
   
   
  
  
 
   
  
   
  
  
   
   
 
  
  
 
   
 
  
  
  
   
 
   
  
   
  
  
  
   
  
   
   
  
 
 
   
   
   
   
  

      
 

 

 

NEW BUFFALO

you'll recollect. No, I’m not; they’re against the Mexican
government, and I’m for it so long As the pay is good.”

“We think we shall have to turn your offer down.”

“That’s bad. I hoped you wouldn’t.”

“You gave us your right name?”

“Sure thing—Mayberry Hamilton,
enough for me. Perhaps you're willing to say why you
can't accept my offer? I'll make it as generous as you
want.”

“Private reasons,” said the scout.

“Which means public ones, no doubt. You're down here
to stop this running of guns and ammunition across the
line to the Mexican rebels. This little revolution is going
to peg out shortly, though. Some day there will be a
bigger one that may overthrow the Diaz government, but
not now. The time isn’t yet ripe for it.

“What do you say to going with me a little later,” he
added, “after this insurrecto flurry has blown by? If I
could get your promise, I’d hang round somewhere until
you could go with me, as I think it would pay me in the
end. You see, good men are mighty scarce along this bor-
der—men that you can tie to. I could go out and hire
a lot of common gunmen, and a thousand Mexicans, if I
wanted them, but what are they worth? I couldn’t trust
them. If they thought it would pay them, they'd even kill
me, after they got me into those foothills. I’d rather go
it alone. So what do you say—after this two-by-twice rev-

olution has fluttered out?”

“If the baron were here,’ laughed Pawnee, ‘“‘he’d be
glad to listen to you. He is pining for excitement.”

Buffalo Bill had not replied to the final invitation of
Mayberry Hamilton when steps were heard in the hall.

“The doctor is coming,’ groaned Hamilton, turning back
into the bed and covering himself up. ‘Take a look out,
Cody, will you, before you let him in; and if it’s your
judgment that he is willing to take a bit of bribe, permit
him to enter; otherwise, for the love of Mike, kick him
back down that stairs and say that I don’t need the serv-
ices of a doctor—that I’m dead, or past the need of it—
anything.”

Buffalo Bill laughed and got up to go to the door.

When he opened it and looked out, he saw Persimmon
Pete and a little Mexican with a surgical case in his hand.
The latter was the doctor.

“Tlksee' you, Pete, later,”
doctor in.

Hamilton’s eyes fluttered. open and he took the measure
of the man of medicine and lancets.

“T’m hurt,’ he drawled, in a feeble voice; “but I don’t
need you; my American friends have done all that is nec-
essary. But to pay you for your trouble and——’

His hand came from under the bedclothing, holding a
twenty-dollar gold piece.

The little Mexican doctor looked at him doubtfully,
puzzled, then took the gold piece.

“When you need me,” he said, backing to the door,
“send for me. I was led to think that you were mortally
wounded.”

“The bullet glanced,’ said the man in the bed. “But I
shall be kept here a few days by it. Thank you very
much,” he added sweetly, as the doctor drew the door
open and stood ready to depart. “I shall send for you
again—if I need you.’

The doctor closed the door behind him, and they heard
him depart by way of the hall.

“Now send for Persimmon Peter,’ chirped Hamilton.

The proprietor, who had not retired far, came in almost
as soon as summoned. The man in the bed had another
gold piece in his hand, and held it out.

“Persimmon,” he said, “my friends here find that I was
more scared than hurt. The bullet scratched, then glanced
off. So I’m not going to make a die of it. I’m so little
hurt, in fact, that in a few minutes I am going out of
here. But the man who shot at me—one of those Mex-
icans you saw in the doorway—will try again to get me,
if he can. I don’t want to give him the chance. To do
that, I want to ask you to furnish me a room. [I shall not
occupy it, bit this will pay you for it, and pay you for
saying to all inquirers that I am in it and am not to be
disturbed. At the end of two or three days I shall not
care what you say—for I shall be out of the country.”

said the scout, and let the

 

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BILL WEEKLY.

Persimmon Pete was staring.

“Wow!” he gulped. His eyes were fixed on the red
stain on Hamilton’s shirt front. “That bullet called for
you, anyhow.” :

“Tt sure did, Peter,” said the man in the bed. “Buta
miss is as good as a mile—in this case better, for it gives
me a chance to get safely away while those rascals think
I’m lying in bed up here, headed for the cemetery. Dis-
cretion is the better part of valor, and I’m going to be
discreet—with your help. Say that you'll do the necessary
lying—in the interest of a man who doesn’t want to make |
a die of it just yet. You're short on good deeds, Peter;
here’s your chance to put one on the credit side of your
ledger, and get paid for it.”

Persimmon Pete looked round at Buffalo Bill and
Pawnee.

“He’s right about it,’ said the scout, with a nod of
assent. “The man who sent that bullet at him will send
another, give him the chance.”

“The room right over there,’ said Persimmon Pete, as
he took the money; “it’s yours for a week, if you want it
that long, and nobody will disturb you.

“They won't, friend; not in this town,’ ’ remarked Ham-
ilton, throwing back the bedclothing and swinging his feet
round, then dropping them to the floor.

Persimmon Pete stared again.

“I s’pose,” he said, “that you're through with me?”

“T am. Tell them down there’—he jerked his head
toward the lower part of the house—‘that the very serious
character of my injury makes it advisable that I shouldn't
be disturbed by any one.’

Persimmon Pete laughed. ~«

“All right,” he agreed, and, shuffling to the door, drew
it open and vanished.

“You seem to have money to throw at the birds,”
nee commented, when the proprietor was gone.

“Government money—Mexican. You can have your full
share of this bird ammunition if you're willing to help
me,” said Hamilton, now getting out of the bed.

“Sorry to say the San Felipe foothills aren’t calling for
us right now,” Pawnee responded. “We’ve got other birds
to kill.”

Advancing toward the door,
against it and listened.

“The coast seems to be clear right now,’ he declared,
“so I think I’d better be going. I may not be able to start
for the San Felipe for a week or two. In the meantime,
if you change your minds, drop me a note to Los Cerillos,
It will reach me from there, wherever I am.”

About to depart by way of the hall and the back stairs,
he stopped to shake hands with the noted American scouts.

“Good-by,” he said. “You’re white, and I'll not forget
you.” :

Paw-

Hamilton laid his ear

CHAPTER, If.
THE GUN RUNNER

Gun running is exciting and perilous business, but it
pays big-tn adventure and often in money. And if the
gun runner sympathizes with the revolutionists to whom
he is furnishing guns, he enjoys the added feeling of a
heroic doer of deeds well done.

So thought Harvey Brice, sitting atop the four-mule-
team wagon that held boxes of Remingtons and_Colts, with
ammunition for the same.

Behind him came another wagon, similar in make, sim-
ilarly laden, and drawn by four mules. The driver of
this wagon was a Mexican.

Before and behind and on each side of the wagons rode
a number of mounted men, dark-faced, tattered as to
clothing, furtive in looks. They were the guard sent by
the insurrectos to help Brice as he made the crossing of
the boundary line, where it was possible he might be at-
tacked by Mexican rurales.

_. No rurales appeared, and Brice and his escort went on
ae eas ten miles, when they came to the Corunna
Nells

Aside from the wells, two in number, furnishing an
abundancé of water, the only other feattires of interest
were the house and the people who temporarily occupied
it. The house was a rambling adobe, with many low

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rooms. Its occupants were dark-browed, furtive-looking
Mexicans, as tattered as Brice’s escort, and like them in

" appearance.

They swarmed out of the house, half a score in num-
ber, when his wagons came into sight. And, in addition
to welcoming Brice joyously and noisily, fraternized with
his escort ovet a supply of pulque and aguardiente.

The commander of the men at the house was a Mexican
half-breed, who had an tincommon type of face of a very
Indian ted, atid was known as Miguel the Red, and by
Americans—such as knew him at all—as Red Mike.

Red Mike conducted Brice into the best living room and
set him down before a table that held a number of hot,
peppery Mexican dishes and a bottle of aguardiente.

There they began to talk in Mexican, of which language
Harvey Brice had a good command.

“No rurales in sight as we came down,” said Brice, pour-

‘ing out a small quantity of the fiery liquor and putting it

to his lips.

He set the glass down hastily.

“Worse than whisky,” he said, and spat it out. “Haven’t
you got some water?”

Fee Mike took up a coarse pitcher and went out to the
wells. :

Brice glanced round the room reflectively:

“Five thousand dollars, American, for the stuff I brought
down, and it will put me a thousand to the good. But I’d
like it better if these instirrectos looked a little more like
business. A hundred of Uncle Sam’s boys could chase a
thousand of them. But that’s not my lookout: I’m fur-
nishing stuff to do the fighting with, and they're furnishing
the men.”

He sniffed the aguardiente.

“If they drink much of that, I don’t wonder they're so
worthless.”

Hearing the creak of a door behind him, he whirled on
the stool he occupied, and, to his amazement, beheld in the
opened door the handsomest young woman, he was ready.
to swear, he had ever set eyes on, notwithstanding the fact
that her clothing was as tattered as that of the insur-
rectos. i \

Another thing that surprised him was that her fingers

- were on her lips, and she glanced from him to the door

by which the insurrecto captain had left the room.

“I haven’t time to talk with you,” she said hastily; “but
take this, and hide it, and when he is away and you get
the chance, read it. But don’t mention that you have seen
me.”

Her cheeks were stained with a warm red that leaped
into them as she spoke.

Brice jumped from his stool gallantly. And he would
have questioned her had he been given time. But she
stepped back, after tossing a folded bit of paper at his feet,
and was out of sight, as the door closed behind her with

ta SOtt Click:

Brice had only time to hide the paper in his pocket when
Red Mike came in, with the pitcher dripping coolness,

“It is a joke with the men out there,” said Red Mike,
“that. the sefior prefers water to the best aguardiente made
in Mexico.”

“I took a little of the stuff in the bottle while you were
gone, atid you can see that it made my face red as fire,”
declared the young American, for the purpose of hiding his
flushed confusion. “If I should swallow a glass of it, I
believe it would twist my head off.”

Red Mike dropped into the stool at the opposite side
of the table and helped himself liberally to the liquor, fill-\
ing the glass which Brice had discarded to the brim, tossing
it off, and smacking his lips.

“The American sefior,’ he chided, “does not know what
is good.”

“I want to start back this evening,” said Brice, fiddling
with the food, none of which he liked because of its pep-
periness. “I suppose you are ready to arrange our little
matter of business.”

“It was five thousand dollars,” said Red Mike.

- “Five thousand, American.”

“Very true. But the sefior cannot have it until. to-
morrow.”
The American gave him a quick glance.

NEW BUPRALO BILL WEERLY.

“Twas to have it when I delivered the goods; that was
the contract.”

He put his hand into his pocket to produce the paper
which held that promise, and—drew out the note which the
girl had given to him but a minute before.

In his confusion he let the paper slip to the floor, and

_ the Mexican caught it up. ‘

“My paper,” said Brice, holding out his hand for it; “I
thought it was our contract, but I see that it isn’t.”

With a sneer, Red Mike began to open it.

But he stopped more quickly than he began; for the
hand of the young American swung round and pointed a
revolver at him.

“T’ll take that paper, if you please,” said Brice.

Red Mike turned his head, and was evidently about to
call to his men outside.

“Open your lips and you get a bullet,” were the words
that stopped him.

Red Mike laughed mirthlessly.

“The sefior is touchy,” he said, writhing under the point
of the threatening revolver. “It will delight me if he will
put down that revolver.”

“Tt will delight me more when you pass back that
paper.”

Instead of obeying, Red Mike punchéd the table sud-
denly, ramming. it against the American for the purpose of
disconcerting him and destroying his aim, and jumped to
his feet.

But he came down again with a thump, for Brice had
dived under the table and caught him by the ankle.

The next moment Brice had crawled on top of the
Mexican and was choking him.

“Move again and I will shoot you,” he said fiercely,
flinging the gasping Mexican aside and scrambling to his
feet.

He had the paper and the revolver, and the Mexican was
on the floor.

The weapon was pointed again at Red Mike.”

“The sefior will pay dear for this!’ the villain whispered.

“That is all right. But don’t lift your voice any higher,
for I can hear you. And just remember that an American
will shoot when he has cause, and isn’t afraid of any Mex-
ican that ever lived.”

He flirted the paper open with one hand, while he cov-
ered the Mexican with the other. He was determined to
see what it held while he could, for he was not stire but
that in the end he would be overpowered by the men who
were now outside and the paper taken away from him.

What he read astonished him, and also frightened him:

“You are an American. And as an American gitl in
distress I appeal to you. I saw you coming with the teams,
and have written this sq hastily that I fear you will have
trouble in reading it. a the talk of the men here |
know that you are bringing arms from beyond the border
for the revolutionists. But you have been deceived. These
men are not revolutionists, but bandits. They are holding
me as a prisoner for ptirposes of ransom. I think they
have killed my brother. But I have not time to write
much, I was at the mine out in the San Felipe hills, and
there they took me, and brought me here. If you can
rescue me without serious danger to yourself and get me
across the lines, it will be the greatest favor you can ever
do to an American. My father is Ralph Pierpont, of New
York, and I am ALIce PIERPONT.”

So engrossed did Brice become in this, and so stunned
was he by its disclosures, that he nearly forgot that he
was holding the Mexican on the floor at the point of a
revolver, but was brought back to realize this by the scram-
ce sound which Red Mike made as he tried to get to the

oor.

“Halt !” Brice commanded, crumpling the paper and
again pointing the revolver, seat :

Red Mike shot his body at the door and rolled out of it.
_As soon as he was outside he sprang up and began to
shout to his men. And Harvey Brice heard them run-
ning. :

‘It's a fight now,” he thought grimly, and jumped to
the door. !

He closed it; and, seeing that there was a wooden bolt
on the inside, he dropped it into place,

   
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

NEW

BUEP ALA)

Having done that, he looked round.

There was one window in the room, on the same side
—a small one;

“They'll try to get in by that, if ‘they can’t force the
door,’ he thought.

Not satisfied with the strength of the wooden bolt, he
pushed the table against the door, and propped the stools
against it.

“* Best I can do,” he panted.

Busying himself with furious haste for the fight he
thought was approaching, he did not know that the girl
had eritered the room again until her hand touched his’
shoulder and he heard her speaking to him.

“I’m sorry about that,’ she said; “for

He turned to her, his face flushed.

roo. am 1 It was 2 £60) thing: 1 did:
dropped your note I couldn’t let that rascal get it. And
now | suppose we are in for it.”

“There is a door and a window in the other toom,’ she
said, “opening on the outside,-and locked on the outside.
That was to keep me from getting out. 1 was tied up in
there, with a handkerchief in my mouth, an hour before
you came, and it will be a surprise for Red Miguel when
he knows I sticceeded in freeing myself.”

“V'll see if they can be fastened on the inside.” He was
about to jump toward the door of the other room. “But
the thing that puzzles me,” he added, “is that Red Miguel
suspected that paper.”

“It’s a yellow-stained sheet that I stole ott of his note-
book, with a lead pencil, yesterday,” she explained, “atid he
recognized it.”

Brice dashed into the room the girl had occupied.

Red Mike was at the door there, on the outside, and,
having opened it, was about to enter ; but he jumped back
and away from it wheti he beheld the American.

Rushing to the door, Brice dropped the inside bolt. But
he could do nothing ‘to. the window, a narrow one like
that in the other room:

Wes he turned round he saw that the git] had followed

im.

“You will be killed,” she said, “and it’s my fault.” Her
face was white. “So I must ask you not to do anything
more. They are sure to get in, and then they will shoot
you.” /

“And you?” said Brice, trembling.

“T shall be no worse off than I was before. You came
here as their friend; so if you will apologize to Red
Miguel and tell him that, though I have appealed to. you,
you do not intend to try to fight them about me, | think
they will not harm you, though they may for a while hold
you here. It’s the only thing you can do.”

“And the thing I won't do, if I’m killed 4 dozen times,”
said Brice.

“Be good now,”
tell you!”

Red Mike’s voice rose.
the door to avoid a possible bullet.
Btice’s surrender.

The young American flung an anathema at him.

“I read about this,” he said to the girl, ‘about you, I
mean; the newspapers reported that you had been cap-
tured by bandits somewhere near the Gulf of California.
But your brother escaped, and reached San Francisco. The
news was wired from there.”

“Thank Heaven for that!”
they had killed, him. te
' “TY think, too,” Brice added, “the report said men would
be sent from San Fr rancisco, and that our government had
communicated with the Mexican government, and the war
department had ordered Buffalo Bill to try to get track of
you down on this border. But really "

He stopped abruptly; he had been about to confess that
he had, when -he read that report more than a week before,
in a Nogales paper, given it but little attention. Now, with
the girl before him, and those bandits outside the door—
well, that made the dffair take on a different aspect and
become extremely personal.

He knew he would fight for her to the last gasp; he had
already made up his mind to that.

Red Mike’s voice still commanded him to surrender.

“Try to break down one of these doors,” Brice shot back

9

 

But after I

she appealed tearfully, “and do what I

He was standing well out from
He was demanding

she exclaimed. ‘I was afraid

 

PPO AEN PL PNDAN

 

BILL WREREY. aa
at. him, “and you get it. Ill kill the first man that shows
his nose.’

‘“‘But—be reasonable!” the girl begged. “Be reasonable !
You can’t fight all those men.’

“Can’t 1?” said Brice. “Anyway, I cati make a mighty
try (ORV It.

“You will be killed,” she warned.

“Tham, livhave company ; there’ will be some Mexicans
who will go along with me.’

“And perhaps I shall be killed!” There was a catch
in her voice. “You must not try to fight them. And, be-
sides—I don’t want you to be killed!”

Brice looked round and at the girl with a feeling of
helplessness.

“Tf you will get over in that corner,’ he said, “you'll be
out of the reach of any bullets coming through this window.
Pil stand in the connecting door, where I can see both
rooms, and

She objected, urging him not to try to fight stich ovetf-
whelming numbers.

For a moment he hesitated, secing the tears start in hér
eyes. They were blue—he noted the color. She drew
them away with an effort, glanced at the witidow, atid cried
out.

Brice wheeled, and on the impulse of the instant fired
upon the man who was trying to get in there. The bullet
hit the man in the shoulder, and-he fell back with a howl.

“They'll kill me now, anyway,” said Brice; ‘‘so I’ve got
to fight them. I hope you won't try to stop me.”

He swung the muzzle of his revolver toward the corner
he had indicated.

“Tf you will get in there,’ he urged.
theirs now, and I think I can hold ’em—a while.
can’t burn this mud shack.’

Something in his manner forced the girl to obey him;
she retreated into the corner and huddled there.

“Tf you will give me a weapon, too! Y’ ‘shé said) in’ a
shaky voice.

Brice pulled a small revolver otit ef his hip pocket,
walked over deliberately, and gave it to hér.

“It’s lucky I’m loaded up like an arsenal; I’ve
more.”

i can shoot myself with this,’ she said, in her trembling
voice, “if they kill you; that’s what I want it for.”

He’ stared at her, his face suddenly becoming white.

“Better give that to me again, little girl,’ he begged;
“T hadn’t thought of that.”

She clung to the weapon, hid it in her dress, and shook
her head.

A shot plowed through the window, chipping off some
of the adobe, and whisked past Brice’s face.

With a spring, he was in the connecting doorway, and
two Colts showed in his hands.

Then the fight was on.

Through the windows of the two rooms, and through the
doors, the villaitis poured lead into the room, apparently
willing to kill the girl, if only they could get him.

And Brice replied, but more slowly, for he did not want
to waste his cartridges. One man fell in the window,
shot down by Brice as he desperately tried to get in; and
one of the bullets Brice sent throtigh the door on that side
slew another.

In the lull that followed, Brice heard the bandits carry-
ing the men back, and learned that both had been slain.
His face whitened even more, but he maintained his posi-
tion, and again rattled his revolvers when the fusillade
from the outside recommenced.

But now there was a change in the tactics of the bandits,
Some of them were heard on the roof.

“I don’t think they can burn this place,” he said, thinking
that was their object. “Probably they’ re up there to draw
my attention from the front. But

He fired again—at a man who had sent a bullet at him -
through one of the doors.

The firing at the windows and the doors became hotter
than before.

It was to distract Brice’s attention. He had guessed
correctly, so far; but they did not intend to try to burn the
house, which was impossible, as it had a mud foof. It
gave them time and opportunity to get from the roof into
the room above, which they accomplished without his

 

TLS thy HES. oF
‘They

got two

 

BN a NTA SROINE AN AUN, RYO

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2

 

. so you are.

furniture, probably added to make it burn better.

are right, Pard Lillie.

   

6 NEW BUFFALO

knowledge. Then they dropped a trapdoor there, which he
had thought a part of the smoke-stained ceiling; and
before he knew it they were dropping into the room.

_ The first, who came down within a yard of him, he
wounded with a bullet; but before he could, fire again the
ones who followed so swiftly rushed on him.

The girl came out of her corner to his assistance, but
was thrown down.

Brice fell in his furious struggle against odds, and was
subdued by a crushing blow on the head with a revolver
butt.

When his mind cleared he discovered that he was tied,
and that the girl, held by two of the men, was screaming
in fright and trying to get to him.

“You cowards!” he yelled. ‘Take these ropes off and

The men laughed at his outburst and proceeded to tie
the girl.

Red Mike stepped forward, a sneering but sweaty and
unkempt figure.

“After this, I suppose,” he said, “the American sefior
will expect his five thousand dollars!”

He beckoned to his men, and they went through Brice’s
pockets. :

“Ah!” he cried, when he had the girl’s ‘note to Brice in
his hand. “I thought as much! The beautiful American
girl appeals to the gallant young American to save her
from the bandits.”

He laughed as he crumpled the note in his hands.

“You are worse than bandits!” Brice shouted at him.
“And I thought I was dealing with——”

His rage choked him. )

“You thought you were dealing with insurrectos! Well,
But now I think we will not need to pay that
five thousand dollars.” The bandit leader swung round
to his men. “Perhaps,” he said, looking back at his pris-
oner, “the American sefior would now like a drink of
aguardiente; he is still our guest, and we shall treat him>
well—until we kill him!”

CHAPTER Ul.
THE TALL MEXICAN.

When Buffalo Bill rode up to the Corunna Wells with
his small party of trained men, he found a wagon burning.

It had been taken to pieces, the parts thrown into a heap,
and set on fire. Other articles in the fire were pieces of
The
wagon was more than half consumed.

The adobe house had been dismantled and was vacant.
Round it were the tracks of horses and mules, with the
tracks of men.

“Tt looks as though our tip was right,’ said the scout,
“and that we got here too late.”

He slid from the back of Bear Paw.

“That wagon,” said Pawnee Bill, “judging from what
is left of it, seems to be of the same make as the one
those insurrectos had.”

With a broken roof pole lying on the ground, Buffalo
Bill pushed one of the burning pieces out of the fire. It
was part of a sideboard, and bore the name Studebaker,
as he saw when he had turned it over. The letters were
charred and scaled, but quite decipherable.

“The same make as the one we saw,” he admitted; “you
This is a mate of the wagon those
insurrectos had with them.”

Pawnee Bill came down off the back of Chick-Chick.

- The baron dismounted from his mule, and old Nomad

from Hide Rack. They looked at the letters on the burned
sideboard and at the remnants of the wagon smoldering
in the fire.

“Those insurrectos, you know,” said Pawnee, “had a load

of Winchesters and ammunition in their wagon, and
claimed they had bought it of a man named Brice.”
- “And probably lied about it,” said the scout. ‘‘This bears
out that idea, at eny rate. If Brice brought the wagon
they had and the ammunition across the line, why didn’t
they take this wagon, too, instead of burning it?”

“Becoz,” said Nomad, “et war cheaper ter rob him

_o’ ther stuff than to pay him fer et, as they had promised.

An’ as they didn’t want ther extry wagon, they burned et
ter keep others from usin’ et.”

BILL WEEKLY.

 

On the way to the Corunna Wells, they had met a band
of insurrectos in the trail, with the wagon and guns men-
tioned, who had told the story indicated.

Remounting Bear Paw, the scout rode round the house.
and came upon a trail which led westward through the
scrub.

“There were two bands,” he said, “or a large band that
split into two parts. One we met in the trail; the other
went westward.”

“Budt dhis aind’t gifing us no news oof der girl vot ve
heardt vos heldt here by der pandits,” objected the baron.
“She vos py dhis blace, unt der insurrecdos say dot nopoty
iss py dhis blace.”

“Jes’ wait till Buffler an’ Pawnee gits through wi’ thar
figgerin’,” Nomad urged.

Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill had gone into the adobe.

In there they came upon indubitable evidence that a hot
fight had taken place. The wooden partition was bullet-
splintered, and in the adobe walls were holes gouged out
by the revolver fire from the windows. This was in the
first room.

In the second room, in addition toa similar state of
affairs, there was a blood spot on the floor where the bandit
wounded by Brice had fallen. Also from the floor Buffalo
Bill picked up a’ button torn from Brice’s coat in the
struggle.

“Not Mexican,” he said, as he held it up.

“American make,” agreed Pawnee; “yet a Mexican may
have worn it.”

“He would be a different brand from any we've seen
in these parts. The richer class wear silver buttons, and
the poorer pin their clothing together with skewers and
thorns more often than not. This is a coat button of good
quality, and came from an American-made coat.”

They poked about, throwing the riddled door open to
let in more light. .

Then in a corner Pawnee Bill came on a bit of paper,
folded and tucked tightly into a small crevice where the
floor joined the adobe of the wall. He drew it out with

the point of a knife.

The paper was yellowish and stained, and until he had
opened it he did not dream that he was making an impor-
tant discovery.

When he ran his eyes over the penciled writing, he
whistled his astonishment.

Buffalo Bill, still scanning the floor and the walls, looked
up.
“Found something?”

“Just listen to. this.
woman's handwriting :

It was tucked in here, and is in a

““To whoever finds this—and I pray that some one may:

“We are cooped in here, with the bandits shooting into
the house. A young American nomed Harvey Brice 1s
with me; he brought wagons of ammunition over the
boundary line for the revolutionists. He was deceived;
for these men are not revolutionists, but bandits. They
have brought me here from the San Felipe foothills, and
are holding me for ransom. I have told the young man
this, and he is fighting like a hero for himself and me.
He will be killed in the end, I fear; and I—I fear to think
what will be my fate. But T-am hoping some American,
or an honorable member of the rurales, will find this,
which I am writing as I crouch out of the way of bullets in
this corner. My name is Alice Pierpont, and my father 1s
Ralph Pierpont, a banker, of New York. If it can be done,
please reach a telegraph line and wire this news to him,
and he will see that you are suitably rewarded.

“*AticE PIERPONT. ”’

Buffalo Bill took the crumpled paper and looked at the
handwriting.

“That yellow little Mexican who told us the bandits were
here and had the girl spoke the truth, all right,’ com-
mented Pawnee. “But he didn’t know anything -about
Brice.”

“Brice hadn't arrived here then.”

“Well, he got himself into a mess by unlawfully running
guns over the line; but if he hadn’t——’

He looked at the note again, which Buffalo Bill was
rereading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

NEW BUFFALO

“He showed himself to be a man when the pinch came,”
said the “scout.

“They probably killed him,” commented Pawnee. “We'll
look round and see as to that. He must have put up a
stiff fight, judging by the way this place was shot up. I'd
give a good deal-to have had a hand in that little. shooting
match, standing: at Brice’s side. He was a gun runner,
and therefore a: lawbreaker, but he was a man.”

“And an American,” said the scout.

“Which spells the same thing, necarnis.”

Hearing Nomad whooping outside, they went out.

A tall Mexican had ridden out of the scrub on a traw-
boned mule, and was approaching. His clothing was Mex-
ican, from the big spurs on his feet to the serape and the
peaked hat. But they were dusty, as he was himself, and
had seen much wear.

The scout’s little party drew together as the rider ap-
proached.

“If he lives round here,”. suggested the scout, “we ought
to be able to get some information out of him,”

“He iss look like insurreedo,” said the baron.

. “Waugh!” Nomad objected. “All them critters looks
so much alike thet I don’t see how they kin recklect their
own names. This hyar yaller belly is taller’n ther gin’ral
bunch, ef thet makes a difference.”

He lifted his peaked hat and stooped his shoulders in
servile fashion when he came up.

“The sefiores are Americanos?” he inquired. “But I can
see that they are. Since yesterday I have been hiding in
the scrub, in fear of the return of the bandits.”

He took out a dirty handkerchief and wiped his eyes
tearfully.

“My beautiful house,” he said,
and the walls are shot to pieces.”

“Vou saw this fight?” asked the scout.

“Si, sefior ; but, snot from close at hand—I had fled. If
the sefior wishes,” he sniffled, “I will tell my story.”

Buffalo Bill glanced at the sun.

“That's right,’ said Pawnee, observing it; “we haven’t
mitch time to stop here, after what has happened; we ought
to be hitting that westward trail.”

The scout had not’ been given time yet to inform the
baron and Nomad of the note from Alice Pierpont. He
had come out of the adobe with it in his hands when

Nomad called, but had slid it into a pocket of his coat
when the Mexican drew. up.

So when Nomad heard that comment of Pawnee he was
puzzled.

“You're goin’ ter hit et up along the west’rd trail?” he
» asked.

“We'll hear the story of our friend, here,” said the scout.
“As he saw something of the fight, ‘and this is his home,
what he can tell us ought to be interesting.”

“This is my home,”declared the Mexican, “and-it breaks

my heart to see its poor condition, My name is Manuel
' “Mendoza, but men eall me Manuel.”

“Tethought the man who owned the house at these wells
"was named Porfirio Leon,’ commented Pawnee. “So we
“were told by the Mexican who came to us outside the town
“Of Hermosa; he said he had been a servant of Leon. You
recall that, Cody? And.

“T recall it perfectly,” aaa the scout; “but ‘perhaps our
‘friend here can explain this little discrepancy.”

‘ “Ah that Mexican servant! He was a most ungracious
liar. He bore a message from me?”

“it.45 sulned: the doors

99

 

“He said that Sefior Leon, the occupant of this place, —

had‘hurried him to Hermosa to meet me,” said the scout.

The tall Mexican shrugged his shoulders.

“Shall IT tell the story, sefiores? I lived here two months.
Three days ago the bandits came, They drove me out of
my own house and took possession of it, and I: fled for

safety to the scrub. Yesterday a young American came
here with guns for the insurrectos. The bandits set on
him and took his property, and would have killed him,
when he set himself against them in the house here. That
was how the doors and the walls came to be in the con-
dition you see them. The shooting was like thunder—so
much of it there was. The American was conquered in
-the end, but he made a goed fight and slew several of the
outlaws.

-~ “When they brought him -out—that was after pie had .

 

BILL WEEKLY. | :

burned one of the wagons—and were ready to ride away,
I was given a surprise; for out of the house they brought

‘also a very beautiful girl,

“She, too, seflores, was an American; that I could see,
though I was off there in hiding. - It is a thing easy to
determine, for the Americans. are fair and the “Mexicans
are dark.

“While they were talking and’ getting ready to start, a
band of insurrectos appeared. Then there was a con-
ference between the bandits and the insurrectos; money
passed from the insurrectos to the bandits; and the insur-
rectos then departed by the trail, taking one of the wagons
and nearly all the guns the young American had brought,
together with the most of the cartridges for the guns and
revolvers.

“After they had gone, the bandits went toward the west
and disappeared into the mountains.”

He had spoken rapidly, his eyes fixed on the face of the
scout, though he occasionally shifted them and sent Pawnee
Bill a searching glance.

“T feared to oulow them alorie,” he added, “so I hid in
the scrub and waited. I thought the rurales might be along
and I meant to tell them; but the American sefiores are
better than the rurales.”

_ “Waugh!” Nomad grunted. “Ef we warn TE aay, better’ n
trurales—waal, I’d pack up an’ git out!’

“If the sefiores wish to follow the bandits,” continued
the Mexican, “I shall be happy to join them and ‘guide
them. I know the mountains that lie to the west, and can
show them the best trails. It is a pity that the young
American woman should be in their hands.”

“We thank you,” said the Scout, using as mich polite-
ness as the Mexican, had shown; “and it may be that we
can use you. But before we decide on any course of action
we must look about still more. There are many things to
consider. The bandits are in strong force, and now they
must be well armed from the stores of those wagons,”

“Well armed, but not well mounted,” said the Mexican.
“The horses of the American sefiores are mich better ani-
mals than any the bandits have. So, though they have a
day’s start, it is possible to overtake them.”

About to speak to Pawnee, Buffalo Bill turned and shot
Manuel Mendoza a sharp look.

“You know the name of the leader of these bandits?”

. “Before they drove me out of my house here I heard

his men call him Miguel the Red,’

“That is all. Look about, Sefior Mendoza, while we do
the same, and while we discuss what is best for us. to do.”
ube rode past the corner of the adobe, as if to. view the
trail that drew its length westward through the. scrub;
and his men followed him.

“What kind of a Mexican wart hia: is thet, anyhow 2”
ee snorted, as soon as they were together ‘beyond. the
adobe

“A lying Mexican,” said Pawnee. “You noticed, necar-
nis, that some of the things he said didn’t hang well swith
the others?” :

“T took particular notice of everything he sale, - And,
while he is not the owner of this house, and never. was,
we may be able to use him, just the same.’

“Then yell have ‘to watch shim gritted Nomad, oN
‘Mexican that, will lie will

“Do almost anything : ?” laughed. Pawnee.
to follow.”

Buffalo Bill had tees them out there is acquaint
Nomad:and the baron with the contents of the note writ-
ten by Alice Pierpont. And he now read it to them, ._

During the reading, Nomad’s eyes. glittered, and the
oe face flushed as if he had been drinking too much

eer

ey A long trail anda hot one! Buia I reckons
we'd better be crow din’ et at once.’

“Me ‘der same,’ said the baron. “Ve haf- hit idt right
read vhen Iam a sureness dot. ve are nodt hitting any-
thing.’

The rathér shrill, high-keyed voice of the tall. Mexican
fell on their ears. ‘He Gad dismounted from. his mule and
come round'the end of the adobe on foot.

“Well, Sefior Mendoza,” said the scout, turning to a hie,
“what can we do- for you now?”

at was noticed that. the fellow’ Ss ‘manner twas excited, and

 

val ‘oucht not

ENE EN AY

Soe Sa Se ROR TRESS AET eae tier eadinmela ener Utley: ah i
alana Ne a SN Nd LD MI

 
&

S NEW BUFFALO

he het a0 a crumpled sheet of paper like the one the~

. scout had been reading in its general appearance. ‘

“It is English,” he said, “and I read only the Spanish.
It is a writing that-I found squeezed into a ball by the
eastern door, where-some foot: had trodden it into. the
earth. It may be of no. importance whatever, sefiores, but
avain it may.

Buffalo Bill took it and spread it open. :

Pawnee could not repress a start and exclamation of
surprise, looking over the scout’s shoulder and seeing the

- handwriting, which was identical with that on the other °

paper. : :
In fact, this was the note that Alice Pierpont had written

to Harvey Brice, and which had been taken from Brice :
’ he picked up five.

by the bandits after the fight. It had fallen from the hand
of Red Mike, been. unnoticed in the excitement of depar-
ture, and had been trodden into the ground by the door.

“Look it over,” said the scout to Pawnee.

He cast a glance at the Mexican, standing expectantly
by.. The conversation with Manuel had been carried on
exclusively in Mexican, and he had said he could not read
English; but possibly, probably, he could understand Eng-
lish.

“Does the sefior speak English, or understand it?” asked
the scout now. :

“No, sefior, unfortunately,” said Manuel, with a Mex-
ican shrug.

Nevertheless, the scout did not read the letter aloud until
he had taken time to think the matter over. Then, con-
sidering that to do so could harm no one, he gave Manuel
Mendoza a free translation of Alice Pierpont’s letter to
Harvey Brice. es oo

“It as a pleasure,” said Manuel, “to learn. the name of
the gallant young American’ who fought so heroically for
his countrywoman, and perhaps before this time has laid
down his life for her. The mistake he made, sefiores, was
in trusting those bandits.” ee

Taking out hiswallet, Buffalo Bill carefully folded the
two letters, placed them as carefully in it, and stored them
in his pocket.

“Sefior Mendoza,” he said, “we. shallat once take this
western trail.” pe

“Call-me Manuel, sefior,” urged the Mexican servilely,
“for | would be but the sefior’s servant.”

CHAPTER IV.
PAWNEE BILL’S GOLD TRAIL,

Pawnee Bill found the first gold piece five miles on from
the Corunna Wells.

He was not looking for it; in fact, he was not looking
for anything in particular; but his keen eyes were, as usual,
examining the trail, the fringed hills near by, the sandy
gap through which he and his pards were passing, and
whatever happened to come under their quick, eager
glances.

Though as anxious as the next one to be hammering at
top speed after the bandits who had played Harvey Brice
so scurvy a trick-and had carried the girl off from the
adobe, he had a high regard for his fine horse, Chick-
Chick, whose strength he liked to save for severe work:
so he had urged a slower pace than for five miles they
had been keeping up, and was ambling along, smoking a
cigar he had excavated from a leather receptacle in the
crown of his big white Stetson.

He had been singing, too—or, rather, humming words
of a song:

“When old Bill, the forty-niner—
And you couldn’t find a finer !—

Struck his pick-into the lode before his tent:
He punched a stick of dynamite,
ane straight on high he took his flight;

nda-—-_—-

eo !” he said abruptly, drawing rein.
go nae e ‘
- He threw a leg over the saddle horn, slipped to the
ground, scooped something out of the sand, and held it up.
It-was a small gold piece. cue

“Speaking of

“Spanish,” he said, looking at it as the others stopped.

 

BILE WEEKLY.

their animals. “Some bold, bad buccaneer has been along
here and has dropped his loot.” . eo
“Dropped by one of the rascals we are following,” said
the scout, when he had examined it. ne
“They're beginning to lose to: us right:away, eh?” He
slipped it into his pocket. “So Ul-call it my lucky pocket
iece.
: Four or five miles farther on, Pawnee Bill repeated the
operation.
This second gold piece was like the first in every par-
ticular.
After that Pawnee began to look for gold pieces as
Chick-Chick bore him over. the trail.
In the first day’s travel he found three; the second day

Even the tall Mexican had become interested in the gold
pieces before this time was reached. Every one, with the
possible exception of the great scout himself, kept his eyes
glued to the plain trail they were following, instead of
looking ahead and to the right and left for signs of their
enemies,

Manuel had accompanied Buffalo Bill’s pursuing party.
Not because he was wanted, but because he had chosen
to go, and they had not made up their minds to refuse him
that privilege.

He had made himself valuable by carrying wood and
water, watching the horses when they were grazing, and
in various acts of personal. service for Buffalo Bill and
Pawnee. ce

On the third day Pawnee Bill found but two of the gold
pieces, and the interest in their-discovery began to wane
somewhat, as they were not of great value.

Then suddenly they found themselves in a trap, and it
began to seem that Buffalo Bill’s theory that the gold
pieces had been dropped to keep them busy looking for
them had a foundation of fact.

They were caught in a cul-de-sac. The trail had entered

a narrow pass between low hills, pinching in as it went
on.. When the party had pierced the narrowest part they
found the bandits intrenched before them; and received a
volley from the stolen rifles.
- Manuel Mendoza dropped from the back of his mule, a
bullet. having raked his temple; but was up again in a
moment, and ready for the fight, drawing out a big re-
volver whose existence until that moment had been un-
known to his companions. -

The baron’s mule had received a scratch, which caused
it to whirl round and carry the redoubtable German right
out of the fighting zone.

Nomad tumbled from Hide Rack, unhurt, dropped to
his left knee, and began to pump lead at the men seen
behind the barricade.

Pawnee and Buffalo Bill imitated him in this, and yelled
to their horses, sending the animals back in that way.

It was a fortunate thing that the Mexicans, because they
were excited, or for the reason that they did not ufder-
stand the use of the Winchesters, had sent their bullets
high; otherwise the scout’s little force would have been
wiped out right there.

The shooting of the scout and his men was of an order
so different that the barricade was cleared of enemies in
the briefest possible time. The bandits retreated io their
animals, that had been held in the rear, and, galloping on
a hundred yards or so, dropped into a second line of
defense, from which they began to shoot as the scout’s
party drew together and attempted to advance.

he time was near nightfall. .

Behind the first barricade Pawnee Bill picked up another
gold piece of Spanish coinage, and slipped it into his
pocket to keep company with the others. ‘

A halt had been called there. | cree

“Well, what shall we do?” he asked. “Richt ahead of
us, if our guesses have been correct, is Alice Pierpont and
also Harvey Brice, prisoners of those scoundrels. So. near
and yet so far!”

fe was crouching by the side of Buffalo. Bill.

Behind him he heard Nomad ask the Mexican about the
wound on his head, which was bleeding, and offer to tie
a handkerchief round it. Ge a
“Hold this barricade,” said the scout, “while I climb the

hill here and see if I can get a look down on those rascals.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Pere eee er ne

NEW BUBPALO

“That’s a good idea,” Pawnee agreed. ‘Perhaps you can
get sight of the prisoners. I hate to shoot into that bunch
while they’re there. I admit that thought of it has been
making most of my bullets go high.”

“The same here,’ the scout confessed. :

- “Otherwise,” said Pawnee, “we could have potted a num-
ber of them, I’m thinking.”

Nomad crawled forward.

“Ther baron says thet he has been shootin’ inter ther
air, coz he war ’feared he might hit some un he didn’t
want to. And me—I has been doin’ ther same, after thet
fust round. Hyar’s hopin’’we didn’t wing either thet gal
or the young feller.”

“Here’s hoping!” said Pawnee earnestly.

Buffalo Bill began to climb the side of. the hill.

He was gone more than half an hour, and by the time
he got back the sun was sinking.

“They’re there,” he said—“the bandits, I mean. I think
if they have the prisoners, the latter are held farther back.
I didn’t see them. My plan now is to leave the horses in
here with Little Cayuse and Manuel, and for the rest to
climb the hillside right after dark, and when we get down
on the other side charge the camp of the ruffians. So long
as the prisoners are not in it, we needn’t fear to do some
shooting that will tell.”

Manuel had crept up.

“What was it the American seftor said?” he asked.

Buffalo Bill repeated his instructions in Spanish for
Manuel’s benefit.

“The girl is not there?” said Manuel.
turbed by the thought. “The sefiores have watched the
trail closely? Perhaps she and the. brave young American
were taken out of the trail somewhere behind us; perhaps
that is the reason they were not seen by the Sefior Cody.”

“T don’t think et,” averred Nomad.

‘Perhaps that is why the gold pieces were dropped,” sug-
gested Manuel—“to keep the sefiores looking for them, so
that they might not notice the point where the girl and
the young American were spirited out of the trail.”

“Waugh!” Nomad gulped. “Could thet er been ther

fact, Buffler? I thort I watched thet trail wi’ ther eyes of /

an eagle.”

Cayuse and Manuel remained with the animals when
Buffalo Bill, with Pawnee, Nomad, and the baron, climbed
’ the hillside in the darkness and descended on the other
side in proximity to the second barricade.

Not a light was to be seen there, but their absence had
been anticipated; it was not likely that lights would be
shown. by the bandits.

“Creep close in,” ordered the scout. “Then, if they’re
still there, we'll begin shooting and charge. If we can
throw a stampede scare into them, they may not find time
to pick up their prisoners.”

But when they crept close in they discovered that the
second defense line had been abandoned. oo

The bandits were gone.

CYLAPTER: V.
THE CAPTURED BANDIT.

An increasing number of the queer little Spanish gold
pieces turned up the next day. :

But it was evident that after their failure to wipe out
the scout’s party in the cul-de-sac, the bandits had become
scared and were trying to make their trail as difficult as
possible. Before that time they had apparently rather
invited pursuit, for the purpose, as now seemed apparent,
of trapping the scout’s men and so stopping the pursuit
altogether.

The trail zigzagged, kept out of hollows holding soft
soil, sought barren ground and rocky surfaces, and swung
over lava levels and round dizzying declivities.

If it had not been for those gold pieces turning up now
and then, there were times when the scout’s party, keen
trailers though they were, would have been much troubled.

“Vesterday, and before,’ said Pawnee, speaking to the
scout, “we somewhat figured that the gold pieces. were
being dropped to glue our eyes to the ground where they
might be found, and sc keep us from seeing our. foes.
when they lay in ambush. But to-day there are no am-

He seemed dis- .

BILL WEEELY. | 9

bushes—none that we have encountered—and the gold
trail goes winding on its way. Explanations are in order.”
“As I failed before, Pard Lillie,” the scout remarked,
“T’ll give you the first shot at the target.”
“T haven’t another shot in the locker.”
“Oof some schmart man vouldt guess dot idt iss der
oe suggested the baron, “meppyso he vould be hitting
1 ite, ;

“That’s your guess?”

“Idt iss.”

“How could she carry a lot of coins,’ said Pawnee,
‘when presumably she must have been searched by the
bandits ?”

“T have furnished der itea, unt I am leafing der details
to vise men like you,” the baron evaded.

“Perhaps Nomad. has.a theory to offer?” said Pawnee. —

“My idee, ef I’d harbor et under my headgear, is thet

* ther boy is turnin’ thet trick.”

“An idea,” said Pawnee, “that is open to the same objec-
tion as that made against the baron’s. If he had money
when he was captured, it would be American money, and
he wouldn’t keep it long among those thieves. You think
he has been dropping those pieces for the purpose of help
ing us along, being sure we would find them?”

“Offer up er better guess, Pawnee.”

“ce ”?

 

oo stopped and swung from the back of Chick-
ick.

“Another one!” he said. ‘They're raining down thickly
along here; that’s the second one in half a mile. Ill soon
be a plutocrat—Spanish one.”

He held up the gold piece. Then he slipped it into his.
pocket and jingled it against the others there.

“T was going to say, just before I stubbed my toe against
that,’ he continued, “that it begins to look as though my
first wild arrow shot into the air fell near the mark—and
that this old trail was passed over by some one with a
lot of loot, say from a Spanish ship, and that he dropped
itr
“A Spanish ship in ther San Felipe foothills!” grumbled
Nomad.

“That’s so—we are about now in the San Felipes. We'll
say, old Diamond, for the sake of the argument—or the
story—that this Spanish ship was over in the Gulf of Cali-
fornia—which isn’t so far‘off now and the ship might have
been there. It was looted, and a mule pack started across
this’ trail i

“But whar’s ther trail?” said Nomad. “I ain’t seein’
none. We has been goin’ et blind, almost, except thet now
an’ then yer happens ter snag yer optics on one er them
gold coins, and we then*knows we aire headin’ right, after
all. So whar’s ther trail?”

Pawnee looked round and laughed.

“Right you are, old Diamond; there is no trail here.”

But late in the afternoon-they received an. explanation
which was full and satisfying.

Manuel, who had paid scant attention to the coins, but
had done a good deal of looking ahead, gave warning in.
his cracked, high voice that-a horseman. was near.

“Only,” he corrected, “the horse is a mule. He was
right over there—I mean the rider—and he slipped down
out of sight-as if he had dismounted.”

‘The instant thought was that another ambush had been
prepared and they were about to ride into it. i.

There was, therefore, quick dismounting, and the horses
were led quietly back by Little Cayuse. Then all dropped
down out of sight and listened. at

Buffalo Bill was about to set out to investigate the mean-
ing of what Manuel had seen, when he was delayed by
the faint clink of a hoof against stone. >

Then a man came in sight—a tattered Mexican, leading a
mule. His eyes were fixed on the trail, though now and
then he lifted his head and sent a keen scrutiny on before
him, as if he looked there for enemies. On the back of
the mule was a pack, with some heavy canvas bags tied
to it.

“Lie low and take him in,’
the scout. 4

They lay. so still and securely hidden by the bushes that
grew round them that the man came up within twenty: feet.

 

ie

was the whispered order of

- of them before he stopped. oe

 

 
   

10 NEW BUFFALO

They thought then they had been discovered, but’ the
man stopped with a quick motion, and when he rose they
saw he had scooped up one of the gold pieces.

“Ah!” breathed Pawnee. “I missed getting that one.
Say, he’s stealing my gold!”

The man now came on more slowly, his eyes fixed on
the ground. He was evidently searching for gold pieces.

He did not see any of the concealed men until the mule,
sniffing, tried to back, with head thrown up; then his eyes
fell on the incautiously lifted head of the baron, who was
twisting up to see what the fellow was doing. |

With a cry of fright, the man dropped the bridle rein
and whirled round.

Buffalo Bill sprang out.

“Stop!” he shouted in Mexican, and gave the cylinder
of his revolver a noisy twirl. “Stop, or T’ll shoot!”

The scared fellow stopped, turned, and threw his hands
into the air. '

“If he can't speak English,” chirped Pawnee, rising into
view now, “he knows the universal language of the West.
Yell ‘Stop!’ to a man out in this country, and the first
thing he thinks of is holding up his hands.”

The baron and Nomad came into view noisily.

The Mexican, Manuel, also rose in sight and looked hard
at the man who had been caught.

“Take them—they are all I have!” the man cried, and
began to turn his pockets inside out, showering the ground
with the small Spanish coins he had been picking up along

the mountainside.

“Take all I haye, but spare me chee-ild!”
in the falsetto of a stage heroine.

It was evidently the hope of the man that when he had
disgorged these gold pieces and turned over the few weap-
ons he had on his: person, the men before him would let
him go. an ‘

But he was mistaken; they wanted to know what was
in the pack on the back of his mule.

“Oh, that,” he ‘said, assuming indifference, “that is only
my camping things.” — eed cou

But they lifted it from the back of the mule. Then
they found that in the pack was a small pocket, still half
filled-with pieces of the same kind.” There had-been a small
hole init, now patched and closed’ ee

“I guess that Pawnee Bill's gold trail ends right heré,”
said the scout. A ae Ue eee

_“And that we have sure captured one of the bandits,”
Pawnee Bill added)”

“There seems to be no doubt about that.”

They began to question the man in Mexican when it
seemed that he could not understand English:

_“Sefiores,” he urged, “I am but a poor man. This mule
I found with the things on its back. I was leading it away
when I discovered that gold pieces were in the pack. ‘Then
I saw the hole, and that some of them must have spilled
out, and I came searching for those that had been lost.”

“And found us,” said the scout.

~The sefiores are welcome to the mule and all the gold,”
the Mexican declared. “All I ask is that they let me depart
in peace.” a

Manuel asked some questions, And they were pointed.
He wanted to know if the man was not a member of the
bandit band, And if the bandits did not hold the girl and
the young American. !

“How can I answer the question?” the fellow whined.
“See, t am a poor man; I herd sheép over in the Los

Cerillos Valley. I was out here looking for a lost sheep,
and I found-the mule. That is all 1 know.”

But he was lying,

' Buffalo Bill proved this by putting a revolver to his head.

“We know who ‘you are,” said the scout, “and if you do
not at once speak the truth we shall finish you!”

The threat broke ‘the villain’s courage. :

“TL will tell all,” he whined, pe

“Then tell all—everything |”

Ut 1S aS; the senor says?) ae

“You are one of the men we have been following 2”

“Di, Sefior,” thé: Mexican chattered, his dark face almost
ashy now. “Si, sefior.’’

-“One of the bandits under Red. Miguel?” -

CUE SHOE OUR ho RR er peers :

“They have prisoners—the young American woman who

said Pawnee,

  

BILL WEEKLY.

was at the adobe, and the young American man who
brought the wagons of guns?”

‘Si, sefior; it is true. ‘1 am willing to swear it. And if
the sefiores will let me go now, I will pray to the saints
for them, and——’ 5 ie?

“Better be prayin’ fer yerself, you kyote!” Nomad +um-
bled, in his piquant English.

“Si, sefior,”’ the fellow chattered, though he didn’t know
what Nomad had said. ei

“Git ye wound-up and you go on sayin’ ther same thing
right over an’ over. Ef 1 said yer father war a piebald
‘rang-utan, and yer mother——”

“St, Senor.’
“Go slow,” ordered the scout; “he’s scared enough as
it is, and we want to get the truth out of him.”

He took up the questioning himself. hoc Pe

“Red Miguel is making for the San Felipe foothills,
which are near,” said the trembling Mexican prisoner. “1
am treasurer of the band—I had the gold; it was in the
mule pack; but without my knowledge a hole came in the
pack, and to-day I discovered that the gold was being lost.
That frightened me. Red Miguel does not waste many
words—he acts; and he has a temper that sometimes makes
him kill’men when they do foolish things like that. So I
dropped back, and have been trying to find the gold. There
were many pieces, and those in my pockets were the ones
I had found.” ee

“That sounds like the truth,’

“Yes,” agreed’ the scout.

He questioned again. aie pias

“Red Miguel,” said the man, ‘did not intend to make for
the San Felipe; he was going toward the American bound-
ary line, where he expected to hide and send out word that
he. had the young American woman and. would take a
ransom for her; but when he found that you, the Amer-
ican: sefior who is called Buffalo Bill, was on his trail, he
became frightened and made again for the San Felipe—
the place he had come from with the-girl.”?.

“He captured her there?” - Eee |

“a

said Pawnee. .

Aye, sefior; at the San Felipe gold mine.”
“For what reason?” - Fe eae aa on
“For ransom, sefior. She was with her brother, but her

brother escaped,”
“And now what does Miguel the Red intend to do?”
“He still intends to hold her for ransom, senor.” ~~
“How. far is his party ahead of us?” ~
“But three or four miles.” ee
“And how-far is it to this San Felipe gold mine?”

“But twenty or perhaps thirty miles. But the American

sefiores will-not be able to get there.” - a
“Why. not?” :
“They will be slain.”
“By Red Miguel’s men?”
“By the Indians,”
“Wow! Redskins!” mumbled Nomad.

“What Indians are these?”

“They are under Nekomis.”

“Their chief, I suppose?”

“Nekomis, the Wonder Worker.”

“Thet sounds int’restin’” muttered Nomad.

“He is near the gold mine 2”

“Si, Sefior, and in it. His Indians work the gold mine.”

“Woof! Injuns workin’! Tl never believe et.”

“They do not like to work, but the statue speaks and
they obey.” co as

“Wuss an’ wuss!” Nomad rumbled.

“Tell us about that.” ees ey

“There is no more ‘to ‘tell: the’ statue speaks and they
obey. The statue may speak, and the white men will be
killed by the Indians; they always obey the statue.”

“You have seen it?” 2) 2

pote SenGey oo cee

“And heard it talk?”

“Si, séftor.”’ i

“Well, now”—the scout began to get on his feet—‘‘we're
not particularly interested in that, but we are interested

a

in overtaking Red Miguel without delay. You have: been
recently with him, om your own showing, and have found
your way from his patty back to this point., So there 1s
good reason for supposing that you can take us straight
to where his band of men is to be found right now.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

NEW BUFFALO

The Mexican hesitated at that.

‘The sefior was to let me go if I told everything,” he
protested.

“T do not recall any such promise. But, say that you
thought so, I’ll add now that you can go, and as soon as
you like, when you have shown us where Red Miguel is
to be found.”

The man started up.

“T will show the way,” he said.

But he lied, or had himself lost knowledge of the direc-
tion; for within an hour, following his leading, they found
themselves floundering in a maze of rocky hills and hol-
lows that seemed to put them in a direction they did not
want to go, rather than in the one they sought.

That night the wily Mexican disappeared.

Nomad, who was* on guard, made the discovery and ~

whooped it out.
Then he made another right on top of it.
Manuel Mendoza was gone, too!

CHAPTER VI.
THE PRISONERS.

Having fought the bandits to a finish and been defeated,
Harvey Brice expected no mercy.

He was astonished when he saw that they were not to
kill him immediately. Bound and guarded, with the girl,
in the adobe, he watched them from the window as they
buried their slain, heaped over the single grave the dis-
mantled wagon, and set the wagon on fire.

And he was even more amazed, an hour later, when they
tied him to a pony and set out with him and the girl in a
westerly direction.

A runner had come in with apparently important infor-
mation for Red Miguel. Until his appearance the bandits
had dawdled. Brice would have given much to know what
the news was that sent them scurrying westward.

The girl rode at his side, unbound. The bandits did not
fear that she would try to get away.

“Tt isn’t natural for a Mexican to hurry,’ he said to
her; “the rule down here is: Never do to-day what you
can put off until to-morrow. It suggests that they fear a
pursuit.”

“Or an attack—perhaps by the rurales,” she said. “They
have turned back over the trail by which they brought me.
You are suffering, I know, with your hands tied behind
your back and those cords cutting your wrists.”

He laughed grimly.

“Tittle girl,” he said, “this is so much better than any-
thing I expected that I haven’t the heart to complain.”

“Perhaps they will loosen those cords when they feel
safer. But why do you call me that?” '

He laughed again, determined to face the future with an
optimistic spirit.

“Tt seems less formal, and I hope you will learn to like
it. Miss Pierpont sounds stiff, and I haven't known you
long enough to call you Alice. From the way we're head-

,

ing, though, and the pace we are going, it begins to seem »

that we may have a chance to become better acquainted,
eh? I’m wondering why they didn’t :

“Didn’t kill you there at the adobe?”

“That’s what I was about to say.”

“Tye been thinking about that, too. And I think now
that they intend to demand a ransom for you, as well as
one for me.”

“TI wonder who they think is going to pay it, if they do.”

“A man who is able to deal in such cargoes of guns and
ammunition may be supposed to have some financial back-
ing; that is the way they probably look at it.”

He thought this over.

“Perhaps you're right,” he said, “and I’m going to hope
that you are. For if that is so, they'll not be in a hurry
to make an end of me. Anda good many things may hap-
pen, you know.” <

The talk of the bandits, which reached them in snatches
during the travel of the next few days, brought confirma-
tion of this belief. And it acquainted them with the fact
that the bandits believed they were being followed.

Now and then a scout was detached, who disappeared

 

ston i i . i ts sh AP ee +, Ie He

ih Ae lon Ah be Bd (A edn Md ah he oh tre dt Mh aR A A Mi 0h 2 Paes Mla RR cal dh ooh
ch tan nA ht oan Mie elk Haha Mette tO ae

 

BILL VERRY: 11

into the hills, and who, on returning, talked volubly and
long avith Red Miguel.

Then came the attempt to entrap the pursuers, and the
hot fight in the narrow pass.

The bandits were thrown back, and fled in confusion,
after slipping out of their second line of barricade, taking
the prisoners on with them. Then, from the talk, Brice
and the girl gained the knowledge that the pursuers were
the American scouts under command of Buffalo Bill.

“That is better than the rurales,” said the girl, her man-
ner more hopeful.

But when the flight continued without any attempted
interference on the part of the American scouts, and she
saw again the familiar San Felipe foothills and the site of
the San Felipe mine, she began to despair again.

“When they get us in the camp by that mine,” she said,
“any attempt to rescue us will be met with many -diffh-
culties; for, you see, in addition to these bandits, there are
ee of Indians there who obey them and will fight with
t em.” %

They were brought into the camp, which faced the mine
tunnel, and Brice beheld the Indians, who swarmed forth
to greet the Mexicans. He also took note of the character
of the place, and the means of defending it.

“Tt begins to seem that if we ever get away,” he thought,
“we'll have to do it ourselves.” :

He began to study everything he saw, and tried to form

- some plan of promise.

One thing in his favor here—he was no longer tied. But
he found that his freedom had its limitations. He was
watched continually, and if he so much as stepped over
a certain line a gun was presented at his breast and he was
ordered back on pain of being shot.

This was in the daytime; at night he was corralled in
a damp adobe, musty with age, with walls so thick and
window apertures so narrow that he could hardly have
escaped even if the house had not been guarded.

The girl had still much greater freedom. She could
come and go as she pleased, within prescribed limits. In
addition, a good deal of work was put on her; she was
forced to do cooking, some washing, and a good deal of
mending.

Only by day could she see Brice. Then they wandered
about the camp together, meeting guns in the hands of
the bandits at every turn.

It was known to them that a runner had been sent off
to some point, with messages for the girl’s father in New
York, and for Brice’s uncle in another city.

Brice and the girl had been asked to contribute to the
papers that the runners set out with, and each wrote a
communication confirming the main details of the stories
sent by the bandits.

They had small hope now that their rescue would be
effected in any other way than by the payment of big sums
of ransom money.

The exploration of the camp, and a study of the work-
ing of the mine, furnished material with which to knock
some of the dullness out of the slow-crawling hours.

More interesting than all else were the Indians, who
were under a man they called a cacique. This hinted of
descent from the Caribs, or some coast tribe.

Brice had met many Indians, but these were different.
They were large and sullen looking, yet with fiery gleams
in their eyes; he was sure they were of a treacherous and
ugly disposition.

Now and then one of these Indians, acting as a guard,
turned Brice back from the forbidden line, with a grunt
and a scowl that seemed to indicate a desire to impale him
on the lance, the Indian’s weapon.

Somewhere back of the camp lay a forbidden area which
Brice and Alice Pierpont were not permitted to look into.
But they had a glimpse of a statue of an Indian there, and
they thought the forbidden area inclosed an Indian temple,
or that it was a lighted cave.

The cacique directed the work in the mine, which was
all done by the Indians. That was also forbidden ground.
But that the mine was rich in high-grade gold ore Brice
Mee sure, from what he saw of the samples brought out
Obi,

On the dump at one side, mixed with heaps of refuse
and worthless stuff, was richer ore cast.away than many

PS iteat ween Se

 

 

 
  

NEW BUFFALO

 

12

American mines that Brice knew of took out of their
workings... ue

From the mine a mule trail led down the side of the
mountain, and over it laden mules toiled, heavily weighted
with the richest of the ore. And once, as he watched these
descending mules as they were driven along by Indians,
he caught a gleam of white, like the distant flash of the
wing of a gull. Straining his eyes on that point, he beheld
a sheen of water, then another flash of white.

“Ah? he said, speaking his thought aloud. “The sea
is down there—the Gulf of California. That was the sail
of a ship or schooner tacking.’

Hastening with the information to Alice Pierpont, he
found her bending over a fire, cooking. :

“It’s a shame for you to have to do this work,” he said.
“Here, let me help you.”

But a guard saw him assisting her and ordered him
away from the fire.

“Why?” he demanded.

“It is orders from the captain,” said the guard imper-

_turbably.

After that he would not permit Brice to approach the
fire, and he had to postpone his communication to another
season—which he found a few hours later.

Talking his discovery over, they reached some reason-
able conclusions.

“The mules take the rich ore down to the gulf,” he said,
“where a vessel comes to get it; then it is carried perhaps
to San Francisco, or to some point where there is a smelter.
These Mexican bandits are robbing the mine. It’s easy
to believe that the men who run the ship know what kind
of ore they are getting; that they are in with the bandits.”

“It was this mine, you know,” she recalled, “that sent
my brother and me in here. We wanted an outing in the
wilderness. Father had heard of the mine. So we organ-
ized a company on the American border and came down
here. Our escort was attacked by the bandits and fled—
or were in with them; and after the fight my brother
escaped, though until you brought me the news I thought
he had been killed. And I—I was held by the bandits for
ransom. We didn’t even get to see the mine at that time.”

“It was the wildest thing I ever heard of,” he declared,
“your expedition down here. You and your brother must
have been mad.”

“We were only ignorant,” she said. “We didn’t dream
that there was such an out-of-the-way place on the Amer-
ican continent.”

“Yet even the Mexican government, that claims to own
all the mineral in the earth hereabout, really knows noth-
ing reliable of this section. They thought there was-a
mine, and your father thought if it was as rich as reported
he would be pleased to buy—and no one really knew
anything.”

“We at least are gaining knowledge.”

“And paying for it!” he said, with a touch of bitterness.

“We are, very true; paying for it dearly.” .

“It’s queer that the bandits have turned to mining.”

_ “I don’t know whether it is their principal line or their
side line,” she said brightly;“but you can be sure that
they haven't stopped robbing. I understand their language
fairly well, and have been listening as I worked round the
fires. A mule train was robbed south of here but yester-
day. And last month they looted a monastery somewhere.
They got a bag of Spanish gold out of the monastery,
that the monks had been hoarding for a hundred years.
I heard them laughing about it. But they said some of it
was lost on the way from Corunna Wells.”

“Church robbing is about the size of these scoundrels!”
said Brice. :
ee think they're equal to anything,” she abmitted soberly.
Ome :

A guard was approaching, who thought they were talk-
ing together too much and probably hatching mischief, and
they separated. ruben

“They're getting suspicious of me lately,” thought Brice.
“I wonder if it indicates that they’re anticipating an at-
tempt at rescue or something else? Anyway, I’ve got to
set my wits to work and figure a way to get out of here
with Alice.”

‘dishes were of tin.

BibL WEEKLY,

CHAPTER: Vir

A DARING PLAN,

Alice Pierpont “figured a way,” and it looked so prom-
ising that she set it out in detail for Brice’s approval when
next they could talk together, and that chanced to be the
same afternoon.

“You have noticed the Chinaman in the camp,” he said.

“T’ve seen him. He does a lot of the heaviest work, and
keeps pretty much to himself.”

“And smokes opium whenever he gets a chance.”

She opened her hand, and he saw a pellet of opium in it.

“I’ve been robbing the Chinaman. A while ago I hap-
pened to see his blouse by the door of his hut over there.
I had been thinking of this, but had not mentioned it, So
when no one was looking I went throtfgh John Chinaman’s
blouse just as if I were a bandit myself. And in it, rolled
up, I found his opium pipe and this ball sticking in it;
that’s how I knew it was opium. And now——’

“And now?” he echoed, staring at her.

“I am the cook this evening, and it’s time to begin to get
supper. This opium is going into the coffeepot.”

He started up, his face flushed with the new idea.

“You'd spoil it all—draw suspicion on us,” she reproved.
“You are to be as mild and unmindful as you can be. I’m
telling you now so that you won't drink any of that coffee,
and so you can have time to think how we are to get away
if I succeed.” !

“Tt will put them all to sleep.”

“IT hope so, and hope that it won’t kill any of them.
And then we can try to escape.” :

The daring thought so took possession of his brain that
he wanted to shout.

“The mules are down there,” he said, subduing his desire
and trying to speak calmly; “you've noticed where the
corral is; the gate is of poles, and the walls of mud. I
think saddles and bridles are there, too. And you know
where to lay your hands on a food supply and can fill a
skin water bottle. I'll lift a couple of rifles and revolvers
and a stock of ammunition as soon as these rascals have
gone to sleep. Say, little girl’—his eyes shone—‘“that’s
the greatest idea ever.”

“So you approve of it?) But what will happen if I fail?”

“You won't—you can’t fail!’ he ‘said.

“What if they see me, or réfuse to drink the coffee?”

“Did they ever refuse coffee? Not when you made it.
It’s great.”

“The coffee, or the idea?”

Sats

Smiling, but with cheeks very hot, and her manner too
nervous, she went down to the fire; and he watched her
while she stirred it into life and hung the big coffeepot
over it.

Then he busied himself with plans.

“It will be best to strike north. If we make. for the
gulf we may fall into the hands of the rascally crew of
that vessel. What lies north I don’t know, except that
up there somewhere are the domains of Uncle Sam. But
with a couple of good mules and one for a pack animal,
we ought to make good time, no matter how rough the
going is, and be far enough by morning to give them the
slip, even if they do follow us. Of course they will follow,
but if that dope is strong enough they may be some time
in getting started. Every hour will help us.

“It's going to be hard on Alice, though,” he mused;
“we'll be likely to blunder into all sorts of holes, and we'll
have to keep pegging right along even when we ought to
be resting. Maybe, after all, we'd better risk the gulf and
see if we can’t find an honest yessel down there.”

Alice Pierpont was white-faced when she poured the
coffee for the bandits that evening. It was a long table,
spread in the open, and guiltless of cloth; the cups and
A The bandits ate here with Brice, and
Alice Pierpont forced to the duties of waitress.

She hoped that the gathering darkness hid the pallor of
her cheeks and the shakiness of her hands. :
eee fearing to look at her, stared down into his tin
plate.

_But Red Miguel and some of his men seemed to her to
give the coffee pouring more than usual attention. She.
believed, however, that her fears made her think so.

When the coffee had been poured and some of the men

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

NEW BUFFALO

  

fell to eating, Red Miguel reached over and took the cup
that sat by Brice’s tin plate and substituted his own for it.

Brice flushed.

The act of the bandit leader looked’ominous to Brice and
the girl. Did he suspect that the coffee had been drugged?

“Drink it!” said Red Miguel in his sharp Spanish.

“Ts mine not the same as yours?” said Brice. “Both are
from the same vessel.”

“Drink it!” said Red Miguel, who sat at Brice’s side.

All at the table were looking at Brice now, and none
of the coffee had been so much as tasted.

“Drink it!’ some of the men roared.

“Just because you order me to in that manner,” said
Brice, “I refuse to drink the coffee. I am your prisoner
at present, but a

He pushed back, about to rise, but his hands were on the
table, and Red Miguel’s big palm fell on one of them,
pinioning it.

Brice struggled to throw it off; and at that, her nerves
going suddenly to. pieces, the girl screamed.

“Tet go of me!” Brice shouted in round English.

“Seize him!” shrieked Red Miguel in Spanish.

Before Brice could release himself, three or four of the
bandits had seized him and pushed him down into the
chair.

Alice Pierpont, in a panic and about to run, was ordered
back to the vicinity of the table by a bandit who threat-
ened her with a revolver.

“What is the meaning of this outrage?” Brice demanded,
furious now because he believed the plot was known and
because of the manner in which he had been manhandled.

“The setior shall know,” said Red Miguel. *

He clapped his hands together, and one of his men came
up, driving the Chinaman before him and carrying in the
Chinaman’s blouse.

“Here it is—the trick!” sneered the bandit leader. “The
garment was at the door, and the Chinaman in the house,
when the sefiorita she comes past and stops. She looks
at the garment, then she puts in her hand and takes out
the Chinaman’s opium pipe. She does not want the pipe;
it is the opium that she wants.

“She then comes down to the American sefior and they
talk... After that she goes to thé coffeepot, and into it she
puts the opium taken from the pipe) The Chinaman, who
is now watching her, sees it all. He is angry because she
has taken the opium, and he sees, too, what she intends.

“So then he comes to me and he tells me what he has
seen!

The men who had held Brice in the chair stood up, and
Red Miguel looked round from his seat with an air of
triumph. He turned to Alice Pierpont.

“Does the senorita deny that it is so?”

“It is not so!” she shrieked at him in her fright.
not so!”

 

“It is

“Lies—from lips so sweet!” sneered Red Miguel, shrug-

ging his shoulders. “It is unbelievable.”

“It is not so!” she repeated, frantic with fear.

“Ah! It is not so. « Will the senorita then be so kind as
to drink the cup of coffee which she poured for me, Miguel
the Red?”

One of his:men seized her by the wrist to draw her up
to the table, but she struggled and broke away. Brice
kicked his chair backward and leaped to his feet again.

“This has gone far enough!” he yelled.. “If you want
to fight me, Red Miguel—or all of you want to fight me—
stand out and come at me. But do not treat a, woman in
that way.’ : :

His knees were kicked under him; he fell and the men
laughed.

“The sefiorita will drink the coffee?” said Red Miguel. —

“T refuse,” she panted. c es

“Why does the sefiorita refuse?”

“Because I—I—I would not touch my lips to your coffee
Cup. 3 4 2

The bandit leader shrugged his shoulders again and
pulled at the thin line of his black mustache.

“Rafael,” he said, “take a clean tin and pour the sefiorita
another cup of coffee—and he careful that your fingers
do not touch it as you pour, as the sefiorita is very par-
tCiar oe ,

 

 

13

BILL. WEEKLY.

Grinning, the rascal selected a clean tin cup and poured
th 5

“Drink it!” said Red Miguel, pushing it toward her.

“T will not drink it,” she said.

“She doesn’t have to drink it if she doesn’t want to!”
Brice yelled at him. :

Deliberately Red Miguel took up the cup, and as delib-
erately he threw the contents into Brice’s face.

The coffee was hot, and Brice fell back, burned and
coughing. ‘

There was a veritable gale of laughter from the bandits,

“Another cup of coffee, Rafael, with the same care,” said
Red Miguel. “I wasted that in scalding a pig.”

“You “coward!” Brice yelled, throwing himself about
in his desire to get at the throat of Red Miguel, but held
by the men behind him.

“Save your wrath, you American pig!” Red Miguel shot
at him. “I'am doing the talking.” He turned again to the
girl, who was also being held. “Will the sefiorita be kind
enough to drink the coffee now?” :

“T refuse,” she said. “You can kill me, but I shall still
refuse.”

“You coward!” Brice screamed again.
you ”

“Vou would meet my knife if you did, and then we
should. not receive a ransom for you,” said Red Miguel.

The girl was fighting the men who held her.

“Bah!” The bandit leader rose from the table. “Take
them away! And see that they are kept apart. For if
it had not been for the Chinaman we should all this night
have been dead men.”

He felt in his pockets for coin, and drew out a handful
of the gold pieces stolen from the monastery, identical in
appearance with those found in the trail by Pawnee Bill.
These he shoved at the Chinaman, who accepted them with
a bow and a leer and vanished, taking his blouse with him.

“Take them away!’ Red Miguel angrily repeated.

Brice was dragged off, fighting as he went, and was
thrown into the adobe, where he was bound.

The girl was dragged off, screaming, in another direction.

“The fiends!” Brice roared in his helplessness.

Then his rage broke forth in wild execrations,

“li - can: get-at

 

CHAPTER, Vili.
THE TALL MEXICAN AGAIN,

The tall Mexican: who came into the bandit camp the
next day swung a black cross at the end of a black chain
at his waist and wore the black habit and flat hat of a
Spanish priest. The smaller Mexican with him introduced |
him as Father Coquin, and fraternized at once with the ©
bandits.

Harvey Brice saw them through the barred and nar-
row window slit in the adobe, after they had entered.
fe some of the words of the smaller man came to him.
there.

“A nice place for a priest to be in,” he thought. “But
then I suppose if any men ever needed a priest, these ras-
cals need one.”

He did not hear the conversation between the priest and
Red Miguel, nor the report the little man made to the
bandit leader. a

“Father Coquin,” the little Mexican reported to Red
Miguel, “helped me in my escape after I was so unfor-
tunate as to fall into the hands of the American scouts
who have been following on our trail. I went back over
the trail because I had lost some of the gold pieces, and
noe to find them. I found a few, and then I was cap- —
tured. :

“T was held in their camp, and at night I was tied fast.
When it was very dark, and all was still, the good father. ©
crept to my side, whispered to me that he would save me,
then cut the cords holding me, and we made our escape:
out of the camp together.

“I had professed to the Americans that I would: guide.
them here, being in durance and in fear of them. But
I led them into the wilderness of Los Conchos, to the
southeast, where, as Red Miguel knows, a goat would net
readily find its way. out. y

“That is why we were delayed in coming to the camp—
the good father and 1; we had trouble in making our way

 
4 NEW BUEFALO

out of the Los Conchos. But after we were out we came
here as rapidly as we could.

._ “And now, if Red Miguel desires, we can lead him to
the Los Conchos—to the spot where the Americans are,
Or were.”

- Red Miguel, who had nodded and exclaimed his ap-
proval, did not think so well-of that; he had no keen
desire to meet the Americans. All he wished was to have
them not reach him.

“We are safe here, and the Los Conchos is difficult; we
will not go now.”

He looked at the padre. ; :

“Father Coquin was with them through force,” the little
Mexican explained. “The Americans hate all Mexicans,
and when they found him near the adobe that is at the
Corunna Wells, whither he had ridden on his mule, they
made him a prisoner and brought him on with them, think-
ing they could use him perhaps as interpreter, for they are
not well versed in the language.”

“The padre had his freedom while he was with them?”
queried the cautious bandit.

“Not at first,” said the padre, speaking for himself; “but
after we had gone on a time | gained their good will and
they gave me mtich liberty. One must be all things to
all men,” he added piously; “those are the words of the
worthy and revered St. Paul. So I gave them to under-
stand that I was their friend, for the sake of my most holy
religion, and wished them only good—and so I did truly
in things spiritual.”

Red Miguel knew little enough about St. Paul, but he
believed in religion, or what he mistook for religion, bandit
though he was.

He asked many questions about the pursuit made by
Buffalo Bill and his men, about the result to them of the
fighting in the pass, and their chances of speedily getting
out of the wilderness of the Los Conchos. He praised the
priest who had aided the bandit to escape, and he made
the priest welcome to the best there was in the camp.

It was an hour or two after that when the priest, looking
about the camp, under the guidance of the small Mexican,
came to the little adobe hut, the prison of Harvey Brice.

When he learned of the prisoner inside the adobe he
expressed a wish to see him.

But when the guard at the door said this was now: for-
bidden, because the young American and the young Amer-
ican girl had the evening before tried to poison all the
camp, for which reason the prisoner was no longer given
any liberty, the padre contented himself with looking in
through the narrow window slit, while the guard and the
little Mexican exchanged confidences at the door.

Brice came up to the window when it was darkened
by the: face of the priest. ;

“An American such as you needs confession even more
than these men,” said the padre, in a voice that could be
heard at the door.

Then his voice dropped.

“You do not know me,” he said, in a low drone,
perhaps you do not speak Spanish?”

“T speak Spanish, and I saw yqu come into the camp,”
he was informed by the prisoner, in a similar low tone.

The next sentence astonished Brice:

“IT am not a priest; these things are but a pretense. I
helped that Mexican to escape from the camp of Buffalo
Bill, where he was held, so that he might guide me to this

“place. I am a member of Buffalo Bill’s party, that has
pursued these outlaws all the way from the Corunna
Wells. And I am here to help you and the young woman,”

Harvey Brice gasped and caught at the window bars.

“e

and

_“T have heard that last evening you tried to poison the ©

bandits. You were aiding the young woman who had
placed opium in the coffee. That is as I heard it.”

“It is true enough,” Brice confessed. “The Chinaman
discovered it and gave the information.”

“So I was informed by Red Miguel.”

“How can you-help us?” Brice whispered, breathing
heavily.

“To-night I will try to get you and the young woman
out of the camp. I have been looking round. I know
where the mules are, the accouterments, the supplies, and
the water bottles. I think it can be done. I am here now

to tell you so that you may be awake and ready.

 

BILL WEEKLY.

“T shall get acquainted with this guard. To-night I shall
visit him, or visit whatever guard is here then. And [|
shall find a way to get in and release you.”

“Alice, the young woman, does not know of this yet?”

“Not yet. But I shall tell her. I hope she can be quiet
and discreet.”

“She is both; she is a wonderful girl; I never saw a
woman who had such courage.”

“I do not. doubt it,” said the padre dryly. “Rest assured
that all her virtues you name shall be put to the test. To-
night—I cannot stay here longer.’

He drew back from the window.

“Ah! You will not confess?” he shouted at the prisoner,
“Then the curses of the saints will rest on you.”

Apparently indignant, he turned to the guard and the
little Mexican. '

“These Americans are irreligious dogs,” he burst out;
“they do not respect a priest nor the ordinances of the
church! He had nothing but jeers for me when I tried
to speak to him of the holy mysteries of religion.”

“The devil will get them all,” said the littlé man, shrug-
ging his shoulders and pointing downward.

“It is the truth you speak, my friend. Still,” he added
piously, ‘we must pray for them,”

He moved away, and the little Mexican, with a farewell
to the guard, moved off after him.

Harvey Brice was in a fit of feverish unrest from that
time onward.

“Will this plan fail—like the other?”

Over and over he asked it, and tortured himself with
doubt and fear. Whenever from his narrow window he
could see the black robe of the priest, he watched him with
sickening anxiety.

So far as he could tell, affairs in the camp were going
on as usual. The Indians were undoubtedly toiling in the
mine; they always did, working like slaves under the
orders of their superior, the big Indian who controlled
them and whom Brice had heard called Nekomis. A
string of mules with ore on their backs went slipping and
sliding down the steep trail that dipped toward the gulf.
The bandits stalked round the camp, smoking innumerable
cigarettes; they never did anything but roll cigarettes and
smoke them, Brice thought. He had never seen them doing
anything useful.

The food placed before him by the guard—bread and
water—he did not touch; he did not want anything, but
preferred to stand by the window, with his face in it as
far as he could thrust it, and listen, while his hot cheeks
were kissed by the cool breeze coming down from the
mountains roundabout.

Brice tried to control his burning impatience and anxiety
when night came.

All day he had not seen Alice Pierpont, which of itself
had been a disappointment.

Staring at the camp fires that glowed ruby red down

_in the flat before the adobe, he thought of nothing but

Alice Pierpont, the priest who was not a priest, and of
the projected escape.

The priest had intimated that he could lead the way
without trouble to the camp of Buffalo Bill, which might
be near or far. Until that day, because nothing had been
heard of the scout’s force since the time of the fight in
the pass, Brice had pinned little faith to the efforts of the
scout, considering his party overmatched, even though they
had set the bandits to flight at that time.

But now! Now it was different. Buffalo, Bill had taken
up his existence again in Brice’s imagination.

From the lighting of the fires until they waned and finally
went out seemed a very long time to the watcher by the
littie window of the adobe. A watched kettle never boils
—it is a true saying. To the watcher it seems that it never
will. And to Harvey Brice it seemed that the camp fires
would never burn themselves out and let darkness reign
unhindered in the camp.

But they did go out finally,

An hour more passed before the prisoner of the adobe
heard the voice, of the pretended padre speaking to the
guard by the door. :

Brice sprang up then, panther-footed, subduing his wild
eagerness.

“At last!” he whispered. ®

 

 

 

 

 
 

NEW BUFFALO

 

The conversation continued ee faites’ Once he
thought the padre was talking religion—and that may have
been so.

But immediately afterward Brices ceeuned ears caught
a sound of choked gurgling.

“Ah! he breathed, straightening . again. and moving
off from the window. “I guess the. padre is putting the
guard to.sleep. Good old padre!”

‘A minute later the door of the adobe opening on the
little hall was thrown wide, after.a clicking of kevs, and
- dimly in the gloom of the hall. Brice saw “the tall Mex-
ican before him,

“Come!” the tall Mexican whispered, with scant breath.

3rice passed through into the hall and stepped after the
padre to the outer door.

Beside it on the ground was a dark form—that of the
guard, slumped down there, unconscious.

Mite may not remain that way. long,”
warned, “so we must hasten.”

“The girl?” said Brice, his voice shaking.

“She is already beyond. the camp; I. attended to that
first. We shall be with her in .a few minutes,‘if we are
not discovered. Quiet, now!”

They walked through the camp of sleeping men,- past
the dead fires, and out into the open ground beyond.

A form started up-in the gloom as they walked on:

“The young woman,” said the Mexican. “She is waiting
for us, and is ready.”

Brice. wanted to run toward her.

As-if divining it, the: hand. of the priest fell. on his
shoulder... = +

“We must still exercise all caution,” We are
barely. out of: the camp,’

Hardly a word was said, eee tone when they met the
girl; -but-she put out her hand, and Brice clutched.it in
his own as they sped on.

Down by. the corral were four mules, . One had a pack
on. his back; the others bore saddles. en

There was no saddle here for a woman,” said the Mex-
jean, “so-the.sefiorita must do.as well as.she can.”

Brice helped her. mount to. the deep. Mexican . saddle.
Then he swung into another as the Mexican mounted.

There was a rope through the bridle. ring of the led
mule, and the- Mexican took this.

“Softly, now |" he warned.

They rode northward.a mile;.then they. turned eastward
into the hills:

“Buffalo Bill’s party are camped i in ihe trail | leading from
the eastward to the mine,’ the Mexican. declared, “and. it
is my purpose now to join-him as quickly as we can.’

For five hours they struggled on over. paths so diffeult
that the stout mules were blown when. a halt was called.

Brice, in spite of the elation of. spirit with which he
had set. out, was by this time dead tired,and the gir] -ad-
mitted that she had nearly reached the point of exhaustion.
The tall Mexican who had posed in the camp as a priest
showed the least signs of weariness of any. of. the party.

Slipping to the ground even before Brice, he assisted
the girl to dismount.

“Vou have risked so.very much for. us,
her. best Spanish.

“I would risk even more for the, ead of the sefiorita,”
he declared... Brice slid out of his deep. saddle, ‘

“We shall have to go into camp here,” he said; “and it
seems to me it will be safe, for even, if the bandits discover
our escape they will have as tough a time in following as
we had. in getting here.”

“The sefior speaks the truth,” said the priest. “We will
go. into camp here. Five hours more ought. to take us’ to
the camp of the Aaierican scouts, at we. cannot go farther

- to-night,” :

‘He had some feed 3 in the pack on ee led acile we
water in a skin bottle. They ate and drank; and’ then, with
the mules tethered, they lay down: on the hard rocks to
get what sleep and rest they could.

In his extreme weariness Brice ‘slept- like a dead than.

He did not waken until the sun was shining in his face.

‘At once he started up and looked round, recalling the
events of the night. Then he came to his feet with a jump.

The Mexican, the girl, and the mules were gone!

the Mexican

he urged.

” said the girl in

 

mal.

» Daron,

tains,

ol

Bit te WEE er Y. fe 1

CHAPTER aa:
OUT OF THE WILDERNESS.

Baron yon Schnitzenhauser, pulling at his long pipe,
contemplated the-preeipitous path before him, .

“Yaw!” he exclaimed, blowing out a cloud of smoke.
“Ve. are oop some stumps! Budt- dot muel oof mine iss
“Cain't climb wuth er cent alongside of Hide Rack!”

“Idt iss yoost chealousy vot make you say idt, Nomadt.
Dot Toofer muel——”

“T think we had. better try to go down, rather than up,”
said the. scout, interrupting,

Nomad and the baron looked at the down trail, whose
descent was so steep, that it made the sharp drop of the up
trail they had been contemplating-modest by comparison.

They were tangled in the wilderness of the Los Conchos,
pail were lashing themselves with blame for their foolish-
ness in following. the lead of the false guide, as the little
Mexican had proved to be. The statement includes Buffato

-Bill and: Pawnee, as well as Nomad and the baron.

A anan might git down thar,” said. Nomad, “er a bird ;
but an animile as -big an’ clumsy as a hoss ain't goin’ to,
unless he falls, or-is lowered.”

That was the scout’s idea—to lower. the animals: after
which the: packs and.saddles could -be sent: down at. the
ends of ropes, and the men-could go down in somewhat
the same fashion,

- “When I sets hands on thet. Mexican: erg tn “Nomad
grumbled, “et shore will bean interestir’ day. fer him.”

“Unt vhen I seen der odder vun again idt vill be an
inderesting day for- me, too, you. pedt!” the baron added.
“But | oxbect ve tond’t seen neidher oof him in a hurry.”

-It used up.the better part of.half a day to get the animals
down. All the lariats were brought into use for -each ani-
Knotted into a harness. such as. only experience. and
skill could fashion,- the cutting points padded well. with
blankets, the lariats, were set in a sort of net round a: liorse,
and,. with thé other animals as well as the men pulling and

easing, the horse was sent. down... Though not quite ag

-steep as the side of a house, na toboggan slide ever had so

precipitous a dip.
Asa compliment to Toofer,. be: really could clitab. Tike
a. goat, the German’s “muel’?. was sent down last, with: the

-end of the supporting cable turned round the trunk of a’

gnarled cedar and held by all the men. so that it could not

break. away.

Toofer, aiding himself very, materially, to the uproarious

‘delight of the baron, reached the lower land in safety and

enahled Schnitzenhauser. to crow a little over old Nomad.
With the animals down, the packs and saddles were low-

,ered; then the men followed, Pawnee Bill coming last.

An end of the rope by which he had descended remained

fixed round a finger of rock at the top of thé steep wall,

but a little difficulty like that troubled the rope king not
ar all. For, with a dexterous. twist, he sent a series Of rip-
ples running up the rope with increasing force, and the
noose hopped off the rock finger and dropped. into his
hands,

“Bravo!” cried Buffalo Bill.
Rope!”

“Tdt Iss easy enough vhen you. know _how,”
“T couldt.do him meinselluf, a
“Why don’t ye, then, some time?” grumbled Nomad, a

“Pawnee Bill, King of the

said the

bit sore because the mule had taken. honors in the descent.

“Dot-iss. vot I said,” declared the baron, puffing his pipe ;
“Ll tond’t know how; oof. [ dit idt vouldt be easy.

The Los Conchos had troubled them for two whole days,
and was destined to trouble them much more before they
escaped, from the. clutch of that terrible wilderness of
peaks and, precipices and emerged into the comparatively
level land that lay over against the gulf coast.

There was no trail now--+that is, nothing but game trails,

and these went in every direction.

Forced dowt: to the gulf finally by the shouldering moun-
they proceeded northward along it.

Having now but the vaguest idea of the peanea of the
spot. which’ they tad expected to. reach by the trail from

ihe ‘east=-the trail faken by the bandits, but lost by the
scout’s party when the bandits used trail- breaking tactics

and their false- guide led them astray—they knew of no

 
 

 
 

Jupp he SU Na he
east Sectndibc oman Bie:

 
te , NEW BUFFALO

better plan than to keep watch for some native who coule:
be forced to direct them or give valuable information:

“This hyar,” said’ Nomad, “is comin’ round Robin Hood's
barn, without knowin’ whar thet barn is. Et. pintedly
bergins. ter look as though we ain't “ever goin’ ter locate
them bandits.”

By the middle of another day, while still keeping along
the shore of the Californian gulf, they came unexpectedly
on a small schooner. .She was close against land, where
a staging had been erected, and a trail from that point
led up the mountain.

Down this trail came some Piles bearing packs, driven
by Indian drivers. On the landing stage were other In-
dians, and still more on the deck of the schooner, engaged
in lowering ore into the hold. A few Mexicans seemed
bossing the work.

There was.a great flurry on board the schooner and the
landing when the approach of Buffalo Bill’s force was dis-
covered there. The work of loading stopped abruptly.
Some of the Indians fled up the trail into the mountains.
Others dropped out of sight into the hold. A few only,
and-with them two Mexicans, remained in sight.

“The wicked flee when no man pursueth,” said Pawnee
Bill. “Looks that way, anvyhow—eh, necarnis ?”

“T aind’t yet seen no odder kind, neffer,” said the baron.

“Kind of what?”

“Der vicked flea.”

The baron said afterward that is was
but they did not believe it.

The two Mexicans on the landing were truculent and
villainous looking. The Indians with them had frightened
eyes, but tried to assume indifference. | Tae

“Something queer here, Pard Bill,” remarked Pawnee,
when he observed this and recalled the scattering: that had
taken place.

“You see the ore heaps on ihe landing,” sdid the scout.
“Tt's.a safe ten-to-one shot that the ore is from that won-
derful mine we have been hearing about.”

“Not a doubt of it, I think; necarnis?

“Another. thing,” said the scout, “if that is so, the trail
must lead straight to the mine; and we have at last found
a route that will connect us quickly with the rascals we
aré. seeking.” ~

“Two of them, I take it, are right before our eyes.’’.

“Not a’ doubt of that, either; <that is, if the other sur-
mises are ie

“voost a choke,”

When th® party arrived before the landing, Buffalo Bill
began. to ask questions of the Mexicans, and inquired for
the commander of the schooner.

“I am the commander,” one of them informed him. “The
schooner ‘is the Infanta Isabella, from the Mexican port
of Trinidad. My name is Isidore Murillo,”

“And the ore?” the scout asked.

“Is from the San Bernalillo Mine.’

. “Near here?”

“To the northward. The trail you see turns north after
reaching the top of the mountains.”

We’ ll see if that is so, after a while,” thought the
scout; “but you have the air of a man who is lying,
~ “Where do you-take the ore?” he asked aloud.

“To a Mexican smelter at Belize.”

The scout asked the name of the mountain.

OR] Cajon. ”

“It is not one of the San Felipes?”

“They are tar’ from jhere—very far, sefior—a hundred
leagues from the coast.’

“T know that is a lie,’ thought the scout.

He continued to ask questions, and the Mexican con-
victed himself of continual falsehood and fear by the no-
toriously untruthful replies he gave to inquiries whose cor-
rect answers were known to the scout.

When the scout’s party turned to the trail that climbed
the mountain, the Mexicans urged them not to take ‘it
because it was dangerous for animals,

“But your mule trains come down and go back wee
way,” said the scout.

“They are made up of mules bred here and trained care-
fully for the work; that is the explanation.”

He. repeated and emphasized his warning against the
attempt contemplated by the Americans.

_ “Mine Toofer muel,” said the baron, taking up the ee

in Toofer’s behali,

a

BILL- WEEKLY

“can climb eeny blace vot a goat can
go.
’ But’as he saoke this in  nalish sb ce Eng-

. lish—the Mexicans only stared, without comprehending

him.

In spite of the protests and warnings, the. scout’s party
tackled thé steep mountain trail and began to make fair
progress. It was not half so difficult as certain parts of
their recent traveling, which, by way of comparison, they
had called easy.

They were mounting steadily, and had been on their way
more than an hour, when they were much astonished to.
discover that an Indian runner had overtaken them; and
even more so when, instead of stopping or passing the
time of day, he dodged with lively haste past them and shot
on up the trail.

“Wow!” roared the borderman.

“How could we help seeing it, old Diamond?”
Pawnee.

“Tdt vos an Inchun!”

“Guess again, Schnitz,”
likely to hit it.”

Buffalo Bill had slid hand to lariat, but the Indian had
kept him from making a cast with his noose by dodging
round a sharp turn in the trail.

It was useless to pursue the redskin, either on foot or
horseback; but Little Cayuse, nevertheless, dropped like
a cat from the back of Navi and began to follow.

“Be careful that he don’t sling a knife into you,’
Bill warned him.

They went on, and in a short time they encountered the
Piute.

“Me “no can catch um,’ he reported.
Injun.”

It was easy to reach the conclusion that the Indian run-
ner had been sent from the schooner to warn the men at
the mine of the approach of Buffalo Bill’s party; he had
chosen the main trail because he could get along taster
there. And he had cleverly run what he must have con-
sidered the gantlet of a very great danger.

“They'll be lookin’ fer us now,” said Nomad, “and likely
thar is goin’ ter. be er fight... Et i is a shore go, ef the critters
up thar at thet miné aire ther ones we’ re thinkin’ they
aire.’

The sun had set before they gained the table-land at the
top, where the San Felipe mine was located. . Here they
saw before them a:number of small huts of adobe, a yellow
dump, and the black mouth of a mine tunnel, together with
a number of men, Mexicans and Indians.

One of the Mexicans came out when the scout’s party

“Did yer see thet?”
asked

laughed Pawnee, “and you are

’ Buffalo

“Him mountain

_ appeared on the plateau.

He demanded who they were and what they detived:

“You-have had word of our coming, no doubt, from the
Indian runner who passed.us on the trail; so I will make
my answer short,’ said the scout. “We are a party of
Americans, sent here to rescue an American young woman
Miss Alice Pierpont. With her now is a young Amet-
ican named Harvey Brice. We feel sure they are held
in this camp, and we demand their instant surrender.”

The Mexican shrugged his shoulders and manifested
indignation.

“The American sefior speaks in riddles,” he declared.
“We do not know what he is talking about, nor why he
comes here threatening us.”

“You know nothing about this emencen woman and
the young man?”

“Not a’ thing.”

“You have no Americans in this camp? on

“Not one.’

“And have had none?”

“None.”

“You will be willing for us to enter and look about?”

“But for that insinuation—that the sefior thinks 1 am
lying—I should instantly grant his request; but not now,
declared the Mexican. “He does not believe that I have
spoken the truth, and so brands me as a liar; and of course
a that he cannot expect to receive hospitality at my

ands. “

“Wow!” Nomad Seanad “Throw er rope round ther

emitter’ s neck, an’ l’arn him not ter talk so sassy.’

“If the ‘sefior and his men try to force their way: in

f
/

 

 

 
eee Ree eee

Taos od EN OAR EC YR PORE SN Se "SSRs RECA Geen cadine apaedk Wisma atic aT a So eee

NEW BUFFALO. BILL WEEKLY.. oe

‘ee,

now,” said the Mexican, growing bolder—for. he saw that
the scout’s force was not-formidable as to numbers—‘“he
will meet resistance.” - : ee
“Wow! Nomad fumed. “Aire ye goin’ ter take thet,
Buffer?”
The scout drew his revolver.
“Forward!” he commanded.
“Der oxcidement she iss caming!” screeched the baron,
hammering the flanks of the mule with-vhis heels. ‘‘Hoob-
aha
The scout’s party swept the Mexican aside and galloped
into. the camp, weapons out, ready for a fight. _
But there was no fight.
* The Mexicans fled like so many cowardly coyotes.

CHAPTER: .&.
THE TALKING STATUE.

Into what obscure holes the Mexicans had disappeared,
except the few who had taken to the mountain, could not
be determined in the thickening darkness, for night was
now at hand.

The black mouth of the mine looked inviting, and to it
Nomad and the baron galloped when they found no one
to oppose their way.

A few arrows flying out of it warned them that Indians
were in there, if not Mexicans. And as they swung round
away from the spot, out of another hole came other arrows
in a shower.

“Ach, I haf peen hidt!” the baron roared, and emptied
his revolver in the offending direction.

He wheeled Toofer and galloped away, pursued by
arrows.

“Hit much?” the borderman inquired when he gained
the baron’s side.

“By der horn oof my sattle on—idt made a hole in der
leadher.”

Buffalo Bill, Pawnee, and Little Cayuse were inspecting

the adobe houses, which they found empty:

“He who fights and runs away may live to fight another.

day—so they think, perhaps; but, necarnis,” said Pawnee;
“did they have time to take their prisoners with them?”

“The prisoners may have been hustled into the. mine;
that’s the mouth of it over there, by the looks. And they
may have been hurried to some other place. That runner
got here in time to give ample warning.”

Nomad came up, roaring:

“Thar ain’t nobuddy ter fight ’cept ki-yis in them holes
off thar,”

The baron had found an arrow sticking in his saddle _

cantle, and came up to show it.”

“Perhaps a poisoned arrow,” said the scout, noting that
it was small and of peculiar shape. ;

They made the rounds of the adobe huts again, and
looked into the black holes. Out of the holes came more
arrows.

“Tt’s plain enough where the reds are,” said Buffalo Bill;
“and the Mexicans, except those who took to the mountain,
are probably in there with them.”

“Mebbyso their prisoners, too,” surmised Nomad.

“Very likely.” :

“Give ther order and we'll tackle ‘em instanter,” cried
the redoubtable borderman.

But, not liking the looks of the arrow which the baron
had produced, the scout did not give the order. a

“Td like a bit of daylight for that tackle,” he admitted.
“If the prisoners are in there, I think they will still be in
there in the morning. Of course there may be some way
out at the rear; but, as you'll notice that the mining tunnel
seems to burrow straight into the mountain, starting here
on the plateau, that doesn’t seem likely.” :

When they looked around for Little Cayuse, it was dis-
covered that he had slipped away. :

“Gone to find out,” said Pawnee Bill. “That little red
is a corker. I hope he doesn’t bump into an arrow.”

Having determined the boundaries of the adobe camp

and the characteristics of the ground surrounding it, the

scout and his pards set themselves down near the. point

where the trail entered, and had something to eat, while

the animals, on lariats, grazed the herbage farther back.

Intense darkness now covered-the plateau and the moun- _

tain, and silence. had fallen, too, broken only by their low
conversation,

Into their midst crept the Piute before they had finished
their scanty supper. :

Lee demanded Nomad, “what did yer diskiver, any-
now?”

Little: Cayuse: had not discovered much. One of the.
holes, he said, was the mouth of a mine; the other was
the beginning of a rift running through a rocky wall.

In this rift and behind it were many Indians—he did
not know how many—and a few Mexicans. He had heard.
them talking, and judged the number of the Mexicans by .
the voices he had counted, which might or might not have
been a reliable method.

“Make um heap war talk,” he said of the Indians.

There was a medicine man, or a chief, with them, he
added, who seemed to-be talking “heap loud;” and, though
os not understand the language, that indicated “war
talkey

Covered by: the gloom, and-with Little Cayuse to pilot
them, Buffalo Bill and Pawnee slipped to the entrance of
the rift, and even advanced into it until they, too, could
hear the talk.

There seemed no doubt that Little Cayuse had exactly
sized up the situation, so far as the Indians in there were
concerned. The war talk had ended, though, and now
there sounded the low grunts of dancers.

Indians were on guard, too, at the farther end of the
rift; a fact made plain when the scouts tried to crawl on

-and were met by arrows, which clicked and rustled omi-_

nously against the walls.
Lying low, neither of the three intruders was touched

by the arrows, but a retreat was deemed wise, and they got

out of the rift and back into their own camp. aa
The reckless baron was for charging the Indians in the

: darkness.

“Ve con dit idt,” he said; ‘‘choomp in vhile der dancing
iss on, unt der pattle he iss: won,” <-

But a fear that the arrows which had fluttered into the.
rift were: poisoned deterred the scout, daring as he. was,
from making the attempt. -.

It-was a characteristic of Buffalo Bill that, while no man.

--on earth would take greater risks when they were neces-

sary, yet he- had a becoming caution, and was unwilling
to throw away his own life and those of his followers by
methods that were foolhardy.

Throughout the night a watch was maintained to protect
the camp, and for the further purpose of making it impos-

sible for the Indians to slip out of the rift and mine and.

escape without it being known.

In-the morning it was practically certain that all the red-
skins who had been there in the night remained, The
dancing had continued at intervals.

Before the first gray light of morning fell in the camp of
the white men, Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill were at the ©
rift entrance, with Nomad and the baron close by—only
the Piute having been left behind to watch the animals—
prepared to investigate what lay at the farther end of the
rift, and fight their way into the midst of the Indians, if
it should be discovered that the prisoners were there.

“ Mindful of arrows, the two scouts slipped in when they
were sure that the open space beyond the rift was getting
the light of the new day.

They had no trouble until they neared the farther end
of the black passage; then they saw that two Indian guards
sat there, with bows across their knees and arrows ready
to slip on the bowstrings.

Beyond these. guards was a lighted space, like an am-
phitheater, and discernible in it was a statue of an Indian,
with a number of Indians crouched round it.

“What do you make of that?” the scout whispered.

“An Indian god, necarnis, at a guess,’ said Pawnee.

“Listeinl? 0 7

“Deserted Jericho! The statue is talking!”

“And you will notice that those two guards, though they
sit ready to let their arrows fly, are looking out into that
open space. and listening to what the statue is saying.”

“Do you hook onto the lingo, -necarnis?”’ Gg :

Lying flat on his face in the rift, Buffalo Bill listened
attentively. ae te ys Pee ree

“That's queer!” he muttered.

/

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ROS AR a al

 
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18 NEW BUFFALO

“Help me to, enjoy it, necarnis—if it is,’ Pawnee whis-
pered in his ear. ae ne

“The. statue is telling them that the spirits of the moun-
tains. demand: the destruction of the white invaders.” -
“A well-regulated Indian statue. that talks can be ex-
pected to say that, under present circumstances.” _

“T didn’t finish. It says, too, that.the white prisoners
having gone, we will not care to make a great fight, and

can be readily overthrown. I don’t-get everything clearly, .

but that seems to be the substance. Some of the words
I can’t make out at all.”

“What language does this statue affect?” ee

“Tt seems to be a combination of Aztec and Moqui, .with
a little Apache thrown in for good measure, and now and
then some Mexican words pop out—not Spanish, but some
of the Indian words that are in the mixed Spanish used by
Mexican peons.”

“It's great to have an education,” Pawnee laughed
quietly. “I suppose when that statue gets through its
harangue the Indians will attack us?”

“We'll see if we can keep it from getting through,”

The scout loosed the rope that trailed at his waist.

Seeing this, Pawnee Bill-imitated him.

“If we can slip near while those guards. are listening
to the statue, and get our ropes over their necks and——”

“We.can keep them from -talking, at any rate.”

“Now Wy > a ‘

“Now it is!” fe

‘They slipped on again, silent as crawling snakes. -

Fhe oratory of the statue had risen in vehemence, and
the ears of. the Indian-guards were turned to catch every
word; the situation, from the standpoint of the two scouts,
could not have been finer. il aia oa
~ “Now!” whispered the scout again.

-, “Now itis!” repeated Pawnee. ~ ede

The two ropes shot out, side by side, hike writhing
snakes;-and as silently as- serpents: they did: their work—
dropping over the necks of the guards. It- seemed they
had not touched before they weré jerked and drawn taut.

The yells the guards would have sent out were choked
in their throats, and they were drawn backward: Before
they could get out their knives, or knew. what had. hap-
pened, the scouts were on top of them, pinning them down.
» Quick turns of Pawnee’s rope, cut in two for the: pur-
pose, pinioned them. :

“Now!” said the scout.

“Now it isi” pent cae ye

The serapelike blankets, pulled off the prostrate Indians,
were wrapped. round -the heads and shoulders of the
scouts; and, with their revolvers’ concealed, they sprang
to the end ofthe rift; then they walked boldly forth, Buf-
falo Bill having quickly whispered the details of his plan
meanwhile.

The Indians by the statue, who were not too engrossed
in what it was saying to notice, stared when they saw the
draped figures, that they assumed to be their comrades,
coming out of the rift in that fashion.

Betore they could discover that below the blankets the
garments were not Indian in appearance, the scouts had
advanced, and, throwing aside the blankets, stood re-
vealed. At the same time. the scouts discovered. that: this
place was a wide cavern, with light coming from: holes
overhead.

“We'll uncover this fraud!” said the scout.. “Then the
Indians can see the character of the rascal who is talking
tor them cya: é

His lariat shot out and caught round the head of - the
statue, is

The next moment the head of the talking statue came
off under the jerk of the scout’s rope, and the hidden
Indian was revealed.
The startled and undeceived Indians, horrified by the act
of the scout, and by the startling disclosure that an Indian
had-been inside the statue they believed had talked—proof
even to their credulous minds that they had been grossly

and cruelly deceived—fell back in fright and bewilder- .

ment. i

None was more scared and bewildered than the deceiver
who had been in the statue. He gave one yell, which
seemed to express the depths of his fright, and sprang off
and away as soon as his legs were out of the broken image.

 

BILE’ WEEKLY.

It was but a cheap-imitation of stone—some sort of
plaster laid over a fiber framework and colored to imitate
stone—and under it, to be seen now by the Indians who
remained to look, was’a hole, revealed when! the. scout’s
boot turned the statue over, through which hole. the de-
ceiving and rascally redskin had entered it...

There was no fightin the Indians after that; they fled |

wildly in many directions, some plunging into the mine,
others getting. out over. the hapless guards, still others
dashing at the steep walls and. climbing toward the holes
overhead through which the light of day sifted down.
Not a Mexican was in the place, though the. Piute had
been sure he had heard Mexicans talking.. Perhaps, the
scouts surmised, he had heard some of the Indians using
Mexican. ge sa
But the disheartening thing, after this quick and racy
victory, was that the prisoners could not be found,
They simply were not there. :
The cavern was searched, every hole and cranny. being
poked. into, and the mine was explored. The scout and his
friends shouted again and. again, calling the names of thase
they had come to help, and get back only the echoes of
their own voices. : eel
“It’s a barren victory,” said the scout. | fe
“That runner who got by us yesterday,” reminded Paw-
nee—“we can lay it to him, I think. He got here in time
to give warning, and the prisoners were removed from
this place by the Mexicans:” ns ee us a
They returned to their camp outside, troubled, and were
talking. it over, wondering if the scattered trails of the
Mexicans could be followed, when the keen eyes of. old
Nomad detected the figure of a white man descending the

western face of the mountain toward the mine. -

CHAPTER XI.

ce SURPRISES... ge:

_The man who came down the mountain and into the
camp was Harvey Brice. eae Cae ake os
He had a remarkable and distressing story-to tell. —
When he had finished it, the scout’s party were im POs-
session of all the facts with which Brice was himself
familiar, He told of his life and that of the girl in the
camp as prisoners of the Mexicans under Red Miguel, and
of the coming of the pretended priest, who had rescued
them from the Mexicans, then had spirited himself and

the girl away while Brice slept. ua

Brice had spent a weary time in trying to locate the tall
Mexican and had failed utterly. Then he had back-tracked,
after finding the mine trail, determined to surrender him-
self to the Mexicans and tell: them what had happened ;
for he preferred that the girl should be their prisoner than
to be in the hands of a man who could do such a thing.
It was his expectation that the Mexicans would pursue the
man who had so deceived them.

Naturally he was overjoyed when he discovered that
Buffalo Bill’s party now occupied the mining plateau with
their camp. a

“I reckon, Buffler,” said Nomad, when Brice was through
with his story, “thet a one-eyed man c’d see who thet thar
tall Mexican’ 1s.”

“The fellow who joined us at the Corunna Wells and
who deéserted us and assisted our captured Indian to
escape?”

“K’rect,” said Nomad: ~

“You can lead us,” «said the scout to Brice, “to the place -

where Meridoza and the girl disappeared ?”
Brice was sure that he could. ey
A vas they were talking, the whoop of the Piute was
eard. as ;
Not satisfied with the thoroughness of the search that
had been made, he had gone on poking into out-af-the-
way corners. Now they saw him appear out of the mine
tunnel, his’ rope round the neck of a prisoner,’ whom -his
revolver threatened. ted i eee
Nomad was not through shouting his admiration of the
Piute’s exploit when he came out into the clearer light,
and they saw that the man he had captured was Red
Miguel himself, eee

“Waugh!” Nomad vhooped then. “Waugh-h-h!”

Red Miguel had been hiding alone in one of the farthest

i

 

 
 

 

ee SU Es

NEW BUFFALO

recesses of the mine. The Piute had poked him out, then
had snared him with the rope as he ran. A

The eyes of Little Cayuse were dancing spots of delight
_as he proudly, at the point of the revolver, drove his pris-
oner before him up to the feet of Buffalo Bill.

“Me make a crawl,” he explained, “and him no sabe me
near till I git him.”

“Good work, Cayuse!” commended Pawnee.
all to the candy !”

Red Miguel now revealed himself as the real coward
that nature had made him. He cringed and fawned on
the Americans, and promised profusely to tell everything
he knew if they would let him go. |

“You'll answer our questions,” said the scout, “whether
we make any promises or not.”

Red Miguel declared he would be obedient in all things
if they would not kill him.

“That’s the way you do when you have a prisoner—
kill him ?” é

“We did not kill the American young woman and the
American young man,’ reminded Red Miguel, for the sake
of gaining clemency. ‘“‘We treated them well. If ever you
see them, ask them, and they will tell you that.”

“You know where they are now?”

But that bit of information was beyond Red Miguel’s
ken.

Breaking camp, without making further search for In-
dians or Mexicans, the scout’s party followed Harvey
Brice up the trail that ran over the mountain and down to
the mine—followed it eastward, and came that afternoon
to the point where Brice declared he had slept, and, on
waking in the morning, had found the girl and the tall
Mexican missing.

There was not enough of a trail here for a bloodhound
to follow, apparently; but Little Cayuse was set to work,
and he dug out the trail, with the assistance of his experi-
enced associates.

The tall Mexican had been careful, but he had not been
careful enough; he had baffled Brice, but here he was
dealing with men of large experience in trail finding, and
they were not to be easily thrown off the scent.

A turned stone, showing fresh soil on top, instead of
the weathering that would have been seen there if it had
not been turned lately; bits of moss and lichen scraped by
his feet from some face of granite; a limb of a bush
broken as he forced a passage there; places where in his
descent of a hill he had gouged his heels in to keep from
going too fast, or had made creases in the soil—all these
things, and many others, were the language and the writing
read by the eyes of the men who followed him, and fol-
lowed him with a rapidity that can hardly be believed by
those who have no accurate knowledge of the exploits of
the borderman of a few years ago im that, line.

At the end of the second day of this skillful work they
came upon the camp of the tall Mexican.

It was on the flat top of a bush-crowned hill. Apparently
he had chosen the spot on account of the rocky character
of the approaches, and because a low pine offered a posi-
tion from which the surrounding country might be viewed.
He had here covered his trail well.

In fact, he had hidden it so cleverly that it had been
lost by the scouts. They had stealthily climbed to the top
of the hill for the purpose of using the lookout it seemed
to afford, and for the further and more enticing reason
that the site seemed particularly favorable for a hide-out
by a man who knew he was being pursued.

Nomad, having pushed his way to the front, was the first
man to get a look into the secluded spot and a view of its
occupants. :

With difficulty he repressed the roar that leaped to his
lips for utterance.

“Buffler! Pawnee!” he whispered.
Ef this don’t knock ther persimmon!”

He caught Pawnee by the sleeve and pulled him along-
side. Buffalo Bill: got in position at the same time. On
the other side of Nomad was Little Cayuse, staring, too.
Also Harvey Brice. And Red Miguel, the prisoner, was
not far off,

But alas for Schnitzenhauser! The baron had been left
behind to care for the animals, that could not be taken
over the difficult route the tall Mexican had gone.

“You are

“Jes’ looky yar!

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BILL W EERILY, 9

Stooping beside the girl, who lay unconscious on the
ground by a little shelter of pine boughs, was——

But let the characters tell about it!

“Right frum ther ground up we has been fooled com-
plete,” said Nomad. “Still, I has at diff’rent times had
my s'picions, which seemed’ too réedic’lous for mentionin’,
But looky thar!”

“The scoundrel is a white man!” panted Brice.

“Our tall Mexican,’ whispered Pawnee, “seems as
changeable as a chameleon. First he is an unlettered liar,
who joins us and sticks like a bur; then a pretended priest,
who rescues the prisoners for the purpose of making off
with the girl; and now, in the end, he turns up to be——”

“Mayberry Hamilton!” said the scout, completing the
sentence.

7 “Waugh!” Nomad panted) wriggling like a_ lizard.
ae Buffler, I wants ter drill him. Give be ther
word, an’——”

The scout’s hand fell on Nomad’s shoulder.

“When we wouldn’t let ’im jine us thar in Hermosa,”
Nomad: sputtered“on, “he rigged and painted himself up
ter look like er Mexican, and, meetin’ us at the Corunna
Wells, he came on with us anyhow. The thing is onbeliev-
able; still, I has had my s’picions.”

“T admit that I had none,” said the scout.

“Waal, I noticed thet he didn’t wash none whatever;
and now I know thet et warn’t bercause he war jes’
natcherly dirty—he war ’feared et might wash his paint
off. Waugh!”

“We must capture him or shoot him,” said Brice, “and
at once! Alice is unconscious, you can see—she may be
dead—and we oughtn’t lie here a minute. We——”

“When I gits out whar I kin do ther act right an’ proper,
I’m goin’ ter kick myself ter pieces jes’ fer bein’ a fool,”
‘Nomad growled. ‘When he was playin’ Mexican and we
war pintedly s’picious of him—I war—we ought ter have
gone through that little blanket roll he carried on his
mule; then we’d ’a’ found them priest’s gyarments, an’
would er been wise to ther kind of a man he is. But we
acted ther plum’ idjit! Why, Buffler——”

“Why didn’t you speak of your suspicions ?”

“T war jes’ ershamed of ’em—he seemed so blame nice
an’ quiet, willin’ ter do any kind of work wanted of him,
and he war jes’ ez perlite an’

The bewilderment and reacti
for the old borderman.

“T admit that I was fooled,” said the scout. “Until right
now I never dreamed that our Mexican was Mayberry
Hamilton.” .

“Same here,” said Pawnee. “We've got to acknowledge,
necarnis, that he pulled the wool over our eyes in the most
approved manner.”

“We can’t let him escape now,” said the scout. “So,
Nomad, I’m going-to give you permission to open on him
with your rifle if he tries to run when I call on him to
surrender. I don’t like the idea of shooting a man down,
but a scoundrel who will’ so treat a nice girl deserves
killing.”

“Waugh!” gritted the borderman. “Buffler, ef he so
much as shows his teeth at ye I'll drill him.”

Buffalo Bill rose out of the screening bushes, a revolver
in his hand, and as he stood up called out sharply:

“Surrender!”

The man of whom they had been talking turned with
a jerk of alarm when he heard that, and dropped hand to
revolver. Gs;

“Surrender!” commanded the scout. “Put up your
hands, you villain, before we down you! We're in no
humor right now to fool with you. Surrender!”

Staring for a moment as the scout stepped toward him,
the man hesitated, then put up his hands. =

Nomad came out of the brush with his rifle leveled,
and up with him came the other members of the party.

Brice’s eyes were fiery and his face red, and_as he ran
to the prostrate girl he fingered his revolver as if he meant
to shoot down the man even without the scout’s permis-
sion.

“She has only fainted,” said the man. “I was trying to
restore her. She will be all right in a little while.”

“Your highly clever double game,” said Pawnee, ‘has
come to a sudden end.” ;

6c

 

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DO Siang ORE ERENE Norcal Sa A Ge aD APE:

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20

 

He pitched his lariat forward, and the noose dropped
over Hamilton's neck. When Hamilton tried to throw it
off, a jerk tightened it.

“T haven't harmed the young lady, so what's the use of
being rough?’ he protested.

“Tt simply means that we are taking no further chances
with you,” said Pawnee.

“You aire too clever intirely,” added Nomad, “fer any-
body to take further. chainces' with ye. Fust off you’re
Mayberry Hamilton, then you're the tall Mexican what
jines our party, and then you're ther priest what rescoos
ther gal jes’ fer some notion o’ yer own and runs off with
her. But ter all things thar shore comes an end, an’ yours
has come mighty sudden.” —

Drawing a knife, Hamilton slashed the rope that had
gone round his neck before Pawnee could prevent the act.

“I don’t intend to be treated that way,” he said, his face
red and angry.

Nomad leveled the rifle at him.

“Make er jump ter git erway, and down ye go.”

“IT don’t intend to run.”

“You're Mayberry Hamilton!” said Pawnee. ;

“Well, I’ve been playing Mexican priest and going under
another name lately, but what I have done here has been
for the benefit of this young woman. You can understand
that right from the jump.”

He dropped to the ground, staring at the rifle which
Nomad threatened him,

“Take that gun away,” he said; ‘I’m not going to run.”

“No, you're goin’ ter play ther game o’ bluff right now;
I can see thet clear ernough!” snapped Nomad. “Still,
recklect thet I am watchin’.”

Buffalo Bill, with Pawnee, was aiding Harvey Brice.
But, though they dashed water in the girl’s face, she did
not show-signs of immediately returning to consicousness.

“You lied ter us thar in Hermosa,” snapped Nomad.
“You said fust off you war an Englishman, then admitied
thet you war an American; and now you admits that you
has been playin’ Mexican priest. What else has you had
up yer sleeve?”

“I don’t have to answer your fool questions!” Hamilton
threw back at him:

“Might as well ‘fess up; ye cain’t git erway.”

“I'm not trying to get away.”

“Becoz yer knows yer cain’t.”

“It's none of your affair.’ When I’m ready to talk I’ll
talk to Cody.”

“Why did ye want ter jine us thar in Hermosa?”

“It’s none_of your business.”

“Wow! Et ain't? Don’t I belong ter this hyar outfit?”

“Tt seems that you do, but I wonder that Cody tolerates
such an idiot.”

“Wow! You're makin’ me madder’n a wart hawe!
What did yer play priest fer?”

“Because I wanted to; I thought I could carry out my
‘plans better.”

“Then you confess ever’thing ?” j
“T confess nothing—to you!”
“To Buffler?”

“Tl talk to him when he’s ready to talk.”

“Why did ye run off with the gal?”

“T didn’t; I rescued her. Now will you stop? And take
that gun away!”

Drawn by Nomad’s loud words, Pawnee Bill came over,
letting the scout and Brice continue their’ work of restor-
ing the girl.

“This looks pretty black for you, Hamilton,” he said,

“You think I have not treated that girl right?”

“You lied to us in Hermosa; then took up the deceitful
role of Mexican priest, and when you rescued the girl it
Was, Heealise you had black treacherous thoughts against

er.

Hamilton was in a rage against Pawnee, for the rope
tossed round his neck had not been jerked with a gentle
hand; there was a red welt now where it had cut his neck.

He showed a disposition to be ugly.

“You seem to be a mind reader,” he snarled.
to your many accomplishments, I suppose!”

“Why did you go to the aid of the girl if——”
“You fool, it was because I wanted to help her!” -

“Adding

NEW BUFFALO

_men,

BILL WEEKLY. ©

“You don’t expect us to believe’ that, of course,” said
Pawnee. ~ ;

“Take it or let it alone—I don’t care whether you believe
it or not! Just because I played a little game of deception
in Hermosa, at a time when my life was sought by Red
Miguel i

“We have him here,” said Pawnee.

“Red Miguel? I don’t happen to see him.”

“He is out on that slope; Little Cayuse has gone to
watch him.” :

“So the rascal is here,” said Hamilton, drawing a deep
breath. “He ‘Oh, well, what’s the use? You fellows
seem determined to twist everything I do into something
wrong. I am sorry to have to displease such courteous
gentlemen.” ; ,

The girl was returning to consciousness.

Sure of that, Buffalo Bill turned now to Mayberry Ham-
ilton.

“l’ve heard what you’ve been saying,” he said, going
straight to the point. “As you seem to deny the things
of which you stand accused, perhaps you will be so good
as to explain them for our dull understandings.”

Hamilton stared.

“So you’re knocking me, too!” he said.

“I’m only inviting an explanation. The case is black
against you.”

“What am I accused of ?”? demanded Hamilton. “A man
accused is entitled to know that the first thing when he
is dealing with men who are civilized.’ :

“Wow!” fumed Nomad. “Hear him bluff!
ther gall of et!”

“You deceived us in Hermosa,” said the scout.

“I admit it; and I remember that I explained, or con-
fessed it, at the time. I was posing.as an Englishman.
You accused me of being an American, and I admitted.
that you were right. Go on with the list of my terrible
crimes. I had disguised myself somewhat to avoid danger
from certain men who were after me. I am told that you
have Red Miguel here. Well, he was the leader of those
I told you that I had a commission from the Mex-
ican government, authorizing me to penetrate the San
Felipe foothills and look into a report of a valuable mine
there that was being worked by bandits. The Mexican
government wanted to know the truth. Red Miguel, as I
had reason to believe, was the head of those bandits. He
learned about the commission that had been given to me,
and, to keep me from carrying out my work, he was shad-
owing me for the purpose of assassinating me. And he
tried to assassinate me there in Hermosa. Does some of
that come back to you?”

He looked round.

“I had heard that you were good men—good fighting
men; and I thought I would like your party for an escort
into these bandit-infested hills. You will recall some-
thing like that, no doubt.”

“Then your further deception,”
play Mexican priest.”

“T admit it.”

“And when you rescued the girl from the camp of Red
Miguel, at the mine a

“What's that?” said Hamilton sharply.

“When you rescued Miss Pierpont from Red Migueis
camp down there, and "i

“But I didn’t. She was right here. That Mexican priest
had her.”

Pawnee stared. In fact, as Nomad said afterward, this
produced a whole “flight of stairs,”

“What Mexican priest?” demanded Buffalo Bill.

“Well, maybe you can tell that yourself by taking a look .
at him; he is right down there—dead. When I came on

 

 

Listen ter

said Pawnee, “was to

 

 

him here we had a lively set-to, and I think I killed him.

It was that fight that made Miss Pierpont faint.”

CHAPTER XIL.
RAMON CORRAL.

They brought up the priest, who was unconscious, but

hot. dead; he was the tall Mexican.

“186 a queer thing,” said Hamilton, still touchy and
angry, “that you got me mixed up with that rascal. Do

I look anything like him? -I should hope not.” _

 

 

 

 

 
 

  

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Fan apache ote ie eee owahie steam die nae A ae

NEW BUFFALO

He was sitting on the ground near the unconscious
Mexican. They looked from the face of one to the other.

“Of course ve got a flat hat and a black robe,” said
Hamilton, “but do I resemble him?”

"You do, very decidedly,’ Buffalo Bill declared. ‘His
face is dark, yours is light; but the general outline and
even the expression is decidedly similar. If you should
stain your face and color your hair black, you wouldn’t
look like yourself, but you would look like that Mexican,
especially if you wore Mexican clothing.”

“That's a compliment.”

“It's the ruth.’

“And that fooled you?”

Buffalo Bill smiled leniently.

“Well, you see, after we had made up our minds that
we had been fooled, we were so sure of it that it was the
easiest thing in the world to fool us still more.”

“And your admissions, too,’ suggested Pawnee Bill.

“What admissions did I make? I admitted that I was
the Mayberry Hamilton who was in Hermosa and tried
to get you to guide me to this place.”

“And also that,’ reminded Pawnee, “you had played a
Mexican priest and had rescued the girl.”

“All true, too.”

“But you can seé yourself that under the circumstances
it was very confusing.”

As the tall Mexican was conscious, and his hurts did not
seem of a serious character, Buffalo Bill began to tie him.

“T suppose you know who that scoundrel is?” said
Hamilton,

“We know him for a deceitful and lying Mexican,” said
the scout. “He said his name was Manuel Mendoza.”

“And lied about that, too. That villain is Ramon
Corral?

The scout looked at the face before him.

“Ramon Corral?” he said. “That is the name of the
noted bandit.’

“The most noted and most desperate in northern Mex-
ico,’ declared Hamilton. “I met him once, and I’m not
likely to forget him. It’s not a compliment that you could
mistake me for Corral, the king of Mexican bandits.”

“When I bergins ter kick myself,’ said Nomad, “I’m
goin’ ter set apart a hull week fer et!”

“And of course it’s hardly necessary to say that Ramon
Corral got hold of Miss Pierpont for the same reason
that Miguel the Red did—he wanted the ransom money
that he believed her very wealthy father would pay for
her. To put himself in the way of receiving that money,
he deceived and struck at other bandits, who, though his
inferiors in shrewdness and intelligence, were morally not
half as bad as he is.”

“Ramon Corral!” said the great scout, as if he could
hardly believe it.

The bandit’s eyes fluttered open. He was still half un-
conscious, but he thought his mame had been called, and
he answered. :

“Yes,” he muttered, “I’m Ramon Corral. , What is
wanted ?”

“Waugh!” grunted Nomad. “He speaks English, too.”
d He te it and understands it as well as he does Span-
18h

“Er-waugh! Buffler, recklect how we talked ruther free
sometimes on thet trail, thinkin’ thet this hyar critter
couldn’t onderstand us?”

“Don’t rub it in, old man!” said the scout. :

“Waugh! All ther fools ain’t goin’ ter be dead until
I’m gone.” :

_ “You can imagine,” said Hamilton, “that a man like

Ramon Corral would put up a stiff fight under any cir-

cumstances. If I hadn’t surprised him here, you wouldn't

have found him here, nor the girl, likely; but would have -
found my dead body instead.”

ane surprised him.in this camp?”

“ id.”

“We'd like to hear all about that,” said Pawnee. “It
ought to be interesting.”

“I’m talking to Cody,” snapped Hamilton, who could not
forget the sting of Pawnee’s rope, nor what he considered
insults given later. :

Pawnee smiled and dug a cigar out of his Stetson, which
he handed to Hamilton.

ies Re ene Be

BILL WEEKLY.

“My offer of the peace pipe,” he said, “I’ve got a few
of these stogies left. And don’t bear too hard on the mis-
takes that were made by yours truly.”

Hamilton hesitated, then accepted the cigar.

“And a fire stick,” said Pawnee, striking a match and
holding it out.

Hamilton lighted his cigar while Pawnee held the match.

“I don’t want to hold harsh feelings where they’re not
due,” he admitted. “And I can see now that you fellows
had grounds for your huge mistake.”

“Worlds and oceans and seas of grounds,” said Pawnee,
“When the pointers are all wrong, a man can’t help going
astray.”

“Bout thet fight wi’ Ramon Corral,” said Nomad, with
a glance at the now half-conscious king of bandits; “et’s
goin’ ter be plum’ int’restin’ ter hear et. We all takes
worter sence ther baron he ain’t hyar.”

Hamilton smiled, with returning good humor.

“THe is more stubborn than the rest of you?”

“No; only he allus takes beer. Jes’ a joke,” he added,
“ter lighten up ther atmospheric.”

Hamilton’s sudden frown changed to a laugh.

“A poor joke,” he said; “but we can't all be humorists.”’

Then he returned to his account of his attack on Ramon
Corral.

“When you wouldn't accompany me to the San Felipe
foothills,” he explained, “I set out alone, after I had tried
to get another escort and failed. I was behind you, I know
now; in fact, until right now I didn’t know that you had
set out in this direction. But I knew about the girl who
had been captured by Red Miguel’s bandits, for there were
accounts of that in the newspapers.

“If I couldn’t have help, I was resolved to do alone the
thing I- had been commissioned to do by the Mexican goy-
ernment—find out if there was a valuable mine out here
that was being worked and robbed by bandits. I stuck to
the trail that I believed the bandits had retreated over, for
I had heard from peons of. the neighborhood that Red
Miguel had attacked the adobe at Corunna Wells and had
then retreated into the western mountains.

“Being alone, I used every caution I could, of course,
and often left the trail when I thought it might be particu-
larly dangerous.

“That is how I came to be off the trail here. I knew
I was nearing the place where the mine ought to be, if
it existed; and I was afraid of encountering the bandits
prematurely. So I trekked off in this direction.

“Coming to the top of this hill for a look round—and I

‘ can assure you that I ascended it very carefully—I discov-

ered that Ramon Corral was up here. He seemed to be in
hiding. Then I discovered that he had a young woman
with him, an American, who was undoubtedly his pris-
oner. When I saw her from a distance I made up my
mind that she was Alice Pierpont, and that he had got
her away from Miguel the Red.

“After that I studied how I could get at him and over-
power him. I accomplished it by slipping on him as he
lay asleep. He had lain down right here, where he could
hear any movement the girl made, and no doubt he did
not intend to fall asleep, but he did.

“When I was close on the place, I discovered that the
girl was trying to take advantage of his sleepy condition.
She had a rope—you'll find it over there in the bushes
somewhere—and she was slipping up to try to tie him; and,
as she had a stone in her hand, I think she meant to use
it on his head before she tried the other.

“T jumped in then, for the opportunity was too good to
be lost, and I was afraid he would hear her and wake up.
That threw the girl into hysterics, and while I was strug-
gling with Corral she went over in a faint. me

“But I got the better of him—due, no doubt, to the sur-
prise—and knocked him out, and at the time thought I had’
killed him.

“Then I was trying to bring the girl to
when your crowd came climbing over the ropes and

He waved his cigar, trailing a banner of smoke.

“Well, I needn’t detail the rest, for you know all about

consciousness

+9

 

au:

By the use of stimulants Ramon Corral was brought
back to a very vivid recollection of where he was.

When he understood the situation fully, he tried to

4 ¥ Aoi beh % + i
sac shi Sr ines aserns ase ep Sass tv amr tamer Om aN sea ae

 
  

 

22

laugh the whole thing aside as a mistake. He said he was
not Ramon Corral, but Manuel Mendoza, and declared that
he had rescued the girl from Red Miguel’s men with the
best of intentions. :

“But what about the fact that you slipped away with
her and left me on the mountain?” Brice shot at him.

“She wandered out of our camp in her sleep, and I but
followed her to bring her back, and then lost the way.”

“That is a cruel falsehood!” came.in the voice of the

irl,

. She had recovered and was sitting up looking at him,
while she drank in the words that were being said.

Corral shrugged his shoulders in the Mexican fashion.

“What is the use,” he said, “of telling anything, if I-am
not to be believed ?”

“No use at all,” said Hamilton; “I know you. You are
Ramon Corral.”

And he had made a slip—for he had spoken in English.

The next day the scout’s party moved eastward over the
long trail with their prisoners, and With the girl and Har-
vey Brice.

Red Miguel was taken through to Hermosa, where he
was turned over to the Mexican authorities.

But as for Ramon Corral, king of bandits, there was a
different. story to tell. They did not know-how he accom-
plished it—it seemed to partake of the miraculous, for
nightly he was kept tied and was watched by the camp
guard—yet one night he escaped.

As for Mayberry Hamilton, the Mexican government
considered that his work was worth a round sum of
money, though really it had been done mainly by Buffalo
Bill and his party.

Rurales were sent by the Diaz administration to drive
out the bandits and Indians and take possession of the
gold mine in the San Felipe foothills.

As for Harvey Brice and Alice Pierpont, as Kipling
would say, “that is another story.” But this may be told:

Less than a year later they were married in the city of
New York.

THE END.

“Buffalo Bill’s Medicine Trail; or, Pawnee Bill, King of
the Rope,” is the story for the next issue, No. 201, and it
is a corker! Colonel Cody and Major Lillie receive a mys-
terious message from a little Mexican mining town, stating
that the baron, Little Cayuse, and some Eastern friends
are desperately ill there with smallpox. The two scouts
set out immediately to go to their relief, and have some
surprising adventures on the way. But when they arrive
at their destination they find something even more seri-
ous than smallpox, and some very quick action ensues.
Tt will be out April 6th. This issue will also contain an
installment of Edward C. Taylor's great story of advyen-
ture, “On a Mountain Trail.”

WHAT SHE DID NOTICE.

“Did you see the pleased expression on Mrs, Brown’s
face when | told her she didn’t look any- older than her
daughter?” said Mrs. Radway, after the reception.

“No,” said Mr. Radway; “I was looking at the expres-
sion on her daughter’s face.”

ONE ON HIS HONOR.

A police magistrate in Cleveland was disposing of cases
at the rate of about two a minute, with great exactness
and dignity, being jury, judge, and attorney all in one.

“Then you are sure you recognize this linen coat as the
one stolen from you,” he said to a complainant.

“Yes, your honor.”

“How do you know it is yours?”

“You can see that it is of a peculiar make, your honor,”
replied the witness. “That is the way I know it.”

“Are you aware,,sir,” shouted the justice, turning to a
closet back of him and producing .a similar coat, “that
there are others like it?”

“Indeed I am,” replied the witness, still more placidly.

“T had two stolen.”

NEW BUFFALO BILL WEEKLY.

  

ON A MOUNTAIN TRAIL:
Or, A Redskin Foe.

By EDWARD C. TAYLOR.

(This interesting story began in NEw BUFFALO BILL Wenk.y
No. 288. If you have 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 go.)

CHAPTER -V—(Continued).

“Broil it, then,” said Chester. “And make me some flap-
jacks and a cup of coffee. Got any whisky there?”

The half-breed smiled his greasy smile and held up a
demijohn,

Chester lifted it with both hands to his lips and took a
lon> drink.

“ totten stuff, that!” he said. “But I suppose that it will
do to keep out the night air.”

“Heap much good,” said the half-breed.

“Heap rotten!” said Chester. “But it will have to do.”

A few minutes later Black threw a sputtering venison
steak on a tin plate and laid it on the pine table which
stood before the two log cabins that formed the mountain
camp.

Chester pitched into it, washing it down with drafts of
coffee which the guide had poured out for him.

“Boss not around camp much lately,” said Little Hawk,
who was engaged in rubbing down the horse.

“No; Pve been up at the camp of the young ranchmen.”

“Heap fine boy,” said Little Hawk.

“Heap fine idiot!” said Chester surlily. “That gang up
there gives me a pain in the neck. They think themselves
a whole lot; but I tell you what—they can’t train with
me!”

“That girl up there,” said Regan, with a sly wink at his
companions which was not seen by Chester, who was bend-
ing over his food, “I think that she’s all right. I saw her
once as she rode past. I’ve seen pooty women in my time,
but durn me if she isn’t the pootiest gal in ther Rockies.”

“Now you're talking!” said Chester. “You are dead
tight there. I have traveled all over the continent, and |
never saw her equal for looks. She’s just as clever as she
is good looking. She’s a great little flirt. She tries to
make me think that she doesn’t want to have anything at
all to do with me.”

“They’re all that way,” said Black, biting off a chew.
“They’re all the same; ready ter throw a turrible bluff that
they don’t want neither hide nor hair of ye, but at ther
same time ready ter fall inter yer arms when they see that
you won't stand for no mare o’ their bluff.”

“You've got it right,” said Chester, wiping his lips and
pushing back the dishes. “That is the way with the girls,
and no mistake. But this particular girl will see pretty
soon that her bluff won’t go much longer.”

Chester stood up and cast a glance around the lonely
mountainside on which the camp was pitched.

The sun was setting, the distant peaks were a blaze of
glory, the ravines were dark-purple shadows. The forests
beneath were as black as night, and the mountain stream
that flowed near the camp, Bull River,-was the only thing
that broke the silence.

‘We are pretty well alone here, eh, boys?” said Chester.
“No one around here to overhear anything that we want
kept quiet.” ;

“Not unless they hey ears thet can hear for six miles,
said Regan.

“That is the way I want it,” said Chester, raising the
demijohn. “Have a drink, fellows.”

Regan took a long drink and Black a longer one. Then
the half-breed got the demijohn . oe
Ue held it to his lips until Regan snatched it away from

im.

“Now,” said Chester, when this ceremony was gone
through, “I have something to say to you. Throw a few
logs on the fire and draw in a little closer so that you Wi
be comfortable.”

 
NEW BUFFALO

 

The fire was stirred up to a blaze and the Hee Seon
tiersmen and the boy from the East gathered close around
it.

“Tt is this way,” said Chester. “IT have heard something
about you fellows. I was careful not to take much money
with me up here and to pay you, by: check. I have heard
of travelers held up in these wilds and robbed, and have
heard your names mentioned as being connected with it.”

“What!”

That exclamation came from all three at once. _

Regan and Black. glared, looking like two tigers ready
to spring. The half-breed grasped | at the hilt of his knife
and half drew it out of its sheath.. The firelight ghee
against the gleaming steel and the bared teeth of the man.

Chester laughed.

“Look at the way you fellows jump!” he said. “Iam
not going to hurt you.’
“We don’t like jokes of that nature,” said Regan.

“T can see that you don’t,” said Chester. “But this is no
joke; it ts a w warning. I have been up talking with Ted
Strong and the young ranchmen. They think that they are
the champion ae and outlaw catchers in the country.
They've got you fellows lates on their list, and I want
to warn you,

“You had better go and warn them,” said Regan
hoarsely. .““Fhey need‘it more than we do. I have heard
of. this Ted Strong before now. _He has had good luck
in the past, and I don’t deny that he is a pretty good shot
with a gun. But he’s only a kid, for all that he’s so well
known, and the day. that he bucks up. against me- he’ i
find that out!”

“Dig up tomahawk—dance the scalp!”. grunted eink
Hawk, his eyes rolling ‘and flashing in the flrelight like

: snarled Black.

those of a cat.

“Let them come a fee us,’ “We'll give
them a heap more than they are looking for.”

“Thatis where you are making a mistake,” saad ee
“Don’t wait till they come after you. Forewarned is fore-
armed. I’ve warned you. Go after them !”

“How?” said Regan, licking his lips in an unpleasant
fashion.

- “Tl tell you: how. T’ il help you.”

“Why should you help us?” asked Black Sse aisle:

“TL tell you why. I-should, I have no use for those
fellows. - Ted Strong is mighty sweet on that girl. He’s
afraid that I will cut -him out with her. 1 want to get
her away from him. They'll soon come off their high
horse. You ean getva ransom for the girl, and her people
won't trust her to the care of that gang again. You can
bank on that.”

The three men looked at each other.. The idea of a
ransom appealed to them. © They felt little fear for Ted
Strong and his party, regarding them as nothing more
than a crowd of boys, Of course the reputation of Ted
Strong had traveled before him, but they thought that he
must have been. overrated and that it was impossible for

a bey to do what he was said to have done.

“If you fellows can find a place to hide the girl,” said
Chester, “I will guarantee that you will get a ransom from
her father, who is a tich man. I want to get solid with
her my self, That is why Il am going in for it.”

a we are caught?” muttered Regan.

“You won't be caught unless those youngsters do it,”
said-Chester. “I have plenty of money. You can under-
stand that if I am concerned in the affair myself that I
won't want,any one caught or tried. I'll see the sheriff
and fix him so that if Ped Strong should capture you he
won't find any place to keep you.’

“He won't capture me,” said Regan.

Well, are you fellows in on this?”

“Are you on the level—acting white with us?”

“You can depend upon that. I’d be a fool if I wasn’t.”

“You can bet you would be!” said Regan, leaning. for-
ward savagely. “If we see any signs of treachery on your
Part, your life won't be worth much!”

“Then you are in on this with me?”

The three ruffianly guides looked at each other and then
nodded their heads, - ; i

Ve are in on it,’ said Regal “Shake t’" :
. Chester shook three hard and dirty palms, and the demi-
john was passed around again.

 

‘ 2 if i ; no snohis Po
eu ne cosh buh Ce Nath aarp nada SS A AH NHC ae vena,
a acne CINE ac STREET ava anism arnt SS cc SL fie Sn

BILL WEEKLY.

 

23

“Now,” “said eye! ‘we want to lay. out some sort of
a plam to work this. Where are you going to put the girl
when you get her? They have a whole gang, yen) there are
only four of us.’

“That's all right,”: said enen: who was ‘hore talkative
than either of his:companions.. “We will work it all right. e

“Young ranchmen’ camped at French: Peaks now,”. said
Little Hawk. “They. stay there two, three days. Hunting
good there, They stay.”

“Do you know. of
her?’

“We khow. a: place, ‘all: right,”

“Where? pr

At the top of Raven's Chit”?

“There is no-place to hide there. That is nothing. but a
bare precipice on one side and a steep slope on the other.”

“There is a caye down a little way from the top on v the
western side. It can’t be seen from below.” j

“But there is no way of getting to it unless you. were
in a balloon or had wings. That is away up in it -dir
between earth and heaven.”

“That is sure right, If Ted Strong goes to Goht us he
will have to fight. us in mid-air. We know how to get to
that cave. We have used it to keep powder and furs in, as
well as money, for years,

“And you can get. the girl in there?
life endangered,”

“We'll not endanger a hair of her head, We'll give her
to you all safe and sound, and we'll catcéh her to- “morrow,
before the youngsters leave their present a

aati’ to hide the girl biciha you get

said Regan:

I don’t: want her

CHAPTER VI,
THE NEXT MORNING.

The sur had just risen above the higher. ak of the
Rockies that towered on all sides of the camp of the young
ranchmen.

The boys were all up long ago, for Ted Strong allowed
no laggards in his camp. The horses were all groomed,
watered, and fed. ©.

The boys then had’a little time to clean themselves’ up,
and-after that the negro’cook blew on his bugle the mess
call that-summoned them all to breakfast.

It seems strange, perhaps, to some that the horses should
be cared for before the men; but that is the rule in the
United States cavalry, “and # is the regulation cavalry
rules that Ted Strong follows in managitig his squad of
ranchers.

Once the necessary work was done, the boys were al-
lowed to loaf and crack jokes as much as they pleased ; but
until that was done there must be no lagging.

Tt was a fine-looking squad of boys that sat down to
breakfast. They were all fresh after’a dip in the moun-
tain stream that brawled past the camp not far away, and
they were all aglow.

Their khaki uniforms, although they had seen hard
service, were well brushed and fitted their owners to. per-
fection. And thé breakfast that the boys sat down to was
one that would make any boy. smile with satisfaction.

There was: a great pot- of: fragrant. coffee, stacks ‘of
griddle’ cakes, and plates piled high with venison and
broiled quail.

The young men had splendid sport in the way of shoot-
ing. They were mm one of the best hunting countries in
the world, and they might have lived like princes on what
their rifles and shotguns brought down.

At the head of the table, beside the wife of the guide,
sat Louise Rossiter. Beside her sat Ted and Kit Sum-
mers. “On the other side sat Bud Morgan.

“This is great!” said little Bob Martin.
says: ‘It’s out of sight.’ ”

“Tt is all right,” said Beanpole, “to eat it if you have fhe
appetite; but as for me, I am suffering from such a com-

plication of complaints at present that F can J eat anything.
at all. I have diphtheria, I am sure,’

“T don't have no diftheriums,” grunted ‘Carl Schwartz,
the German youth, “I eat plenty unt I don'd haf no dis-
eases,”

“Elere-comes some one ‘up the trail P”
leaping to his feet. “Jumpin’ sandhills!
pretty rapid gait, too!”

“As Shakespeare

‘said Bud Morgan,
He’s comin’ at a «

 

 

 
 

24

There was a horseman coming up the trail. He was
mounted on a black horse, and he was. rather tawny. in
color himself, He pulled up when he reached the camp.
The boys noticed, as he reined in his horse, that in spite
of the rearing and plunging of the suddenly checked ani-
mal, he kept his seat with wonderful ease and grace. He

was dressed in a complete suit of fringed buckskin, and -

he had the flat features and close-set eyes of the Indian.

It was Little Hawk, the half-breed.. Ted had caught
a glimpse of him a few days before. He remembered his
face, but at the present moment he could not remember
where he had seen him.

None of the other boys had ever seen him, and they
looked at his sallow features and athletic figure with a
good deal of curiosity. :

“Jumpin’ sandhills!” said Bud.
half-breed, or I’m a maverick!”

Little Hawk turned to the boys and waved his hand to
them.

“Hurry up!” he yelled.

“Why should we hurry up?” asked Bud. “What is. the
matter with you?”

“Heap plenty matter,” said the half-breed. “Sam Jones,
the sheriff, he send me up here to get Ted Strong and the
young ranchmen. Heap plenty trouble. The sheriff have
three bad men, three outlaws, cornered down the moun-
tain. He heap afraid to run in and shoot them up. He
send me up here. Him say: ‘Get Ted Strong. He heap
good fighter. He no care for bullets. Get um and bring
um here to fight.’ ”

“Hooray for the young ranchmen!” howled Bud. “There
is a fight goin’ on, an’ we are invited to join. Are we in
for it? -Well, I guess! An’ there ain’t a minute to lose,
ethers. 5

As if to back up what Bud had said at that moment,
a came down the wind the distant rattle of revolver
shots.

That was enough for the young ranchmen. Without
waiting for any command from their leader, they rushed
to the picket line where the horses were staked out.

In an instant the blankets were folded and thrown across
the backs of the animals, and the saddles had been put in
place and were being cinched up.

They had forgotten all about their breakfast, save two
of their number. These two were Beanpole and Carl
Schwartz. a ;

While the others bustled about them, strapping on their
web. belts and spurs, these two paid not the slightest atten-
tion to the general disturbance, but went on eating stolidly.

Ted stepped down to the half-breed and asked him a few
questions. He had met Sheriff Jones on his trail through
the Rockies, but had not expected to be called to go to his
assistance on stich short notice.
“Where are these outlaws rounded up ?” he asked, look-
ing into the face of the half-breed and trying to- think
where it was that he had seen him before. es
“Down at Cheyenne Hollow, heap fight there.”

Again the sound of distant rifles and revolvers came
down, the wind. ae

“Hear them shoot!” said Little Hawk, ee
“bdo hear. them,” said Ted... ‘’That.is. what is puzzling
me. Cheyenne Hollow is six miles away, from here.. It
seems strange that we should hear the shooting so plainly.”

“Heap wind blowing—that’s why.” . . : as

“And you. were sent.up here. to. fetch us?”

“That is what.” se : ey

“How did the sheriff know that we were here?”

“No.can tell.”

The half-breed shrugged his shoulders.

“Get together, boys,” ‘said Ted, turning to the others.
“Beanpole can stay with Carl here till they are through
eating. Then they can follow on with the others.”

“All ready, boys!" shouted Bud. “Ther young ranch-
men 1s a-goin’ inter action. Prepare fer a hot time!”

“Oh, dear!” said Louise, running forward. . “And J-am
to be left alone here while you and the rest of the boys
are going into danger.” tien) Beale Ae aa

“Can't help. it,” said Ted tenderly. “But I don’t believe
the danger will be very great.” ve tk eae an
_ “When them there outlaws sees thet ther young ranch-

Prue alles ie 4

 

NEW BUFFALO

  

BILL Wrerie,

men is out arter them, they'll surrender on ther spot,” said
Bud. a

“No can wait any longer,” said Little Hawk.
sheriff you come along quick. So long!” —

He dug his moccasined heels into the spare sides of his
horse, and the animal was off like a shot down the road.

The boys could hear the clatter. of ‘its hoofs against a
stony bit of ground for a moment, and then it was gone
entirely. ‘ :

“That fellow is mounted on a mighty fine horse,” said
Ben Tremont.

“It will be all over before we get started,” said Kit Sum-
mers, who was always in a hurry to rush into the thick of
things.

Ted glanced along the line of horses and saw that they
were all saddled properly.

“Prepare to mount!” he cried. “Mount!”

The boys swung into their saddles as one man.

“Column of two, right oblique, forward, march!” came
the ringing command.

There was a drumming of hoofs and a straining of
saddle leathers. Out into the trail in perfect formation
swung the young ranchmen.

“Column right! Trot!”

The last order was drowned by the noise of trampling
hoofs.

The boys were away with a column of dust cast up by
their steeds to mark their progress down the valley—all
gone but two of them. : :

These two, Beanpole and Carl, were still placidly stuffing
themselves with food. :

Had Ted thought that there would be any real need for
them to go, he would have issued orders to that effect,
and they would haye gone immediately. But he had ex-
pected that there would have been no need for all of the
party, and that the men who had been cornered by the
sheriff could be easily brought to bay. :

Louise turned to the two who had been left behind with
an expression of some amusement on her face.

“You boys don’t believe in hurrying from your meals,
do you?” she said.

“No hurrying from meals for me,” said Beanpole, de-
vouring his fourth slice of venison. “In my present con-
dition, with my small appetite and weak heart action, it
might be fatal.”

“I don’d led der foodt hurry avay mit me,” said Carl,
speaking in hollow tones from the interior of a big tin
coffee cup into which he had plunged his face. “I don’d
led der foodt hurry me up. When mine preakfast iss
eating me I take der time mit it.”

“Tt is foolish to hurry with your meals,” said Beanpole.

“It iss der foolishness not to led der foodt eat you
enough alretty yet, yah,” echoed Carl. :

“After we finish eating we will go after the others,” said
the thin youth.

“Yah,” echoed the other from the interior of his coffee
cup: “We will after der oders go ven der foodt is through

Pit 1s..° cae

" The proper way is to take care of yourself,” said Bean-
pole. “Then you will be in better condition to fight, and
all the stronger when you go against your foes.” x

“Yaw,” said Carl. “Dot iss der sensibleness. Oof der
foodt eats enough mit you, den der strength will be in
you to fight mit der couracheousness, Yaw! When I vos
in der Cherman army, der vos sauerkraut vor der preag-
fast, unt ven we ate it ve vos pritty goot shots, I dell you
vot.”

“I'm a pretty good shot myself,” remarked Beanpole,
teaching for the last partridge on the plate. “If my appe-
tite was all right I would be all right with a rifle. It is a

“TY ‘tell

_ weak appetite that unsteadies the nerves every time.”

“T mineselluf am der britty goot fighter,” said Carl.
“Ven der shots comes ‘thick unt fast, unt der bullets

whizzes past mine ears——”
Carl stopped speaking suddenly.

At that moment a bullet did whiz past his ear in such
close proximity that both he and Louise could hear the
spiteful song of it. ah os

“I iss a deadness!” howled Carl, diving under the table:
“Der enemy has peen foundt py me unt surrounded mit

~ me! I tole you dot der var vos dangersome! Der pullet

  
NEW BUFFALO

dot hit me has mine head in it. I iss a deadness alretty
yet!” aS d

Louise started back with a scream. She could see a puff

of smoke rising from the bushes from which the shot had
been chreds es poe SO ae :
. “My nerves!” yelled: Beanpole, leaping to his - feet.
“Being shot at from behind is awful for the nerves. And
when you are eating it is far worse. Let me get my hands
on. the fellow that fired that shot! Where is he?”

Beanpole was reaching for his weapon, but he did not
get a chance to draw it.

Aman suddenly appeared behind him, He had appeared
as if by magic, having dropped out of a tree that over-
hung the camp. -

He was tong-limbed, agile, and weather-beaten. He
dashed at Beanpole from behind, and a moment later the
two were struggling together.

Louise looked around. her. Save for the two boys, she
was alone in the camp, the guide and his wife having gone
back. down the trail for provisions.

Beanpole put up a much better fight than the man who
attacked him had expected.

Regan—for that was the man—had expected to find the
lanky, mournful boy a weakling. Instead of that, he was
as tough as hickory and fought like a wild cat.

At the same time two other men dashed out ahd grasped
Louise from behind.

One of them was the half-breed, who had come to lure
the young ranchmen away. The other was Black, the third
of Fred Chester’s trio of outlaw guides.

The girl tried to scream, but a handkerchief was thrown
across her face, almost smothering her. She struggled, but
the-villains who had hold of her were powerful, and soon
had her hands bound behind her back.

At the same time she saw Beanpole borne to the ground
in spite of a heroic struggle. Regan had a great advan-
tage. in attacking him from behind, and he finally tripped
the youth, hitting him a-stunning blow between the eyes
as he fell,

In the meantime Carl crawled out from under the table
and saw Louise struggling in the hands of two men.

“To der: rescue!” he yelled, butting his head into the
half-breed’s stomach.

The half-breed went down, but his companion struck the
German over the head with his revolver, knocking him
senseless.

Louise was without a defender now—in the hands of
the villains who hadeattacked her.

CHAPTER” Vil
THE ROAD TO RAVENS PEAK.

Louise was in a covered wagon of some kind. There
Was a seat in it, but, as she was bound hand and foot and
had a cloth tied tightly across her lips, there was not much
comfort. for the girl.

The wagon had no springs; it was dragged over a rough
mountain road and there was a continual jolting and bump-
ing that made repose a thing out of the question.

Heavy curtains were pulled down on all four sides of
the wagon and tied tightly there. The interior was quite

dark and smelled strongly of damp straw. It was impos- -

sible to see outside at all. These were the surroundings in
which Louise found herself when she recovered conscious-
ness,

When the two men had sét upon her and dragged her
roughly backward, when she saw Beanpole and Carl
knocked senseless with their blows and knew she was a
Prisoner in the hands of some villain, she had fainted for
the first time in her life.

How long she was in an unconscious state she never
knew, but when she recovered her senses she felt that
she was far away from the. camp of the young ranchmen
and that at the present moment there seemed a very slim
chance of a rescue.

The wagon she was in was going uphill—up and up, over
Tough roads and steep inclines. She knew that there was
a man driving on the seat outside; she could hear him

speaking to the horses every: now and then and urging ©

them to move faster. There was a sound of straining

“eNaheets oe a OR agp ag IE ame enue pce AD AR ake Sa SiN at NaN a a
PNR TT alt Nt Mie BN BN te eit eI NN PAN Ng dN ote d tatti gh BP

_ derman.

> BA apiachiaen,
PrP eA RoW Ry ¥

Ae

BILL WEEKLY. 25

leather and tramping hoofs on either side of the wagon
that told her that two horsemen were riding there. ~

Louise was uncomfortable. The bonds with which she
had been tied. checked the circulation of her blood, and
her wrists smarted as though they had been cut. She felt
weak and dizzy, and the swaying motion of the “wagon,
not unlike the rolling of a ship at sea, filled her with a
nausea like seasickness.

She had not the faintest idea of who had taken her
prisoner.

She had heard that there were many bad men and out-
laws in that section of the Rockies, but never for a moment
had she thought that anything like this could have hap-
pened to her.

Somehow, as she lay there in the straw, with which the
wagon was littered, a vision of a dark, sinister boy who
had tried to kiss her the day before came before her eyes.
She had no reason to connect him with her present plight,
but in spite of herself she had a vague feeling that he had
something to do with it.

Steeper and steeper grew the path on which the wagon
was traveling. Rougher and rougher grew the bumping
and jolting. i

Presently it stopped éntirely, and the horses that were
pulling the vehicle were brought to a standstill.

She heard hoarse voices in conversation outside. They
were speaking in the coarsest of border dialect, and the
sound was muffled by the covering of the wagon, which
shut out the light from her; but she had no difficulty in
understanding what it was that they were saying.

“It’s no use,” said one man. “We cain’t drive any furder
up this here road. The waggin won’t stand it, an’ the
horses cain’t pull it any furder, anyway.”

“It won't do her any harm to get out and walk a piece,”
said another voice. .

“I want her taken good care of,” said a third. “She is

a friend of mine, and I don’t want any rough talk before

her. Do you fellows understand that?”

There was a series of grunts in answer to this question.

Louise thrilled’when she heard the third voice.

It was the voice of a well-educated boy, not a rough bor-
The girl shivered when she heard it. It was the
voice of Fred Chester.

A moment later the curtains of the wagon were drawn.
Outside there were three men—Regan, Black, and the half-
breed. ;

Holding the curtain back and peering into the wagon
was Fred Chester. An angry expression came into his face
as he saw the plight of Louise Rossiter.

“I told you fellows to treat her well,” he said. “Here
you have her tied up as though she were a thug like
yourselves.”

A moment later he had leaped into the wagon and loos-
ened the bandages around her face.

Then Chester loosened her bonds and helped her to her
feet. She was weak and dizzy, but she made a brave effort
to stand without his support.

Down to the ground she staggered, and after her came
Chester. He reached out and tried to hold her to keep her
from falling, but the girl pushed him away with both hands.
He laughed harshly.

“What a stubborn little tiger you are,” he said.

“What do you mean by carrying me off this way?”

“You only look prettier when you are mad like that.”

“Where are you taking me to? What do you mean by
this outrage ?” oe

“T am just taking you to a little roost that I and my
friends have discovered up here on the cliffs. You will
find it very pleasant. _Don’t be alarmed at my friends here.
They look rather rough, but they wouldn’t hurt a hair of
your head) |.

“Take me back to

“Not on your life! I didn’t take all this trouble for
nothing, let me tell you that. You had a lot of fun with
me when I met you in the road yesterday. It’s all right.
I’m too much of a gentleman to bear any malice against
a girl, but I never give up when my mind is once set on a

the camp.”

thing.” /

“The young ranchmen will make you pay dearly for this
OURAGE! BG Or ie Le
“Pooh! What do I care for Ted Strong?”

AE Sod Ra, Nis epee ABU Ac eight area hte RCN Ach pia

faa ae a, hth Ant Ah inhi n clini tn el

 
NEW BUFFALO

26

“They are gone with the sheriff now to run down a gang »

of outlaws. When they come back they will rout you out,
and Ted Strong will punish you.” ~ ‘ :

_A smile flitted across Chester’s face, the two white guides
laughed outright, and a snaky smile showed on the broad
face of the half-breed.

“Ted Strong has been fooled as nicely as ever any one
was fooled,” said Chester. “He thinks that he is pretty
smart, but he bit at the bait that we held out for him.
The sheriff isn’t anywhere near here:. There is Little
Hawk, the man that lured Strong away from his camp so
that we could get our hands upon you.” -

” “But the shooting?”

“The shooting? That was a pretty slick trick to fool
Ted Strong all the more completely. My two white friends
here did all that shooting themselves.”

Louise began to realize it now. She saw that she had
been trapped.

The young ranchers had been lured away by a trick in

order that these villains could get her in their power.

She glanced about her. The journey she had taken in
the wagon was a long one, atid she was now in a part
of the mountains that was utterly unfamiliar to her.

She looked back along the trail up which the wagon had
come: It wound away for miles down the mountainside.
She was far up the slope of one of the hills,-and on either
hand, as far as the eye could reach, were the crests of lofty
hills, their summits pale blue in the clear air and their
lower slopes clothed in dark forests.

‘Immediately above her was a mountain higher than all
the others, which towered above the other peaks and com-
manded the whole range. Its lofty summit seemed to rise
like a wall above her head, and, looking back, she could
see groves of pine trees beneath her that told her that
already she was above the timber line.

The trail up which the wagon had come had grown.so
steep and rocky that it would have been impossible for
anything with wheels to have been dragged an inch far-
ther. Indeed, as she glanced upward it seemed that noth-
ing less than a motntain goat or antelope could scale that
lofty peak that towered above her head. She felt that: she
was lost in the Rockies in the hands of four. villains.

She turned as pale as death, and for a moment swayed
as though she were about to fall. But it was only for a
-moment. The next instant her willowy figtire straightened
“wp and she was off down the mountainside with the speed
Ot a deer,

_. Her dash had been so utterly unexpected that it took
her captors off their guard. She ran past them and dashed
madly downward, thinking that anything would be better

“than her present position.

“Catch her!” yelled Chester. “If she falls on those rocks
she will be killed.” :

The men had dismounted from their horses—indeed, it
would have been impossible to ride a horse down that
rocky trail at dnything faster than a-walk.
..They..went after her on foot; and it looked for a.moment
as if the panic-stricken girl would outstrip them. She
would have distanced them for a time, at least, had not
‘they had a man with Indian blood with them.’

- Little Hawk at that moment .showed that his Indian
- ancestry had made him fleet of foot. . Without. uttering a
sound, he dashed down the trail. The others could not
keep up with him. It seemed that the half-breed could
leap from rock to rock as lightly as a deet, and that he
-was perfectly sure of foot. Pe a

The chase did not last long. After her first burst of
speed, the half-breed gained on the girl by leaps and
bounds. So noiseless was his tread that the girl did not
_-even know that he was near her until-he had come close
srg to her to throw his arms about her and hold her
‘fast.

For a moment the girl fought and struggled, but it was
no use: She was panting and exhausted; the half-breed

was not even breathing more quickly than usual,

His arms were tremendously strong, and. he held her
fast without the slightest effort, turning his head and grin-
ning back at his companions, who were dashing after him.

Chester was the first to arrive. He snatched the girl
from the hands. of the half-breed and held her: for a
moment while Regan made fast a- buckskin thong about

“we get up the peak the better.

 

BILL WEEKLY:

her wrists. From this thong he brought a strip of raw-
hide, which he fastened to the heavy belt at his waist, test-
ing the knot to make sure that it was fast.

“Now,” said Chester, releasing her and looking her in
the eyes with a mocking expression in his own; “you
can’t get away from us now. We insist on your staying
with us, We are going to take you up to the top of
Raven’s Peak, which you see above you. _You can scream
as much as you please; there is nobody here to listen to
you save ourselves. You.see that the path up to the peak
is rather 'steep. You are going to be the first. woman fo
scale it, We have made arrangements to carry you up
there, so that it will give you no trouble at all. Scream
if you want to; we won't mind.” — :

“The young ranchers will punish you for this. They
will find out where you have taken me, and they will come
to my rescue.”

“Will they? I would like to see them do it. When you
get into our little camp at the top of the peak here, you
will find that it is a pretty easy place to defend. We have
provisions there, and any one who tries to rescue you will
need wings. If the young ranchmen try to rescue you they
will have to do some fighting in mid-air, let me tell you
that.” |

“Ted Strong will rescue me.”

“What! And fight in mid-air?”

“He will find a way to do it,”

Chester turned away with a laugh.

“You are out of your mind,” he said harshly. “That

~ fellow has mesmerized you so that you don’t see anything

else but him. You seem to think that he is something more
than human. You will soon see that he cannot do anything
with me.”

“T saw him do something with you yesterday in the
forest.”

Chester’s face turned dark with anger. He still bore the
marks of his fight with Ted Strong.

“We shall see,” he grated. “For every one of those
taunts you will pay me. You think that he had the best
of me, do you? Il show you.”

He took a step toward the girl, but Regan laid his. hand
upon-his arm and held him back.

“We have no time to lose,” he said. “The sooner that
Those youngsters have
good trailers with them, and it won't take them long to
learn that there was nothing to that outlaw fight that we
fooled them with. They'll get after us here hot and heavy,
and they'll be able to go quicker up this trail on horseback
than we could with the wagon. The sooner we get up the
cliff the better. If they caught us here in the open trail
they might take us at a disadvantage.”

“All right,” said Chester, still looking at the girl. “There
will be plenty of time to talk to this young lady when we
get. up in the cave. Go ahead, boys.”

Regan gave a muttered command, and the man called
Black climbed into the wagon and drove away down the
trail with it in the direction he had come. They saw him
disappear into the woods lower down. -

In the meantime the half-breed had. unrolled a large
canvas cloth which he took from his saddle. :

“Missy get in this,’ he said. “Have nice ride up to cave.

“Get into that canvas,” said Chester. “The quieter that
you are when we are scaling this place the better it will be
for yourself. If you stir or move out-of that hammock
you will be dashed to your death.” toes

In the meantime the half-breed had been hiding the
horses down some side cafion, and at the same time Blac
came running back along the trail on foot. :

: furry up, boys!” he called. “There isn’t a minute to
ose.
“What's up?” asked Regan. “Did the horses bolt 2”

“The horses are all right. I have them and the wagon
hid in a safe place, where no one can find them. But there
isn’t any time to be lost. There is a bunch of fellers on
hosses down ther mountingside, They aire a-comin along
lickety-split, too.”

“They are on the trail!” said Chester.

“The young ranchmen!” exclaimed Louise. us

“Hurry up, boys!” said Regan. “If. we aire goin tet

- work this job there ain’t a minute we kin spare.

TO. BE CONTINUED.

 

 

 
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PORDaS TNA ENR ER aa Phe See See ac ss na

27

Tie NEWS OF THE WORLD

 

At Age of Seven, Boy Weighs Two Hundred and
Twenty-seven Pounds.

It might seem strange to see a person weighing two
hundred and twenty-seven pounds crying lustily along
the main thoroughfare of a city because his shoes hurt
his feet and because his papa could not carry him a
block or two.

However, if that more than plump person happened
to be only seven years old, onlookers probably would
not think it strange or unusual that he cried, because
crying is one of the traditional prerogatives of seven-
year-olds the world over.

Raleigh Fox, fat and generally good-natured and
only seven years old, despite his two hundred and
twenty-seven pounds, evidently didn’t care a snap if
all the people in the town saw him recently shedding
large salty tears as he limped up Washington Avenue,
Westplains, Missouri, just after the arrival of the
three p.m. Frisco train.

The lad’s shoes, No. 12’s as estimated, hurt his feet,
as new shoes sometimes will, and, notwithstanding
his earnest and noisy beseechings, he was too large
and heavy for his father to carry him; so the young-
ster just boo-hooed to his heart’s content until a hotel
was reached and his offending footwear was removed.

Once relieved of his tortures, the lad was soon
laughing and in good humor. Mamma had wiped away
his tears and had promised some nice candy to occupy
his attention while the new shoes were away to be
stretched. “They won’t hurt mamma’s precious any
more,” she told him.

The fat youngster is the son of Mr. and Mrs. J. W.
Fox, who live in Cleveland, Oklahoma.

Pays Bill After Forty-five Years.

“Inclosed find $5 for a bottle of medicine which I
bought in 1873 and forgot to pay for,” read a letter
received at Hume, Illinois, by Dan Touhey, postmaster.

The letter, unsigned and dated Olney, Illinois, said
the money was due the man who,was postmaster in
1873 and who conducted a drug store.

Wrong Bottle Fatal to Boy.

Joseph Murphy, fourteen, living with his grand-
mother, Mrs. Nettie Maloney, of Indianapolis, Indiana,
died from pretending to commit suicide by drinking
out of a bottle which he thought contained water, but
which contained acid.

Mrs. Maloney told the coroner that Joseph had
often tried to frighten her by drinking water from 4
bottle labeled acid.

Big Trade Between Cubs and Cards Off.

“The deal for Roger Hornsby is definitely and finally
off. We made our very best offer, but it was turned
down.”

With those few words, Manager Mitchell, of the
Chicago Cubs, recently put an end to the much-talked-

r tt Ake
Attn gD Se ath 2. etnies BR dee lA 8 A OM ed A ke ‘

Rae ON te yy hg AR NS a ea oa

of trade between the Cubs and Cardinals by which
Roger Hornsby, star shortstop, was to become a mem-
ber of the Chicago team. His statement followed a
long conference between President Weeghman and
Manager Mitchell of the Cubs and President Rickey
and Manager Hendricks of the Cardinals.

It was said that the Chicago magnates offered four
good players, Wortman, Carter, Aldridge, and Flack,
and $50,000 in cash for the St. Louis star, but still not
enough to satisfy the magnates from the Mound City.

Skeleton Clew to Thirty-three-year-old’ Murder.

The authorities believe that the woman whose bones
were found under stones in a dense thicket on an iso-
lated section of Dans Mountain, Maryland, was mur-
dered thirty-three years ago.

In August, 1884, a bay horse and phaeton were found
in the yard of Wesley Loar, on whose property the
discovery was made, when Mr. Loar arose one morn-
ing. The horse and phaéton never were claimed, al-
though Mr. Loar advertised the rig as having strayed
into his property. It was a fine outfit, and the mys-
tery of its disappearance in that neighborhood never
has been cleared.

Elderly men, then young, recall having seen the
strange team passing through Vale Summit. ‘It at-
tracted particular attention because, om account of the
out-of-the-way location of the village, strangers rarely
drove there.

The discovery of the bones followed the BAS of
a rabbit into the thicket by James Emerick and Noah
Loar, of Midland, who were hunting. In removing a
heap of brush which covered the improvised grave, a
human skull was unearthed, to the astonishment of
the hunters. Other human bones were then revealed.

The coroner and his party made a thorough search,
but could find nothing in addition to the bones except
a wire hair rat, such as women wore thirty years ago,
and a plain wire bracelet. The smaller bones of the
skeleton had decayed. Stones evidently had been piled
on the body.

The coroner is hopeful that some part of the.
phaéton may yet be in existence and that it may aid
in solving the mystery.

Spreads the Gospel Like Apostle Paul.

Like the Apostle Paul, who carried the tidings of
Christ to all peoples, walking from city to city, Rev-
erend Harrabellio A. Marangeopa, Malay missionary,
who has arrived at St. Paul, Minnesota, is observing
a self-imposed pledge to tour the world afoot preach-
ing the gospel as he goes.

Since he started on his ramblings around the world,
January 1, 1917, he has not ridden on a train, street
car, or any other conveyance, except when it has been
necessary to take passage aboard steamers in cross-
ing the ocean. His record to date is 114,430 miles,
during which he has conducted religious services in
more than 330 cities.

rok cay ate A LP ta ON A Ole Pk eh ADR ae ay RN A ie A RN ASAI EIR it Nhe Neti ena Mg ile :

 
NEW BUFFALO

28

He was educated in London, and, with other imis-
sionaries, was sent to various parts of the world. He
returned to Africa, and in 1893 was captured by the
Apingoes, a savage tribe, and held prisoner in a cave
until his rescue in 1896. In those three years he was
kept chained most of the time.

Says Rabbits Dug Up Silver. -

When Rudolph Flasinski, of Denver, Colorado, was
arrested by Detectives Bell and Brick, who caught him
attempting to dispose of a quantity of silverware
stolen last August, he insisted that his rabbits had
dug up the stuff in the rear of his home. The officers
declinéd to “fall” for his story, and he was locked up
to await trial on a burglary charge.

Boy “Sicks” His Pigs on Big Bear; Bags Him.

Willie Hackenschmidt, a fifteen-year-old boy living
at Salmon Creek, Pennsylvania, has suddenly become
a hero. Willie hot only shot and killed a two-hundred-
and-fifty-pound bear, but he also saved a number of
his father’s pigs from being devoured by the shaggy
intruder from the wooded hills in the Salmon Creek
region. ;

“lL was driving the pigs through the woods when I
first heard the bear,” said Willie. “Soon I noticed that
the bear had got between me and the pigs—the little
ones, you know. Then the bear grabbed one of the
pigs in his claws and was trying to bite into its neck.
The pig let out an awful squeal, and some of the other
small ones joined in the chorus. ‘Gee,’ I said, ‘I must
do something or lose a pig!’ So I ran back, and with
the butt of my shotgun whipped up the two old pigs,
and they made for the bear.

“The old pigs and some of the smaller ones lit into
the bear, with angry snorts. They pawed him all over.
When I rushed up, and he saw that I had a gun with
me, he dropped-the little pig and started to run. One
of the big pigs seized one of the bear’s hind paws in
its mouth and held on for dear life.

_ “At first I couldn’t shoot the bear for fear of killing

the pig, but when the pig lost his hold for a second or
two I took good aim and blazed away, letting the bear
have both barrels. He keeled over, dead, and that’s
about all there was to it, except that dad catme when
he heard the firing and helped me skin the old fellow.
The skin is a fine one, and I will keep it as a souvenir
of the first bear I killed.”

Champion Bear Hunters.

Claude Yerry, of Woodland, and Carroll Simpson, of
Pheenicia, New York, are the recognized champion
bear hunters of the Catskills. Mr. Yerry comes first,
because he personally killed more bears than Mr.
Simpson; but both were in one of the greatest bear
fights in those mountains in many years.

The hunters started out after bear in the early
morning. A light snow had fallen, which made track-
ing easy. At five o’clock in the morning they left the
“flivver” at the roadside and plunged into the woods.
In a short time they found a fresh, bear track and
started to follow it. Soon they saw. other. tracks
merging into the one they were following, and then
Yerry shouted:

Bi Wey.

“Sufferin’ cats! They’s a drove of ’ém!”

He was right. As near as they could judge, there
were four or five bears making the tracks. Through
the woods and underbrush they followed, and finally
found where the bears had entered a cave in the rocks
between the Wittenberg and Cornell Mountains. The
hunters paused and consulted.

“I'll go in after them, an’ you stay here to shoot any
that come out,” said Yerry.

Mr. Simpson agreed, and Yerry started into the cave
with a revolver in his right hand and an electric flash-
light lamp in his left. One minute and fifty-six seconds
after that, Simpson heard a series of shots,. yells,
howls, and roars from the cave. Then a cub bear
rushed out of the cave and Simpson shot him down.

“Help! Help! Help!” came from the cave, and Mr.
Simpson dashed in to the rescue. The smoke was so
thick from Mr. Yerry’s revolver shooting that Simpson
had to fan it away with his hat. Then he saw Yerry
facing an old female bear. Mr. Simpson felled the bear
with the butt of his rifle. Two dead cubs which had
been shot by Yerry lay near her.

When the bears wete dragged out of the cave, it was
seen that Yerry had shot the old one twice, which
probably accounts for the fact that she did not kill
him before Simpson entered the cave. Yerry was
scratched on the hands and arms and his clothing was
torn. Simpson hurt his knee in the mix-up.

This is said to have been the greatést bear hint in
the region since 1909, when Jay H. Simpson fought
three bears in a cave for twenty minutes until his part-
ner came to his rescue and helped kill them,

Find Skeletons of Old-day Romance.

One of the strangest of the love legends of Chicago’s
North Shore again has been brought to light. The
legendary tomb of Lucy Falstaff, daughter of one of
the earliest white settlers, and Chief Jawtowahoo, her
young Indian sweetheart, each of whom died for the
other’s love, has been found, if James R. Skinner, stu-
dent of Indian lore, is not mistaken.

The discovery was made on the estate of D, S. Boyn-
ton, known as “Tanglewood Villa,” at Highland Park,
a suburb of Chicago. Laborers had been put to work
in the snow to raze a “tower” which has long stood, a
crumbling relic.

Suddenly, as the weathered stones rolled away, 4
crevice was opened. As the opening became larger, a
sort of cave was disclosed. Then, to the amazement
of the workers, two human skeletons were revealed
by a shaft of light.

They lay upon the floor of the cave, as though they
might have died in embrace. A little to one side stood
an old earthen jar. It was partly filled with something
which might have been tobacco.

The police came and examined the place, and, after
a conference, sent for Mr. Skinner, who has made a
study of early Illinois life. Mr. Skinner declared his
belief that at last the legendary tomb of Lucy Falstaff
and Jawtowahoo had been found.

Then he retold the old story, which has been handed
down from the days of the Indians: Lucy Falstaff, the
legend goes, was the beautiful daughter of one of the
earliest settlers on the western rim of Lake Michiga».

Jawtowahoo, pursuing game, came to the cabin of

 
 

NEW BUFFALO

1

the Falstaffs and fell in love with the paleface maiden,

winning her. One day, hand in hand, the Indian and
the girl set off to join Jawtowahoo’s tribe.

But the squaws were jealotis and ostracized her.
The young lovers were called before a tribal court.
The color line was drawn, and the decision of the high
chiefs was that the two, Lucy and Jawtowah 100, were
to be sealed up in a cavern and left to die. Legend
— that this sentence was carried out. a

As further evidence that the discovery might prove
this ancient romance, a rudely fashioned club was
found inside the sealed cavern. Apparently it is an
Indian club. Certainly, those who examined it say,
it was not made by white man.

Rancher Won’t Ride on Street Car.

Frank Russett, who is one hundred and three years
old, and who still attends to all the details of running
a ranch near Hayden Lake, Washington, on which he
has lived continuously for forty years, recently made
his first trip to Spokane ih ten years. He,
Russett, were the guests of.honor at a
his daughter, Mrs. Mary Stuart.

Although Mr, Russett has passed the century mark,
he still is spry enough to outdo many a yo unger man
in outdoor activities. A walk of a few miles

with Mrs.
a dinner given by

appar-
ently is nothing to boast of at his years, for on his
farm he daily attends to the feeding of his cattle,
hi pigs, and chickens.

“I was amused when he was over here with my sis-
ter,” Said Mrs. Stuart, “to see how energetic he could
be. After waiting a few minutes for a car that did not
come along.soon enough to suit him, he said: ‘Come,
on; let’s walk home.’ Now, it is a good forty minutes’
walk from here to my sister’s home.

“I wanted him to spend the night at my house, but
he said he had to get back to my sister’s because ‘there
were too many chores to do.’”

While he was born in Montreal, Canada, Mr. Russett
came to this country as a youth. He is the father of
sixteen children. He has spent more than. half
days in the West, and it-is only with the greatest
ficulty that he can be induced to leave his ranch.

“It took a great deal of persuasion to get him to
Mrs. Stuart said. “He seems to be rooted.to
that ranch.”

ITSES,

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Visit ‘us,

Browning Greatest Inventor of Guns.
The senatorial investigation recently in the ord-
hance department of the army has brought into the
limelight a very modest but exceptional man. Gen-
eral Crozier, who was chief of ordnance, excused much
of the delay in supplying the army with machine guns
by saying that the department was seeking the best
weapon, and believed it had‘found it in the Browning
gun. ;

There is much talk about. the Browning gun, but
very little is known about the man who invented it.
Secretary of War Baker said: “The Browning ma-
chine gun was invented by a man who has invented
more firearms than any other individual.”

John M. Browning’s home is in Ogden, Utah, where
he is a member in good standing of the Mormon
church—a quiet, simple sort of individual, who loves

2 a AI A lhc ll ll i ltl ati ct en teal Ain i NOS ft ie Me > ett Mat

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lied dts al

BILL WEEKLY 29

his home, likes to play the banjo on the front porch,

and enjoys a fishing expedition.
recreation is inventing firearms.

He has been at it all his life, beginning in the little
gun shop that his father owned in early Western pio-
heer days, first in Iowa and later in Utah.

One of his noted inventions is the automatic pistol,
made possible by his taking the kick of a revolver
and harnessing it in such a way as to operate all the
mechanism of the weapon.

Just what his new machine eun is like is a guarded
secret. He disclosed it last June to war-department
experts, and they put a sample gun through a long
test, which resulted in its adoption for the United
States army. Factories are now at work making parts
and assembling large numbers of the guns to be ready
ifi the sp pring.

But his principal

Most of Mr. Browning’s patents have been taken
over by the Colt Company at Hartford, Connecticut,
where he does his experimenting. The millionth vest-
pocket automatic pistol which he invented was manu-
factured somé years ago in Belgitim, and is said to
have been given as a sotvenit by King Albert to the
kaiser a year before the European war bégan.

Mr. Browning is sixty-five years old and six feet
three inches tall. He has eight children. He has made
large sums of money through sale of inventions and
from royalties on his patents. The thousands of his
new machine gun ordered by the government probably
mean an enormous increase in his wealth.

There are to be two types of the new gun. One will
weigh about thirty-five pounds, and is called a gun
of position—that is, it will be set up on tripod or some
form of mounting to be fired. The other is the light
gun, weighing about fifteen to eighteen pounds, easily
carried and operated by one man.

Missing Denver Heiress is Sought.

A nation-wide search for pretty Laura Chronister,
missing Denver heiress, has been instituted by her
grandmother, Mrs. Joseph Penn, whose ranch is sev-
eral miles east of Denver. Until the granddatighter is
found, a valuable estate cannot be settled nor any of
the property left to her by the queer will of a grand-
uncle disposed of. ,

Seven years ago in January, Laura Chronister, then
eighteen years old, disappeared one afternoon from
Eighteenth and Welton Streets while on a visit to
relatives in. Denver. The girl had waited outside a
store while a girl friend who accompanied her made
When the companion reappeared, Laura

Her family has not seen her since, al-
though word mysteriously received from Amarillo,
Texas, assured relatives that she was still alive. The
name “Snow’ was signed to the information.

At the time of her disappearance, passers-by told
the police they had seen a low-slung touring car stop
at the corner and then speed away in a clotid of dust
east on Welton Street, but their description of the car
and its occupants was so vague and their stories dif-
fered so much that the police were unable to follow
up the clew. The authorities gave up the search as
hopeless after two weeks.

Meanwhile, a grand-uncle, William Penn, with whom
the girl had been a favorite, left Colorado and went

purchase.

Ahaha Pinta AR Ye: Aik ame se tele ar a

Aro Sy Pa ea Tipu Soh oP L NN  L flg A Sat aN Sema ln

 
 

30 NEW BUFFALO
to the Cobalt country in Canada. There, after two
years of hardship, he made a strike and began to
prosper. Before he could realize on his holdings, he
died.

Search through his effects uncovered a queer scrawl
of a will sewed in between covers of his Bible. It was
properly attested and legal enough to tie up his prop-
erty for all time unless his missing grand-niece was
found.

He bequeathed his mine holdings to the missing girl,
and in making other bequests to relatives iniposed the
condition that Laura must be found before they could
inherit.

«

Southern Tornado Kills Eight.

Seven persons were killed and twenty-five injured
at Cowarts, Alabama, and the entire: town was de-
_ stroyed by a tornado recently.

Macon, Georgia, reports that a tornado, followed by
a torrential rain, swept down upon Macon and Vicinity,
killing one man, injuring several others, and’ seriously
damaging property in the city and at Camp Wheeler,
near there.

Pair Are Divorced Because of Spirits.

“Major” Julius B. Loving, of Los Angeles, California,
was called to the stand by Judge Wood in the divorce
suit of Nannie B. Loving. In a matter-of-fact way he
told the court that he and his wife had been unable
to agree for years. He said they had “spats” over
spirits. Mrs. Loving attended spiritualistic meetings,
and when she came home she would tell him her expe-
riences, he said.

“I refrained from fussing,” he declared. “She would
get angrier with me for not fussing with her. If I
had got angry, it would have been some consolation
to her.”

Judge Wood granted a decree on the ground of de-
sertion, the “major” stating that he had left home.

Girl Sues Banker for Breach of Promise.

Allen Gray, president of the Citizens’ Bank at Evans-
ville, Indiana, is, being sued for $250,000 damages, and
his brother, William Gray, connected with the Citizens’
Trust Company at Evansville, is being sued for $100,000
by Miss Amy O'Connor, twenty-eight years old, of
New York City. :

Miss O’Connor alleges in her petition that she met
Allen Gray in London, and last September they be-
came engaged. She further alleges that William Gray
caused his brother to break his promise to marry her.

She asks the $250,000 for alleged breach of promise
to marry, and the $100,000. for the alleged interference
by William Gray in her love affairs.

Indian Girl’s Eyes Pierce Camouflage.

Camouflage training at the military camp at Spar-
tanburg, South Carolina, was quickly detected by
Princess White Deer, great-granddaughter of Chief
Running Deer, the last of the Mohawk tribe of chief-
tains.

The princess was a guest at the camp during the
camouflage work, and easily detected the men as they

 

BILE WEEKLY,

squirmed their way to a post held by an imaginary
enemy.

Army officers were greatly surprised at the girl’s
keen sight and quick discernment.

Doctor Orange Tree for Strange Malady.

A remarkable effort now being made to save the
life of what is called southern California’s most fa-
mous tree. The tree is suffering from a mysterious
ailment that has baffled all the local tree doctors and
brought to its aid a number of consulting experts of

high rank. They are endeavoring with probe and mi-

croscope to diagnose the disease that threatens death
to the pioneer among the millions of citrous trees of
that section of the State.

The ailing tree is a wonder tree. It bore the first
navel orange ever grown in the United States. It is
credited with being the parent of groves producing
$67,600,000 worth of fruit annually. It stands at the
head of Magnolia Avenue, in Riverside, the paradise
of orange groves.

The tree is forty-four years old, having been planted
in Riverside in 1873, and was obtained from the gov-
ernment horticultural. gardens in Washington, but
came originally from Bahia, Brazil. The fruit it pro-
duced was called the Washington navel, in honor of
the nation’s capital.

The United States experiment station and the agri-
cultural department of the University of California
have united in the attempt to prolong the tree’s life,
and these efforts of science to locate and combat the
malady will be followed by many thousands to whom
all trees are dear.

Value Crops of 1917 at $19,443,849,381.

Farm. products of the United States reached the un-
precedented value of $19,443,849,881 last year, an in-
crease of more than $6,000,000,000 over 1916, and al-
most $9,000,000,000 more than in 1915.

A preliminary estimate just announced by the de-
partment of agriculture shows crops were valued at
$18,610,462,782 and represented 70 per cent of the
value of all farm products. Animals and animal prod-
ucts ‘were valued at $5,833,386,599 in 1917, an increase
of almost $1,500,000,000 over 1916.

Value of all farm crops for 1917 by States, not in-
cluding the value of artimals and animal products,
shows Illinois first, Texas second, and Iowa third. In
1916, Texas led, with Iowa second and Illinois third.

Corn, with a value of $4,053,672,000, is the king of
crops. Cotton is second, with a value of $1,517,558,000.
Other billion-dollar crops in 1917 were: Wheat, $1,307,-
27,000; hay, $1,359,491,000, and oats, $1,061,427,000.

The value of all farm. crops in 1917, by States, as
estimated by the department of agriculture, follows:

State. Value. Rank.
BEAING 2. en ee $ 71,425,000 = 37
New Hampshire: 2170 ea 25,748,000 46
Vermont) vip en . 45,950,000 42
Massachusetts (oc. (1 69,106,000 38
Rnode Isiah. i. ee one oe 8,352,000 48
Commenting. (o0 000.0) en as 57,814,000 39

New York ice aves 417,798,000 = 12
NEW Jersey eee 103,895,000 34

 

 
 

NEW BUFFALO

  

  
 

PennsylVania ceseceesseceveescenceess 412,894,000 13
Delaware socacecescsececesasesseessss 27,707,000 44
Marvigne Weiwen wai sa iy ass 64%; 123,879,000 3
Vitsinin ee ees 344,159,000 22
W GSE  Vinteieer on WU ince ye a. 132,281,000 &
Nortit Cerone es cigar ui hoy 417,846,000 11
South Carolia ys jt od a 389,887,000 15
Georgia es cee ay eee ay ee, 542,733,000 6
Florida, Guia 104,771,000 33
ORO Sa rarer eee ier Shey au 546,058,000 4
Indiaha Gh eee eee ay ee ayn 503,154,000 8
TOTS a ae ie Ge ee $42,042,000 1
Michio teeing baci dG. 356,265,000 21
WIS CONSTI: Renmei areca tic es 367,095,000 Ly
Minnesota igo ieee yas Patel salah aces 480,230,000 9
TORR rere er ee Ma Ua ua as 783,488,000 3
MissOuPriirie oie a mane a aig Le 546,036,000 5
North Dag eOtai ce ae oo ar 220,290,000 27
South: Daketa cava: eae ounce 366,582,000 18
Nebraska .....4. OO: Pine yar «s+. 522,186,000 q
Kansaepee seers coda shearers ea: 399,844,000 14
KentuGleyiruh cesta irae a eh . 375,710,000 16
"TONNESSCQU aa ss Big ecaty 290,819,000 26
ATA bai AUN ive ai aaa, 291,563,000 25
MisSiSstpOhs Cwoaua bea cu pil ecisas ¥en 359,596,000 19
LOuUlSia nae ortega a ea ate ee 24
Texas vce. Stag Wo mi wai gue aa a ieliiy mil eS eile tere. 788,983,000 2
Oklahoman iors Beene gc egg ge ae 9,000 as
PKA SAG Main muenuiitmma nen Ws Sie eg ti 399,538,000 20
Mi RONTANG ents ie G Uuhe cous a’ eared \ Ge 103,845,000 35
Wyomline Saas ue eee aaa tains 52,829,000 40
Chloraan Hea Vara cibmears cpaetgtitea ena W/'eearerg enw ge ta 164,000,000 28
New :MegiCg ack au oe ue), Bveaat nS a hk ee 470,000 43
ALI ZONE ee ese iis pose G 7,068,000 45
Utalt 2) oe eek ey 2 eke yikes 49, 627,000 4]
Nevada Witaen ey. Se cule amiceN os eee s. « 25,655,000 47
Idaho) Sg a une peal a Rees oie 94,890,000 36
Washinpteg) Vie ON Era 144 422 000 29
Oregon pees Sse) ROME iE ata ts WaeratteNa'y arg ai 108,632,000 a2
California “See rere ye, pes: 432,285,000 10

Robber Kills Jeweler.

who apparently made.a clean get-away,
entered the jewelry store of James J” Haag,.6 Cone
Street, Orange, New Jersey, at about seven o'clock
one night. not long ago, shot Mr. Haag through the
heart, and escaped with jéwelry and money estimated
at more than $4,000: The robbery, which. occurred
while many people were on the streets, appears -not
to have been: seen by any one.. The shot that killed
the proprietor was heard, however, by. Robert~ Riley,
who. hastened to notify Policeman Sexton, a short dis-
tance away. Although a man was noticed hurrying
down the street, his actions failed to attract attention,
and while a cursory investigation of the scene of the
crime was being made he disappeared.

Every available resource of the police and detective
departments is being brought to bear on the case in
the hope of rounding up the man responsible for the
crime. No elew upon which to work is in the hands
of the police, however, and the case presents. many
puzzling aspects.

The theory of the police is that the robber entered
and pretended to be interested in the purchase of
some diamonds,-and when a tray of the valuables was

A.robber,

MAO. ots 8. bla AB th 8th ta ct ft cant bast Bch

BILL WEEKLY, at
ut before him flashed a gun on the proprietor. Ap-

pearances indicate that a struggle between the two
followed, and that as a last resort, to prevent his
detection, the robber used his revolver.

After killing the jeweler, the robber stripped a $300
diamond stud from the shirt of his victim, removed
a $400 diamond ring from his finger, and, in addition
to taking his wallet containing about $150, made away
with a tray of jewelry and diamonds valued at close
to $4,000. ‘

The robbery and murder evidently occurred in a
short space of time, and a moment after the shot was
fired the robber was out of the store and making away
in the gathering darkness.

Remembers Dog in Will.

The will of Mrs. Lucy Eldridge Lee, who had lived
abroad for many years, and died recently in Rome,
leaves $1,500 to a servant, Luigi Federini, and makes ©
this additional bequest:. “I also leave to the said Luigi
my beloved dog Daisy, and wish my executors to pay
him $100 a year in quarterly payments for the support
of said dog.” She gives $500 to another servant “for
bearing his affliction so patiently.”

This Boy Deserts Two Wives and United States Army.

E. N. Hoffman, possessor of one of those li'l’ cater-
pillar mustaches and a winsome way, a youthful Pere
son of certain graces and easy manners, whose home
is Chicago, seems to be trying to establish a reputa-
tion as a deserter. Fedéral investigators have chalked
these desertions against his name:

One wife, named Viola, twenty years old.

One wife, Miss Catherine Hallar.

One new National Army.

Mrs. Viola Hoffman and the romancer’s sister, Mrs.
Harriet Bendel, told about the escapades of the youth
before United States Commissioner Foote. When wife
No. 1 heard the story of wife No. 2, she broke down

and wept. The sister and both the wives received
farewell missives from “Jack,” as he was lovingly
called, dated in Canada.

Inclosed was a handsome picture of the young man,
all dressed up in a Canadian uniform and.an officer’s
cap. Federal agents. say that they, have looked. him
up and he isn’t in any Canadian regiment, and that the
uniform is camouflage. , :

Motor Bandits Captured.

The capture recently of four alleged post-office
cracksmen in Middleboro, Massachusetts, after a run-
ning battle with officers through towns in the Cape
Cod district, was followed by the police announcement
of the arrest in Boston of Frank Whalen, believed to
be the leader of the gang.

Whalen was held in the Dorchester district court,
charged with complicity in the robbery of the grocery
store of. Timberlake & Small, in the Neponset district,
where burglars took $2,000 in cash and $28,000 in nego- |
tiable securities from the safe. His bail was fixed at
$40,000. Many of the stolen securities were found in
his possession, the police said.

- Whalen. was arrested in a-raid on a house in ‘the

\

bY et Me

 
®

oo NEW BUFFALO
South End: district, but the fact was kept secret, as
. the police hoped to capture other suspects. The men
taken.in the automobile chase in Middleboro are be-
lieved by the police to be the four they were looking
for. Not only the Neponset burglary, but others re-
cently, are regarded as cleared up by the/capture, the
police say.

The Middleboro four, who started out in an auto-

mobile to.raid post offices on Cape Cod, were captured .
after being fired on by officers in Middleboro and at.

Wareham, fifteen miles away.

Warning that the robbers had wrecked the safe in
the post office at Osterville, forty-five miles from Mid-
dleboro, was sent to every town on the Cape- From
Osterville they proceeded toward Wareham in a big
touring car. As the car swung through the narrow
streets at top speed, officers at Wareham fired a dozen
revolver shots.

Chief of Police Hathaway and Officer Smith hid on
the crest of a hill on the main highway until the rob-
bers appeared. Jumping from their hiding place, the
officers began shooting, and the robbers surrendered.

In the car the police found $300 in cash, stamps of
an equal value, dynamite, nitroglycerin, and parapher-
nalia used by yeggmen. The prisoners said they were
John Edward Conners, Syracuse, New York; George
Williams, alias. Thomas S. Conners, Boston; John
Francis Murphy, Boston, and James Homas. Murphy
was slightly wounded in the head.

Brought His “’Xemptions.”

A husky negro, with six children trailing behind him,
appeared at a district board in Washington recently.

“Ah claim ’xemption,” he said, “and Ah got mah
’xemptions with me.” ‘

Refused As Ill, Man Stows Away.

After the Ward liner Mexico, from Havana, with
seventy-nine passengers, was docked at her East River
pier, New York, recently, a man about fifty years old
and of emaciated appearance was noticed by the cus-
toms men staggering about aimlessly among the pas-
sengers. The customs men winked at one another and
laughed.

Finally the staggering man collapsed with a groan
near a tobacco hogshead, and when the customs men
took a casual look they found they were wrong—for
once. The man was unconscious. He was picked up
and taken on board, where the ship’s surgeon plied
him with hot drinks and soup.

When he came to a bit, the doctor found that his
name wasLaporto or something like that, and that he
had stowed away aboard the Mexico at Havana be-
cause he was so ill the steamship people. would not
let him buy a ticket, although he had. the money to
do so. As he felt that he was dying, and. wanted to
get home to Spain and see his people once. more, he

sneaked aboard through a cargo port and hid himself
during the four-day trip.

A pound of chocolate was all he had for food during

‘this period, and he was very weak when he got ashore.

The man was so ill that the ship’s doctor expressed.

doubt whether he would live more than a few hours.

 

BIGL WEEKLY.

Whale-meat Lunch to Boost iNew. Food.

A conservation luncheon, with whale meat served
as steaks and in three other dishes, was given at the
American Museum of Natural History, New York, a
short time ago as a demonstration of the utility of
whale meat as a substitute for beef, lamb, pork, and

- other meats which the nation is advised:to conserve.

The dishes were prepared under the direction of an
expert chef, and the luncheon was attended by the
local food administrators; Admiral Peary, Doctor
William T. Hornaday, and others, who had eaten the
meat on exploration tours.

It is important for the public to know that the
humpback whale is the sort most frequently captured
on the Pacific coast, “and makes the best eating.” It
reaches a length of fifty-four feet and weighs approxi-
mately forty tons. Not such a whale, but a part
thereof, was consumed by the guests who attended
the demonstration at the museum.’ The guests in-
cluded men prominent in scientific, business, and pro-
fessional spheres.

The deep-sea mammal, served en casserole, or pot-
au-feu, or planked, had a striking resemblance to
venison both in appearance and taste. So’said Fed-
eral Food Adniinistrator Arthur Williams, who has
had international experience in’ sampling menus, and
who was therefore in position to know. In his opin-
ion, it was about as “delicious a morsel” as the most
esthetic or sophisticated palate could possibly yearn
for. Others who tasted the whale, and had not had
Mr. Williams’ breadth of experience in those matters,
‘declared it was not very different from plain, ordi-
nary pot roast, only a little richer.

Opinions were expressed by some prominent guests
at the luncheon as to the advisability of introducing
whale meat to the general public, inasmuch as Henry
Fairfield Osborn, president of the Museum of Natural
History, had ascertained from reliable’sources that
100,000,000 pounds of whale meat could be supplied. to
the people of this country annually at twelve and one-
half cents a pound. The speakers were almost unani-
mously in favor of having whale meat substituted for
beefsteak, and urged its immediate adoption as a fea-
ture of the national war diet. Admiral Peary said:

“There will be an intense practical advantage to
this movement if we can ever get the American people
to substitute whale meat for beef, mutton, and pork.

It can be kept indefinitely in tin cans the way they

are now putting it up for the market. There have
long been such canneries on the coast of Labrador,
and there used to be some on the Newfoundland coast,
but the Newfoundland canneries have gone out of
business, being unable to compete with the Labrador
plants, which could get the whales at less cost.”

To cite some further facts on “Whaling Stations
and Canning Factories,” as presented by the museum
authorities, there are at present on the Pacific coast
of America seven whaling stations. Only three of
these are equipped to handle whale meat for food.
Most of the whale production on the coast is utilized
for the manufacture of festilizer. About a thousand
whales are captured annually on the coasts of America,

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

<3 sca Sa
<< “a re ee ee = -

 
ew Buffalo Bill |
me 6(VVeCeCK ly ae

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 ov
they will be sent direct by the publishers to any address upon receipt of the price in money or postage stamps.

 

 

 

61—Buffalo Bill’s Treasure Train. 136—Buffalo Bill’s Army Mystery. 211—Buffalo Bill’s Throwback.
62—Buffalo Bill Among the Blackfeet. 137—Buffalo Bill’s Surprise Party. 212—Buffalo Bill’s ‘“‘Sight-Unseen.”’
63—Buffalo Bill’s Border Beagles. 138—Buffalo Bill’s Great Ride. 213—Buffalo Bill’s New Pard.
64— Buffalo Bill and the Bandits in Black. 139—Buffalo Bill’s Water Trail. : 214— Buffalo Bill’s Winged Victory.
65—Buffalo Bill on the Deadwood Trail. 140—Buffalo Bill’s Ordeal of Fire. 215—Buffalo Bill’s ‘“‘Pieces-of-Hight.”
66—Buffalo Bill in the Caiion of Death. 141—Buffalo Bill Among the Man-eaters. 216—Buffalo Bill and the Hight Vaqueros.
67—Buffalo Bill and Billy, the Kid. 142—Buffalo Bill’s Casket of Pearls. 217—Buffalo Bill’s Unlucky Siesta.
68—Buffalo Bill and the Robber Ranch. 143—Buffalo Bill’s Sky Pilot. 218—Buffalo Bill’s Apache Clue.
69—Buffalo Bill in the Land of Wonders. 144—Buffalo Bill’s Totem. 219—Buffalo Bill and the Apache Totem.
70—Butffalo Bill and the Traitor Soldier. 145—Buffalo Bill’s Flatboat Drift. 220—Buffalo Bill’s Golden Wonder.
71—Buffalo Bill’s Dusky Trailers. 146—Buffalo Bill on Deck. 221—Buffalo Bill’s Fiesta Night.
72—Buffalo Bill’s Diamond Mine. 147—Buffalo Bill and the Bronchobuster. 222—Buffalo Bill and the Hatchet Boys.
73— Buffalo Bill and the Pawnee Serpent. 148—Buffalo Bill’s Great Round-up. 223—Buffalo Bill and the Mining Shark.
74—Buffalo Bill’s Scarlet Hand. 149—Buffalo Bill’s Pledge. 224—-Buffalo Bill and the Cattle Barons.
75—Buffalo Bill Running the Gantlet. 150—Buffalo Bill’s Cowboy Pard. 225—Buffalo Bill’s Long Odds.
76—Buffalo Bill’s Leap in the Dark. 151—Buffalo Bill and the Emigrants. 226—Buffalo Bill, the Peace Maker.
77—Buftalo Bill’s Daring Plunge. 152—Buffalo Bill Among the Pueblos. 227—Buffalo Bill’s Promise to Pay.
78—Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Mission. 153—Buffalo Bill’s Four-footed Pards. 228—Buffalo Bill’s Diamond Hitch.
79—Buffalo Bill’s Ghost Raid. 154—Buffalo Bill’s Protégé. 229—Buffalo Bill and the Wheel of I’ate.
80—Buffalo Bill’s Traitor Guide. 155—Buffalo Bill Ensnared. 230—Buffalo Bill and the Pool of Mystery.
81—Buffalo Bill’s Camp Fires. 156—Buffalo Bill’s Pick-up. 221—Buffalo Bill and the Deserter.
82—Buffalo Bill Upa Stump. . 157—Buffalo Bill’s Quest. - 232—Buffalo Bill’s Island in the Air.
83—Buffalo Bill’s Secret Foe. 158—Buffalo Bill’s Waif of the Plains. 233—Buffalo Bill, Town Marshal.
84—Buffalo Bill’s Master Stroke. 159—Buffalo Bill Baffled. 234—Buffalo Bill’s Ultimatum.
85—Buffalo Bill and the Skeleton Horse- 160—Buffalo Bill Among the Mormons. 235—Buffalo Bill’s Test.
man. 161—Buffalo Bill’s Assistance. 236—Buffalo Bill and the Ponca Raiders.
86—Buffalo Bill and the Brazos Terror. 162—Buffalo Bill’s Rattlesnake Trail. 237—Buffalo Bill’s Boldest Stroke.
87—Buffalo Bill’s Dance of Death. 163—Buffalo Bill and the Slave Dealer. 238—Buffalo Bill’s Enigma.
88—Buffalo Bill and the Creeping Terror. 164—Buffalo Bill’s Strong Arm. 239—Buffalo Bill’s Blockade.
89—Buffalo Bill and the Brand of Cain. 165—Buffalo Bill’s Girl Pard: 240—Buffalo Bill and the Gilded Clique.
90—Buffalo Bill and the Mad Millionaire. 166—Buffalo Bill’s Iron Bracelets. 241—Buffalo Bill and Perdita Reyes.
91—Buffalo Bill’s Medicine Lodge. 167—Buffalo Bill’s ‘Paper Talk.” 242—Buffalo Bill and the Boomers.
92—Buffalo Bill in Peril. 168—Buffalo Bill’s Bridge of Fire. 243—Buffalo Bill Calls a Halt.
93—Buffalo Bill’s Strange Pard. 169—Buffalo Bill’s Bowie. 244—Buffalo Bill and the Ke-Week Totem.
94—Buffalo Bill in the Death Desert. 170—Buffalo Bill and the Forty Thieves. 245—Buffalo Bill’s O. K.
_ 95—Buffalo Bill in No-Man’s Land. 171—Buffalo Bill’s Mine. 246—Buffalo Bill at Cafion Diablo.
$6—Buffalo Bill’s Border Ruffians. 172—Buffalo Bill’s Clean-up. 247—Buffalo Bill’s Transfer.
97—Buffalo Bill’s Black Eagles. 173—Buffalo Bill’s Ruse. 248—Buffalo Bill and the Red Horse Hunt-
98—Buffalo. Bill’s Rival. 174—Buffalo Bill Overboard. ers.
99—Buffalo Bill and the Boy Bugler. 175—Buffalo Bill’s Ring. 249—Buffalo Bill’s Dangerous Duty.
100—Buffalo Bill and the White Specter. 176—Buffalo Bill’s Big Contract. 250—Buffalo Bill and the Chief’s Daughter.
101—Buffalo Bill’s Death Defiance. 177—Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane. 251—Buffalo Bill at Tinaja Wells.
102—Buffalo Bill and the Barge Bandits 178—Buffalo Bill’s Kid Pard. 252—-Buffalo Bill and the Men of Mendon.
103—Buffalo Bill, the Desert Hotspur. 179—Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Plight. 253—Buffalo Bill at Rainbow’s End.
104—Buffalo Bill’s Wild Range Riders. 180—Buffalo Bill’s Fearless Stand. 254—Buffalo Bill and the Russian Plot.
105—Buffalo Bill’s Red Retribution. 181—Buffalo Bill and the Yelping Crew. 255—Buffalo Bill’s Red Triangle.
106—Buffalo Bill’s Death Jump. 182—-Buffalo Bill’s Guiding Hand. 256—Buffalo Bill’s Royal Flush.
107—Buffalo Bill’s Aztec Runners. 1838—Buffalo Bill’s Queer Quest. 257—Buffalo Bill’s Tramp Pard.
108—Buffalo Bill’s Fiery Eye. 184—Buffalo Bill’s Prize ‘‘Get-away.” 258—Buffalo Bill on the Upper Missouri.
109—Buffalo Bill’s Gypsy Band. 185—Buffalo Bill’s Hurricane Hustle. 259—Buffalo Bill’s Crow Scout.
110—Buffalo Bill’s Maverick. 1&86— Buffalo Bill’s Star Play. 260—Buffalo Bill’s Opium Case.
111—Buffalo Bill, the White Whirlwind. 187—Buffalo Bill’s Bluff. 261—Buffalo Bill’s Witchcraft.
112—-Buffalo Bill in Old Mexico. 188—Buffalo Bill’s Trackers. 262—Buffalo Bill’s Mountain Foes.
113—Buffalo Bill’s Flying Wonder. 189—Buffalo Bill’s Dutch Pard. 263—Buffalo Bill’s Battle Cry.
114—-Buffalo Bill’s Ice Chase. 190—Buffalo Bill and the Bravo. 264—Buffalo Bill’s Fight for the Right.
115—Buffalo Bill’s Gold Hunters. 191—Buffalo Bill.and the Quaker. 265—Buffalo Bill’s Barbecue.
116—Buffalo Bill and the Wolf Master. 192—-Buffalo Bill’s Package of Death. 266—Buffalo Bill and the Red Renegade.
117—Buffalo Bill’s Message from the Dead. 193—Buffalo Bill’s Treasure Cache. 267—Buffalo Bill and the Apache Kid,
118—Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Dozen. 194—-Buffalo Bill’s Private War. 268—Buffalo Bill at the Copper Barricrs.
119—Buffalo Bill’s Whirlwind Chase. 195—Buffalo Bill and the Trouble-hunter 269—Buffalo Bill’s Power.
120—Buffalo Bill Haunted. 196—Buffalo Bill and the Rope Wizard. 270—Buffalo Bill and the Chief Hawkchee.
121—-Buffalo Bill’s Fight for Life. 197—Buffalo Bill’s Fiesta. 271—Buffalo Bill and the Indian Girl.
122—Buffalo Bill and the Pit of Horror. 198—Buffalo Bill Among the Cheyennes. 272—Buffalo Bill Across the Rio Grande.
122—-Buffalo Bill in the Jaws of Death. 199—Buffalo Bill Besieged. 273—Buffalo Bill and the Headless Horse-
124—Buffalo Bill’s Dance With Death. 200—Buffalo Bill and the Red Hand. man.
125—Buffalo Bill’s Hidden Gold. 201—-Buffalo Bill’s Tree-Trunk Drift. 274—Buffalo Bill’s Clean Sweep. :
126—Buffalo Bill’s Outlaw Trail. 202—Buffalo Bill and the Specter. 275—Buffalo Bill’s Handful of Pearls.
127—Buffalo Bill and the Indian Queen. 2038—Buffalo Bill’s Secret Message. 276—Buffalo Bill’s Pueblo Foes.
128—-Buffalo Bill and the Mad Marauder. 204—Buffalo Bill and the Horde of Her- _Dated December 29th, 1917.
129—Buffalo Bill’s Ghost Dance. mosa. 277—Buffalo Bill’s Taos Totem.
130—Buffalo Bill’s Peace Pipe. 205—Buffalo Bill’s Lonesome Trail. Dated January 5th, 1918.
131—Buffalo Bill’s Red Nemesis. ° 206—Buffalo Bill’s Quarry. 278—Buffalo Bill and the Pawnee Prophet.
132—Buffalo Bill’s Enchanted Mesa. 207—Buffalo Bill in Deadwood. Dated January 12th, 1918. ;
183—Buffalo Bill in the Desert of Death. 208—Buffalo Bill’s First Aid. 279—Buffalo Bill and Old Wanderoo.
134—Buffalo Bill’s Pay Streak. 209—Buffalo Bill and Old Moonlight. Dated January 19th, 1918.
135—Buffalo Bill on Detached Duty. 210—Buffalo Bill Repaid. 280—Buffalo Bill’s Merry War.

 

PRICE, SIX CENTS PER COPY. If you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot procure them from your news
dealer, they can be obtained direct from this office. Postage stamps taken the same as money.

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