SJ SS SS ss oO fo) © © N ® fA No. 286 MARCH 2, 1918 OS Ss 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. Terms to NEW BUFFALO BILL WEEKLY Mail Subscribers. Postage free for United States, Island Possessions, Mexico and Shanghai, China. Foreign Postage, $1.00 a year; Canadian Postage 50 cents a year. Single Copies or Back Numbers, 6c. Each. How to Send Money—By. post-office or express money order, regis- tered letter, bank check or draft, at our risk. At your own risk if sent by currency, coin, or postage stamps in ordinary letter. Receipts—Receipt of your remittance is acknowledged by proper If not correet you have not been S MONTHS vices ak os os 20Cs | G MONTHS 8. sites ss $1.50. | 2 copies one year-.$5.00 change of number on your label. 1 4-months. =. <<:.).¢ $1.00 | One year. ...-...++3.00 11 copy two years..5.00 properly credited, and should let us know at once. No. 286. NEW YORK, March 2, 1918 | Price Six Cents, Buffalo. Bill On OR, Lost River: PAWNEE BILL’S BATTLE IN THE DARK. By the author of “‘BUFFALO BILL.” CHAPTER: § SIX THOUSAND IN GOLD. -“That’s the ‘how’ of it, Cody,” said Major Burchard to the chief of scouts. “J see, sir. . This Jack Lorring that was let slip must be corralled again?” returned Buffalo Bill, letting the a curl from his cigar as he listened. “ [ee 2) “It was too bad Pawnee didn’t hang to him——’ “Tt wasn't Major Lillie’s fault. Lorring was turned over to Lieutenant Frisby’s troopers. While the fight with the Utes was on, Jack got away. “T know. And his three friends that were helping him escape—what about them ?” “Oh, we've no quarrel with them. Not after the fight they put up against Black Water’s mob of reds.” “That's so. It was a pretty fight,’ commented the scout thoughtfully. ». “But a must be taken to Fort Lester, and when the Indians settle down he shall be pee for the murder of Black Water's son,’ “T see.” “We want to show these Utes that the whites will do as they promised. Besides, the Lorring man is a danger- ous desperado.” Sihat he-is.." “T would have been glad to send him to Fort Lester with this Chinaman that Lieutenant Frisby is taking back there.” “Louie Gow, you mean?” said Buffalo Bill thoughtfully. “Yes; the sluice robber.” “If you had not arrived, major, and Cimaroon Bar had not been so stirred up over the Indian raid, Louie Gow would be doing an air dance right now.’ “T understand that this camp is rather lawless,” major. Burchard was in command of a force of nearly four hundred mounted troopers of General Lawton’s army of the West, and had been sent to put down an uprising of a said the RSA Tal ink tn Ne in et el Sa og Da OREN hs Per a Si ins e LO eS ee: RE SE OE ET ERT ae 2% nip atet See OR aba hy Df os ae inst branch of the Ute nation, presided over by a treacherous chief called Keets-cotty, or “Black Water.” The military commander and the chief of scouts—the famous William F. Cody, at that time attached to General Lawton’s command—were sitting together in the so- -called parlor of the Eldorado, the only hotel in the mining camp of Cimaroon. Bar. “Yes,” Buffalo Bill said slowly, show of lawlessness in these parts. improve. that.” The major chuckled. . “there has been some to bring it to a better appreciation of the decencies of law and order.” The other smiled and nodded. “The West is growing up,’ he said: terial in almost every town. The wild spirit is being broken to harness. Some of these big, two-handed fellows will make mighty good citizens in time.” “Well,” said Burchard, getting back to the point, “we want Jack Lorring. I’ve got plenty of Indian trailers and scouts. need them, and pick up Jack’s trail.” “And there is another thing I’ve got on hand,” Cody promptly. “What's that?” e “Why, although we caught that chink with the goods on im “Louie Gow?” “That's the one, major.” “The sluice robber—yes. Well, what about him?” ule we didn’t get the mining company’s gold.” NTO 22 “That’s a fact. And Granger, the super, says thefe must be at least six thousand dollars’ worth of the dust.” “Why, what did the Chinaman do with it?” asked the major. “He didn’t really do anything with it.” “How's that? I don't understand.” observed ON A Nata cit i ice a ANA ane ra rs a els Sa Naw ira na Aiea Misia tay But I think we will: “I know, Bill, that when you get into one of these wild-and- woolly towns, you are inclined . “There's good ma- You can have your own particular crowd, if you Beg R Bae Bar Paw, de bon! Bon a on Sef Ri IRE I 8 Ah Bin Fi i Fo es sho sali tian NEW BUFFALO “T’'ll tell you. Louie Gow had the gold packed on a mule he stole, and was hiking it south along the brink of the western wall of Lost River Cafion.. We came on: him. sud- denly and Granger was foolish enough to make a gun. play. He shot the mule instead:of the chink.” “An oversight that, ech?’ said the major, grinning, “It was—for the company—for the blamed mule jumpe od into the cafion.’ “Whee-ow !” “Yes, sir! Three hundred feet and more-to the bottom. Landed on the rocks—naturally very much dead.” “Ves. - That would kill even an army mule,’ the major. “And there was the company s gold with him. will be no fun getting it up that cliff.” “You are tight there, Colonel ody: But can’t it be come at any other way?” “No. At least, not easily. “But it seems to be the only way, major:.. My. friends and I have promised Granger to get the gold tor him.if we-can, Then we'll hike out after: Jack Lorring. 1 haye an idea that man is on the other side of the river, and, trav- eling south along the edge of the desert.” “But hold on!” exclaimed the major. “About this gold —you Say it lies with the mule on. the ‘river's edge?’ 4 ae blew another cloud of smoke ceilingward and said tyly admitted ‘And it a “T reckon you don’t know, much about the current.of - Lost ‘River, major?” ee acknowledge my ignorance.” “Well, after the fiver gets.into the cafion it's a boiling, furious stream, littered with rocks, choked in places with débris; and with whirlpools that: would suck dewn a. six- foot saw log.” : wo “No channel for boating, then? 3 “And no boats here. Never heard. of. anybody going down Lost~River. And if-a man -ever did, I reckon. he would never comeback. The. river itself disappears under. the mountains, severity-five miles away.” “T see. \Then: you and ‘your friends propose 40 let a man> down on a trope——” “A rope ladder. Old Neca my Piute, and. some of Granger's men are making the ladder now: But. keep still about the gold, major. knows about it—besides you and-I,- The Chinaman. had no friends here, and he wouldn’t tell, anyway.” “Youve your work cut out: for. you, Loe: the major. . “Oh, it will come out all right,” said rhe famous, ee lightly. *“Now, if you are through with me, major, I'll go and see how the boys are getting on with.- the. ladder. Three hundred -feet or more of cable, with” cedar. rungs - spliced in every two feet, is no- small sweight.”” He got up, tossed away his cigar, shook hands with the military: officer; and avenge. out of the reom., . : ‘ CHAPTER IL THE FIGHT. FOR « “RHE. LITTLE GIANT. Bu The Eldorado showed Biataie the effects of the hot fit: that had. occurred. only a few days before in the ‘town. - Many of the inhabitants: had taken shelter in’ the ~hotel when the Utes attacked, and the walls of: the - Eldorado were scarified by bullets and arrows. The. Ladybird “Dance Hall-was cAmpietely Be raed ; fire, and several other shacks had been burned by the red- skins. Cimaroon Bar had never been a beautiful places it was grimmer than ever: now. As the famous scout walked through’ the Viera main street and down toward the river bank where the hydraulic mining was in progress, he passed a man sitting. idly i in the. sun in front of a cabin door. The man was. empty-handed; he had a vague, foolish sort of a smile upon his face, and the’ observer might see at a single glance that, big and brawny ‘as this individual was, his mental condition was very weak indeed.= He was a veritable “giant—a huge, broad-shouldered, haity-armed fellow, known inthe camp as Big-Jake: Hentz. The big: fellow:wasone of the fathers of the camp of Giiaroan Bar. Wher sie mining syndicate Poe up ay * eh a a. Mh 1, AI only ION im LO aka ta Sh AD. Am A Jo fl AB At Mit ds ads in, $n tn es ste te Ni: et al ?” “Say | Your ards can keep a cried Granger. : “Oh,. Vl. gamble on. them,” said Cody. rejoined the. scout’ easily. “But you. know, Granger, men have been Known to put. two and two together and arfive at a right answer, The super looked troubled and. shéok his head. ~ “At any rate, we'll have the thing done by to- PA and then it will. be all right,” he said. “T presume so,” admitted the’ scout. They. had been, walking toward a path aa climbed ‘the end of the bluff. which was being washed. down by the streams of water under pressure. Granger happened to look back. at the Little Giant, and immediately. halted ‘with an exclamation: “What's the. matter?” turning. “There's that poor Hentz. again,” said Granger, Speaking loudly,. for the swish of the streams. and the falling of the earth drowned ordinary. sounds. ’ queried ‘Buffalo Bill, They were several hundred yards from the Little Giant. . Big.Jake:had come to the man. who was working the: hydraulic and had caught hold. of his sleeve. “I’m afraid the poor fellow is going to be a nuisance,” said the scout. There! “You bet he is! He’s trying to get Hi away from the machine.” There was a bit of a struggle between the two men. Slocum was laughing, and he pushed the big fellow away, while he directed the stream against the bank. But Big Jake was evidently in earnest. dened and grew ugly. its expression from where they stood. “He's looking for trouble, Granger?” warned the scout, As he spoke, the. big: man sprang at Sfoctim. The sluice miner Shut off the water and tried to dodge; but Big yes : was on him, his arms swinging like flails. - At. the Bhs pia Hi. Sloctin, weit down on ‘his. back, eo aR AMOS ARR ae A INS in pein geen Lg We'll splice’’em up there on the They are helping old Nomad on my Pinte get tight iip, can’t they?” likewise His face neds Buffalo Bill and the super: could. see EDS, oon RR aioe, ann SRE Fee hs aie” NEW BUFFALO He might have drawn his gun and shot the demented fel- low; but everybody liked Big Jake, and all realized that he was not responsible for his actions. “Hi, there! Stop that, Jake!” yelled Granger, and he started to run toward the Little Giant. But the big fellow had fallen upon the prostrate man and was pounding him unmercifully. From merely de- fending himself against the attack, Hi Slocum began to yell savage epithets and return the maniac’s blows. “Get out—blast ye! I'll punch seven kinds of deviltry out o’ ye! Wow! Ye big galoot!” Big Jake kept silent, but his blows were terrific. Hi slipped out of his grasp and both got to their feet. The smaller man grabbed a wrench and struck at Big Jake with hearty abandon. “Look out, Hi! Don’t hurt him!’ yelled Granger. “Let him pound you, then, Alf!” sputtered Hi. “What d’ye think I be?” His wrench came down whack! on Big Jake’s shoulder. The blow seemed to anger the giant, and, with a sudden shriek—the shriek of a madman—he closed with Slocum again. The latter was helpless in Big Jake’s embrace, for the maniac held his arms. He raised Slocum from the ground, and, seeing Granger and Buffalo. Bill coming, Big Jake turned and ran with his helpless victim. He wasn’t forty yards from the river’s edge. Yelling like a loon, the crazed giant covered the distance to the river in mighty strides. And when he got to the edge he raised Slocum above his head with surprising ease. As he tossed the man out- ward, however, Slocum got one hand free and caught Big Jake bythe collar of his shirt. His grip held. Big Jake put all his strength into the flinging of his victim, and therefore his own force threw him, with Slocum, over the edge of the bank! With a mighty splash, they went into the stream. A yell of Slocum’s was broken off short as he went under with his antagonist. The stream was very swift here, and swung out from the shore. The two men did not come to the surface until they were at least twenty feet out. Then they were clinging together and fighting like wild cats. Slocum was fighting for his life. The maniac seemed to care nothing for his own existence; he was merely bent on killing the man whom he considered had usurped ‘his place at the Little Giant. Men were running from all along the bar now. But nobody seemed able to help Slocum. He was in the grip of the unfortunate Hentz, and the big Dutchman was not responsible for his actions. Death had no terrors for Big Jake. They saw him ham- mering the face of his victim with one huge fist. Slocum’s struggle became weaker and weaker. The men sank, bobbed up again, and were swept faster and faster down the bubbling current of Lost River. Several miles ‘below there was a ford—shallow enough for horses to crossy but Big Jake would have killed his victim before they drifted so far. mee One or two of the miners drew their guns. But they hesitated to shoot the half-mad Hentz. Besides, there was a big chance of their killing Slocum as well. And if a bullet was put into the brain of Big Jake, would he not sink and carry Slocum with him—both of them to be drowned before rescuers could reach the spot? CHAPTER dil. AT THE MERCY OF THE CURRENT. If rescue had depended upon the mates of the two im- periled men it surely would have gone hard with both. About all the miners could do was run along the bank and yell encouragement to the half-unconscious Slocum. But Buffalo Bill saw the single chance of helping the men in the river, and he did not hesitate to take it. Near by was a thirty-foot log stranded on a point of sand. It might have been hanging there for a week, or only just drifted downstream. However, Buffalo Bill saw it, and he leaped aboard. Running to the outer end, his weight loosened the log ia meal AN ae PLL hh an sett mor : a NR ek tte 4 . a Soares in PRONE BS ACUI iS PPS OR Ao RC Ph AR Nil a, PR iiies ye pM 55 (OP Pr OR PR. a i i a Bat M i Li iM Mi BN Tait Pam, PNM MR Mt 3 Bi-L WEEKLY. from its attachment to the shore, and immediately it was careening down the stream. To balance himself on the log was no small task, for Buffalo Bill wore cavalry boots and the log rolled with most unexpected frequency. But he managed to keep on the upper surface of the huge stick, and the weight of the log being so much greater than that of the two men in the stream, the scout rapidly overtook Big Jake and Slocum. Once or twice Hi let out a half-choked yell for help. He was still fighting the madman whenever they were above the surface; but they were down now oftener than at first, and Slocum, at least, was getting a good deal more water in his system than he was used to. : The scout remained upon the end of the log, and, as it swung near to the struggling men in an eddy, he reached out and clutched the nearest collar. By ill luck, perhaps, it chanced to be Big Jake that he grabbed. The giant uttered a roar of rage, dropped his half- drowned victim, and turned to grapple with Buffalo Bill. Slocum plunged under the surface again with a choking cry, and as he was swept away the scout could do nothing to help him. : Just at that moment, in fact, he had his hands full. Big Jake seized the rough bark on the log with one hand and clung to the scout’s arm with the other. He came near to dragging Cody into the current. : But at that moment there was a new hail from the shore where the excited men were running along the bank, keep- ing up with the log, but mainly helpless in the emergency. “Hold hard, nis-is-shin necarnis i-to! Stand by for a rope, Cody!” The voice was recognized by the scout. He could not see the speaker, but he knew that his close friend and partner, Major Gordon W. Lillie, had chanced to arrive on the scene most opportunely. o For the major—otherwise Pawnee Bill—never lost his head and was capable of grappling with any emergency. He was now dashing down the bank of the river on horse- back, circling his lariat above his head as he rode. “Get Slocum first, Gordon!” shouted the scout. “He's: about gone.” , He was in 4 mighty ticklish place himself, but he knew that the half-choked victim of the madman’s rage. was scarcely able to keep himself up in the boisterous stream. Pawnee Bill heard and obeyed him. He spurred his horse into great leaps and passed the log on which Buffalo Bill was drifting. Slocum had been cartied by an eddy inshore from the log. “Swish !” The coiling reata hurtled through the air like a jumping blacksnake. The coil settled over the head of the strug- gling Slocum. He flung up his arms as he was sinking again, and Pawnee Bill drew the line taut. He was just im time.» The miner, weighted down by heavy boots, a gun at his waist, and woollen clothing, would surely have-gone under for the last time had the rescuer failed in that first cast. Halting his horse, Pawnee Bill drew in swiftly on the rope. Others, including Granger, the superintendent, ran down to the edge of the water. They all helped draw Hi Slocum ashore. : “Qn-she-ma-da!” ejaculated Pawnee Bill. “Loosen up- on that rope, boys. I can see right now that my necarnis needs me more than this fellow. Hurry!’ Once the rope was loosened, the plainsman coiled it swiftly and spurred down the river bank, following the plunging log. And Buffalo Bill was having the time of his life with that half-mad giant. ae Big Jake, having lost the man with whom he had first become incensed, had given battle to the scout with re- newed ferocity. Only that the bark on the floating log broke under his hand, so that he could get no lasting grip upon it, the giant would have quickly overcome the scout—would have doused him under the surface at last. But the giant’s clutch on the log broke time after time. He could not pull Buffalo Bill off the log with one hand. Nor would the famous scout let the poor fellow go. He feared‘that if Big Jake drifted away from the log he might om OE TB Mh ap ok hat ON AB RE AIA EE II MI octet AA, AB oda» A sO Ea aa a ra eh 2 SS Sa cs ne Moe ae RM DOSS 53 ase Posen tars asst Mis Mian an aA a NEW BUFFALO BILL WEEKLY. hit his head on a tock—for there were plenty in mid- - stream—and sink beyond his reach. Ns ‘And when Pawnee Bill came opposite the drifting log, the front end of it, on which Buffalo Bill floated, was yards out-from the shore, No single rope could reach him. Pawnee Bill hesitated to force Chick-Chick into the flood. The water was so deep near the bank that the horse would have to swim after the first -jump, and the , plainsman feared that he and his mount would be swept into some eddy and so be useless to his partner. “Give me a rope!” he yelled. “Somebody bring another tope!” ; But there wasn’t another lariat on the bar. Pawnee taced down the bank to try and get onto some point thrust ‘out into the river that would bring him nearer the log as it drifted past. : But the erratic: course of the log did not promise to bring it nearer the shore. And all the time Buffalo Bill and Big Jake were struggling—the one to pull the other onto the log, the other to pull his antagonist off. “Shades of Unk-te-hee!” bawled Pawnee Bill, “What can | do for you, Cody?” But at that moment Buffalo Bill was unable to answer, and circumstances answered the question. Big Jake’s grip broke on both the log and the man who tried to help him. Big Jake flopped back into the water - and disappeared; on the other side of the log Buffalo Bill teetered a moment, and then plunged into the flood as well. Instantly the two men were yards apart. The scout, likewise weighted with heavy clothing and boots and spurs, could not paddle back tothe log, and Big Jake was beyond _the stick of timber. As a last resort Pawnee Bill spurred his mount into the river, He swung his latiat and dropped the noose of it within Cody’s reach. “Can't we reach the poor fellow, Gordon?” shouted Buf- falo Bill, coming up to blow again, but gripping the line. “For the love of Mike!” gasped Pawnee Bill. “Let me get you ashore first, necarnis.” _» He forced Chick-Chick toward the bank, towing Buffalo Bill at the end of the line. After a sharp struggle,’ the in- telligent beast got his forefeet on the bank. A couple of the miners laid hold of the bridle and helped the horse ashore. And then Buffalo Bill was brought in and lifted out. He was thoroughly winded. “That poor devil!” he gasped. “Can’t you catch him, ~ Gordon?” Lillie looked after the tumbling log. Beside it was the - rough head of the madman. Big Jake seemed to bear a cHarmed life. : “By tay sacred O-zu-ha!” gasped the major suddenly. *T believe that fellow is going to make it, after all.” : “Make what?” stammered Buffalo Bill, staggering to his eet. “Deserted Jericho! He’s got a grip on it—surest thing _you know, necarnis!” Then Granger began to yell, running along toward them. _ “Dadburn my hide!” yelled the superintendent. “T. allus heard ye couldn't hurt a feller that’s off his nut. See there, will yer” Big Jake was certainly crawling out of the river onto the log. Despite all that he had been through, he turned the trick with apparent ease. He got astride the log and rode it liké a bucking broncho. The log was caught then in the swifter middle current and was datting down the river with almost the speed of an arrow. - : “Git after him, Lillie!” begged Granger. “I hate to see the poor old mutt done for—if he did pretty near croak Hi Slocum.” Pawnee Bill needed no urging. His horse was all right, and, coiling his rope, he struck spurs into Chick-Chick’s flanks and tore down the riverside again. He easily otitdistanced all the men who had been run- ning along the bank, watching the struggles of those in the stream. ‘The trail out of Cimaroon Bar to the desert led in this direction. Some distance downstream, and just before the river plunged into the narrow cafion, was the ford. Even: _ the middle of the river there was not more than four feet deep at this season of the year. The furious current of the middle river had seized upon the log now. The lone voyager was astride it, and his huge, untamable wooden horse dashed on at express speed, Spume flew high in the air as the log bucked and dodged; it was a mystery that the huge stick did not strike one of the bowlders that cropped up here and there in the channel. It was a race between the log and Pawnee Bill to see which would reach the shallows first. The river was there nearly half a mile broad; just below it narrowed into the mouth of the tunnel and deepened at once. It would be impossible to force a horse far be- yond the crossing on either side of the river; and where | the walls of the cafion really began there was no path near the river’s level even for a pedestrian. Pawnee Bill outstripped the miners immediately. He got a long lead on them, but, fast as Chick-Chick could travel, he could barely distance the plunging log with its human freight. Half of Cimaroon Bar was now trailing down the river's brink, for the story of Big Jake’s outbreak had spread rapidly. Nobody could help the madman an iota saving Pawnee Bill—and that possibility began to look frail indeed as the log sped on. It was aimed directly for the tunnel, which would suck it down and around the first slight turn, and then—out of sight! Had Big Jake been himself he might have known enough to fling himself from the stick when it crossed the shal- lows at the ford and beat his way ashore. He sat upright on the log, clinging with knees and hands to the rough bark, and he did not even look shoreward as Pawnee Bill came galloping down to the ford. The plainsman dashed into the flood, urging his horse Ha with spur and voice. Big Jake did not turn his ead. The log was almost at the shallows. Pawnee Bill whirled the noose of his reata about his head and pressed his horse forward. Suddenly Chick-Chick lost his footing and began to paddle. Pawnee Bill had every confidence in his noble mount; but the horse could not do the impossible. For instance, if his master managed to noose Big Jake, and the madman clung to the log, the horse could not swim ashore or to a foothold with the weight of the log on the line. ® ; Nevertheless, the plainsman risked a cast as the log shot down the foam-streaked rapids. It was a long throw, but Pawnee Bill was a master of the art. The coil snapped out to almost its full length; then the noose settled gracefully, and, with a sudden backward snap of the thrower’s arm, the noose tightened. But it tightened on the outside of only one arm. Big Jake had flung up his right arm as the noose fell, and in that hand was a flashing blade! _ : “Don’t,cut it, yo. blamed fool!” yelled the excited bowie man. But the giant turned on him a ferocious grin and the next instant slashed the rope. To his troubled mind every- body seemed an enemy—the rapids and rocks were less menacing than his fellow men. _ Pawnee could do nothing further. He aimed his horse for shallow ground, keeping out ’of the fiercer current. Meanwhile, the log, with its human freight, dashed on, crossed the shallows, and’so shot down the current and was sucked into the mouth+of the cafion, CHAPEER TV: THE PIUTES DISCOVERY. Cimaroon Bar was greatly aroused because of Big Jakes disappearance. .The awful end of one who had been such an important figure in the growth of the camp stirred even these rough men to the depths. ; Work was given over for the day. Parties of miners, some mounted and many afoot, went out on both sides of the river, climbed the rough hillsides, and scouted along the verge of either wall of the cafion for some miles. They never saw a trace of Big Jake Hentz, however. But these searching parties worried Alf Granger, the superintendent, He came up to the old cabin in the hills EB NEW BUFFALO where Buffalo Bill’s partners were at work on the long ladder, and explained his fears—fears first suggested by the scout himself. The two miners who had been helping in the making of the ladder had gone off with one of the searching parties, and the famous scout had with him only Lillie, Bill Hickok, Nick Nomad, the Piute trailer, and the Baron Villum von Schnitzenhauser. “Suppose some of those fellows catch onto those bags of dust lying down there by the dead mule, Cody?” groaned Granger. “I wish I hadn't let any of the boys help ye.” “Unless they suspect the truth, they won't know whose mule it was, nor what the bags contain,” said Lillie. “But, dadburn my hide!” cried Granger. “Mebbe some of ’em would guess it. There’s been several axed me if I got all the gold back that Louie Gow stole.’ “And you told them yes, of course?” said Buffalo Bill quickly. “Sure! I told them so——’ “But you didn’t say it so as to convince them, perhaps?’ suggested the major. ; “Well, by Jo! Mebbe they didn’t believe me,” admitted the superintendent. “You certainly have been going around with a long face, all right,” said Wild Bill, chuckling. “You didn’t show none of that joy which a man might be expected to feel when he’s recovered six thousand dollars.” “Hang it all! What was I to do? I am worried! And T’ll be worried till I get hold of that clean-up the chink stole.” “Well, we'll try to get it for you to-morrow,” said Buf- falo Bill soothingly. “Snake us three mules up here before daybreak, and when we've carted the cables over to that place above where the dead mule lays, you can get the mules back to camp again, and nobody will be the wiser. Making this ladder is something of a job. / That gold will be heavy, and somebody will have to go up and down the ladder several times to transport it to the top of the cliff.” ‘Who’s going down?” asked the anxious superintendent. ' “Tittle Cayuse. He’s the lightest.” a: grunted Granger, “I only hope he. finds it all right,” “Thet thar bird is ruffled in his feathers,’ drawled old Nomad, as the mining superintendent departed. “Vale,” said the baron philosophically, “dere iss nopoty so vorried ofer a sore toe as de man vot has de toe— aind’t idt? Misder Granger vill pe in dr-rouble yed mit his gompany if ve do nod findt de gold dust.” “Shucks!” grunted Wild Bill. “The stuff is there, all right. The chink didn’t lie—and who under heaven could get down that wall to trouble it?” That was really the opinion of the entire party, although Buffalo Bill had felt some little premonition of disappoint- ment. However, the three sections of the rope ladder were finished, and Granger brought up the mules himself that evening. Long before daybreak of the following day the mules were loaded and the party traveled rapidly down the verge of the western wall of the cafion, arriving at the place where the Chinaman’s mule had leaped into the abyss nearly a week before. It was still dark down in the cafion. They could hear the roaring of the stream, but the sun was not yet high enough to light the narrow gorge. The superintendent returned to camp at once with the three mules. He was paying for the rope, and if the gold was found intact he did not care if the cables were aban- doned. U The three lengths of heavy rope with their many cross- pieces of tough cedar were spliced into one long cable. The end was dropped over the edge of the almost perpen- dicular wall and lowered for at least a third of its length. Then the weight became so great that a turn was taken around the butt of a neighboring tree. ; The crosspieces of wood catight now and then in. the ragged wall, and finally Little Cayuse began to descend the ladder so as to keep it moving. They had padded the sharp edge of the cliff and let the ladder slip steadily downward under instruction from the shrill-voiced Piute. Before two-thirds of the ladder was lowered they found BILL WEEKLY. ; 5 it no easy task. The weight of the hemp and cedar was no light matter, and a hundred and thirty pounds of live Indian added was not, as Wild Bill said, “to be sneezed at.” Down and down the rope ladder crept, with the Piute clinging to its lower rungs. Sometimes his shrill voice commanded them to stop, and he ran up a bit to detach an arm that had become caught in some crevice in the rock. But for most of the length the rope ladder swung free of the wall, not more than a foot or two from it, but sufficiently clear to escape interference with it. The day was growing older, and in the bottom of the cafion the light increased. Little Cayuse, however, was so engaged with:the lowering of the ladder that he scarcely looked down. .” He knew that below him there chanced to be a narrow strip of rock-strewn earth. This strip of shore was cov- ered with the water when the river was high; but at the time the Chinaman’s mult fell, and since that day, the river _ had been low. © > : According to all the stories told of this Lost River and its cafion, neither white nor red man had ever descended it. Those prospectors and explorers who had traced the canon by travéling along the edges of its ever-rising walls on either the east or the west side had reported no break in either wall, and no possibility of a man’s descending into the chasm without some such help as this ladder offered. There was possibly no other spot within the entire length of the cafion, to the place where the tiver disap- peared forever under the mountain range itself, where a descent could be made down only three hundred feet of cliff wall to a secure footing on the brink of the river itself, For most of the length of the cafion—as far as those more or less familiar with it knew—the river filled the gorge from side to side, its higher tides leaving a distinct mark well up the walls on either hand. ine A cloud-burst in the mountains to the north might raise within two hours the depth of the river until every place like this to which the mule had fallen would be swept clean by a furious flood. Indeed, there seemed much more likelihood of the mule and the two sacks of gold dust slung to his saddle being washed away by some sudden rising of the water, than that any venturesome party would descend this wall and get away with the gold. ; Buffalo Bill and his friends had made ample preparation for this task. It seemed that the Piute would soon be at the bottom of the cliff and the securing of the gold would be an easy task. cone The five men on the verge of the cliff were sweating in the sun by this time, however. They let the cable slip foot by foot around the improvised windlass. By and by there came a shrill yell from the Piute. “Heap! Stop um! Aw-right! Little Cayuse, him on ground!” shrieked the Indian youth. “Turrah for the Piute!” exclaimed Wild Bill. He ran to the edge and leaned over, clinging to the cable itself, while he strove to see the Piute moying about on the arrow strip of shore at the bottom of the gloomy chasm. ae The others first fastened the cable securely. Thete was all of a score of feet left. Suddenly another yelp rose from the cafion. At first the white men could not make out what Little Cayuse was yelling. ae “Hello, down there!” cried Buffalo Bill, himself leaning over the abyss. “What is the matter with you, boy?” “Pa-e-has-ka! No cumtox bag um gold! No here!” “What's that? Buffalo Bill’s voice certainly displayed his astoriishment, and his pards stared at him in equal amazement. Little Cayuse’s voice floated up to the group again: “Piute no two-tongued, Pa-e-has-ka! Mule here, heap busted.” At another time the whites would have laughed at the Indian lad’s explanation of the condition of a mule ane it had leaped from the top of a three-hundred-foot cliff. “Little Caytse see mule—heap dead!” pursued the shrill voice of the Piute. ‘‘No see bags pa-pitch-es te_luck- cotta,” meaning “yellow iron,’ or gold. Little Cayuse ice ‘ yo NEW BUFFALO “would have used the same words for minted gold pieces. “No bag here, no saddle here. Heap gone!” Buffalo Bill and the others continued to stare at each other. Finally Pawnee Bill voiced his astonishment : “By the shades of Unk-tee-hee! Do ye hear that, ne- carnis? The mule’s been stripped.” CHAPTER V. THE BARON'S MISTAKE, Buffalo Bill allowed the unexpected news to floor him - for just a moment. Then he grabbed up his belt, buckled it around him, and started to descend the cliff. “When you hear me shout, Gordon, follow me. . And bring down a rifle. There may be something in this be- sides that redskin’s foolishness——’” “Er-waugh!” grunted old Nomad. “That Piute’s never trying any game on us.” : “By gorry!” ejaculated Wild Bill. “Who the dickens could have touched those bags of gold?” “Undt carried off de sattle yedt?” joined in the baron. Buffalo Bill was swinging down the ladder with great “rapidity. Pawnee turned a smiling face toward the others _as he said: “We know thafone man has been in the cafion before the Piute.” “Wot's thet thar, Pawnee?” yelled Nomad. ‘ “Big Jake, poor fellow! But we can scarcely believe that he lived to reach this spot.” “By gorry—nor to steal the gold!” agreed Wild Bill. “Undt de sattle,” proclaimed the baron, shaking his head. “Tt’s whiskizoos—thet’s wot:et is,’ grumbled Nomad. ‘Whatever it is,’ said Wild Bill, “we'll know in mighty short order. Have a care, Pawnee!” A faint hello from below assured the bowie ‘man that Buffalo Bill was at the bottom. Besides, the cable stopped shaking. He swung his own legs over the edge of the cliff; felt for the first rungs of the ladder, and went down swiftly, riding boots and all. ‘He had slipped the strap of a rifle over his shoulder, too, and was armed with his usual complement of pistols and bowies. Thus burdened, Pawnee Bill found the descent none too easy. He swung now and again free of the cliff entirely, and it was a dizzy height. © Besides, something more than halfway down the cliff, a sudden moving shadow inclosed him, and he heard the flapping of huge wings. “Keep your eye skinned for that eagle, Gordon!” shouted Buffalo Bill from below. “She’s got a nest there in some crevice.” Pawnee Bill shot a glance upward and saw the huge bird descending on a slant from across the cafion. She was indeed a_ threatening-looking creature, and her “strength could be imagined by the man in the air when he saw that;she had a good-sized kid in her talons. But, although she came with a rush, she did not drop the kid, nor did she sweep too near Pawnee Bill. Her aerie was several yards to the right of the swing- ing rope ladder—a short ledge, with an overhanging roof “of rock. Pawnee could see the fretwork of branches and rough grass and reeds along the edge of the shelf, while the putrid odor from the nest was not to be mistaken. Pawnee Bill swung himself down to the foot of the cliff in short order. He found his pard and Little Cayuse dis- cussing a strange trail that led south along a narrow strip of sand bordering the rushing river. “What d’ye make of it, necarnis?” asked Pawnee, getting a cigar out of the crown of his hat and biting off the end. “You can see that the Piute was right, Lillie,” said the cae “Somebody has lifted the mule’s saddle, sacks and a = “Now, Cody, I hate to deny my own eyesight,” chuckled “the ‘bowie man. “But who the dickens could have got ‘down here and made way with that pack saddle and a couple of heavy bags of gold dust?” _“Don’t ask conundrums,” returned his friend tartly. “Look at this. trail.” ve “Plain enough,” admitted the bowie man. “But I don’t _ see any footprints,” . BILL WEEKDY. “Nary footprints, Gordon.” “Looks like the saddle had been, dragged along.” “T agree with that statement.” re “And this mule’s been torn up a whole lot,” said Major Lillie, placidly smoking. “Naturally. A three-hundred-foot fall——” “But the critter didn’t bump once!” exclaimed Pawnee Bill. “How's that?” “The mule didn’t hit the cliff coming down. If it had, it would have bounded clear across this strip into the river, like enough, instead of falling at the very foot of the rock.” “Quite so.” “Tt wasn’t the fall that tore those strips of flesh from the upper side of that carcass,’ said Pawnee coolly. “You're right, Gordon!” ‘ejaculated Buffalo Bill, “I begin to see light.” “Well, I don’t see any too much myself,” drawled his friend; “that is, not about the disappearance of the gold.” “And the saddle,” added the scout. “Eh? No}; that’s a puzzle, too. But I reckon that pair of eagles up there began on this carcass of the mule.” “And why didn’t they finish the job?” “How’s that?’ demanded Pawnee Bill, now frankly puzzled. “Why did the mother bird go cavorting off after game when this mule lay right at her door?” “You've got beyond me, Cody, though I reckon I started the train of powder.” : Buffalo Bill laughed. “Sure you did.” “T don’t see——” “The connection between the birds and the lost saddle —and the gold?” “That’s right, necarnis. You got me guessing.” “Not for long, Gordon, I warrant.” “You'll have to come again, Pard Cody.” “T’ll show you,” laughed Buffalo Bill. “There’s some- thing been happening down here——” “TI should say there had!” grunted Pawnee Bill. “Wuh! Whiskizoos,’ muttered. Little Cayuse. ‘Pa-e- has-ka no find gold. Them whiskizoos heap fly away with m. ae Little Cayuse has nearly hit it!” chuckled Buffalo ill. “By my sacred O-zu-ha!” cried Pawnee Bill. “You don't mean to say that the blamed eagle flew off with the pack saddle and the gold?” And he jerked a thumb toward the nest above them. “Not exactly. At least, not that she-eagle,” said his - friend. “What the——” : “Hold on! I don’t mean to puzzle you,” said the scout, “But you can see that saddle was dragged along yonder?” “Down behind those rocks—yes,’ jerked out Pawnee Bill, nodding. “We'll see in 3? a moment if the saddle and gold isn’t all safe there—— ; “On-she-ma-da !” “Now, it doesn’t ‘stand to reason,” pursued the famous ‘scout, “that those old birds would let this carrion stay here while they searched the country over for game! “They prefer live game, Cody,” said Pawnee Bill. ‘Not much! They’re no better than buzzards or vul- tures. They're scavenger birds, all right.” “Then the mule——” : “They tackled him. No doubt of it. You see, they got some strips of meat. Then something happened.” Pawnee Bill’s face acknowledged that he was “beat. He did not see the point his friend was driving at. : “There’s the female up there. Where’s the male eagle? demanded Buffalo Bill, : mee “Ask me an easier one.” “He isn’t far off, Gordon,” declared his friend. he’s dead.” “Say!” grunted Pawnee. “You talk, but I don’t know what your meaning is—I swear I don’t!’ — “Why, look how that saddle was dragged. And see! I bet one of the heavy sacks of gold made that dent 1 the sand, That eagle is a whopper!” “But NEW. BUFFALO “On-she-ma-da !” yelled Pawnee suddenly. now.’ “TL reckon you-do,. Gordon,” laughed Buffalo Bill. “The big eagle -got his talons caught in the saddle “Cor-rect!.. They'd busted. the straps, or. they eke when the mule fell. When the eagles started to tear up the critter, the big mule got a foot caught somehow. He tried to rise, and could only drag the weight a little way at a time, He's down there somewhere, and——’ “If he didn’t fall in the river and get drowned—gold and -all!” exclaimed Pawnee, “We'll hope not,’ said Buffalo Bill; “but her mate, get- ting caught, made the old lady suspect a trap. down here and she left the mule alone.” “An-pe-tu-we!’ You've got a head on you, necarnis !” “Now let us see if I am fight,’ said Buffalo Bill cheer- fully, and, followed by his pard and the admiring Piute, he started south on the narrow line of rock and sand that here lay out of the river. This. strip of beach might be miles long for all they knew. . Toward the north it broke off shortly, and. the whirling water lapped the foot of the cliff; below, and not an eighth of a mile away, was-a turn in the cafion wall; all that lay beyond that sharp turn was mystery. But the strip of beach disappeared around the corner, as though _ there were more of it there out of sight. It was plain that the huge bird, his talons caught in the saddle, had dragged the weight by short. flights. along the beach. Here and there, where the sand lay, there were marks of one claw—the free one. The rocky way ‘was hard to traverse. “Hete and there were bits of forn-leather. It was a wonder one or both of the gold sacks had not been tofn away from their . fastenings. “And if the big bird had tried to fly over the river,” muttered Pawnee -Bill again, “we could say good-by to Mr. Granger’s gold—hey fe “Quite true, Gordon,” admitted. his friend, -They hurried on, or, rather, scrambled on, for the rocks _ in places were slippery and steep. At one point. was quite a high bowlder, and the huge bird had shown his power “when he dragged the saddle and bags over the hummock. At the top the Piute, who. was ahead, uttered a. shrill whoop. _“What’s the matter with you, Little Cayuse?” demanded Pawnee. “Want to frighten away the game?” “Kagle heap dead,” declared the Piute, grinning. They looked: There, on: the very edge of the water - beyond this huge rock, lay the eagle. It. was indeed quite dead, and they could see parts of the saddle sticking out from under: its body..- “T bet it got up on this rock ahd tried to fly,” erunted Pawnee Bill: “Then it fell and broke its foolish neck. Couldn't spread its wings in such a narrow epale) ‘ne- carnis,”- - >» Buffalo. Bilt mieeely, grunted. and jumped down upon the sands, an next moment he uttered a startled excla- mation. “What's up now! o to his friend’s level. The scout kicked the huge bird to one Os “Tts left claw was caught tightly i in the Strap-of the saddle. Buffalo . Bill kicked again. The ‘dead bird flopped over and re- vealed all the saddle. But there were tio sacks fastened to it! © “Shades of Unk-tee-hee!” gasped Pawnee Bill. “Wuh!”? was the Piute’s comment. “No bags—um gone.” “What the deuce does it mean2’ demanded Buffalo Bill. The bowie man was already down on_his knees. He suddenly let out a. characteristic exclamation and showed his friend the ends of the cord by which the two sacks of gold had been fastened to the packsaddle. Each had been cut free with a knife. . “Robbers, after all!” ejaculated Buffalo Bill. “Though, in this case, I suppose, it would be hard to prove a crime.’ ‘Surely the birds didn’t do it,” grunted Pawnee Bill, “T--reckon==not!” - : - “Wah! White. man—him- HO) the -Piute, pointing. - demanded the bowie ats, dropping | See, Pasechyaectea Y éHled | e le seecdt < human beings passed close to her. nest. » female eagle about this time began to fake an interest in ‘she suddenly sprang into the ait, BILL. WEEKLY. 2 : z There were marks on the sand other than those made by the final beating of the eagle’s wings. ache marks were the prints of boots. “No Injun—white man,’ phatically. “That’s plain enough, ” admitted the Scout. He stood erect again and glanced along the narrow strip of beach and broken rock. There were plenty of logs and rubbish along the strip of beach; but nothing large enough to hide a man, clear to the distant turn in the cliff wall, “What do you make of it, Gordon?” he asked. “On-she-ma-da !” exclaimed Pawnee Bill. “What is there to be made of ie “The gold “Has been: stolen, after all. Alf Granger will throw a fit.” “But who the deuce ; One “Deserted Jericho!” interrupted Pawnee. ‘We ought. to have the other boys down here. We don’t know how many there ate of the other party. That gold has got to ne taken back to Cimaroon Bar, Cody.” “We-ell?” “You're not for giving it up?” “Ym puzzled. I want to seé who got it. right about the boys coming down.” He turned to the Piute, who was closely® examining. the few marks visible on the ‘patch of sand. “Call Nomad and Wild Bill,” Buffalo Bill said’ let the baron remain up there” Little Cayuse ducked and ran back... They heard: him shouting the next minute to their comrades on the summit of the cliff, but did not hear what he-said. -- “T don’t see but.a single boot print, Gordon,” said Buffalo declared declared Little Cayuse em- Somebody. got ahead, of as. vw And you are “Better Bill, kneeling down beside the marks: “No single man could have gotten down. here,” Pawnee. Bill. . “Suppose he found a much easier place of descéns “He wouldn't have-dared come down alone. If-it-is a bunch of Granger's. mén who got. onto the fact shat. the gold was here “By Jove, it is a Os that corner, Gordon?” “And | wonder if they will fight?” mberaueed ie friend. Meanwhile, Wild Bill had swarmed down the rope ladder, and Nick Nomad, agile as a squirrel despite his: Year: fol- lowed. They started dene the edge ofthe river oath the “Piute, following in the tracks of their leaders. Neither Saye a minder if they are ‘around ‘thought to the. baron at the top-of the cliff. te ae Now, the baton had been snoozing in thie dudes of: a tree when the shout came up from the tiver’s edges. He heard the Piute calling his mates down, atid he considered that he was needed, too. ~~ However, in. his phlegmatic way he ina his time—as athe did about everything. When he ventured over. ‘the *brink of the cliff, everybody had their back turned to the ladder, and it was not observed that the baron had misunderstood. He swarmed down the rope. slowly,. puffing and snorting _a good deal, and with many. comments upon the instability of the arrangement, and the difficulty of a fat man Sheenine down the ladder. Perhaps it was his yoice—perhaps the fact that $0: . many However, the matters. When the baron had descended to-a Men with bee nest, with a scream of rage, and swooped so suddenly and so near to the German that he came neaf to losing his hold and ne off the rope - ladder completely. Ach, himmelblitzen! Vos iss?” “You vos a plamed ere aind’t idt? you yedt. Go avay! The eagle did not seem to understand his brand of Eng- lish, or perhaps she did. not. believe him. She made a second dash at the ‘baron, and his squalling was at length heard by his comfades.. They turned, saw. his. dilemma, and all five started back along the shore of the river, for- getting for the momént the mystérious- disappearance of the sacks af gold dust. on ee : bawled ‘the “baron. I vos nod touchin’ PISA DA dN DSN AR Sg Be OnE had SPR NCL NUE MINS PS CONN A 2 HN 2 Fe - a a Ta OE aes t CHAPTER Vie A DISTRESSING PREDICAMENT? ~~ “Go avay!” shrieked the baron for.a second time, as the wind of the huge bird’s. wings sent his little fore-and-aft cap riitiie t0 the Took of tha chit 2. 44) 4. 8 “Himmelblitzen! Dis vool pird vill haf me off de latter yedt!” eG ics oe That certainly was what. the eagle. seemed trying to do. She beat at him, and her extended talons and sharp beak threatened to strip him to shreds. ‘ He scrambled down the rope ladder as fast as possible —indeed, with dangerous swiftness. But she dropped as fast as he did, and when he cast a scared glance over his ee he saw that her flaming eyes were very close to him. A talon caught in his shirt sleeve, and the goods ripped like rotten muslin—while the sharp horn of the claw slit a ragged scratch the length of his upper arm from the shoulder down. _ Another swipe like that and she might tear him from the ladder to which he clung with fearful tenacity. His friends, now not very far away, shouted to him in chorus, but not the same orders: “Hang on, baron!” _ “Drop down, quick!” “Shoot the bird, ye fule!” “No, no! Don’t shoot——” But it was too late. The baron had jerked out one of his-guns. The bird made another plunge for him, and the baron, aiming over his head, fired, ; As he did so, Pawnee Bill’s gun spoke from below. The bowie man put-a bullet right where it would do the most good; and the eagle, with a scream, fell outward from the face of the cliff and went hurtling downward into te river. |. ; a ee The-baron hung, swinging slowly, to the ladder. He had slipped the still-smoking revolver back into his belt, and . now clung with both hands to a cedar bar. For a menyht he thought that he himself had killed the infamous bird. But then, with a suddenness that almost cost him his breath, he realized all that his ill-advised shot had done eo : As he: swayed on the ladder, he saw that something had happened to the rope not far above his head.- There was a white streak across it. aS ee _ He knew instantly what he had done. The pistol ball had cut through a broad strand of the rope. . _ The white stripe grew broader, then the strand snapped and the cable sagged a trifle—enough so that he felt it. The ball had done the damage just where one of the rungs -had been thrust through the. cable; the rope, of course, . had been somewhat weakened at that point. _ He hung more than a hundred feet from the bottom of the cliff. His weight and the weight of. the rope below the break was quite sufficient to part the other strands. _. Fhe German glanced on either-side with staring, hor- ried eyes. There was not a shelf, not even a foothold, within reach. Every movement he made would weaken the rope; it might snap short off at any moment. - And at first the men below did not realize what the matter was with the baron. “Well, you might as well come down, now you've got So fart shotited Buffalo Bill, 8-82" : _“Come on, you old walrus!” cried the major. saw such a chap for getting into trouble” “Thet thar Dutchman,” pronounced Nomad, “is Old Man Trouble’s onliest son and heir.” * But then the baron looked down, and they saw his - blanched face and bulging eyes. It couldn’t be the eagle that had so frightened him. #2 <4. -The. sharp-sighted Piute raised a shrill yell: _“Pa-e-has-ka! Look at rope!” aay At the moment the baron began swinging down the ladder hand over hand... Perhaps he would have done ft never better to climb up, and so..get above the. break before the — strands entirely parted. However, in glancing down he had seen a narrow ledge NEW - BUFFALO BILL WEEKLY: on the face of the wall below him. He made a desperate effort to reach this.foothold—and he got to it. - But at what cost!..As.he. swung in and landed upon the. rock upon. the balls of his feet, the rope parted with a loud “twang!” aia S He threw himself flat.against.the rock, spreading abroad both his arms -to hold himself. The rope fell to the rocks, the frayed end.splashing into the-river. , Above danced the other frayed end, twenty feet above the baron’s head and a hundred and twenty above the river's edge, There was dead silence below after the fall of the broken ladder. And the baron, clinging like a limpet to the rock, was for once in his life silent likewise. A hundred feet in the air! Almost a sheer wall above his head, and from the lips of the shelf on which the baron stood he could have dropped to the bottom without graz- ing the face of the cliff. f But not alone’ was Schnitzenhauser an imperiled cast- away upon the face of the three-hundred-foot wall. The breaking of the rope ladder had marooned Buffalo Bill and his companions upon the narrow strip of sand and rock at the edge of the tumultuous river- Of course Granger knew where they were. Granger was anxious for their return, and if they did not appear at the Bar by evening—or, at the latest, the next morning—the superintendent of the mining syndicate would be tearing down the trail at the brink of the cabin wall to see what had happened to his gold dust. But suppose, between this time and Granget’s appear- ance, there was a heavy rain? A cloud-burst in the moun- tains would soon send water enough down this cafion to sweep them all away. At full flood the river would lap the walls on either side; and as far as Buffalo Bill and his friends could see, there was not a refuge to which they might climb and so escape such a freshet. . And there was another possibility, and one that smote the minds of several of the marooned party, at least: That was the fact that something might happen to Granger. There seemed to be villainy afoot, anyway. Some per- son or persons unknown had descended to the foot of the cafion wall ahead of- Buffalo Bill’s party, and the gold sacks had been lifted. Did that not point to treachery? Some of Granget’s men had gotten a tip regarding the clean-up Louie Gow had stolen, and they had made a successful attempt, ahead of the scout and his partners, and obtained the six thou- sand dollars’ worth of dust. : If these men, returning to the Bar by a better route, should be met by Granger, the stiperintendent would be suspicious. He was no coward; indeed, Alf Granger was notoriously and recklessly brave. — If he thought the robbers had the company’s gold, he'd sail into them single-handed. And such an attack might bring him down—either dead or dying. Perhaps he would be unable to tell anybody of the whereabouts of Buffalo Bill and his friends. The robbers would not be likely to tell—if they knew. And Major Burchard, the commander of the troops then at or near, the Bar, would probably think that the scout and his party were after Jack Lorring, the desperado. These thoughts flashed through the minds of the three Bills. To Nomad and the Piute the situation did not at once appeal as so desperate. — oo As for the baron himself, just. at this juncture he could hens of nothing but his own baré escape from a terrible all. He remained hugging the cold rock, with his arms out- spread, wishing that the end of every one of his ten fingers had a sucker attachment like the tentacles of an octopus. He dared not look around at first. The thought of the abyss below him made him light-headed. He was actually afflicted with nausea and his head went around like a whirligig, i os “Ach, himmelblitzen !” finally murmured ‘the baron. “! am in de vorst blace as never vos yedt! Unless I can learn to fly alretty, how vill I efer get avay from here?” NEW BUFFALO CHAPTER: VE. ONE AGAINST A HORDE. Almost at the hour the baron swung himself from the breaking ladder to his doubtful refuge on the rocky shelf, ‘miles to the eastward, in a forest-grown valley, a fugitive was making his way south, afoot and well-nigh exhausted. He had traveled for a week. In all that time he had seen no man, either red or white, nor a sign of a°man. But after the first day he knew that he.was pursued. It was more a feeling of apprehension, at first, than aught else; but now, when he toiled up the steep end of the valley, came out of the woods, and could see across them to a barren opening in the hills which he had crossed only. a few hours before, he suddenly beheld figures like specks dancing in a sun ray, crossing that same opetiing. He tried to count them; some had passed when he first saw them, and, after counting a score, he grew frightened and ran on, not daring to wait longer. There was a horde in pursuit of him. When the troopers and Buffalo Bill with his crowd from Cimaroon Bar had thrashed Black Water’s band of Utes, Jack Lorring, the renegade white, who had ill-treated Black Water’s daughter and murdered the chief’s son, had been a prisoner of the troopers, being turned over to them by Major Gordon W. Lillie, Pawnee Bill. The trooper who had been left in the rear in charge of the prisoner, however, had been so much interested in the fight that he left Jack Lorring alone. The gambler was ever ready to take a chance. And this seemed to him to be a good one. He had already loosened his bonds, and he managed to writhe out of them. He dared not take one of the spare horses or mules in sight. That would have drawn instant attention to his escape. But he saw somebody’s belt and holster, with a gun in the same, and he quickly strapped this on, threw a bundle of grub ovér his shoulder, and lit out straight south. His desire was to go where the Indians were not, and he knew that all the savages were either west or north of Cimaroon Bar. His actual point of destination Jack Lorring had not fixed. There were other towns and camps beyond the desert, and a man as handy with the cards as he was could always make a good living in a mining camp. is But after that first day he felt that he was followed. A stern chase is a long chase; but. no matter. what the lead a fugitive may have on his pursuers, the fact that he is pursued is bound to get upon his nerves. > Besides, he knew that the savages were after him, not his white captors, The Utes had a bitter feud with Jack Lorring. At least, Black Water and his immediate tribe hated the gambler with a burning hatred. : If they caught the gambler, he knew well what punish- ment he might expect. easily; he had kept on for a week, until now he was foot- sore, half starved, and in. black despair. ‘But he would fight to the end! -With the horde of redskins behind him, Lorring climbed out of the dark val- ley and pressed on, higher and higher into. the hills. He had long since crossed a corner of the desert and the trail which led south from Cimaroon Bar. He had known the road when he crossed it; but he dared neither turn toward Lost River, strike out alone into the desert, nor keep to the plain wagon trail. Now he was in the wilderness, near to Lost River Cafion —how far he did not really know—and probably fifty miles from a human habitation. This was a region deserted of both red and white men. The former considered the range of mountains under the base of which Lost River finally disappeared “bad medi- cine;” and this vicinity certainly was an unhappy country. The fugitive ran on as fast as he could travel. Fear had taken a grip on him now; he could not shake it off. He came out upon a scrub-covered tableland. He could not see far in any direction—only down the slope up which he had hurried. To the south thé land rose steadily fo the peaks of the range which swept in a great arc to the south and east. Se At hand was a tumble of bowlders and rocks—a regular ao a S a ue. But he was not'a man to give up - BILL WEEKLY. | 9 fortress: One man might stand off half a hundred; but this man was without provisions, and his ammunition and armament were small. How could he stand off half a hundred reds with a seven-shooter and a double handful of. cartridges? He glanced again down the slope up which he had come. Tnstantly he was in a sweat of apprehension. Much nearer than he had expected, a figure was coming swiftly up the rise. There was only this single redskin in sight, and if the others had been near their leader at all they must have shown up. This seemingly tireless pursuer had got a long lead on his mates. He had been running by sight; that was sure. He could not see the fugitive where the latter now stood, and the white man was careful not to show himself, Let the redskin think that the fugitive had gone on— that he would run until he fell exhausted to the earth. That was without doubt what the Indians desired. But Jack Lorring knew a better end than that. fe He drew the heavy pistol from its scabbard, twirled: the cylinder and saw that the mechanism was all right. Before the reds got their claws on him—if they did— he proposed to send one of those big black slugs through his own brain. — : : “They will lift my hair, all right,” muttered the outcast of Cimaroon Bar, “but they won’t be able to torture me —not much!” : Nevertheless, there was time to fight yet. Jack peered down between the rocks behind which he lay, and saw the eagle feather in the Indian’s topknot drawing near. Jack Lorring was not much of a trail hunter or trail hider himself. He had not sought to pit his wits against those of the reds in this wilderness. ae But now, as he glanced around, he saw that the earth was as hard here as adamant and his moccasins had left a Only this one Indian had been running him by sight. ; : Sao It was possible that, instead of following the traces Jack himself made, the horde of reds so far behind was follow- ing a well-defined trail left by this single Indian who had got so near to the fugitive. — A ie Wipe out this ted’s trail—and the red himself—and he might yet escape the savages. The -thought, shooting through the desperado’s mind, revived him to a keener outlook and quickened the fires of hope in his heart. Here was only one man. The man was coming toward him quite recklessly. PaaS So far the white man had not used his revolver at all. The reds perhaps thought-him unarmed, knowing, as they did, that he had been-a prisoner of the troopers before-he escaped in this direction. jack Lorring drew his gun again and sighted along the barrel. The tuft-headed warrior suddenly. appeared in. a direct litte. He could have shot him as easily as putting a bullet into a stationary target. Se But the desperado hesitated before he fired. The explo- sion of the gun might bring the other reds on at a quicker pace. They were trailing their own leader easily. If he could only make an end of this first redskin without warn- . ie Wie oeersd fe gs Bes Se es And then, as he saw the course the first Indian was-tak- ing, a desperate resolve took hold upon Jack Lorring. He shook off his'fear of the moment before. His nerves were those of the seasoned gambler. He was about to take a chance, and Jack Lorring never shivered when he took a chance. He slipped the revolver back into his belt and removed the belt itself so that it should not hamper his movements. Then he crouched between the bowlders, his muscles taut, his nerves steady, waiting for the redskin to come within his reach. CHAPTER: Vit: DOWN THE CHUTE, He had already obtained a clear view of the coming red- skin as far down as his waist. The red was armed only with a knife. _ That fact alone proved that the pursuers believed their victim unarmed—at least, with a gun. . aba ae NEW BUFFALO - - Jack Lorring waited, repressing ‘his breathing, ready: to leap. -He-heard the Indian’s step, soft-as it was:- eo - Suddenly the red’s shadow fell-athwart the pass between the two bowlders, He was coming quickly, believing that the white man had run onst: s¢ 3.2 > : : _ With elbows at his sides, and running easily, the Indian passed. Like a wild cat the waiting white leaped! .. - He landed with a knee in the redskin’s hack,. both hands -clutching his shoulders. -The. force: of: the leap. was suf- ficient not only to throw the tedskin forward on his face, but the white man’s knee drove the breath from his an- tagonist’s body. : . As-the red went down he uttered:.a croaking cry. but that sound could: not have been heard twenty yards away. -» Lorring, though the lighter of the two, put so much vigor and desperation into his attack. that the redskin hadn't a: chance, ° Ay eae beiae Instantly, when his victim was. down, the white ‘man a on his back, and his hands clawed at the Indian’s =face.: sity Se beha thes Ge See nae He. did. not wish to wait long enough to. choke the red into unconsciousness, nor did he want to shoot, But, with a barbarity worthy of the foe -he attacked, the outcast sought the Indian’s eyes with his thumbs. ~.- -It was-a ferocious struggle while it lasted; but in twenty seconds. Lorring had accomplished what he set out. to do. The redskin uttered a: muffled screech—that was. all. .Then Lorring rose and- wiped his thumbs on his pants legs. The Indian lay on his: belly, his legs twitching and his feet drumming on the ground, while his hands clutched at the holes in his face where his eyes-used-to be. _ - Not another red had come -into -sight, and this fellow on-the ground would-neyer-be able to-tell ‘his mates the direction the white man had taken from this spot: _ With a final kick at the prostrate body of his mutilated foe, the white savage leaped away, his success seeming to -have.renewed his vigor and. determination... .~ Although he went rapidly, he was ‘careful to leap from tock.to reck; and from that spot, for more than half a mile; he left not the tiniest trace of his passage,.- _- The tedskins might fine-comb the surrounding territory; -but meanwhile Jack Lorring was getting farther-and far- ther away. Se Oaks -..He believed he had at last a good chance to escape, ~The plateau. was. completely. rock-covered,. and he was perfectly sheltered from observation. There was no near- by height to: which his pursuers: could climb and so over- look his course, :->, ices Cae _- He did not change his general direction—still kept away to the south. And he had good reason for this. - The reds would naturally believe that, after overcoming and blinding the Indian, the fugitive would start away at. a tangent and try to reach the desert trail, - _. For all the country: to the. south, and to the summit of the mountain range, was untracked wilderness. _Jack Lorring was not afraid of the wilderness, however. He only feared mankind. He was an otitcast of both the whites and reds. -that fact did not trouble him—much. : ‘When he thought he was safe—for a while—he lay down ‘in a sheltered place, pulled out his pipe, filled it with almost the last tobacco in his pouch, and smoked quietly. Once he looked at his two thumbs, holding them up before his own eyes. He saw a fleck of dried blood on one, and spit on it-hurriedly and then wiped the thumb clean. _ Then he only laughed and drew away at his pipe again 1n contentment. hs The soothing influence of the tobacco was all that he needed then to make Jack Lorring a revived man, He crept on after that, watching to see that he could not be spotted from the lower lands behind him, and so gradu- ally moving toward the high wall of the range to the south. He heard no sound from the Indians; he saw no sign of them. But he occasionally jumped game, and he was mightily tempted to take a crack at a mountain sheep that And crossed his path, But he dared not fire. the pistol yet, He could starve a while longer, he reckoned. On and on he tramped. Night: fell, and he waited only A the moon got up and showed him ‘where to place his TCGt. Indian. BILL WEEKLY. Se he piaveled. on, ‘olimbina steadily, and Gnally reached -another thick. woods. -He was now twenty miles beyond the spot where he had made his savage attack on the lone Finding a dry spot under an overhanging tree, ‘he lay down on the bare grotind, and, without thought of lurking wild beasts or any other dangers, dropped almost instantly into a heavy sleep. hay kee a It was the sleep of exhaustion. Had Jack. -Lorring known the Indians to be right at-his heels, he would have been obliged to give way to nature then. . . ae It was long past sunup when he awoke. He was stiff and sore and ravenously hungry.- At first he could only hobble, and his progress was most painful. ; He judged: his route by the sun, but he knew that he could not go much farther without food. The food. must be obtained first, however. Ste EN Lorring was a splendid shot. The first hare that. he jumped fell before it had gone two dozen feet. - Reckless of consequences, he tore some dead limbs from a near-by tree, broke them up, and started a fire. -He had only a-pocketknife—and that none too sharp—with which to skin and clean the game; but he tore the skin off some- how and dismembered the little animal. ‘ So ravenous was he that he could scarcely wait to more than smoke a haunch of the hare before he sank his teeth in the flesh. Loe : When the fire burned down to a bed of ruddy coals, he cooked the rest’of the little beast better; but he left noth, ing but the bones and the entrails when he had finished his feast?) 2 wie sd ot : But after that-he went on, invigorated. Hé came: close to the edge of the cafion of Lost River, and, tying down upon his belly, tried to measure the depth of the: chasm. He could hear the roaring of the river far below, but it was too dark down there for him to sée-even the glint Of it, «x Ons Dias rem 3e7 ' Not far beyond: this spot,-the forest-covered hill fell “away abruptly to the east, away- from. the™ cafion - wall. All the tableland beyond, southerly; Lorring saw was bare. Still fearing pursuit, he determined to stick to the forest. The bald rock would furnish him no cover. Bes But, after plunging down into this valley, he found. that he was in a veritable trap. It was a circular basin, and the eastern wall of it was as hard to climb as. the western hillside had Been to descend. =>) 2 ce This might have been the bed of a lake at some distant age. Now its rich soil nurtured a veritable jungle. : But there was game here, and before night Lorring ‘knocked over a fawn that had strayed from its mother. The reéchoing shot sent the whole herd of small deer riot- ing out of the glen, and the noise they made frightened Lorring so much that he dared not build a fire until long after dark. 5 Then he had to choose between attracting Indians to his fire and being attacked by quite as fierce four-legged beasts. A marauding panther shrieked its hunger song from ‘the heights, and that cry spurred Lorring to take the chance. He built up a roaring fire, and, after eating some of his kill, he smoked the remainder of the meat to carry with him. So he remained awake most of the night, to keep up Bets for protection and to watch the strips of smoking esh. Some time after daybreak, when the sun began to pene- trate to the bottom of this deep glen, Lorring packed his partially cured meat in his coat, tied the sleeves about his neck, and started on again, “ : e proposed to climb the eastern side of the basin and to keep on easterly; for he plainly saw that he would never be able to get over the huge range to the southward. He had not traversed twenty rods, however, when he came to a small swampy place. Instead of going around this he attempted to cross it, for there were trees at varl- ous intervals and he did not think it could be very miry- And he was right as to that last belief. But as he stum- bled and slipped on from® hummock to hummock he. sud- denly made a misstep. He lost his footing and slid down a slimy tree root into a dark hole. oe The opening of the hole was not moré than three feet % NEW BUFFALO across. Perhaps the moss and grass usually covered the aperture entirely. But the edge of the hole slid away under him, and he dropped straight down for at least ten feet. He landed all right. He was not hurt in the least, only muddied, for he had landed in a heap of shifting, wet - The water from the swamp above dripped all about im. But it was dark down here, and the startled traveler could not see what he was about. He struggled to regain a standing posture, however, and took one forward step in the dark. Then—the whole earth seemed to fall away from him. The well was bottomless—or so it seemd. Lorring landed upon his back and skated down a dark chute at such speed that he lost his breath as well as his sight. Under him, he dimly realized, was a glasslike, slimy sheet’of rock—the bed of a natural chute worn perfectly smooth by the action of water that had drained away by this sloping passage through zons of time. ; His speed, the length of the passage, and—above all—the fear of what would happen to him when he reached the end of it, fairly deprived Jack Lorring of his senses. CHAPTER IX. THE CASTAWAY. He landed. The very fact that he knew he had reached the bottom of that awful slide was sufficient to bring Jack Lorring completely to his senses. By good rights he should have been dashed to pieces in the fall—or so it seemed to the confused man. And then he realized that he was no longer in the dark and he opened his eyes and glared about him. He lay upon a heap of wet sand. Inded, his feet had been thrust deeply into the pile when he landed. Above and behind him was the tunnel through which he had been shot. He could not reach it—he saw that at a glance; and even had he been able to creep up the sheer ten-foot wall to the dark opening, he knew that he would ae been unable to crawl up the glassy surface of the chute. “T swear I didn’t aim to get here,” murmured the star- tled desperado. “And, by the way, where am 1?” He heard the roaring of water. It came from below him. Across some kind.of chasm was a high, barren wall of rock. It seemed to reach up into the very clouds them- , selves. ’ Then he saw that at his back was another towering wall. Above was a strip of deep-blue sky. “The cafion!” groaned Lorring. Before he struggled to his feet and got out of the sand he knew where he was. And the utter hopelessness of his situation stabbed the man to the core. After more than a week in the wilderness, and ‘after’ overcoming the redskins and escaping manifold other per- ils, A mere misstep had plunged him into a place from which he had every reason to believe there was no escape. — He knew as much as any man at Cimaroon Bar did od the famed Lost River. No man had ever been known to go down the stream. Certainly no man had ever done so and returned to tell the tale. The roar of the river was an undertone of sound that one could not shut out. What must the noise of it be when the flood was at its height? Lorring saw that he had landed upon a broad shelf some: ten yards above the present level of the stream. The cafion here was at least a sixteenth of a mile wide. The bed seemed quite smooth, for no spurs of rock thrust their points above the surface of the water; but the water itself was foam-streaked and murky. In a swift procession, logs, great trees, masses of. tan- gled branches, and reeds—all the drift of a swift river— swept past his position. He saw that there was no footing at the water’s edge for him. But a barren and broken tree had grounded against this wall, and some of the branches, from which the bark hung in rags, stretched over his head as ‘he stood upon this shelf. He had a space fifty feet long and thirty feet broad i i Sa tit altel nist ule Sa als BILL WEERUY: 12 on which to walR about. He realized that it would be utterly impossible for him to climb up the wall at his back; it was really a huge, sheer crag, overthrusting the shelf on which he was confined, and all of fifteen hundred feet in. height. “Down and out!” he muttered, flinging himself upon the sand heap. “I’ve got a hot chance for my life here. I can either starve to death or wait for the next flood, which will drown me out.” He drew the gun from his belt. It was not hurt in the least. He still possessed the cartridges. / “Well,” he sighed, “I can choose my own time for dying, after all.” o But when he came to look the matter over, death did not seem so near. Of course, escape was another matter. But he found the half-smoked venison intact. There was dry wood within reach, too. He proceeded to build a fire after a bit, and he resmoked the strips of flesh saved to ek There was no need of giving up the fight too easily. Suddenly he found it growing exceedingly dark. He- had started late that morning from his camp in the basin of the ancient lake which undoubtedly had drained away | through the tunnel down which he had skated with so much precipitation. It was past meridian when he landed upon this shelf, but he had spent little more than three hours here. Now night was coming. The shadows had crept up and up the sides of the cafion. He could no longer see the river—could only hear it roaring past. Gloom settled into the bottom of the cafion like a pall. And it came so suddenly ! Lorring gazed up at the strip of sky. For a little he feared that his trials and privations had brought him to actual madness. wets The strip of sky was dotted with faint stars. Brighter and brighter they grew, though seemingly very, very dis- tant. The belt of star-flacked sky looked as though the day had leaped suddenly from mid-afternoon to midnight. But then he got.a grip on himself. He remembered where he was—at the bottom of this high-walled chasm. The day was very short indeed down here. The far- ther down Lost River Cafion one went, the shorter the day would seem. Only at midday did the sun really shine to the bottom of the abyss. Most of the time the castaway would be in complete darkness. And it was a fear-inspiring darkness. He could not sleep all the time. And if he kept a great fire burning for heat, and for company as well, how long would his fuel last ? He had not noticed much drift below -this shelf; only that tree that was lodged here. And he had no instru- ment with which to break up the larger branches. Jack Lorring’s nerves were on edge again. And little wonder. He had been through enough during the past two weeks to break down the self-control of the coolest man. What Indians and wild beasts and starvation and the perils of the wilderness had not done to him, this plague of darkness did. i When he realized just what it meant—that he would be buried in the gloom of the cafion’s bed for probably eighteen hours of the twenty-four—the man went all to pieces. : Ne CEs He threw himself on the sand, bit at the ground, tore at it with his fingers until the nails bled, and blinding tears scorched his eyes while his body was shaken with sobs that he could not suppress. He was afraid of the dark. CHAPTER Xx. THE RESCUE OF THE BARON. _ ee “Now, by gorry!’* ejaculated Wild Bill Hickok, the first of the group at the bottom of the cliff to comment upon the baron’s accident. “You have managed to get us into a hole, and it looks to me as though you had pulled the hole in after you!” , 5 ea His voice carried to the baron’s ears; but that stricken German, still hugging the rock, simply groaned. fn ffl v4 tases Maat leoSite Aiea tat nai M2 elie Bh pe fee AM bit y il ae in Dias eae SO Aine iinrietey HAN ters) . eon ci at Re plore Rect Mb tnt y id NEW BUFFALO 12 “lumping horned frogs of Texas!” muttered Nick Nomad. “Was there ever er critter wi’ sech luck ez thet thar Dutch emigrant?” : “Tt looks as though he’d been a dollar in pocket, if he'd never been born,” admitted Pawnee Bill. “And wot erbout us?” demanded the trapper. “Come, boys!. No use crying over spilled milk when it's so easy to keep a cat,” said Buffalo Bill in a low voice. “No need to rag the baron.” “But, hang it all!” sputtered Wild Bill) “What are we to do? How’ll we get out of this mess?” “That's not the first question,’ returned the scout. - “Tell me what is the first, then,’ demanded the Lar- amie man. _“Er-waugh!” yelped old Nomad. Buffler.” “The baton is in-a serious predicament. to get him down from that place first.” “T don’t see but he'll have to fly, necarnis,” grumbled Pawnee Bill. “And the fust thing he knows, he'll break his derned foolish neck!” declared Nomad. : The young Piute said nothing. But, in imitation of Pa-e-has-ka, whom he so much admired, he searched the face of the cliff all about the clinging baron with the gaze of his black, piercing eyes. Below and above the narrow shelf on which the baron stood there seemed to be no footholds on the cliff. But it was plain that if the German could keep his head he might move along the shelf and reach another which stretched up toward the place where the fringe of sticks and grasses marked the site of the eagles’ aerie. In the other direction the narrow ledge ended abruptly. There wasn’t a chance of the baron’s moving that way. The Piute started along the edge of the water, his keen eyes continuing to search the wall. Beyond the eagle nest the rock was more broken. .There was a slanting ledge of rock that seemed to be wide enough for a man to trav- erse. It came to one of the wider shelves on the face of the cliff, and not more than seventy-five feet from the sur- face of the river. “See, Pa-e-has-ka! Look up—see um tree?” exclaimed Little Cayuse excitedly. | “I see,” said Buffalo Bill, who had followed his: Piute trailer closely. “Tree fixed in rock, I guess.um—heap strong,” sug- gested the Indian lad. “It looks. as though its roots were securély fastened in some crevice up there,” admitted the scout. “But that’s a long way from here, Little Cayuse—and there’s no path GOWER: soc is “Little Cayuse know that. clared the lad. “Well, open up to me. What is it?” asked the scout. The Indian, with a wealth of gesture, made his meaning plain. The idea was possibly the only feasible one in the offering. At least, it seemed so to Buffalo Bill. He hurried back to the group under the helpless baron. “Waal, Buffler, got it all figgered out?’ demanded Nick Nomad. “It looks ter me as though th’ blamed fool would palter stay up thar till Granger comes erlong ter look or us,” “Tf we had a blanket we might catch him in it,” said Wild Bill reflectively. “Not much!” exclaimed Pawnee Bill. “That's a hun- dred-foot drop at least. The weight of his body and its momentum would go right through any blanket you ever saw, Laramie—and, besides, we haven’t the blanket.” “No use bothering over impossible schemes,” said Buf- ~ falo Bill shortly. “That's right, necarnis,’ agreed the bowie man. “What's your game?” “It’s Little Cayuse’s game. But first the baron’s got to ° get a grip on himself.” Tee. up ter you, We've got Heap sumpin’ better,” de- He hailed the German, who still was facing the cliff . and plainly afraid to move. “Baron! You can’t stand there all day.” “Vale, vy nodt?’”’ demanded the German. _ pody lookin’ for mein blace?” “Move along to the right. “Iss dere any- The shelf is wider there. % BILL WEEKLY: Then, it seems to me, you can creep from that ledge to a higher one.” “All right, Puffalo Pill,’ croaked the German. “If you say dot it iss so, I vill did idt; put can I reach de end of de ladder?” jee “Not in a million years, baron!” returned the scout, with emphasis. “T shall nod lif so long,” grunted the baron. su-ah of dot, anyvay.” With a care that was almost ludicrous, despite the peril of his position, the baron edged along the shelf. It would not have seemed at all amusing to his friends, however, had they been in his position. So narrow was the ledge in’some places that when the toes of his boots touched the wall of rock his heels and spurs overhung the foothold. But he persevered. To tell the truth, at first the baron dared not glance downward. He kmew that he was on the verge of an attack of vertigo, and if it ever seized him he would be precipitated to the foot of the cliff. On and on he crept. Looking up, he saw the end of the broken cable wagging back and forth over his head. As Buffalo Bill had told him, it was entirely out of his reach. And when the ledge grew wider and he climbed up its slanting surface, sometimes on his hands and knees, and arrived on a level with the end of the swaying rope, it was still completely out of his reach. The baron, although encouraged by the shouts of his friends below, was not entirely dependent upon them for advice. He could see better than they just where to place his foot the next time. And better than they, too, he saw that it was utterly useless to try and climb higher. Nor had he anything that he might lassoo the ladder and draw it toward him. He gave up all such thoughts and moved slowly toward the stiff climb which would bring him to the edge of the aerie. And then, when he was about to climb up onto that sloping shelf, he received a most unpleasant setback. There was a hoarse croaking, and the sharp bill of a young eagle was thrust over the edge of the nest. The beak struck one of the baron’s wrists and brought blood. “Py shiminy Gristmus!” bawled the baron, ‘Vill you see dot? Efen de young pirds vish to haf me preak mein neck yedt. Himmelblitzen! _Oudt mit you!” He dragged down a piece of stick for a club and beat the eagle over the head: For several moments he had to beat the bird to make it give way. There were two of the young birds, and as soon as the exasperated baron got upon the ledge he kicked them both over the brink of the cliff. “T vish mit all mein heart dot I could kill de whole fambly of dem eakles!” cried the baron. _ “Wuh!” grunted Little Cayuse. “Heap fine bird, dem La-ca-tocks lock-a”—-white eagle—“but no good eat.” “T should say not!” said Wild Bill, grinning. “I'd rather tackle poodle-dog soup.” : The Piute shrugged his shoulder as he said: “Cha-hicks lock-a”—white man—‘“no eat dog; dog good eat—heap better rabbit.” Meanwhile the baron, having rested a moment ou the wider ledge where the eagles’ nest was, and overlooking what lay beyond, started down the sloping ledge, which ended twenty-five or thirty feet lower on the face of the ie The baron did not know then, however, that it ended there. He scrambled down and finally came to the crevice where the tree grew. It was a thrifty tree, and its drop- ping limbs stretched far out from the face of the cliff. Its roots were securely fastened in the earth which, 1 the ages past, had dropped from the top of the cliff into this crevice, ; “What does it look like up there, baron?” demanded oy am Buffalo Bill from the foot of the wall. “Vale,” drawled the baron, “idt does nod look like | vould go me mooch farder yedt.” “The shelf stops there?” Bon “Idt iss proke shordt off,” declared the baron. “Some- pody has remofed idt, yes.” ; He could joke still; but the situation must have made him very anxious. He looked the place and slowly shook his head. re Eat pital) “I dell you, Puffalo Pill,” he shouted, “idt iss de chump- in’-off blace—yes! Undt I don’t vant to chump.’ “But that’s about what you’ve got to do, baron!” cried the scout. “Vos iss?” cried the other, in startled surprise. “You'll have to jump if you want to get down.” “Ach, himmelblitzen ! Den idt iss goot-py to de Baron Villum von Schnitzenhauser.” “We'll hope not,” returned Buffalo Bill, tell you and we will save you yet. “Vale, Puffalo Pill,” grumbled the baron, “I haf peen in some preddy tough blaces alretty, but dey vas none of dem like dis.” “Well, a new experience ought to interest you,’ Wild Bill cheerfully. “Shiminy ! baron, in some heat. ‘‘Put vait till you iss hangin’ mit de eyelits to a blace like dis—den it vill pe me dot laugh!” “You couldn’t find another man in the whole United States that would get into such a foolish predicament, ” returned Pawnee Bill. “Vait!” growled the: baron, eningly. “Well, we won't wait long for you,” called up the scout. “You've got to do as I say, baron, if you want to get down from there.” “But I vill pe killed alretty—killed deadt!—if I champ." “No. We will save you.’ “How iss dot?” demanded the baron. “Climb out on that tree. Follow the limb that hangs’ over the river,’ commanded Buffalo Bill. “Put iff dot limb preaks—vot den?” “You leap as far as you can. Be sure and come down in the river. The Piute is going in with Nomad’s lariat around his waist, and he will seize you when you drop into the water.” “Say! Does idt look as easy to do from down dere as you say idt?” cried the baron, in surprise. “Of course it’s easy!’ shouted Wild Bill. “Vale, lL vish you might see vot idt iss lookin’ like from oop here,” groaned the baron. But he proceeded to put the plan into execution. A more imaginative man might have completely flunked at this point, for, despite the encouragement of his friends, it was plain that the plan was a desperate one. If the limb broke—if he fell short Indeed, halt a dozen things might happen to make the leap a deadly one for the baron. But nobody could accuse the Bars Schnitzenhauser of cowardice. He carefully removed his coat, then his boots, wrapped the latter in the former, and dropped both over the edge of the shelt on which he was standing. But he did not glance down while the bundle was falling. Then he proceeded to climb the leaning tree. The roots were indeed gripped deep in the rock. The limb in ques- tion really overhung the water. And the river was thany feet deep right at the edge of the shelf on which Buffalo Bill and his companions stood, If the baron cleared the strip of shore and plunged: feet first into the water, he would have a good chance for life. But if there was any slip-up in the plan——— The Piute stripped, and Nomad tautened the noose about the Indian’s body under his arms. The Piute was ready “Do just.as I ’ shouted dane his head threat- 3 | to leap, and below the spot where the baron must naturally come down. “Let her go, baron!” yelled Buffalo Bill. Taught to obey, the imperiled German did not hesitate. He swung his legs from the limb; he lowered himself as ) far as he dared upon the branch. "His feet hung over the water. . “Am [| right 7 he asked faintly, not daring to look down. “Let her come!” nes his friends. And the baron “let her come!” His rotund body dropped dike a cannon ball, splashed into the river, and he kept on going down as though he had no intention of ever stopping. Little Cayuse dove, “however, at just the right moment. ‘ . He grabbed the baron by the collar of his shirt before the latter had stopped descending toward the rocky bed of the 3 roaring river. NEW BUFFALO You fellers can laugh, aind’t idt?” said the © Nomad. Bei rn AR ATP SSA maRANRL hoes oS ART Aelia abi he MaDe Si ARS RE GL tht a i A 8 AnD a i A ee Bi. 13 WEEKLY. Struggling together, they came to the surface in half a minute. The others laid hold with Nomad and drew the two ashore. In another minute the baron was lying flat on his. back upon the rocks, staring up at the high shelf from which he had sprung. “Ach, himmelblitzen!” he murmured. vos oop dere?” “It was some consarned Dutchman!” growled Nomad. “And this chile never expected ter see ye erlive erg’in !” “Vale, issn’t dot vonderfulness?” croaked the baron, “I did not oxpect to see meinselluf down here alife yedt— aind’t idt?” “Vas idt me dot CHAPTER . XI. ' THE GOLD ROBBER. But while all this had been going on, Buffalo Bill’s mind had been fastened likewise to another problem. The baron’s life had fortunately been saved. But at what cost? While they were getting the baron down from the cliff the man or men who had cut the sacks of gold free from the mule’s saddie were making their escape. The fact that the party was down here on the riyer’s edge, without provision or apparent means of surmounting the cliff, “cut no ice’ with the scout, either. “Look over your guns, boys,” he commanded. “Let the baron lie here and rest his bones, if he will; we've got other work to do.” “Wuh!” grunted Little Cayuse, already struggling into his shirt. “Me ready, Pa-e-has-ka.” “By th’ jumpin’ horned frogs o’ Texas!” exclaimed Nick “I dern near forgot wot we come down yere for. Wot's th’ need, Buffler?” “By gorry, that’s so!” said Wild Bill. “There must have been something of moment When you hollered for us.” “And there is something of importance to do now,” declared Buffalo Bill, covery he and Pawnee Bill and the Piute had made. “The gold gone!” ejaculated Wild Bill. “And sartain sure them eagles didn’t steal it,” Nomad. agreed ~ “You can bet a blue stack on that, old Diamond!” de- clared Pawnee Bill, laughing. “Some husky fellow car- ried those gold sacks away.” “And it looks as _though he had carried them beyond that elbow in the cafion,” added Buffalo Bill. “There may be more than one of the robbers—and they still may be down here. We've got to get after them.” “And we've got to hustle,’ said Pawnee. how dark it’s getting, necarnis ?” “T sure do. before long.” “By gorry, ain't you jest right!” observed Wild Bill, examining his pistols. your work done to-night.” The scout waited no longer, pis started down the rocky shore. They strung out behind him, and evén the baron, with a weary grunt, struggled to his feet and limped after them. It was growing chill as the night approached, and the baron’s wet garments promised him a cold if he did hot keep moving. The darkness was falling fast at the level af the river, just as Pawnee Bill had pointed out. The scout led the way, and within twenty minutes he was at the sharp turn in the cafion wall beyond which lay—— Tet was the puzzle! What or who was around that turn: The water roared here like a_ cataract. great whirlpool beyond the elbow in the cafion, and in it, as the men came cautiously over the rocks, they could see logs and drift of all kinds whirling in a devil’s dance in, the dim light. The grinding of log against log, sharp reports as tree. limbs were snapped off, and the scraping of the drift stuff along the edge of the rocks drowned all other sounds. The shore continued, even wider than they had already found it, beyond the elbow. And this. shore. was strewn with driftwood cast out of the whirlpool. ,, oe iets i Nth A ay Ass idan Pn ici than he hs thn AHA My A Wa ait DRC nth aie ws sie hn fest Rt An Pinca ih core Re itm_ and he explained briefly the dis- “Do you see Tt will be night down here in this hole — ' ‘Lead on, Pard Cody, if you want ede was “a NEW BUFFALO 14 “Right good place for an ambush, necarnis,” whispered Pawnee Bill. ~ “You are just right, Gordon!” was the reply. “And I swear I don’t see any path up the chr.” “It’s getting dark. We can’t see anything soon.” ‘But the wall of the cafion seemed quite as sheer here as it was where Buffalo Bill and his comrades had de- scended. How had the man, or men, who took the sacks of gold reached the level of the river? “IT tell ye jest wot et is, Buffler,’” drawled Nomad. “We're likely ter git potted ef thar’s anybody yere, wi’ our stumblin’ around in th’ dark. An’ ef thar ain't nobody yere, we'll break our shins fer nothin’. Better camp right yere an’ wait for daylight.” , “And’a good long wait it will be,” grumbled Wild Bill. But their leader saw the wisdom of this. Whatever, or whoever, had lifted the six thousand dollars’ worth of gold dust could not be found in the dark. They selected the lea of a pile of rubbish, and Nomad chopped up some dry wood for a fire. Not that-they had a thing to cook, but it was going to be very cold down here by the river before morning, and at least two of them had been dipped in the cold water. Of course the fire would reveal to any enemy where they were camped, but they did not expect to be disturbed. Whoever had lifted the gold would probably not reveal themselves uselessly. Buffalo Bill and his party settled themselves for a quiet night. “Of course Granger will be up there at the top of the cliff in the morning some time,” said the scout, “and he’ll find out mighty soon that the ladder has been broken. “We'll hail him and tell him what to do. He can get another length of cable on in a day or two. At any rate, ® he can lower us some provisions on a small line.” ‘ “And that same will come in handy,” grunted Hickok. “If the baron was going to perform one of his idiotic tricks, he might have warned us so as we could have -grubbed up.” “Py shiminy Gristmus!” gabbled the baron. “You vill pelieve me, Vild Pil, ven I dell you dot I haf no intention off shooding de rope in pieces—no, sir!” “Well, nobody axed -ye ter come down yere, anyway,” said Nomad. ‘Ye aire allus puttin’ yer foot in it.” “Vale, meppeso you t'ink I did idt apuppose?” snarled the baron. “It -doesn’t matter, baron,” drawled Pawnee Bill, “whether you intend to do a thing or not; it never does matter. The fact is, if there’s a chance to make a bull, you're the lad to make it. Id hate to start for the gates - of paradise with you!” The baron subsided at this; and, with one man left awake for guard, the others were soon sleeping more or less peacefully in the warmth of the fire. It was Pawnee Bill who had the last watch. Already the sky above the cafion was all of a pink glow, and the _ stars were quenched; but down here at the level of the Toaring river the shades still lay deep. There was a dank mist, too, and, after throwing more fuel on the fire, the bowie man began to pace up and*down beyond the camp on a strip of sand. Out of the mist there came a sound which puzzled the plainsman. _ Was it a footstep on the rock? He went forward to investigate, drawing one of his guns as he did so, The noise was repeated, but at first he could see nothing in the fog. - It was growing lighter, however, although the mist was not dissipated. The wraiths of white mist were disturbed by the morning breeze, nevertheless, and this wavering of the uncertain shapes caused the plainsman to hesitate and raise his*gun several times to draw bead upon what might be a living creature.. There! On a rock before him—a bowlder of some size —a figure suddenly seemed set, a gigantic phantom of the mist. 2 ( : : It wavered to and fro; it bowed and danced and went through acrobatic exertions that held Pawnee Bill in his tracks for fully a minute. “Deserted Jericho!” muttered the bowie man. “It must be one of Nick Nomad’s whiskizoos! Have I got ’em?” Fle was tempted to fire—not that he believed there was BILL WEEKLY. anything on top of the rock, but the clinging, gyrating wraith of the mist. But ‘suddénly a hollow, mocking laugh rang out, . The sound stunned Pawnee Bill, and for some moments he really could not have crooked his finger on the trigger of the gun he held. ; The light was growing: The figure assumed more dis- tinct outlines. “On-she-ma-da!” whispered Pawnee Bill. thing; it’s—it’s a man!” He spoke the words aloud. The figure seemed to ex- pand, leap toward him—and then he heard a scraping of boots upon the rock. “Come down here, whoever: you are!” yelled the excited plainsman, and he fired. At that moment the mist was whisked away by the breeze. The gyrating figure disappeared. But the last glimpse Pawnee Bill caught of it made him confident that he had shot ‘wildly at a human being. The explosion of the pistol awakened his comrades, and, as the plainsman fell back, they surrounded him. “What’s the matter, Gordon?” demanded Buffalo Bill, “Had a nightmare?” “A mighty realistic one, if it was!” grunted Pawnee Bill. “I thought I saw a man——” “In this fog?” exclaimed Hickok. “It was a ghost.” “Wuh! Heap whiskizoo,” muttered Little Cayuse. “No nonsense, now!” said Pawnee Bill sharply. “There’s somebody about here besides ourselves.” “And we expected that,” returned Buffalo Bill. “Idt iss vot ve iss lookin’ for—yah!” cried the baron. “Now, look here!” whispered Buffalo Bill. “I'll take Gordon’s word for it. He saw somebody. He shot at somebody. We must sweep this narrow shore and find out who it is.” “It’s a queer-acting critter, whoever he is,” said Pawnee Bill. .“T-know I didn’t hurt him. I heard him laugh, and I heard his boots rattling on the rocks.” “No ghost, then,” said Hickok, with a grin. “They don’t wear boots, I understand.” The mist was growing thinner; the wind was blowing it away. Sure that the figure—who or whatever it was— had not passed them, the little band set off southerly along the shore. ‘There were enough of them to sweep the strip, as Buffalo Bill suggested, from the cafion wall to the edge of the river. They heard nothing for some minutes; then there was a faint shout in advance. “There’s the fellow!” cried Pawnee Bill. “What did I tell you?” “There should be,more than one, then,” returned the scout. “Or who is he shouting to?” : There was nobody to answer this query, and they pressed on, the light increasing and the mist being rapidly dis- sipated. Suddenly ‘there sounded a splashing and floundering in the river. “Somebody’s fallen in—I swear!” cried Wild Bill. They were past the great whirlpool, but it did not seem possible that anybody. would deliberately jump into the stream. Now and then a log or raft of branches drifted past them. They saw no indication of a boat of any kind. Ge it was not five minutes ere Buffalo Bill himself lifted his voice in a great shout of surprise. They came abruptly to the end of the strip of shore. The mist still hid what lay beyond, at a distance of , twenty yards. On the sand were the marks of boots, and it seemed as though a boat—or some vessel—had been boarded at this point. : “Have a care, boys,” warned the scout. “How many were there of these fellows, Little Cayuse? Take a look yourself, Nick.” . The Piute and the trapper obeyed, while the others gath- ered about Buffalo Bill on a broad, flat rock out of the way. “A boat down here in this cafion!” ejaculated Hickok. “What d’ye think of that?” “No boat could live in this river,” declared Pawnee Bill. “Unless idt vas a steampoad,” croaked the baron. “And that’s very likely indeed,’ sneered Hickok. “A steamboat !” “It’s some- ‘NEW BUPFFALO- Whoever it was got away, all right,” aid Butfalo ‘Bill: * “And. with the gold,” suggested Pawnee. “Can't be a doubt about that,” agreed-the. scout. Nomad got up froi his knees: with a Brunt: “97° - “Br-waugh!~ Warn’t but one man stepped yere, Buf- fler. _Thet thar Vl swear-to. Wot. say, Little: Cayuse?” “Wuht* Nomad heap: right,” agreed the Pitte. man, Pa-e-has-ka At that Pawnee Bill leaped forward and: examined the. tracks himself.. He-showed considérable excitentent. “Know what I think, necarnis?” he cried: a hat’s the matter, ‘Lillie ?” queried Buffato. Bill. ‘I remember. the actions of this fellow I fited at. He was all alone for sure, and he didn’t act like a sane man. “Um big. 15 BILE “WEEKLY. "Say !” drawled Pawnee Bill: “He isn't. too” crazy to know gold when he sees it, eh?” “Right you are, Gordon,” proclaimed Buffalo’ Bill. “And what will: he do with it; Now he's® ‘got it?” de- manded Hickok, “AW hat’ $ more imnpd#tant,” going 10 set it?” * He tT fight,” said ‘Nomads “And: he.is sure poekleea” “We've got to ‘save him, too,” said Buffalo Bill thought- fully. “The poor’ fellow doesn’t - know what he’s about. said ‘the: scout “how are we it’s wonderful how, he could have drifted Se) far down the Can it be possible that Big Jake lived fo get down here |. this fare? “By gorry !” shouted Wild Bill. Pawnee!” “Betchu got if-tight, They were all stricken with the reasonableness. of the idea. Yet it did not seem that the half- mad miner could have lived to descend the rapids. Buffalo Bill was silent. had them.to his eyes. The mist was melting very rapidly. from’ the face of the river. Something was looming up dow nstream and near the basé of the cafion wall. .-.' “An island or another strip of shore, Gordon,” tered the scout. “I see it more clearly ‘now. It looks-—— By Jove! There’s something moving!”. Suddenly the. mist ae whisked away... “They all saw what Buffalo Bill had been figuring out,” A rocky. attach- . ment-of the cafion wall, a sort of promontory at least ‘fifty. feet high,.was thrust into the river, The water roared “about it/in an ugly, white- crested surf. But it was the moving object on the rocks that attracted _ their attention. A figure seemed to be toiling up out ‘of the broken water at the foot of the promontory. It was the figure of a man. “By the shades of Unk-te-hee!” ejaculated Pawnee Bill, “Thats big enough to be Jake Hentz himself, necarnis.” “You're right, Pawnee,” cried Wild Bill. ~~ Buffalo Bill turned and shut the glasses with a snap. “Tt is the crazy miner, boys,” he said,-“and on his shoul- der, I.am sure, he cafries at least one of the” gold sacks.” The next moment the mysterious man disappeared be-_ bial a iipsphoates on that distant shore; CHAPTER. XI THE RAFT. He had unslung his glasses and mut- . cafion.’ “But how are we poing to get fron Kove over here, necarnis?”’ demanded Pawnee Bill, nodding toward the ‘pile of rocks where Big Jake had disappeared. The spot in question was all of an eighth of a mile away. Betweéh was some pretty tempestuons- -looking water, and the surf about the pile of rocks where the giant had landed promised to wreck any kind Or a crate, that _tried to touch there. ‘the baron behind again. “at last. He was bent undér some heavy burden. © The famous scout and: his comrades were. not ‘alone amazed at the last. discovery. _ They were puzzled and troubled as ‘well. How could Big Jake, who had disappeared down the cafion upon a saw log, refusing in his madness the assist- ance offered him by Pawnee Bill, have escaped the dan- gers of white water and whirlpools, and arrived at. this particular strip of beach upon which the Chinaman’s mule and its saddle of gold had fallen? It seemed uncanny. It was really unbelievable. Yet there was no other person in sight. There was no trace of another man on the beach where Buffalo Bill and his comrades were marooned. And the footprints on the sand proclaimed the fact that Jake had been alone: His huge boots could not be mis- taken, now that they had caught the momentary glimpse of the big fellow on the farther island. “But how in the name of thunder did he get there?” cried Wild Bill Hickok. “We heard him launch some kind of a boat,” nee Bill weakly. . “Undt idt iss here vare he did it yedt,” murmured the aron. “Great Scott !” exclaimed Buffalo Bill. “It was nothing but a log. He came downstream on a log, and by some gueer chance was wrecked on this strip where we stand.” “And found the bags of dust.. Er-waugh!’ yelped Nomad. ee “That's of course,’ * ‘said Hickok, “And then ‘he’ delib- erately. set sail again on-a-similar: log?” ‘It looks like it. Pawnee’s shot scared him,” Buffalo Bill, - said Paw- said iis ‘ fhe ot 4 Even the log that Big Jake must. have sailed on had disappeared. “What one half- crazy. herliter like thet thar managed | ter do we fellers wi’ our wits erbout us oughter manage,” said Nomad thoughtfully, “What say, Buffler?” “I agree with that, Nick,” said the scout, with a smile. “And we gotter build some sorter craft ter take. ‘us all over thar,” pursued. the trapper. “You bet !” exclaimed Hickok. “Tt won’t do to leave Hed get into trouble if his hands were tied.” “Himmelblitzen!” roared the baron, losifig his temper “You fellers all make me sick yedt!’ Meppeso I get meinselluf indo dr-rouples alretty; put I eit out of dem dr-rouples—dond’t 1? Say— -dond’t ig? “Now, don’t get into’ a passion,” said Pawnee’ “Bill, ae will age you before your time, baron. And just. How. we haven't time to-fool with you. ’What’s the play, necarnis 2” “Nomad is right, _ A rait is the thing,” said Buffalo » Bil; “and 4 reckon. we: can find the material for one,’ “There are plenty of logs,” said. Hickok, But how will we hold. ’em together?” ” “That's. where the baron’s- adventure comes in: “handy,” remarked Pawnee Bill, smiling. ae -“How’'s that?” demanded Hickok. . “The broken end of the © rope ladder,” bowie man. “Good point, Gordon!” observed Buffalo Bill” ‘approv- ingly. “And you and the baron, with the Piute, can go afier that cable, if you will. We coiled it down ‘carefully yesterday at the foot of the eli? The party separated... While the three were after. the tope, Buffalo Bill, Nomad, and the Laramie man selected "explained _the several logs from the number thrown upon the shore near the whirlpool. They floated the first one down tothe end of the strip of beach where it was plain Big Jake had launched his log when he escaped that morning. The log was eightcen or twenty inches in diameter at its butt, and mot much smaller at the upper end—a section of a very tall, straight tree, When Pawnee Bill and his party returned with the rope, “they floated a second log down beside the first, fasteried an end of the rope around the first log, and then took a turn around the second to hold it in place. The logs were not‘ exactly of the same length, but that did not mate- ‘ gially. matter. A third log was cast adrift, but they lost it—-and tect more care with the fourth. This they managed to -get beside the other-two, and fastened it with a turn of the heavy rope. Butythe other end of the logs began to spread “apart, “Cut a length off. the rope and fasten there, too! yy com- manded Buffalo Bill, and Nomad and the Piute sprang to obey the order. The suction of the ‘stream was very great, and more than once they almost lost the raft before it was really ready. Four logs completed it. each other because of the binding rope. struction was naturally loose. The logs did not aiilte touch -And the con- {0 Mc mntcho as ith lB inthe Big! RR 9 teen Gh Paani Ras thin hh Meh Reais AAs 16 - However, three sections of. the: rope were. used, binding the logs together in the middle and at either end: - The raft offered a more or less permanent foothold for-the arty. : ~ Meanwhile, they had seen nothing of Big Jake—if his was really the figure they saw disappear upon the other strip of rock early that morning. — . “And he sure hasn't climbed the wall,” said Pawnee Bill reflectively. ‘“There’s no more chance of doing that there than here. The cliff gets higher and higher the far- ther down the cafion we go, too.” --“T know that,” said his pard Buffalo Bill anxiously. “But I am banking on Granger coming to our rescue. And we must save Hentz if we can, poor fellow!” “Granted,” said Pawnee. “But suppose, when we get onto this raft, the blamed thing gets away from us—or it breaks up in the current?” “We have those chances to take, Gordon,” cia the scout gravely. “On-she-ma-da! You're a cool one, Cody. All right, stivver ahead. Where you go I shan’t be afraid to fol- low, necarnis.” They found several long poles, although it would be impossible to use them to navigate with, for the river was too deép in most places. But with the poles they might tend the raft off from dangerous rocks. Buffalo Bill explained that he proposed to let. the raft slp around the outthrust of rock on which they believed Big Jake Hentz to be, until they saw quiet water—some place where the raft could be grounded without the dan- ger of smashing it to pieces. “And it will be no easy job to manage it, pards,” Buffalo Bill. “But nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Then they all got aboard and launched the logs away frem the rocky shore. said CHAPTER - XIII, DOWN THE RIVER. _ With a wae, uncertain motion, the raft sind ‘Although Buffalo Bill and his comrades “said very little -about it, they all realized that the risk they were taking t6.save the half-mad miner was very great. It was not the gold that tempted them to do this thing. None of them would have deliberately risked his life for the mining company’s gold dust. But Big Jake Hentz was in peril, and they set bravely forth to rescue him, if possible. When Granger came to the summit of the cliff where they had descended, he would quickly see that the ladder was broken. A little scrutiny would assure him that his friends were not below where the ladder broke, and he would hasten along the brink of the cafion wall until he spied them. To shift the ladder, add another length or more to it, and let it down upon the pile of rock where the party hoped to be landed in a few moments would be compara- tively an easy matter for Granger. However, at the moment the attention of the whole party was given to the movement of the raf It moved slowly at first; then the water began to mur- mur against the logs, and those upon the raft felt that the vessel was seized by the strong clutch of the current. Near the cafion wall, however, the grip of it was not so masterly. Here seemed to be a sort of backwater be- tween the strip of beach from which they had pushed off to the pile of rocks on which they hoped to find Big ie in hiding. But the surf beat with fury-on the end of the pile of rocks they were approaching. “Doesn't. look much like a happy ending to our voyage, nécarnis,” suggested Pawnee Bill. “Pend off, boys! Fend off!” shouted the scout. Those who had poles did his bidding. They pushed the rolling raft of logs away from the black frocks, which would certainly have torn it to pieces had it struck. The current bore them down upon these surf-bordered rocks. Undoubtedly Big Jake’s log- had smashed upon ‘them. But the giant had Senn managed to -land in safety. ‘ the As they pushed around upon the side, however, : NEW ‘BUFFALO “BILL WEEKLY. current. seemed less strong, and suddenly there opened before them a little cove—a cove partially sheltered from the main Current; or so it seemed. - The-end of the logs ground. upon a strip of sand at the farthef side of the cove. Here the raft swung, the current beating against its outer end, but unable to. dis- lodge it. Suddenly there was a hoarse shout, and the men on the raft lookéd up. A huge figure, in ragged clothing and with flaming eyes, stood upon an eminence almost. over the raft. “Big Jake!” they shouted. It was without doubt the half-mad miner from Cim- aroon Bar. In his hairy hands he held a piece of rock poised above his head. Wild Bill pulled a gun quickly, but the scout shouted: “Don’t hurt him if you can help, boys! Remember his condition !” Smash came the rock down upon the raft. was hurt. Big Jake, with a scream, disappeared. Pawnee Bill leaped ashore, and the Piute followed him. ' “He may chuck away that gold!” cried the bowie man hoarsely. “We gotter catch him, necarnis!” Pawnee was up the steep ascent and disappeared in an instant. Trailing him went Little Cayuse and Wild Bill. They scrambled over the rocks and quickly found the big miner. . He crouched in the bottom of a hollow, sand floored, and behind him in a crevice were the two heavy bags of gold. He seemed to know by instinct what the trio were after. He must have opened the bags, and he was not too crazy to realize the value of the spoils he had found tied to the packsaddle. Big Jake had a good-sized club for a weapon. As the trio of his antagonists dropped down to his level, he rose up and made a swipe at Pawnee Bill, which, had it ever reached him, would have put him out of business for all timeto come. But the blow fell short, and ere he could recover himself the Indian had sprung in, tackled him around the legs, and Big Jake fell. Wild Bill leaped upon him and knocked the club out of the maniac’s hand. But they could not hold the fellow. as a buffalo bull. Before they could shackle him, Big Jake rose up, shook the three, of them off him, and bounded over the rocks again toward the river. W ild Bill and Little Cayuse each But nobody He was as strong picked up a sack of gold. But, Pawnee Bill was quick after the running man. “Here he comes! Look out for him !” yelled the bowie man, as he ran. The madman made straight for the cove. He bounded down toward the raft; then, seeing that there were three enemies there, as w ell, he turned to skirt the water. It was old Nick Nomad who brought him to earth, how- ever. The trapper had his lariat in his hands, and, quick y coiling it, he threw the noose over Big Jake’s head as he passed. He and the baron lay batk on the line, which, when it tightened around Big Jake’s body, cast the miner to the ground. In the fall the miner struck his forehead on a rock, and there he lay, quite still for the moment. They. sprang 07 him in haste, a Nomad quickly bound him with the rest of the lariat. While Buffalo Bill turned back to meet Hickok and the Piute with the sacks of gold, Nomad and the baron dragged Big Jake to the raft and cast him aboard. _tey! !” cried Pawnee. “What’s that for?” ‘Vi a demanded the baron. “Vare vill ve pud him —yes? “Hey, Cody!” shouted Pawnee. “What shall we do now?.: You don’t ‘want to set sail for any other port on Lost River, do you?” “IT think we have gone far enough, Gordon,” replied his friend. “Why?” Wild He stepped aside to speak with the bowi ie man. Bill and Little Cay use kept on to the raft. They the sacks aboard. tossed ame 0 “By th’ horned frogs o’ Texas!” ejaculated. Nomad sud- denly.. “Looker this. yere!” ce aes as He had been kneeling beside Big Jake to see how badly he was hurt. Chancing to raise his eyes, he beheld a huge log charging downstream and aimed. directly for the open cove in which the raft rested. ae The trapper’s cry awoke them all, and instantly the dan- ger was apparent to all hands. og Buffalo Bill and Major Lillie leaped for the raft. Wild Bill and the baron each picked up a pole and tried to push the raft around so that the coming log would not collide with it. For a minute they all worked at cross purposes. Ordi- narily they worked like clockwork together, but this: was one occasion when they did not do so.’ Had they taken the unconscious miner and the gold ashore—had neither the sacks nor the miner been put aboard the raft at all—the matter would have been simple. But there wasn’t time, after ‘Nomad’s warning, to get themselves, the helpless man, and the gold ashore. Instead, when Buffalo Bill and Pawnee Bill leaped upon the raft, Hickok and the baron had already got it afloat. “Took out for that log! Once more!” yelled Hickok, and gave anothér mighty shove. The raft just escaped the charging log. But, dipping perilously, and turning slowly with head downstream, the raft and its freight of human beings was gripped by the stronger current. 3 eee “Easy, boys! Swing it in again. We don’t want to voy- age farther!” cried Buffalo Bill. They might have retarded the drift of the raft and worked it back to the rocks, had it not been for one thing. The huge log that had first threatened them smash against the shore with a crash like that of a thunderclap. Then its end began to swing downstream. ‘ The raft lay in its way. It might have been crushed between the huge stick of timber—all of four feet through —-and the rocks, They. were obliged to push out again. The current was now tugging at the raft, as though determined to have it and its freight in mid-stream. cae And the current won! Wy S There was no escape for the party: Escaping. the huge stick of timber by a hairbreadth, the raft swung full into the stream, The giant grip of the current seized upon it. “We're off!” shouted Pawnee Bill, flinging down his pole. “Ve vill all pe drownded!” gasped the baron, horror- stricken. i “Hold hard, everybody!” cried Buffalo Bill. “Steady! Keep your poles in hand to fend off. We don’t want to add shipwreck to our other troubles.” oe The raft swung completely around and then headed downstream. Not until it was headed right and was in mid-current did they realize how fast Lost River tore through the cafion toward the cavern under the mountain where it finally disappeared. CHAPTER XIV. THE CRUSOE OF THE CANON. Jack: Lorring, gambler and bad man, who probably had never before discovered that there was a weak spot in the armor of his courage, now knew that he was afraid. Alone and helpless, at the foot of the chute down which he had skidded with lightning rapidity, and overhanging the current on Lost River, he learned what it meant to be in the dark! : : Down here the night was at least eighteen hours in length. He would only be able to move about a short time in each day. 2 He harked back now to his attack upon the redskin who had trailed him with such devilish cunning. He had. put that Indian in the dark for life! And now he was having a taste of it himself. eo Tt was several hours before the Crusoe became calm. There was nothing here on the edge of the swift river to hatm him. Beasts of prey did not come here. He was entirely alone. ae ; : Yet he shuddered and sobbed like a child shut into a dark room. Even in the fitful sleep that came to him at ? ; ste At lina Wai gS. e NEW BUFFALO BILL. WEEKLY. “for that distance, at least. Barus Pir Bere Phu ate Mime feat Re: iin ra ae ah Mh I Ee A Ae Oi ted LG last, he was tortured by the thought of the long spell of ‘darkness that niust ensue before the bottom of the abyss ‘would again be illumined. ' He awoke again and again. The murk about him seemed unending. _He heard voices in the night—the cries of men drowning in the fierce flood, the leaping of huge fish. or other -water -creatures. - es ae Of course these were merely the sounds of the logs and other drift splashing by or rubbing against each other. “But Jack Lorring’s nerves were in a bad state. /Then, as he awoke time after time and saw no change in the awful darkness, he feared that he had overslept. ‘Suppose he had actually slept over the brief six hours or so of day? Then he would have to suffer another lin- _gering eighteen hours of gloom. The idea obsessed him and drove him almost mad. He got up and crept back and forth upon the small level space where he had camped. He paced back and forth, his face turned up ‘to the distant but brilliant stars. The unending hours dragged by. At last the mist rising from the river grew so thick that he could no longer see the stars. He*was cold and wet and shaking. ~ He tried to build a fire, but the wood was damp and he could not make it burn. That first night in the cafion was certainly a taste of final punishment for the desperado. At last there was a faint glimmer of light through the mist. The latter melted slowly away. The chill as of a cavern went out of the atmosphere. ‘No sun worshiper ever welcomed the orb of day with. more gratitude than Jack Lorring. As the sky lightened and the trays of the suti.stole. down the western wall of the cafion, he could have cried with joy. ‘He found dry wood then and~built another fire. Over it he Cooked»some of the flesh of the deer and ate it ray- ‘enously, without thought that the small. store. he possessed might be all that he would ever have in the line of pro- visions. . The end he could not foresee. All that he feared was the departure of the light from his prison. It did not seem to him strange at-all that he should find, while rambling over his small domain, the carcass of a mountain sheep—a full-grown ewe—that had fallen from “the cliff overhead and been dashed to death upon the rocks. The. beast was only dead a day or two, and down here where it was so cool the broken flesh had not begun to spoil, vee The outcast skinned the animal, cut away the: parts where the blood had settled, and stripped the. flesh to smoke. He spent the day that way—so busy that“his mind did not revert to the coming night. It was while he was engaged in this task that he sud- denly glanced upstream, and his gaze fastened upon a most marvelous thing. : He could see ten miles up the river. There was no elbow He had noted many trees and logs and fantastic rafts float by. But into view there had just sailed something that smote the man with wonder, if not alarm. A raft was coming down the stream, and upon it were several moving objects. They were neither birds nor wild beasts—they were human beings. Jack Lorring started to his feet and gazed under the ~sharp of his hand at the down-coming raft. Surely no men would be foolhardy enough to try. to explore Lost River in such, manner! He could not. be- lieve it. 7 on Then the thought smote him: Was it a party in search of him? vo But who would search for Jack Lorring in Lost River Cafion? Surely not his friends. None of his old cronies at Cimaroon Bar would endanger their lives for the gambler. Nor would they know he was here, cast away by~chance upon the side of the swift stream. Could it be the Indians? : Scarcely would Black Water’s. people, even for the sake of vengeance, try the river, for it was “bad medicine.” - The man strained his eyes to see what manner of men these were, sailing down the current of a stream that was believed to disappedr in a bottomless cavern under the mountain wall far to the south. a, Llc etna bei nagersate ogee emit AS TAN a Ria te Aan UR ety it ip oy os. ay eee viens Af ? a sn nai mn em tt A A AB A 5 na : 8 ee: = Pras mone achat ~*~ . “He counted seven men. He did not “at first: see. them -* clear enough to. make’ out more than ‘seven’ specks on soon it drew so-near that the startled desperado beheld. “more clearly the voyagers on the raft. = ; Nearer and nearer it came. It bore toward thé spot ” where Loring stood, for the current shifted in that direc-__ tion, “Right at the foot of this promontory was an eddy, and often the logs and other drift sailed in ‘toward the shore and turned in several solemn circles before going on owiaiteani: Oe a Te aa oe oe “TE she floats in this way, I can leap upon her,” thought the outcast. “Or 1 will jump into the water and they can Ae earaiwome aboatd, oye. onto Pea Not for-a moment did he consider that the men on the raft were worse off than he. No matter. what lay below, ' -being marooned on this shelf seemed to Lorring to be a fate to be escaped under all circumstances. He proceeded to hastily string together the Strips of half-smoked. flesh ‘he had saved. He bethought him that hunger might be staved off by the whole party with this” - supply of provision, He ran back and forth on the shelf. He marked. the ‘spot where the driftwood came nearest to the edge of the river when it swung into the eddy and circled about. Down to this spot he climbed, with his bundle of meat. He had buckled on his belt and drawn on his coat again. He was ready to leave: we ae And meanwhile the men upon the raft—at least, six of them—were making eager ‘preparations to try and tie up at that very spot that Jack Lorring so longed to desert. Buffalo Bill- and’ his friends-had floated swiftly down - Not a chance had offered for the Lost River for hours. stopping of the raft, or for their landing under either of the walls of the cafion. On sighting the figure of this man on the wide shelf, . hope revived in the breasts of the scout and his partners. Big Jake did not count. They were obliged to keep him | tied to the raft, so that he would do himself or them no harm. * The party on the raft did not recognize Jack ‘Lorring. — They never dreamed that the prisoner that had escaped “from the troopers had made-his way so far south into the wilderness and had reached the shore of Lost River. Their hope was that, because they saw this man here, there must be a way to get from the broad shelf, or prom- ontory, to the far top of the cliff on the eastern side of the cafion. : oe i - The current swerved in toward the shore. Buffalo Bill saw that as quickly as he saw anything. The party pre- pared to get ashore, just as Jack Lorring prepared to escape from-his awful captivity and reach the raft. Soon it would be dark again down here; that the wretch very well knew. Already the shadows were déscending ‘the western wall. Soon the river would be shrouded in gloom, and he would be unable -to see the raft at all. ~ He did not cry out to the men on the raft, and, although they were so close to him now, none of them recognized the desperado, Both parties were breathless with apprehension—those on the raft hoping Nomad’s single lariat would be long enough to fling ashore where they saw the unknown wait- ing, as they supposed, to seize it; Lorring himself. fearful that the raft would not swing shoreward so that he would dare cast himself into the stream and so reach it. ~ But the side current had clutched the raft. She began to swing. The eddy steered the heavy bulk of it toward -the shore. “Ahoy, there!” sang out Pawnee Bill, and poised the coiled rope for a cast. The man on shore laughed aloud. He was in the creep- ing shadow now, and they could not see his face. He swung something in his hand, »- “Stand by for the rope, brother!” shouted Pawnee Bill for the second ‘time. - But before he could throw his rope the man ashore heaved the bundle of meat outward. The package came hurtling through the air, and the man shrieked : : oo Catchuitie Caten it - NEW BUFFALO- 5 Whe Bowing Shae tk hindle cHTERC We. hekt, the, Plate ~ and. Nomad ‘stafted forward to seize it. The. meat. landed “rope! Draw us inl!” the bundle of meat on the raf “wait your cast, Gordon? . shore- BILT: WEEKLY. on the “very. edge. of ‘the raft, -and then slipped. into the But the current was hurrying the vessel on rapidly, and river. . * ~The Piute jumped ‘after it and seized’ it with one hand ‘before it could sink, while with the other hand he clung fo oné of the topes binding the logs together.. : .. |... _ “Wait!” roared the three Bills in chorus.’ “Catch the But the-excited Lorring paid no attention to their cries. He saw that darknéss would soon hide the raft from him and him from the raft, The shadow of the western wall moved faster and faster across the river. 6 With a wild shriek, Lorring leaped straight out into the tiver. The raft was half turned toward the shore. He swam with vigor toward the logs: Little Cayuse got t and then crawled out of the stream himself. . The. eddy carried the raft upstream more and~ more swiftly. . The craft had. not approached very near to the edge of the river, after all. ~: Those on the raft could see the unknown paddling des- -perately in their wake. va “The man’s mad!” cried Buffalo Bill, “Why didn't he We might have gained the A shriek came from the lips of the man in the tiver. ‘He was crying for help. The Piute, fresh .out of. the water, turned suddenly, slipped his wrist in the noose of the lariat, and- leaped “once more into the flood. He struck out strongly for the man struggling to reach the raft, which was now. headed upstream. a UR edi CHAPTER XV. : INTO THE DARK. Cie aie uagaig aie _ Little Cayuse reached a quick hand for the man in ‘the Tiver just as he was going under. ees - The Piute’s shriek was understod by Pawnee Bill; and he tugged on the line. In a minute the youth and what he had in tow were drawn up to the raft. pie on “Save me! -Save me!” murmured Jack Lorring. Nobody recognized him as he was lifted upon the taft. Nor did: he then recognize those who had saved ‘him from drowning, §- : ; Uae When Buffalo Bill demanded to know why he had leaped from the rock instead of obeying instructions and taking a line from the raft, the Crusoe of the cahon murmured unintelligibly his fears: 9-1 S ER anes us, _ He was certainly in a bad way. ~ "But so, it seemed, were the scout and his friends.. The raft swung no nearer the rocky fortress on. which Jack Lorring had been. For that. single moment, before the man had leaped into the river, a line might have been flung ashore. eh ee / Now the distance was so great again that it was useless _for the Piute to attempt carrying the end of the lariat to the bank. They had nothing with which to paddle the craft nearer. The eddy forced it to go where it listed. This was in a great, slow circle, The darkness had come upon them, too. They could. scarcely see each other’s faces. They could not see to’ fend off the other driftwood that surrounded them in this slow whirlpool. But the raft made the circuit but once. Again on the edge toward the middle of the stream, they felt the raft seized-by the stronger current, _ We're off again, necarnis!” grunted Pawnee Bill, coil- ing down Nomad’s lariat as being useless at the present. The raft almost leaped ahead. By the swaying motion they knew they were forging downstream once more. It had not been so bad; although they were quite as help- less while sailing downstream by daylight, But this sud- den dropping of the night upon them was enough to shake all their neryes, <.. ' e A wall of blackness was before them. What it contained —what peril for them—they could not imagine. _ Above, the stars had leaped to life in the narrow strip ‘of sky, although they knew it was not much more than mid-afternoon. NEW BUFFALO The man they had rescued lay on the raft and groaned. But Buffalo Bill and his partners had been through too many adventures together to show the™white feather. The uncertainty of what was ahead of them troubled their minds, but they gave little voice to their feelings. “What the dickens was this he tried to fling aboard us?” demanded Wild Bill, falling over the bundle of half- smoked mutton. “Wuh! Much eat,’ grunted Little Cayuse. “Him make La-ca-ra Kuts”—meaning “big feast.” “Something to eat!” cried Wild Bill. “Lord, man! My stomach thinks my throat’s cut! What is this eat?” : “Wuh! Chief» Wild Bill. not eat what Injun eat,” erunted Little Cayuse. “l’d eat your poodle soup now, no fear,’ declared Hickok. “Let’s strike a light, Cody.” . They did so, Buffalo Bill setting fire to a bundle of dry twigs. It was plain at once what the meat was, and it was sufficiently cooked to be eatable. The party were very thankful for.it. Pawnee Bill cut some of the meat up and they devoured it. The man who had prepared it, however, continued to lie on his face and groan. - Pawnee Bill fed some of the meat to Big Jake, but he considered that if the new member of the party wanted any he was able to get up and take it. When they addressed questions to Jack Lorring he merely groaned or muttered a reply. None of them had recognized him. : “Perhaps he’s been alone so long that he’s a little bit off his nut,” suggested Wild Bill. ‘It wouldn’t be sur- prising.” But the prostrate man had before this realized who these men were. He heard their names called; he heard them speak.- He knew that he had fallen among the very white men who would recapture him if they could. But the dark hid his identity, And the fact that ther¢ were other human beings about him aided Lorring to get a grip on himself. He was not so afraid of the dark now. He lay there and listened to the conversation of those who had saved Hit = “This is certainly a tough game we're up against, necar- nis,” said Pawnee Bill to his friend. “Where do you think were bound for?” vc “Hard telling, Gordon,’ returned the scout. “They say this Lost River goes plumb into a hole and stays there,’ grunted Hickok. “By th’ jumpin’ horned frogs o’ Texas!” growled Nick Nomad. “This ain’t no square deal—now, ye take et from this chile! I never did much mind wot kind of er thing I went up against, so long as I could see. But this yere: is the limit.” “Bad medicine down dis ribber, Pa-e-has-ka,” muttered Little Cayuse. “Bad spirits dwell in cavern. Injuns hear WIN Oak: ‘So Indians have come down this far, eh?” queried Buf- falo Bill curiously. “No; not on river, but in mountains,” said the young Piute. “T see,’ observed the scout. spirits roar, did they?” “The river roars, anyway,” muttered Pawnee Bill. “Wuh! much more sound dan ribber,” grunted Little Cayuse. “That would mean a cataract, Gordon,” said Buffalo “And they heard the bad Bill quietly. “T reckon that’s the ticket, necarnis,” admitted the bowie man. “And we are aiming right for it.” “A cataract in the-cavern, eh? Well, a feller can’t die more than once, anyway.’ “So they tell met” The others were silent. The fact that they were drifting toward certain death impressed them, but they did not comment upon it freely. Suddenly the silence that had fallen between them was broken by a prolonged and un- mistakable snore! : “The baron, or I’m a Dutchman!” exclaimed Wild Bill, and broke into a chuckle. “He’s lying fast asleep there, with his head pillowed on the gold sacks.” hm ee Aan, tee Bem with Reagan 0 Steinert (ra stag hitan e e Ale ae ABS lt Bie lth md 2 ihn 2s oh ti i See cacpltog fey tem monn as Aiba ete NL teh ac BILL WEEKLY. 19 “It looks now as though Alf Granger would never see again the clean-up the Chinaman stole,” observed Pawnee. “And there is sure six thousand dollars’ worth, I reckon, as Granger thought,’ murmured the Laramie man. The stranger, who still lay face down upon the rait, stirred. He heard these remarks about the gold dust plainly. : The desultory conversation that continued between the pards did not much interest Jack Lorring. «The idea of his being on this raft with so much wealth obsessed him. The sound of the waters grew more deafening as the raft sailed on. It seemed as though the cafion must have become very narrow, and with the walls of it rising © higher than before. They could do nothing to change the course of the rude craft, nor would they have dared ground it in the dark. Down mid-current they were whirled. Now and then a man dropped off to sleep, but only Big Jake and the baron could really remain slumbering as the roaring of the waters increased. Hours passed; the long night seemed never to end. Again and again Pawnee Bill scratched a match and looked at the face of his watch. The time began to worry him. The sky seemed to have grown overcast; the stars had disappeared, and it seemed as though a great mass of black cloud was rolling above the cafion. \ Finally he shook Buffalo Bill out of a light sleep. “What's the matter, Gordon?” asked the scout. “What time do you reckon it is, necarnis?” “Give it up. Near morning?” “It’s a quarter after eleven,” said the bowie man im- pressively. He had to put his lips close te his comrade’s head to make him hear. “Thunder! It must be later than that.” “Later? Man, dear!” cried Pawnee. “It’s a -quarter past eleven in the forenoon—or else I’ve lost run of things entirely. Aren’t we to have no daylight at all? The sun should be directly over us in less than an hour.” “No!” ejaculated Buffalo Bill. “Why (noLe: : “Rather, the sun may be nearing the zenith, but we shall not see him.” “On-she-ma-da! I’m on, necarnis,” groaned Pawnee Bill. “We are in the, cave they told us about.” “Correct, Gordon,” said his friend quietly. “And this thunder in our ears must be the great cat- aract “Te aust bey: “We're about to drop down into the bowels of the earth, then ?” “Well, we oughtn’t to give up so easily,” said Buf- - falo Bill. “Arouse’' the boys, Gordon. Let’s spring a light and see what sort of a place this cavern is.” No sooner said than done. ‘They lit several torches, and the light flashed from the roof of rock and from the dancing water. The raft was traveling at great speed. Here and‘there the cavern opened out into branch cham- bers; but these tunnels seemed filled with water, too. “Just the same, said Pawnee Bill, shouting his words - so that all could hear, “I believe we would better try to get into one of the side tunnels.” “What for?” asked Hickok. “The current doesn’t seem so swift. “Righto!” agreed the Laramie man. “Tt’s a chance, Gordon!” cried Buffalo Bill. “Up, boys! Take the poles! See if we can push this old catamaran’ into that side passage.’ There were four poles, and the men put their muscles to the work. Already the raft was drifting a bit to one side of the stronger current. They poled it carefully into the mouth of a dark tun- nel. The water seemed oily and sluggish in there. The two burning sticks held by the baron and. Little Cayuse began to illuminate the tunnel. The others poled the raft along, and the passage widened each moment. Soon they reached, apparently, a vast cave. There were reefs of rock above the stirface here. Stalactites hung from the roof, glistening in the flickering light of the poor torches, See yonder!” On that island!’ commanded Buffalo Bill. “Vonder ! oe NEW BUFFALO. '. They drove the raft toward a great flat rock, and, within sixty seconds, he and Pawnee leaped ashore. The reata was fastened to the raft and the other end carried ashore. They brought Big Jake upon the rock, too, and the stranger who had boarded them in so queer a fashion stepped off the raft. “We're not going over that cataract, anyway, whatever — else becomes of us,” said Pawnee Bill, with cheerfulness. Just then the last of the two torches flickered out. They were left in a gloom so thick that, it seemed, it might be cut into chunks. And then it was the baron who found his voice. “Loog! loog! Vill you chust loog at dot light?” he squalled. “A light? Where?” was the anxious chorus. “Right ahead yedt! See idt—see idt?” There was a hazy spot of illumination, a little above the level of the water, and apparently far, far away. But it was a steady light, and remained glowing, like a piece . of rotten wood in a swamp. CHAPTER XVI. THE STRUGGLE. The spot of light held them breathless for a moment. It was Buffalo Bill who first spoke after the baron’s cry. “That comes from outside, boys—no doubt of it. It is sunlight.” : “There’s a way out—hurrah!” shouted Wild Bill. “Hold on! Let’s take it cool,” advised Pawnee Bill. “That light is a long way from here.” “Vale, ve can pe gladt, aind’t idt?” growled the baron. “Dond’t pe a vet planket, Bawnee.” “Nobody ever called me that and got away with it, baron,” declared Pawnée seriously. “When we get out eRe I am going to demand satisfaction for that insult.” Instantly they were all in good spirits. Nomad was for at once getting aboard the raft again and poling to- ward the light. “Hold on,” said Buffalo Bill. “Little Cayuse has brought the bundle of meat. Let’s eat first. What say, brother?” And he poked the silent stranger. The latter only muttered something and moved away. He refused to eat. “ “He’s a sulky brute, whoever he is,” said Pawnee Bill. Thus far they had not seen Jack Lorring’s face. When the torches were lit he was very careful to keep out of the illumination. The party of friends squatted down to discuss the food again, and once more they helped the bound giant to his share. It was some minutes later that Pawnee Bill chanced to get up and slip back to the raft. He remembered that the gold sacks had not been brought ashore—and the stranger was not near the rest of the party. Not consciously did the plainsman put these two facts together—at first. But when he saw the raft swinging out into the stream again, and knew that somebody was pushing with one of the poles against the rock, he came to lifé and consciousness with a mighty yell. “By my sacred O-zu-ha!” he shouted. dog is trying to beat us!” | He leaped for the raft, and made it. But, with a snarl of rage, Jack Lorring dropped the push pole and grap- pled with the bowie man. Without doubt the villain had believed he could get away with the raft and the gold) and leave Buffalo Bill and his friends—the very men who had saved him— stranded here in the: cavern. He had headed the raft toward the distant glow of light; but now the rude craft rocked there on the slug- gish stream, while Jack and Pawnee Bill struggled like maniacs in the dark. Jack had not cleaned his gun since being submerged in the river, and, now that he drew it, placed the muzzle and pulled the trigger, there against Pawnee Bill’s side, was no wonder that the cartridge did not explode. The next instant Pawnee had knocked the gun into the ~ water. But he could not draw one of his own weapons. One “That son of a. BILL WEEKLY. - of his hands was clutching the throat of Jack Lorring: his other wrist was held tight by the desperado, who likewise tore at Pawnee’s own throat. : : Back on the rock several of the excited friends of Pawnee lit torches. In ihe flickering glare of these the two figures struggling on the raft could- be seen. But nobody could aid Pawnee Bill just then. _ To try and shoot his antagonist would endanger the plainsman’s life as well. But Wild Bill uttered a shout of surprise: “Jack Lorring—Jack the gambler! By gorry, d’ye see him, Pard Cody?” ; They all recognized the outlaw, and Buffalo Bill was tempted to leap into the water and so get to the raft and assist in capturing the desperado. ; And perhaps it would have been well had he done this. Pawnee Bill could not overcome Jack Lorring with- out putting forth the very last ounce of his strength. eae The bowie man did not identify his enemy. He believed the fellow must be a maniac. Suddenly, while they wrestled, he secured an advan- tageots hold. Then he forced the man backward across his knee. ; : Slowly, slowly, the body of his antagonist bent. The pressure was awful, and Jack’s fingers loosened upon Pawnee’s wrist. ‘ ‘ “Snap!” The body of the outlaw crumpled jin a heap at Pawnee’s feet—the head of the villain swung side- ways over the edge of the raft. : “On-she-ma-da!” gasped Pawnee Bill. “His neck is broken !” And that was the truth. Jack Lorring, gambler and ‘bad man, was snuffed out as quick as that. He deserved his end, without doubt; but it had not been Pawnee Bill’s intention to kill him. It was entirely an accident. ‘ Yet none could sympathize with Jack Lorring in his awful end. He had sought to injure those who had saved him from misery, and he had reaped a fitting \reward for his evildoing. The party took the dead body of the gambler with them when they poled the raft through the sluggish chan- nels of the huge cavern toward the distant light. And that journey was one of some effort. ‘They fre- quently lost the light at first, because of the twists in the channels; but at last they came to a placid underground lake, at the very end of which the sunlight poured into the cavern through a wide opening. They pushed on toward this place with shouts of re- joicing. In half an hour they leaped from the raft upon a sandy beach, and staggered into the sunshine of the outer world. They had passed clear through the range of mountains. Where the bulk of the water of Lost River fell—down what awful cataract—they never knew. Nor has an ex- ploring party to this day discovered the drainage of the river. Buffalo Bill and his party found that they were not and the Piute were sent forward for horses, and later they all arrived at the camp, bringing the dead body of Jack Lorring and the mad gold miner from Cimaroon Bar with them. Jack Lorring was buried decently, and Buffalo Bill saw that Big Jake Hentz was shipped to Denver. Later the scout learned that the afflicted miner had been oper- ated on in the hospital at Denver, and that he recovered “ ten miles from the mining camp of Pleyell. Wild Bill _ his memory and’ became a perfectly well man ‘again. Meanwhile, however, the scout and his friends had a long journey through the hills to Cimaroon Bar, and with the bags of gold belonging to the mining company. On the way -they met several parties of troopers, all under the general command of Major Burchard. The Utes had been chased back to their villages. Black Water himself had been captured, with his principal chiefs, and General Lawton had sent word for Pa-e-has-ka to attend the council that was to be held bv the chief officers of the army, the Indian agent, and Black Water's gang. Therefore, Buffalo Bill, taking his Piute trailer as attendant, hurried away to the scene of the council, while the others, under direction. of Pawnee Bill, made their ~ — = eve, aS a — i = paianie mcrae nesting ML Sas IOUS AE es SET PUM LES PG RU Ses SM BE ae i ar aes NEW BUFFALO way to Cimaroon Bar and delivered ‘the gold to Alf Granger. s There Buffalo Bill later joined his friends in safety, the Ute uprising having been completely put down, ard that section of the West was due to enjoy an era of peace for some years to come. THE END. “Buffalo Bills Thunderbolt; or, Pawnee Bill and the Buffalo Killers,’ is the name of the story for the next ssue. There is a-aide variety of incidents in the tale, the most mysterious thing.is the case of the war chief of the Buffalo Killers, known as “Black Chief,’ who turned out to be something. quite different from what he was reputed to-be or believed himself to. be. There will also be several pages of news of the world, and another installment of Edward C. Taylor’s thrilling serial, “The Last of the Herd.” This issue is No. 287, and will be out March oth. THE Pao] OF THE HERD: Or, A Big Contract Well Filled. By EDWARD C. TAYLOR. (This interesting story began in New BUFFALO BILL WEEKLY No. 279. If you have not read the preceding chapters, get the pack numbers which you have missed from your news dealer. If he cannot supply you with them the publishers will do so.) CHAPTER XXIII—(Continued). In their fight they had completely made the circle of the room. The unconscious girl was now lying on the floor behind Ted Strong. Facing him was the professor, and behind the professor was/a mass of chemical para- phernalia, queer bottles and retorts, long-necked vessels filled with strange drugs. Before these emblems of his trade the professor stood grinning like some wild beast, his face cut and bloody and his spectacles, still unbroken, shielding his eyes. He drew back and looked at Ted for an instant, and as he looked a great rage filled the heart of the young man for this grinning, bestial creature. Up to this point Ted had been afraid of the lunatic, but now that the effects of the drugs were wearing away he feared no longer, but was filled with fury and the lust of ‘combat instead. Once more Cowenhoven rushed at the boy he had tried to murder, but this time he met a different Ted Strong. Instead of a specter that eluded him, he found a foe that met him face to face and drove him back with blows that nothing human could stand against. ; Ted Strong was thoroughly aroused now; he was grit- ting his teeth together and his eyes were flashing with passion. As the maniac came at him he lit out with a tremendous blow which might have broken Cowenhoven’s neck if it had caught him full on the chin. It struck him on the side of the jaw and sent him staggering. With a wild war cry, Ted Strong dashed upon him. : Crash, crash! His fists shot out with the weight and speed of sledge hammers. Backward and backward stag- gered the maniac; forward, blow on blow, pressed the young range rider. Cowenhoven’s face was a mask of blood now, his glasses had been shattered to a thousand pieces, his lips were swollen and bleeding. He was cower- ing and staggering under the blows which were showered upon him. Backward he staggered until he was standing directly over his collection of chemicals. Again Ted Strong’s fist shot out and the professor fell backward in among his own chemicals. oe There was a crash, a deafening report, a lurid flash of light before the eyes of Ted Strong. He could see walls sliding backward and tottering, showers of stones falling. He knew that the chemicals had been set off in some way, and that a portion, at least, of the old monastery had, a bain Sia NenS 1) Sy 1) iP The Bhan Nha tthe is Hb aA Pom MR ih iy a esl Sten tte tM th napa i repens Promega memaeeonmenecee ina ty BILL WEEKLY. 21 been blown up. He was sent staggering back across the room, half dazed, but still knowing enough to throw his body across that of the unconscious girl who had risked AI ok Mf ih eh ety her own life to save his, doing all that he could to protect . her from the shower of falling stones that followed the explosion. Happily the force of the explosion spent itself in the other direction, and all that reached the boy and girl, cowering on the floor, were a shower of dust and small fragments of mortar. The echoes of the thundering crash rolled away, the cloud of dust settled, and Ted Strong raised his head. A hole had been blown clear through the wall of the monastery. A heap of ruins marked the place where formerly had been a flying buttress, and te spot where Cowenhoven had been knocked among the chemicals was a gaping hole in the floor. Ted Strong rose to his feet and lifted the girl, who now showed some signs of life. A dash of water in her face brought her around, and after a little while, in which she lay hack quietly and said nothing, she summoned strength enough to tell Ted Strong who she was and what her uncle had been. “He was celebrated all over the world as a scientist,”” she said; “but he began to have the reputation of one who would sacrifice human life for the cause of science, and his friends left him when he was charged with crimes. I still believed in him and loved him when we came out here, but I soon discovered that he had gone crazy. Thank Heaven, it is all dver, for I think it better for him to lie dead, blown up in the explosion, than to go on living the way he lived.” “T am sorry that 1 was the means of ending his life,” said Ted slowly, “although he did plan to take mine; but J am afraid that he is gone now. I can find no trace of anvthing that was in that corner of the room when the explosion occurred. He must be under that mass of ruins there, \ The girl shuddered and covered her face with her hands. “What am I to do?” she said. ‘Here I am alone in the wilderness.. My nearest friends are in Chicago.” “T owe you my life,” said Ted soberly, “and you need not fear that I shall ever forget the debt. My friends will be back within an hour. The letter that your uncle sent them was clever enough, I dare say, but it won’t fool Kit Summers and Bob Martin. They will be back here within an hour, for they will surely suspect foul play of some © kind. We will escort you to the nearest town, which is only a day’s journey by a good horse, and when you are comfortably put up at a hotel there we will wire: your relatives and leave you.” 2 oe It turned out as Ted had prophesied. The note that Concepcion, the old half-breed, brought with him had aroused the suspicions. of the young men on the instant, and they had started back for the Tinaja Bonita. They found Ted there with the beautiful, friendless girl, and, after hearing her story, at once started with her for the , nearest settlement, which was twenty miles away and was known as Quay Forks. Bud Morgan. was acquainted with the wife of a rancher there who agreed to take charge of the girl until her rela- tives in the East would send for her. Then, bidding her good-by, the young range rider set out once more for Fremont, which he reached without any further adventure, CHAPTER. XXIY: THE PROFESSOR REAPPEARS. “Let up on that fellow, will you?’ The speaker was a rawboned, freckle-faced boy, wearing worn, dusty clothes. The man he addressed was an overdressed youth who had just had his shoes shined by a’ very small bootblack, and he had taken exception to the fact that the bootblack had neglected to leave his trousers turned up at the com- pletion of the shine. “T want my trousers left turned up,” said the overdressed youth, striking the bootblack across the face. “Don’t get so fresh with people’s trousers the next time, and leave them’ the way you find them.” “Go on, you dude!” cried the bootblack, snatching the- i : ah fy ly psig yp MP co Re we Rte th an et 22 -NEW BUFFALO nickel which the other had tossed him and darting quickly out of his way. | Being called a dude seemed to particularly enrage the overdressed individual—probably from the fact that the charge was true. He made a wild lunge after the boot- black, and succeeded in catching him by the collar. Then, lifting the bamboo cane which he held in his hand, he brought it down in a stinging, blow across the legs of his little captive so that he howled with pain. It was at this point of the scene, which oecurred on Main Street, Kansas City, that the freckle-faced lad put in his appear- ance. The dude turned his head slowly around without releasing his hold upon the bootblack and looked at him. “You're a common fellow,” said he. “You haven’t got so much as a good suit of clothes to your back. You're nothing better than a ragamuffin, and you have the nerve to come here and interfere with my business. If you say another word to me I'll let you have a touch of this stick yourself.” : This threat did. not seem to frighten the poorly dressed boy in the least. He took a step nearer to the dude and looked at him steadily. “T don’t care what you say about my clothes,” he said in a low tone. “I dare say that they are not up to your mark. I’ve been in hard luck lately, ‘and I can’t afford much in the way of clothes—but if you touch that boy again I’ll break your cane for you; just remember that.” “You insolent ruffian!” The overdressed youth raised his carie in the air once more and struck the bootblack another blow with it. The little fellow managed to twist out of his grasp and run off to a safe distance. The boy with the cane turned and looked at the freckle-faced fellow. “Be off about your business,” he said, “or I'll give you a touch of the same.” The next instant the stick was snatched out of his hand and brought down across his_own back with a crack that could be heard across the street. The dude gave a howl of pain as his opponent brought it down on his legs. At the third stroke, which the freckle-faced boy made as hard as he could, the cane splintered in two and fell on the ground. “There!” said the boy who had administered the caning. “That may teach you to keep your cane to yourself.” The dude was howling with anger and pain. “Police!” heyelled. “I have been brutally assaulted: This fellow tried to murder me.” a A small group of passers-by had begun to collect about the two boys, and the poorly dressed lad began to look a little alarmed and tried to slip away into the crowd. The pate ran after him, however, and grasped him by the colar. “You’re trying to get away,” he yelled, “but you can’t escape me that way. You have committed a brutal assault upon me and you are trying to escape the consequences. Vl hold you here till I get a policeman. Police! Police!” “Let me go!” said the freckle-faced lad. “Let me go, or you'll get hurt.” From his flashing eyes it could easily be seen that this boy had a hot temper. He struggled a moment longer with the dude, and then his temper got the best of him. _ “Take that!” he cried, striking at him. “You brought it. on yourself...” : : His blow was anything but light. It caught the dude a resounding whack on the side of the head. But for all . that the dude was determined to hang onto his prisoner. He still kept his hands fastened in the collar of the other boy’s coat, yelling lustily meanwhile for the police. The. other boy struggled savagely to get away, but when a policeman forced his way on the scene he was still in the grasp of the dude. . “Here, what’s this?” asked the policeman. “You fellows will have to stop this scrapping on the street or I'll run yez both in.” The dude let go his hold on the collar of the freckle- faced boy’s coat. “I'm not scrapping on the street,” he said, straightening up.. “I was holding this fellow a prisoner until an officer of the law should arrive. He assaulted me, striking me with my own cane and with his fist. I want you to arrest BILL WEEKLY. him on my charge of assault. My name is Charles Simons, I am the son of J. C. Simons, the dry-goods merchant.” “An’ this feller kem here an’ assaulted ye?” roared the officer, brandishing his club in the air. “The nerve av him! Come on, me bye; the lockup’s the place fer such as ye.” The policeman had often heard of J. C. Simons, the dry-goods merchant, and knew that he was a wealthy citizen who had considerable political influence. The fact that the overdressed young man was his son made him anxious to please him in any way possible. He proposed to make no further investigation into the merits of the case. The freckle-faced lad backed away from the policeman, ~his face pale yet defiant. “I didn’t assault this man,” he said. “You can ask any one who was standing here at the time. He was ill-treating a little bootblack and I interfered to sAve the kid.” “Dat’s dead right,’ chirped the bootblack from the edge of the crowd. “Dat dude begun ter hit me wid his stick an’ de odder feller stopped him. See!” “If any one is to be arrested for assault,” said a well- dressed gentleman who had stopped to watch the scene, “I think it is the young man who struck that bootblack. He attacked the boy in a cowardly manner. “Dat’s right,” said the bootblack. “Dat mutt’s no good, he ain't.” The policeman began to be a little puzzled. He was anxious to please the son of J. C. Simons, but he did not want to arrest the other boy without just cause. He looked from one to the other with a dazed expression on his fat, red face. . “Wot’s yer name?” he finally asked the boy with the freckles. “An’ where are ye from?” “My name is Cole Carew,” said the boy. “I arrived here this morning from Dakota.” “An’ wot were ye doin’ in Dakoty?” “T was working on a ranch.” “An’ why did ye leave the ranch?” “Work was over there for the season—the cattle were all sold. I came down here to look for a job.” “T don’t believe he ever worked on-a ranch in his life,” said Charles Simons. “I think he is a common loafer. By his own admission he is a vagrant without visible means of support.” “Look here,” said the policeman, turning to Cole Carew once more, “that there yarn ye told me is a bit thin. It won't hold water. Hev ye anny friends in town that will vouch fer ye?” Carew hesitated for a moment. “Look at him!” cried Simons in triumph. “Don’t you see he’s-a vagrant and a loafer? If he was respectable there would be some one in the town who would vouch for him.” : “Tell me some one who will stand fer ye, my bye,’ said the policeman, “an’ I'll let ye go with a warnin’ not to be gettin’ into anny such ructions anny more.” “T don’t know,” hesitated Cole. “There are some fel- lows I know in town, but I don’t know about-their willing- ness to vouch for me. But I don’t want to get arrested. I have come here to look for a job and to try to get an honest living.” \ “Ye begun in a bad way, I’m afraid, me bye,” said the officer of the law. “I'll hev.to take ye up in the circoom- stances av the case. Ye hev no friend to vouch fer yer character.” “IT know some people here now,” said Cole Carew, who was very pale at the prospect of being placed under arrest. “Who are they?” asked the policeman. ae “Ted Strong, the cattle owner,” said Carew. “He is in town now.” Simons set up a derisive laugh. “What a yarn!” he said. “Do you suppose Ted Strong would have anything to do with such as you? Ted Strong 1s a well-known character. I’ve heard my father speak of him. He owns one of the best ranches in the West. La he has run you off his ranch. I think you're a ief, Cole Carew flushed very red and suddenly went pale again. : “Do ye say this Ted Strong wad vouch for ye?” asked the policeman, not unkindly, ? NEW BUFFALO “E have had . 1 have worked on his Wy done: know,” _ Said eee hesitatingly. quarrels with him in the past. ranch, but I don’t now.” - “Pm afraid ye'll hey to come piste: ‘wid t me, policeman. : “Ted Strong wouldn't have anything to do with him,” said. Simons, “Perhaps you are “mistaken,” hind him A figure in khaki. etenped out .of the crowd into “the clear space in which the policeman and the two boys were standing. It was Ted Strong himself, By. this time a considerable crowd had collected, and a sort of cheer went up from them at the sudden appearance of the young range rider. Ted had come down with his cattle from Fremont, and was still dressed in the khaki clothes that he had worn on the trail, But he had left off the revolver. that usually hung at his belt. Behind him came Carl Schwartz, Kit Summers, and Bud Morgan. The big policeman gasped in astonishment as he saw these forms in khaki step between him and the boy he had ie been about to place tinder arrest, led Strong bowed to him politely. “I heard my name mentioned as I was passing here with my friends,” he said. “I thought I might stop arid see if | could be of any assistance to you,. I am Theodore Strong, of Black Mountain Ranch, Dakota.” “There’s a young pup here,” said the policeman in -apologetic tones, “who claims to be a friend to ye, He seems to be a vagrant, and as he got into a foight wid a rayspectable young man here I was goin’ to arrist him.” “Where is he?” “This is him, sor,” forward by the collar. “Hello, there, Cole!” said Ted Strong; ane forth his hand heartily. “I am glad to see you, old chap. “How in thunder did you ever get into this row?” _. That’s. what I do be tellin’ him,” said the policeman. Kape out ef rows, me bye, an’ yer all right.” Cole. Carew’s face was flushed with pleasure as he clasped the hand of Ted Strong. A short time. before, he had been an enemy of the young: cattleman, and had fought with him. _He had perceived later that he had made a mistake in opposing Ted, and he had procured work on Ted’s ranch without—as he thought—Ted’s being aware of it. He had imagined that Ted might not, be willing to accept him as a friend after his. former aie tion, although he himself was anxious to make friends with the young ranchman. Now, to his surprise and delight, Ted gave his hand a hearty. squeeze and greeted him as though such a thing as a quarrel had never been heard of between them. “I’m glad to see you,” stammered Cole. “I’m glad to see you,” said Ted. for you. I heard from Kid McCann that you had left the ranch when work was finished there for the season. I meant to take you with me on the trail, but you. had skipped before I knew it.” “I didn’t think you knew I was working on the ranch,” said Cole. “I had to do it or starve.” “Bud Morgan told me all about it,” said Ted, “But Ww hat’s the matter here? Who is this fellow you have been fighting with? You always were a scrapper, Cole... 1 te member one time you gave me all I wanted in a little boxing match. But who is this fellow you were fighting with this time?” “Here he is, sor,’ Charles Simons. Simons was amazed, to say the least, at the sudden appearance of the four roughriders and at the friendship he saw existing between Ted, whom he had always imag- ined-as a great swell, and such a shabby-looking fellow as Cole Carew. “How do~you do?” said Ted, turning to him. “Don't you think you had perter let this little matter drop?” “He assaulted me,” said Simons. ‘He is only a low, common fellow, I assure you, Mr. Strong, He is without visible means of support. He otight to be in jail.” “Not if I know it,” said Ted. ’ said the said a yoice directly. ‘be- said the bluecoat, dragging Carew ’ said the policeman, bringing forward BILE WEEKLY. “In fact, | was looking - 20 'T only stopped him from striking a bootblack,” said Carew... “Vou hear what. my friend says,” said Ted. “The boot- black might have a chance to charge you with assault. Rerhaps -he. would do it if you made a similar charge Rls ae against my friend,” ~“Betcher life T would!” ctied the bootblack. big stiff, anyway.” “If, you want to go fo jail. on a similar charge. yourself,” said Led, “TL adyise you to press your charge against my friend.” “T can be bailed out,” said Simons. “So. can my friend, | said bed: miveelts rn. “IT. advise you ‘both to: quit is “I will see to that . said’ the. policeman, “Sure,. ~byes will be byes, an’ there’s no harm in a bit ‘of a foight, pervided ye don’t git angry wid aich other an’ carry it too far. But I wouldn’t take to lockin’ aich other up in jail. It’s a bad business, take my word for it,” “Tl take your. word for it,” said Ted. “And I iiihke “Mr. Simons will do the same.” Charles Simons quaked under the steady glance of the young ranchman. “Of course, of course,” he said nervously, “T- have no wish to. get any one into trouble, and I was simply trying to protect.-myself, If. I had known he was a friend af Mr. Strong’s, I never would have said a word. els “That's right, byes,” said the policeman. “Always -end up yer foights wid good feelin’s, an’ ye'll niver. do yout- #99 selves no. harm’ foightin’, ‘Dot's. right,” said Carl. “I.iss a britty good fighter mineselluf, but I don’d. like no hardness off der feelings.’ “Come on, Carew,” said Ted; “I want. to say something to you. We might as well move on, as we are attracting a crowd here.” He seized Cole by. the art and started off, llowed by his friends. In the meantime the policeman busied him- self dispersing the.crowd of bystanders. who had eaipered about. Charles Simons looked after Ted Strong. “Glad to have made your acquaintance,” he called out. “Delighted, I’m sure,’ said Ted, in his coldest ‘tones, and, arm in arm with. the ‘shabbily dressed fellow, “he walked off up the street, leaving the dude staring ‘after him. “T've heard of these young rtoughriders,” muttered Charles, staring after them. “I heard they were coming to Kansas City, and I thought of showing them the sights of the town. But I guess. I won't, They seem to be a low-lived crowd, after all. To think of them associating with a shabby fellow like that Carew and turning nie down! They actually left me standing here in the middle of the street as though I wasn’t good enough to associate with them. That’s enough to make any one mad. They are oe beneath my contempt.” Charles was very angry ittdeed by this time. His small- featured face showed it plainly, and his prominent upper teeth projected from his narrow mouth in anything but an attractive manner. He looked at the wreck of his cane, which lay shattered on the street, and muttered an oath under his breath. “Get out of the way, can’t you?” said a passer-by sharply, as he jostled against him. “This is no place to practice walking backward,” said another, on whose toes he stepped. Jostled this way and that, laughed at.and made. fun of, Charles withdrew to a near-by doorway. In this doorway was a man with blue spectacles covering his eyes, who had been watching him narrowly for the past few moments. This man was rather short and stout, his face was very pale and very fat. He was well dressed, and, but for his pallor and the large green goggles that he wore, he might have been considered good looking. As Charles Simons drew near him he spoke to him. “Awfully crowded here, isn’t it?” he said. “Awful,” said Simons, giving him a casual glance. “T noticed your altercation with those fellows,” said the man with the goggles. “You should have insisted on hay- ing that boy arrested. . It is‘such young thugs as-that that make life in a busy city like this nearly unbearable. . If you should want to have him arrested you may call upon. { 24 : NEW BUFFALO me as a witness at any time. My name is Ignatius Cowen- hoven. I liked the stand you took in that matter, and I should be pleased to make your acquaintance. Don’t you feel like having a drink after your row? It will calm your nerves. Here is a bar where we can get a good drm! It was indeed Professor Cowenhoven, whom Ted Strong believed to have been killed by the explosion in the old monastery. ° Simons assented to the professor’s proposition, and the two entered the saloon together. “We will be quiet here,” said the professor, “and we can have our drink without any fear of interruption. What will you have?” ~ “Whisky,” said Charles. The professor took a cigar. While the waiter was busied in getting the drink at the bar, Charles was en- gaged in looking at himself in the mirror which ran along the wall of the saloon. “Confound it!” he said. “That fellow hit me hard sev- eral times. I’ve got a red spot on my cheek which will turn black and blue within an hour. The brute could hit like the kick of a mule. I would never have expected it from him. He was not particularly broad, and he looked mighty thin and rawboned. But I’m going to have a black eye, too. It’s too bad. It’s a shame.. I hate’ to have my face all marked up.” He looked still closer at his face in the glass, arranging his collar and necktie, which had become somewhat dis- arrayed by the scuffle, and squinting at himself from all sides to ascertain the full extent of his injury. “Td rather give a hundred dollars not to have my face marked up this way,’ he said. “I°am going to a dance to-morrow night at the house of a girl I know, and I'll be a nice sight. I can’t go, that’s all, and all’on account of that freckle-faced mutt. He ought to have received twenty years in prison for that.” “He was a brute and a thug,” said the professor in his soft voice... “Drink your whisky and you'll feel a little better.’ 4 Charles dashed off his liquor. - “Just look at my face!” he said: “Do you notice that. matk-under my eye getting any darker than it was when we first-came in? But I don’t suppose you can tell colors very well with those glasses of yours. What’s the matter? Are your eyes weak?” i “Yes, my eyes are weak. But TI can ‘tell colors better than you think. You have a contusion beneath your right _ eye, and it will shortly swell into a discoloration that will last for several days if it is not attended to.” “Confounded shame! I suppose it will.” “It is possible. to avoid disfigurement, though, if it is properly treated.” 5 ee “TI know all about that. You can have ’em_ painted. That might go down with people who don’t ‘come near you. It won't fool the girls at a dance, though, I have. no use’ for those fellows that paint out black eyes. I have had it done before.” ie ete “I don’t suggest painting it out. That’s a crude and ignorant way of handling it. I could treat it so that it would: disappear entirely within an hour?’ _ Ge COU a oe “Yes. I am a doctor anda surgeon, and I have spent a large portion of my life in experimenting with the prop- erties of roots and herbs. Medicine and surgery has been, by. all odds, the greatest study of my lifetime.” — “You're a scientist, then?” “Precisely.” _“Well, say,” said Charles excitedly, “I’d be willing to give you a good deal to fix up that eye of mine.” “Pooh, my dear boy! I have no need of money. I could not afford to practice medicine, even accepting the highest fees that people could pay me. I consider my own studies of vastly more importance. But I tell you I am- willing to go to a good deal of trouble for a friend. I am that kind of a fellow. I would do a good deal more to oblige a person that I liked than I would for myself. And I don’t mind telling you that I have taken a par- ticular shine to you. I have taken a sort of fancy to you, and I should be glad to-do anything I could to oblige you. I know who you are. I heard you mention your name to BILL WEEKLY. .o that big policeman. I have heard of your father often, and think a good deal of him; and let me tell you that I recognize a promising boy when I see him. I would be willing to treat your eye out of friendship if you put. your- self absolutely in my hands for an hour or so.” ~ “T never heard of treatment that would destroy the appearance of a black eye; in fact, I didn’t think that doctors could do such things.” “Pooh! The average doctor is nothing more than an ignorant charlatan. He goes along putting into practice the maxims he had learned at his medical school without even understanding them. As for making any new dis- coveries of his own or any original investigations on his own account, he never thinks of it. All he thinks of is raking in the money as fast as he can get it, and charg- ing as large fees as his patients will stand for. With me it is different. I have had plenty of money all my life. I was left with a large fortune and with one of the best medical and scientific libraries in the world. My father, who was a famous Dutch scientist, left me his diaries and day books containing a great many medical and scientific secrets which he did not. see fit to give to the public, but which left me better equipped with knowledge at the very outset of my career than the average scientist who has given his whole life to the study. So far as handling bruises and things like that—they are mere trifles I picked up by the way. I have been trying to discover the greatest of all secrets—the secret of life itseli—and I am now on the very verge of that discovery.” | The professor was carried away by his enthusiasm, and, though he never raised his smooth, well-modulated voice in the slightest, his whole form was aquiver with excite- ment; and the young man sitting opposite to him félt as if the air about him was charged with electricity. He felt, he knew not why, some indefinable feeling of repugnance and disgust for this pale, fat, smooth-spoken man. But he was very anxious to have his face fixed up for the dance that he was to attend the following evéning. “Are you sure that you can fix it?” he asked eagerly. The professor smiled, showing his beautiful, even teeth. “My dear young sir,” he said, “attending to those con- tusions of youts would be the merést child’s play to me. lf you will put yourself in my hands for an hour or so, I will agree to send you out so that no one will imagine you had received a bruise recently. I have simply taken a notion to you, or I would not make this offer. I have refused thousands of dollars for services which would have cost me no greater trouble.” . Charles Simons really imagined that he was a very fas- cinating person, and so he was not in the least astonished at the professor’s sudden liking. for him, nor did he think it at all strange or unaccountable. He did feel a certain aversion to the professor, but his vanity and love for flattery, as well as his desire to have his face fixed up, made him overcome this. : es “All right,” he said; “if you can really hide these bruises I will be very much obliged. Good heavens!” he ex- claimed, glancing in the mirror, ‘They are getting worse and worse. My face is quite blue on the side already.” “A regular ‘shiner,’ as the boys call it,” said the pro- fessor. “Do you know, I have always had a great fond- ness for boys. I feel that, old as I am, I have something in me of the boy nature still. I am ready to take you to my rooms, a short distance from here, right away. ! have a lot of drugs there that no ordinary chemist ever heard of. And I can turn you out looking sweet enough to kiss in the space of an hour Or so.” “Let's have another drink before we go,” touching the electric bell at his side. _He had another drink and the professor had another cigar, which, unseen by the boy, he threw away unsmoked. Then the two arose and “went outside. They boarded a cable car on Main Street, and the pro- fessor insisted on paying for’ the fares of both. i am quite happy to have you at my temporary home here,” he said. “I have only been in Kansas City for a said Simons, very short time. I expect my niece, Miss Crampton, whom I have written to in Chicago, to join me soon. I should be pleased to have you meet her.” “Your niece!” said Charles, brightening up visibly. “Yes, and a very beautiful and charming girl, if I may 8 pe NEW BURFALO say so myself,” said Cowenhoven.- “I expect. to stay in town here for a week or so, and after she comes we. three might arrange a little theater party if you feel so disposed. I ama tittle old for such éntertainments, but I love. to see young people enjoy themselves. My niece simply. loves theaters.” ae i ~“So do I,” said Charles enthusiastically. “Well, then, we wilt have to arrange ‘to. go.” “Tt’s a wonderful thing,” said. Simons, after a pause, during which the car was carrying them farther and far- ther toward the outskirts of the city. “It’s a wonderful thing the way you scientists can treat illness. I often wish I wére a doctor.” “Don’t go to the ordinary medical school,” said the pro- fessor. “In the medical schools they are hidebound by old traditions. A year’s study under the personal super- vision of a’ man like myself will do you more good than ten years at the ordinary school.” 7 Cowenhoven had a wonderful charm of manner. when he chose to exert it, and he had artfully chosen. subjects of conversation that he thought would interest the young man the most. Simons had forgotten all about his former aversion to the man. His thoughts were filled with images of the professor’s niece, whom he imagined beautiful, and who he thought would fall a victim to his fascinations without a doubt. “T envy you your power to heal wounds,” he said. . ‘It’s really wonderful.” “Pooh!” said the professor. “I have done things that would astonish you. Would you believe it, a few weeks ago I was in an explosion. I was conducting a series of experiments out in a lonely part of Nebraska to which I had gone to procure certain rare plants that are only to be found ‘there. Through an error on the part of my assistant, certain chemical elements were combined and caused “a terrible explosion. The house was wrecked. I was knocked senseless and half buried under a_pile of ruins. My assistant made a perfunctory search for me. My body was concealed with. the débris, and he fled in terror to the nearest settlement, thinking I was dead. I recovered. consciousness and pushed my way out, for for- tunately I am the possessor of considerable muscular power. I was a mass of bruises from head to foot, but under my own treatment I have recovered completely.” “Wonderful!” said Charles. ‘‘By the way, when you were in the West did you hear anything of those young range riders? That was Ted Strong that interfered and prevented the policeman from arresting that brute.” “Indeed! I have heard of them as a party of boys who tried ranching and made rather a failure of it. Only for the fact. that gold was discovered on. their land, their creditors would have swooped down on them long ago. I have*never met any of them.” “Those were the fellows,’ said Simons. “My father used to do something in the way.of buying cattle before the beef trust got hold of everything in sight, and he knows Slaughter, the great Montana cattleman. Slaughter was around at our house the other night, and he was talk- ing about these fellows. He said they always wore khaki uniforms and that they worked the ranch on shares. I thought of asking them to let me go in with them; I know my father would put up the money. He wants to see me settled in life, and I have not done very well in school. In fact, I was expelled from school last spring, and I haven't started in again yet. But that Ted Strong seems to be a queer sort of a fellow. He must be low in his tastes or he wouldn’t associate with a ragged-looking boy like the one who struck me. I don’t believe that if the young range riders had made the success they claim to have made they would associate with such shabby people. I spoke to Strong, but he scarcely appeared to notice me.” “Don’t ever think of going into ranching as a business,” said Cowenhoven, “It would suit a dull, practical fellow with a head for nothing above so many pounds of beef. But it would be a waste of time for you. You are too clever for that sort of thing. Science should be your study. I can tell a bright boy when I see him.” “But I was fired out of school,” said Charles doubtfully. “Don’t let that worry you,” said the professor. “It 1s the bright boy who causes the most trouble in a school, for the simple reason that he has tastes of his own and will Spt nth Ai. einen Serene seein. ste aL Sh Rah ak ON I Mt A te A Me eM ON the a le ipa ltt tte Mh het EM I Ne Se A 0S i Ai te iy $s elo neath tie. BILE WEEKLY, ( a 25 et be. driven along a beaten track as though he were a ANGE D Ee teins a aa one : Bg ie “By Jove, I have often thought of that myself!” said Charles Simons.. “Ihave often thought that if 1-could study-those.things.that I had a real taste-for that. I would do much better.” Fo SN “Of course you would; of course you would. Ihave taken quite a fancy to you, and I would like to have you study under me for a while, We might go to Europe together and learn something of- the wonderful secrets of science and the secrets of life.” 5 “I'd like it first rate,’ said Simons, still thinking of the professor’s pretty niece. “But father—he is awfully hard to persuade to anything new.” “How old are you,’ asked the professor. “Nineteen,” said Charles, “You are old enough to have a mind of your own. If you see that your father cannot understand you, you ought to think for yourself.” “But the money—I have no money of my own.”- “Pooh! With a bright boy that need not matter. I have a fortune enough for a dozen, and a boy like you is a treasure. I would take real pleasure in instructing a disciple who I felt was worthy of me.” “I'd. like to do it,” said Charles, in a hesitating way, “and I must say that father. has been awfully harsh with me lately. He gives me scarcely any spending money, and he threatens to send me to a military school, where they would make me drill and study all the time. I should hate that: Some fellows in my place would run away, I guess.” Cee “Most boys would,” said the professor. ‘Half the suc- cessful men of the generation have run away from home because their parents could not understand. and appreciate them. They found that the world could appreciate them later? ony: ; “I suppose so. I believe that if I had something to do that I liked to do, and that was easy for me, that I would do it pretty well.” : The professor signaled the conductor to stop the: car at this point, and they left it to find themselves in a lonely part on the outskirts of«the town, near a tall, gloomy-looking house that looked as if it had been de- serted for a hundred years. rea The professor. led the way to this house. CHAPTER. XXV. THE HOUSE OF THE MAGICIAN. Ten minutes later Charles Simons found himself com- fortably seated in a room, the luxury of the appoint- ments he would never have expected from the decayed exterior of the mansion. Professor Cowenhoven had led the way into the house, opening the old hall door with a latchkey. The shutters were up on all the windows, but the professor opened none of these, although it was still daylight. He led the boy upstairs, through the darkuess, and then, turning a switch, which flooded the room with the soft light of incandescent lamps which were arranged all around the cornices so as to be invisible to the eye, invited Charles to take a seat.- me The boy sank into the cushioned, chair and gazed about him in astonishment. “T say,” he exclaimed, “you have got this house fixed up fine inside.” : The fact that the lights were all concealed by the cornice which ran around all-the walls-close to the ceil-= ing caused the room to be filled with a soft, golden. radi- ance which seemed to emanate from no fixed point, but. to pervade the whole interior. The walls were. papered in dark red, and hung with valuablé engravings. ‘Charles - noticed, even in the moment in which he was. gazing. around, that all these engravings were pictures. in: which death was depicted in some form or another. One was a crucifixion, another was a great battle piece, another was a gruesome picture of a dissecting table, with pale- faced doctors bending over a corpse with a gaping wound - in its. side, a fourth was a picture of a man who had shot | himself, and was, lying back, bleeding, the pistol fallen from his nerveless hand. ee “This is one of several houses which I own,” said the i 1 | 1 i 26 professor. “I have a great aversion to living in hotels NEW BUFFALO among great crowds of people. , Consequeritly, in those” cities which I am likely to visit often in the course of my investigations and-studies, I cause houses to be purchased and fitted up according to my directions. I have a house similar to this in New York, where I have spent some time in studying the dead bodies at the morgue, another in Philadelphia, another in Boston. I carry the latchkeys to them all, and they are all fitted up with batteries, so that I can do my own cooking by electricity. - “} have a single servant, Concepcion; a Mexican half- breed, who is practically a deaf mute, hut who under- ' stands my slightest glance. He is downstairs at the present moment preparing my evening meal. Later on T expect.my niece to join me here. No one can find me here; and as I am somewhat well. known and followed about by a train of visitors. and repotters wherever I go, I find this a great convenience. | am spending considerable time in Katisas City on account of ‘the slaughterhouses liere. © I think that the blood of fresh-killed oxen contains some of the essences of life, and I am experimenting with it at present. It is good, but it is not as good as human blood. But now, my dear young sit, let me examine these contusions and abrasions on your face. Be good enough to draw your chair a little nearer to this table,” Charles moved his chair as directed, and the professor, turning a switch, lit up a sort of miniattire searchlight, which was placed on a stand on thé table, and which ‘focused its powerful rays full on the face of the ‘boy. .“This light is an-invention of mine, which the doctors in this country have not had the wit to think of,” he said, drawing up a chair. “Now let me see your face.” Holding a powerful magnifying glass in his hand before _ atte ; é ; -whirling disk-is a favorite device among hypnotists when his blue goggles, the professor spent some time in an ex- amination. Whén he touched the wounded parts with his fingers, he did so with a touch as light and delicate as ‘that-of the tenderest woman,;and did not make Simons so much as. wince, vs alta Ce ee “That young fellow struck you a hard blow,” he said. “The flesh is considerably discolored. The skin itself is ‘not broken, but some of the little bl6od véssels immediately ‘beneath it are, That is what-causes the discoloration. The little blood vessels are. broken, and they allow the. blood to stagnate beneath the skin, where it coagulates and becomes dark? 1 am going to apply to it a plaster which will draw ‘out this ‘blood through, the pores: You will suffer a slight dégree of pain; not enough to make-you cry out,a peculiar -drawing sensation... When I. remove the plaster the swell- ing will be gone, as well as the discoloration.”. > Cowenhoven stepped back to the wall and threw open a cupboard. A moment later he was mixing several in- gredients which hé had poured from. bottles into a large mortar.. Simons watched his movements tervouslys. | “ONAL it hurt very much?” he- asked appréhensively. - “Not at all—not- at all,’-said the professor. :“A:mo- ‘ment will do the business... Now- the plaster is. ready.” He approached the boy where he sat,-and, lifting out a portion of the sticky mass that he had mixed in the “mottar, applied it to his face with a’ strangely shapéd glass instrument: At first the boy ~shook and ‘shrunk away from it, but when the queer, puttylike compound struck his face he heaved a deép sigh of relief. The mix- ture which the professor had put on his face felt deli- ciously cool to his sore and burning flesh. A delightful ‘aroma’ came from it and filled chis nostrils. He closed his eyes.. He opened them suddenly a moment later, his face: contracted with pain. ee ea “Ah!” said the professor, who had been seated opposite ‘to him, watching him, “it is beginning to draw now.” “It hurts,” said the boy, fidgeting uneasily about in his seat. “Can’t' you. take it off. soon, It’s beginning. to burn me.” _ Cowenhoven. reached forth his hand and seized a-queer- shaped machine which stood on the table at his elbow. It was something like a windmill, only that the four wings were made of silvery metal instead of paper-or cloth. It “was about a foot high anid mounted on a’ three-cornered metal base, 2 5. 3s. tere as ea ee “Fix your eyes on those fotir pieces of metal,” said _Cowenhoven. “Try and think of them. Don’t take your eyes from them, Concentrate all your attention on them.” BILL WEEKLY, Charles Simons did as he was bid, and the professor turned up a lever at the base of the machine. Imme- ~ diately a btizzing noise, as of an electric fan, only softer, “filled the room, and the fans -began to revolve. Faster and faster they moved until to the eye they presented a silvery disk. By adjusting his little searchlight, Cowen- hoven concentrated its rays full upon this disk, which was now revolving with inconceivable rapidity. He rose noise- lessly to his feet and pressed a button in the wall. The hidden row of incandescent lamps dulled their radiance till the room was illuminated in a rosy twilight, in the midst of which the whirling disk shone out with dazzling brightness: The buzz that came from it resembled the dull drone of a distant swarm of bees—it seemed the best sound in the world to lull one to sleep. “That's right—keep’ your eyes fixed on it! Think of nothing but that whirling spot of silver,” he said. “You do not feel the pain now, do you?” “No,” said Charles, in a strange, voice of one talking in his sleep. “A sudden change had come over the face of the boy. It looked dull and lifeness now; the eyes were still fixed in a vacant stare on the whirling spot of light, the arms of the boy hung limp by his side; and his feet slipped across the carpet floor and lay sprawled out in front of him. The professor stepped to his side, and with a dexter- ous movement with a towel wiped away the plaster he had applied to the boy’s face. Underneath it the skin was as fair and white as ever, without sign of a spot or bruise. But Charles never stirred. Except for the fact that his eyes were wide open, one might have thought him to be plunged in a very sound sleep. ae re As a matter of fact, he had been hypnotized. The hollow pais, like .the they. strive to bring a person under their influence for the first time. In the well-meaning but weak-minded Charles Simons the professor’ had found an unusually easy victim. i ; Le es He stood for a moment scrutinizing his face. from be- neath his green goggles. : ‘ C4 sea ee “A weak chin, a low forehead, weak will power,” he muttered. “Not much trouble bringing you under the influence. You are in. my power now, and | have found a tool all ready for my use. Now I am prepared to use you in laying my traps to catch the prey I am after—the boy whose rich, warm lifeblood will prolong my own life —Ted Strong!” sumer ; 2 TO BE. CONTINUED, A HOT ONE FROM THE FARMER “And have you lived in this village all your life?” asked the traveler, after he had told his tales of wonder to the villager. “Yep,” answered the villager. “You’ve been every- wheres, an’ I ain’t been nowheres. But it don’t look to me like you'd stopped anywheres long enough. to. learn nothin’.. I don’t see as you globé-trotters has a call to think yourselfs any more experienced than us fatmers.” _ “Well, as-you say, all we do is to set 6n the fence an’ watch the train go by. An’ I say, all you do is to set in the train an’ watch the fence go by!” : AWFUL CRUELTY TO AN ACTOR . An actor visited a beauty doctor to see if he could have something done for his nose. The beauty doctor studied the organ and suggested a complicated straightening and remodeling process—cost, $100. . “I may go you,” said the actor thoughtfully. He stroked his nose before the mirror, regarding it from all sides. “Yes, I think I'll go you. But, look here, do you promise to-give my nose—er—ideal beatity?? =~ = ~The surgeon gave a loud, brutal laugh. © “As to ideal beauty, I.can’t say,” he. replied; “but, by gosh, I couldn’t help improving it a lot if Ait it with a hammer.” Si pate bas FSA a ala Mik ps 4 Sed I “Gah i dl a Gi intl oe Rik RE Aa AI, Hey Soe 27 THE NEWS OF THE WORLD. — Bootleggers Start Guerrilla Warfare. Enforcement of the West Virginia prohibition law in the Charleston territory has developed into a guer- rilla warfare as spectacular as miniature Mexican rev- olutions, it is declared at the State prohibition depart- ment, following the narrow escape in the dark of two officers from the bullets of eight to fifteen bootleggers and their accothplices, who fired from ambush at South Charleston, and again at South Ruffner. The officers, Sam Fields and Bob McClane, had suc- ceeded in arresting two of the crowd of bootleggers, who were riding a train on the C. & O. Railroad from Catlettsburg to Ashland, carrying large quantities of liquors. They had their prisoners and two bags of bot- tled whisky, consisting of 115 pints, on top of the train, when the shooting began at South Charleston. The officers and their prisoners dropped to a reclin- ing position on top of the train to avoid being hit by the bullets, which came thick and fast from both sides. At South Ruffner the officers climbed from the train with their prisoners, who were handcuffed, and with the bags of liquor. Again accomplices of the boot- leggers on the train, \who apparently were there to take charge of the liquor, opened fire, and,'in the scramble for safety, the prisoners escaped. The of- ficers crawled on the ground by the side of a train and escaped from the bootleggers. Two Babes Swallowed by Alligator Saved. A newspaper received at New Orleans, Louic.ana, tells of an alligator near Belle Isle, Brittsh Honduras, swallowing twin babies as the mother washed clothes on the bank of the river. The babies were in a basket, when the reptile came out of the water and swallowed them. The mother called the father from a near-by farm and he killed the alligator. The babies were taken out of the alligator, almost unmarked. Would Deepen Harbor. Representatives of many interests desiring a thirty- five-foot channel dredged from Constable Hook to Ellis Island, in a recent hearing before Brigadier Gen- eral William T. Russell, at the customhouse, New York, suggested that this improvement should extend to the entire New York harbor. The improvement asked was meant to increase the anchorage area at the west side of the bay and open a long stretch of Jersey coast to deep-water shipping. Removal of Robbins Reef was also urged. Course for Orderlies. Because of the great demand for ambulance order- lies by the Red Cross and the home hospital service, it has been decided to start a class for training order- lies at West Side Y. M. C. A., New York City. Doctor Theron W. Kilmer, formerly of the New York National Guard, has been.engaged as instructor, and he will prepare them for service in five weeks. The class also is available for those who could not stand the physical test for army-ambulance work, in either the local am- bulance or hospital service or as volunteer first-aid workers to help out the doctors, whose ranks are de- pleted by the war. The work will be both theoretical and practical. The men will bandage each other to learn the approved methods, and doubtless many will practice at home on wife or sister. The course is given in codperation with the Red Cross, and a Red Cross diploma is given the proficient graduate. Girl Shot for Burglar. Anna Ferrie, eighteen years old, was mistaken fof a burglar at 5921 Pulaski Avenue, Germantown, Penn- sylvania, and shot through the right shoulder when she attempted to enter the house. The girl turned and fled, running several hundred feet before she col- lapsed. Historic New York Café Closes. One of the most historic restaurants in America— old Delmonico’s, in Beaver Street, New York—has closed its doors. The building in which it has its home was sold recently to the American Merchant Marine Company. In 1835 the first restaurant on the same site was built, and in 1900 the structure was torn down and the present building erected. Louis Napoleon, during his years of exile in America, made the restaurant his headquarters. Among those who went there frequently were the Van Burens, As- pinwalls, Minturns, Stuyvesants, Jays, Morgans, and Livingstons. Yeggs Loot Bank of $15,000. Safecrackers recently robbed the First National Bank .at Dana, Indiana, and escaped with $15,000. in currency and bank securities. The men escaped in an automobile. They opened the bank door with a skel- eton key, and cut their way through the vault and safe doors by the use of acetylene gas. Machine Plants Trees. A machine which plants 10,000 to 15,000 forest tree seedlings a day is being used at the Letchworth Park forest and arboretum in Wyoming County, New York, according to officials of the forest service who are acting as advisers in the work. Previously the plant- ing has been done by hand, at the rate of 1,200 to 1,500 trees each day per man. The machine was designed to set out cabbage and tomato plants, but works equally.well with trees. It is about the size of an ordinary mowing machine, and - is operated by three men and two horses. One man _ drives the team, while the two others handle the seed- lings. The machine makes a furrow in which the trees are set at any desired distance, and an automatic device \ i lh ay, ‘i La tiga Slt thigh tay ah fee AIRE ATR OL SAR A SAMIR ae $e witty rhe Naveen 5 SP a cial th GAD: nea Sin Naomi Jehan eS Mp on SOs Bich ee PE ts nln GK Ata Renn An in A Ate Ant Ant see tins in Ae lage ee is te ay sk oe te b ie » ie De 28 indicates where they should be dropped. Two metal- tired wheels push and roll the dirt firmly down around the roots. This is a very desirable feature, it is said, because the trees are likely to die if this is not well done. Two attachments make it possible to place water and fertilizer at the roots of each» seedling. Another attachment marks the line on which the next row of trees is to be planted. One Locomotive An Hour. A locomotive an hour is the contribution of the - Baldwin. Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, to the allied war machinery. President Alba B. Johnson announced recently that the 20,000 work- men are turning out 78 locomotives a week, one for each working hour. Sammy’s New Word. A new word has been put into the English language. It is “mug.” When an American has been kissed by a Frenchman, now, he says he has been “mugged.” It is the first American colloquialism of the war. The English have “over the top” and a dozen other words and phrases. As the Frenchman who plants a kiss on the cheeks of the private is usually of the hirsute variety, he is tactfully avoided, if possible. A soldier is going down the street; he meets another who warns that “an old guy down it the next block mugged me;” it is the signal for a detour. Missing Girl Found by Detroit Sleuth. After a search which covered five States and ex- tended over a period of seven weeks, sixteen-year-old Gladdice Zierman, daughter of a wealthy ranch owner at Livingston, Montana, was located in Detroit by a detective and turned over to her father, Adolph Zier- man, Miss Zierman, who was attending high school in Livingston, became infatuated with a cattle raiser many years her senior, her father says. This man is alleged to have arranged for her trip to Detroit and is said to have given her large sums of money through the girl’s aunt. The man is now under arrest in Mon- tana, and the girl will be used as a witness. Coyotes Beg at Doors in San Angelo, Texas. The extended drought has driven the coyotes from the cactus and mesquite thickets of the ranges to San Angelo, Texas, and, instead of killing calves, lambs, sheep, and goats on the ranches, they now are virtually begging at the back doors for something to eat. A pack of three lean, gray, hali-starved coyotes appeared recently in the back yard of one of the sanitariums and set up a doleful howl. After a few moments’ chase by several men, the coyotes, exhausted, dropped in the shade of bushes and were stoned to death. Hundreds of coyotes have been killed at the various watering places during the past few days. British Artillery Bombards a Bird. - . « \ How one little canary bird ¢aused consternation among an entire division of British troops and brought down upon its own head a hurricane of rifle fire and “NEW BUFFALO BILL’! WEEKLY. finally shell fire, is told by Doctor Robert Davis, re- cently arrived in the United States to lecture at the officers’ training camps on the activities of the Red Cross in Europe. For more than a month, on a northern sector of the line, the British had been secretly mining beneath the German trenches. The work was almost com- plete. During the operations, several canary birds were, as usual, kept in the excavations to warn the workers of the presence, of fire damp, which is fatal to the birds. One little songster, however, escaped from its job, flew into the middle of No Man’s Land, and, alighting on a bush, began to sing. Consternation reigned in the British lines. If the bird should be discovered by the Germans, the work of weeks would go for naught, as the enemy could easily interpret the meaning of its presence and pre- pare to combat the sapping operations. The infantry was immediately ordered to open fire on the canary to destroy it. But it seemed to bear a charmed life. Even the sharpshooters failed to bring it down as it hopped from twig to twig. Finally the artillery had to be called on. A trench gun with a well-timed shell blew the bird and the bush and the song into nothingness. Bandit Shot from Tree. Police are searching for two of four bandits who stole $17,000 from A. D, Farrell, superintendent of a quarry near New Castle, Pennsylvania. One bandit, Mat Galic, was found dead by a posse after the holdup, apparently the victim of a bullet fired by another robber. Another, Mayek Zorko, was shot down out of a tree. He will recover. The other bandits escaped. Bears Flock to West Virginia from the Mountains. The hunter of the olden time will have nothing on the West Virginians of 1917 when it comes to telling how hunters killed bear in that year and helped Her- bert Hoover conserve the supply of other meats to ship to the soldiers in France. For bears are so thick that they have become quite ordinary sights to the natives, The scarcity of meat in the Allegheny Mountains is believed to be responsible for the large number of bears that have migrated to the hills of West Virginia, where they are fattening on chestnuts and apples from the farmers’ orchards, and other foods upon which they are foraging. At any rate, they are there, and are being killed in large numbers, often within range of the mountain- eers’ homes, Hunters of turkeys and smaller game are liable at any time to run upon a bear, and often two; but the biggest kill of the season thus far is that made by Jen Pritt and Ira Teter of a mother bear and two fine cubs. Boys Find Bomb. Boys playing in front of 234 Third Street, Jersey City, recently found a can containing three sticks of dynamite, fifteen feet of fuse, and a paper parcel of black powder which the police say is a high explosive. The house in front of which the explosives were found is a tenement containing twenty families. Three detectives, after an investigation, took Joseph NEW BUFFALO Drago, thirty-seven years old, who lives in the tene- ment, to the Seventh Street station and locked him up. The police believe that Drago was arrested in New York about two years ago in the course of 4 bomb- plot investigation, Drago denies ever having been in- volved in any plots. He says he knows nothing about the dynamite and powder found by the boys. The fact that the new explosives-license law went into effect a short time ago is thought to have caused some one to dispose of the stuff by throwing it into the street. British Free Man in Cellar Three Years. When the British made their latest drive over the Hindenburg line they freed a Frenchman who has lived in a secret cellar for three years. During that time he was fed by his wife with some extra food allowed her by the Huns because she ‘had a baby. German officers came to live in his house, and daily he heard them tramping above him. In accordance with the custom, this house and all others were searched every little while to see if any one was con- cealed, but the Germans never discovered his hiding place. Two Sets of Twins Enlist. Two sets of twins were enlisted in the British army not long ago by the British and Canadian recruiting mission. They are H. Bisham Holmes and Elmer Holmes, of New York, and George B. Courtney and John Joseph Courtney, of Paterson. The Holmes twins are the sons of the late Henry Holmes, a London writer, and never have been sepa- rated. They will be assigned to the same regiment in the Canadian forces. H. Bisham Holmes is a news- paper man, having been connected with the New York City News Association. Another recruit obtained by the British mission was the Reverend F. B. Eteson, of Honolulu, who joined as a private after he had failed to get a chaplaincy. Get Boy Blackmailers in Death-threat Plots. Six schoolboys, members of prominent families of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, whose ages range from fifteen to seventeen years, are said to constitute a youthful but determined band of blackmailers operating under the direful title of “Black Four,” with the object of obtaining large sums of money from business men and ‘ther well-to-do citizens through threats of death if heir demands are not met according to the directions 1 down in their anonymous letters to selected victims. The boys aré said to have confessed to threatening George H. MacGillivay, a druggist, with destruction of property in case he refused to hand over $500. A letter containing the threat was found under Mr. Mac- Gillivay’s drug-store door. selves the “Black Four.” Only four boys were at first members of the band, which was organized some months ago. Two more were later admitted. The charter of the “Black Four” is in the hands of the sheriff and reads as follows: “We do hereby promise to be loyal to our gang and risk even death for its honor and glory, and to the traitor death.” ( 4 t ] i pr Sin eRest Pipi ites The boys called them-_ nici tite Se An die RDA 9 At te) OE IS BILL WEEKLY. 99 The blackmailers had evidently gone at the business in earnest, as the authorities cite a case in Detroit where a man was shot about a month ago for ignoring their mail. Funniest of Bears Camp Kearney’s Pet. Other companies in training at Camp Kearney, Cali- fornia, have their mascots, but the company that holds proprietorship over “Little Griz,’ the funniest bear in captivity, is the envy of the big camp. “Little Griz’ is as full of tricks as a bunch of movie comedians. He is permitted to eat with the boys at their mess- house, and is growing like Uncle Sam’s national debt. He is always ready to stand on his head or do a fox trot for a hunk of bread or a piece of cake. It is be- lieved he would climb the north pole for a stick of candy or a red apple. At almost any time of day some fun-loving private can be seen with “Little Griz” stand- ing erect upon his shoulders, or doing comical keel- overs for the customary reward. The young grizzly was captured in northern Cali- fornia by a trapper, who vouches for the fact that its mother has long been known as “the terror of the hills,” being the biggest bear ever seen or encountered in any northern-coast region. The mother is said to have once killed a horse with a single blow of its huge paw, and for ten years has. defeated all attempts at capture. “Little Griz” was sent to Camp Kearney for sale, and a bargain was quickly made. It was captured by the trapper when it had strayed from its ferocious . parent, Apples Owl’s Dessert After Meal of Rats. While William C. Renner and Harry Schutler were out hunting recently near Ireland, Indiana, their at- tention was suddenly attracted to a large white bird that came sailing over them. As the bird circled about in a seemingly aimless manner, the hunters took a few shots at it. Schutler finally brought it down with a shot that broke its wing. It proved to be a monstrous white owl, and was either dazed or remarkably tame, as it made no fight when seized. Its wings measure five feet and four inches from tip to tip, and it has a very large beak. Its claws measure four inches. Schuttler has the owl caged, and it will devour large apples, while live rats have no show at all for life when placed in the bird’s. cage. ; Held as Wife Murderer. Doctor Harry H. Lewis, a well-known physician, of Louisville, Kentucky, is in the Jefferson County jail, charged with the murder of his wife, Mrs. Susan Lewis, following the finding of her body on the floor of her bedroom. The discovery was made by Doctor Edwin T. Bruce, who went to the Lewis home in answer to a telephone call from a neighbor, who said that she had been informed by Doctor Lewis that his wife was dead. Doctor Bruce found Mrs. Lewis’ body in a kneeling position on the floor, with her head and arms pillowed on a couch. Because of the disordered state of the room, he said, and because of Doctor Lewis’ apparent oon detec acee intima Bae SSR hot Min iNet UI Ne gh ath. Hah AA Ai e AI ESO PSB: REPRINT PRE LMT HTPC es I I a NCO ability to give.a coherent account of what had taken place, he immediately called the coroner. Lewis, he said, was apparently under the influence of either liquor or drugs. ime The husband was placed under arrest, and the body of Mrs. Lewis was removed to the morgue, where an autopsy disclosed that death was the result of stran- gulation. — Gold Shipped to Chile. Gold bars amounting to»$2,200,000 were shipped by the National City Bank to Chile for the Chilean gov- ernment. The shipment, which is likely to be followed by others, was arranged at Washington between rep- resentatives of the governments of the United States and Chile, and is to pay. for purchases of nitrates. This is the first export of gold to any South Amer- ican point since the enforcement of the embargo on that metal by the treasury department. Wilson Gets Gun Shell Case. The shell case which held the first shot fired by American artillerymen on the western front has been presented to President Wilson by the party of con- gressmen who recently made an unofficial visit to the battlefields. Each member of the party has a shell case from the first bombardment. The first one fired was saved for President Wilson, the second for General Pershing, the third for General Sibert, and those fired after the first three were distributed among the party. United States After Hoarders of Canned Products. Representations that canned goods: are. being hoarded in the warehouses of meat packers who are not in the canned-goods business have been laid before the Federal Trade Commission at Washington, D. C. “We are discovering that certain canhers of this country are turning into a lot of unadulterated blood- suckers: on the public,’ Commissioner Murdock de- clares. “However, they have bungled in overlooking or forgetting the fact that the commission has on file copies of all the contracts they made with the whole- salers last spring. “J am going into this situation to the finish, and every canner caught with the goods will have to deal with me.” Berries Canned Twenty-one Years Used in Pie. Miss Mary Ropp, a school-teacher living near Shel- byville, Indiana, was twenty-one years old recently. A birthday dinner was given in her honor by her mother, Mrs. George W. Ropp. A gooseberry pie, in which berries canned twenty-one years ago were used, hole When he was finally rejected by a draft in his head the size of a 25-cent piece, the jurymen watched the pulsations of his brain, and then made the award, The boy was playing on the sidewalk in front of his home one day while a driver was demonstrating ~ a truck, and while a prospective purchaser’s hands were on the wheel the auto ran onto the sidewalk and injured the child. Wife is First Victim of His Trained Dog. Doctor Ferdinand Pinz, of New York, has a’ big white bull terrier named Frisco that’ he. taught ‘tO. defend him if any one ever attacked him.~ Doctor Pinz; accompanied by a friend and the ter-. rier, was late in reaching home one night not long ago. Mrs. Pinz tapped him on the shoulder and asked him what delayed him... That tapping.on the chontder was all Ane son Frisco required. He sprang upon. Mrs: Pinz in fero- cious attack.: She tried to run into another room; but - the animal overtook her with one leap and sent her to the floor, one of her legs: being broken in the fall. Mrs. Pinz tried. to defend_herself with her feet, and, each time inflicting a severe wound. The physician was unable to draw Frisco away pat Mr. Porkony,. his friend, had used a chair as a blud- geon.against the animal. It .is-a Wise Bird that Chews Tobacco. Market Expert: Foy, of New York City, is Said to have placed a ban on Virginia turkeys. However, if the report be true, not every one will-agree to forego the’ Dixie birds. their flavor. Expert Foy is reported to have declared ae Vir- ginia and North Carolina turkeys chew tobacco, and the habit. imparts a bitter taste to their meat. If-this-is. a fact, it-is.no wonder that the. Dries sof the filthy. weed is going. up. Baa of Charles X. Moved. ‘The sarcophagus containing the bodies of Charles x. of France and members of his family, who went: to “as she kicked at the dog, he .bit her legs ten times, : and North Carolina | some ae like Austria to live after Charles was dethroned in 1880, has been removed by the Austrian authorities to the Carmelite Monastery in Vienna, according to a dis- patch from that city. The sarcophagus had been. lodged in ihe Franciscan Monastery at Castagnavizza, near Gorizia, in the Aus- trian territory regained from the Italians i in the recent Austro- German offensive. ay iaiD Pie ea OAD NY A AU HP Asma ib a teh A fai, Cas da aS Bay AR el ea | ln Sle nt LOI Dts i i A. dy ain I Mish ne . i BREN UO He 4 “NEW BUFFALO 32 , The bodies, in addition to the king’s, are those of the Duke of Angouleme, eldest son of Charles X.; his consort, who was a daughter of Louis XVI.; Count de Chambord, grandson of Charles X., and his consort, Princess Theresa Medena. Miss Hawk, Patriot, Wants to be Flyer. The call of the air and something of the spirit of 1776 took Miss Mary Hawk, of Kansas City, Missouri, to the recruiting office for the aviation section of the signal corps recently, with a request to be eG for service as a flyer. Miss Hawk, as an aviation officer nore is the bird type, with high tension, nice balance, daring, and a venturesome temperament,combined with resources © in physical nerve and control. She doesn’t want to fly for notoriety or excitement. Because her father is too old and she has no brothers, she merely wants to do her bit, and feels she could do it to the best advan- tage fighting a flying Boche at 20,000 feet up, or drop- ping bombs on the Huns below. The aviation officer received her application and said he would communicate with the chief aviation officer at Washington, D. C., to learn if her services would be acceptable. This Rabbit Hunter is ‘Downright Cruel. _ Cal Jordan, of Kelly’s Island, Ohio, is the only man yet heard of near there who hunts rabbits—and bags them—without a gun. When Cal wants some bunnies, he siete goes forth with nothing more than his dog and a bucket of paint. He paints what looks like a hole at the bottom of con- venient trees. Then he lets his dog loose. The dog stirs up a rabbit. The rabbit sees what he thinks is a hole in the tree. He makes for it pell-mell. Bang! The rabbit collides with the tree and breaks his neck. Jordan picks him up and gets ready for the next one. Panther Has Charmed Life; Family Moves. A panther which has. visited the prairie section along the Big River-Mendocino Road near San Francisco, California, and frightened the residents, has so far made good its escape, but is fast gaining a reputation as a bad feline. Its several visits to the home of the Colombos and its three attacks on’ Mrs. Colombo caused that family to move. Planet May be Signaling Earth. For some years a Committee or savants has been in existence at Boston, Massachusetts, formed to study the various means suggested for establishing commu- nication with the planet Mars and to ascertain once for all whether or not the Martians, whose existence is practically accepted a6a Lealiiy, ae to get in touch with us. a In 1892, and again in 1901, the most powerful tele- scopes disclosed three intensely luminous centers of light, separated from each other by a distance of sev- eral hundred miles, and which appeared to be a duced by artificial means. In 1906 a stranger thing happened. During several months it was noticed that the wireless-telegraph sta- tions throughout the world received a mysterious sig- once sought. BILL WEEKLY,, nal about midnight. This was sent out by no terres- trial post. It was supposed that a message from Mars was being picked up, and a means of replying was at Monsieur Cros, the.:French scientist, suggested the creation of luminous signals capable of being seen on the neighboring planet. It was follow- ing this that the Boston committee was constituted. The committee has just reported that five luminous spots have been observed on Mars. They appear and disappear alternately, like the illuminated advertise- ing signs which the war has extinguished in our cities. What does this mean? Are the Martians trying to talk to us? ae Dusky Vampire Queen a Negro Draft Dodger. To escape the draft, Jim Gibbon,. twenty-seven, Mississippi negro, got a fancy wig, some beads, a dozen or more pairs of loud hosiery, and a flock of dresses. For more than a month he “got away” with the Julian Eltinge stunt, but his Theda Bara “vampiring” landed him in jail. S His dusky suitors were legion, ba John Hamilton Brown had “the inside track.” Then Henry Washington came into her—beg pardon, his—life. To prevent a carving feast between the two, the colored heart smasher laid bare the naked truth. John tipped the police. “Ah’m dun with this female stuff,’ said Jim, in his cell. “Take me to de trenches. Ah’d ruther battle Germans than juggle lovers.” neha All American Except His Glass “Lamp.” Paul Gary, of Anderson, Indiana, is all American, with the exception of a glass eye. The substitute optic is alien. Gary tried to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, but wa’s rejected when, his infirmity was dis- covered. - “Didn’t you know that the loss of an eye would prevent your enlisting?” asked the sergeant. “IL thought it might,” explained Gary; “but this glass. blinker is the only.part of me that was made in Ger- many, and I want to take it back.” He was advised to mail it. Auto Turns Horse Thief in Connecticut Town. Irwin Millard, a chauffeur, entered a touring car and started down Main Street, Winsted, Connecticut. Hearing the clatter of horses’ feet behind the car, he increased his speed, but the sound continued. Stopping the auto, he discovered a horse hitched to the rear of the car. Naturally the animal followed where it was led, drawing its carriage after it. Investigation showed that a farmer who had driven in from the country had used J auto as a hitching post. : Pair Walk Out and Vanish. — - Sherlock Holmes never tackled a mystery deeper than the one which is baffling the police of Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania. Doctor and Mrs. Floyd Felger disappeared recently from their apartment in West Philadelphia. They left an untouched meal on the table. Their clothing was untouched and they did not bother even to take their hats and coats with them. Wew Buffal were Weekl Boy BE RY TUESDAY There is no need of our telling American readers how interesting the stories of the adventures of Buffalo Bill, as scout and plainsman, really are. These stories have been read exclusively in this weekly for many years, and are voted to be masterpieces of Western adventure fiction. Buffalo Bill is more popular to-day than he ever was, and, consequently, everybody ought to know all there is to know about him. In no manner can you become so thoroughly acquainted with the actual habits and life of this great man, as by reading the New Buffalo Bill Weekly. We give herewith a list of some of the back numbers in print. You can have your news dealer order them or they will be sent direct by the publishers to any address upon receipt of the price in money or postage stamps. o Bill BEAUTIFUL COLORED COVERS 211—Buffalo Bill’s Throwback. 212—Buffalo Bill’s ‘‘Sight-Unseen.”’ Buffalo Bill’s New Pard. 61—Buffalo Bill’s Treasure Train. 62—Buffalo Bill Among the Blackfeet. 63—Buffalo Bill's Border Beagles. 186—Buffalo Bill’s Army Mystery. 137—Buffalo Bill's Surprise Party. 138—Buffalo Bill’s Great Ride. : 213 64—Buffalo Bill and the Bandits in Black. 65—Buffalo Bill on the Deadwood Trail. 66—Buffalo Bill in the Cafion of Death. 67—Buffalo Bill and Billy, the Kid. 68—Buffalo Bill and the Robber Ranch. 69—Buffalo Bill in the Land of Wonders. 70—Buffalo Bill and the Traitor Soldier. 71—Buffalo Bill’s Dusky Trailers. 72—Buffalo Bill’s Diamond Mine. 73—Buffalo Bill and the Pawnee Serpent. 74—Buffalo Bill’s Searlet Hand. 75—Buffalo Bill Running the Gantlet. 1839—Buffalo Bill’s Water Trail. 140—Buffalo Bill’s Ordeal of Fire. 141—Buffalo Bill Among the Man-caters. 142—Buffalo Bill’s Casket of Pearls. 143—Buffalo Bill’s Sky Pilot. 144—Buffalo Bill’s Totem. 145—Buffalo Bill’s Flatboat Drift. 146—Buffalo Bill on Deck. 147—Buffalo Bill and the Bronchobuster. 148—Buffalo Bill's Great Round-up. 149—Buffalo Bill's Pledge. 150—Buffalo Bill’s Cowboy Pard. 214—Buffalo Bill’s Winged Victory. 215—Buffalo Bill’s “Pieces-of-Hight.”’ 216—Buffalo Bill and the Hight Vaqueros. 217—Buffalo Bill’s Unlucky Siesta. 218—Buffalo Bill’s Apache Clue. 219—Buffalo Bill and the Apache va tears 220—Buffalo Bill’s Golden Wonder. 221—Buffalo Bill’s Fiesta Night. 222—Buffalo Bill and the Hatchet Boys. 223—Buffalo Bill and the Mining Shark. 224—Buffalo Bill and the Cattle Barons. 225—Buffalo Bill’s Long Odds. 76—Buffalo Bill’s Leap in the Dark. 7(—Buffalo Bill’s Daring Plunge. 78—Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Mission. 79—Buffalo Bill’s Ghost Raid. 80—Buffalo Bill’s Traitor Guide. 226—Buffalo Bill, the Peace Maker. 227—Butffalo Bill’s Promise to Pay. 228—Buffalo Bill’s Diamond Hitch. 229—Buffalo Bill and-the Wheel of Fate. 155—Buffalo Bill Ensnared. 2: 30—Buffalo Bill and the Pool of Mystery. 81—Buffalo Bill’s Camp Fires. 26— Buffalo Bill's Pick-up. oD? ‘—Buffalo Bill and the Deserter. 82—Buffalo Bill Up a Stump. o7—Buffalo Bill’s Quest. 32—Buffalo Bill’s Island in the Air. 83—Buffalo Bill’s Secret Foe.° 58—Buffalo Bill’s Waif of the Plains. 333__Bufale Bill, Town Marshal. 84— Buffalo Bill’s Master Cee. 9—Buffalo Bill Baffled. 234—Buffalo Bill’s Ultimatum. 85—Buffalo Bill and the Skeleton Ilorse- 60—Buff: 1lo Bill Among the Mormons. 235—Buffalo Bill’s Test. man. 31—Buffalo Bill’s Assistance. 236—Buffalo Bill and the Ponea 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—Buftalo Bill’s Blockade. 89—Buffalo Bill and the Brand of Cain. 165—Buffalo Bill's Girl Pard. 240—Buffalo Bill and the Gilded ea 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——-Buttalo Bills “Paper Palik.”’ 242-—Buffalo Bill and the Boomers. 92—_ Buffalo Bill in Peril. 168—Buffalo Bill’s Bridge of Fire. 243—Buffalo Bifl 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. I. 95—Buffalo Bill in No-Man’s Land. 171—Buffalo Bill’s Mine. 246—Buffalo Bill at Canton Diablo. 96—Buffalo Bill’s Border Ruffians. 172—Buffalo Bill’s Clean-up. 247—Buffalo Bill’s Transfer. 97—Buffalo Bill’s Black Eagles. 1738—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. 176— 1 alt al 1 151—Buffalo Bill and the Emigrants. 152—Buffalo Bill Among the Pueblos. 1538—Buffalo Bill’s Four-footed Pards. 154—Buffalo Bill’s Protégé. 100—Buffalo Bill and the White Specter. jI—Buffalo Bill’s Big Contract. 250—Buffalo Bill and the Chief’s Daughter. 101—Buffalo Bill’s Death Defiance. 7—Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane. 251—Buffalo Bill at Tinaja Wells. 102—Buffalo Bill and the Barge Bandits 8—Buffalo Bill’s Kid Pard. 252—Buffalo Bill and the Men of Mendon. 103—Buffalo Bill, the Desert Hotspur. 9—Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Plight. 2538—Buffalo Bill at Rainbow’s End. 104—Buffalo Bill’s Wild Range Riders. 80—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 F lush. 107—Buffalo Bill’s Aztec Runners. 183—Buffalo Bill’s Queer Quest. 257—Buffalo Bill’s T ramp 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—Buftalo Bill’s Maverick. 186—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. —Buffalo Bill’s Flying Wonder. 189—Buffalo Bill’s Dutch Pard. 263—Buffalo Bill’s Battle Cry. —Buffalo Bill’s Ice Chase. 190—Buffalo Bill and the Bravo. 264—Buffalo Bill’s Fight for the Right. Buffalo Bill’s Gold Hunters. 191—Buffalo Bill and the Quaker. 265—Buffalo Bill’s Barbecue. —Buffalo Bill and the Wolf Master. 192— Buffalo Bill’s Package of Death. 266—Buffalo Bill and the Red Renegade. —Buffalo Bill’s Message from the Dead. 193—Buffalo Bill’s Treasure Cache. 267—Buffalo Bill and the Apache Kid. —Buffalo Bill’s Desperate Dozen. 194—Buffalo Bill’s Private War. 268—Buffalo Bill at the Copper Barriers. 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. d 4 271—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. 128—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—Buffale Bill’s Handful of Pearls. 127—Buffalo Bill and the Indian Queen. 208—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. 1833—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. 280—Buffalo Bill’s Merry War. 1 le 11 116 by 1 1 Pek fo ped ot at pk ek 185—Buffalo Bill on Detached Duty. 210—Buffalo Bill Repaid. SIX CENTS PER COPY. dealer, they can be obtained direct from this office. STREET & SMITH CORPORATION, Publishers, 79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York City PRICE, If you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot procure them from your news Postage stamps taken the same as money.