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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/21113-h.zip b/21113-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b94c71 --- /dev/null +++ b/21113-h.zip diff --git a/21113-h/21113-h.htm b/21113-h/21113-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9aa7f31 --- /dev/null +++ b/21113-h/21113-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3629 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<title>Wild Bill's Last Trail.</title> +<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> +<meta name="generator" content="Sausage Software HotDog Professional 6" /> + +<style type="text/css"> +.chapter {text-align: center; color: navy; font-weight: bolder} +p {text-indent: 30px; text-align: justify} +h2 {text-align: center; font-size: 200%; color: #993333} +h3 {text-align: center} +hr {width: 50%; color: #993333} +body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%} +</style> +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Bill's Last Trail, by Ned Buntline + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Wild Bill's Last Trail + +Author: Ned Buntline + +Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21113] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD BILL'S LAST TRAIL *** + + + + +Produced by Richard Halsey + + + + + +</pre> + +<div style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center"> +<img src="images/masthead-ddl192.jpg" id="cover" height="270" width="575" alt="Masthead" /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr style="width: 100%" /> +<br /> +<br /> + +</div> + +<p></p> +<h2>Wild Bill's Last Trail.</h2> + +<h3> +By NED BUNTLINE,<br /> +Author of "Harry Bluff, The Reefer," "Navigator Ned," etc. +</h3> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER I.<br /> +THE AVENGER.</p> + +<p> +"Bill! <i>Wild Bill!</i> Is this you, or your ghost? What, in great +Creation's name, are you doing here?" +</p><p> +"Gettin' toward sunset, old pard–gettin' toward sunset, before I pass +in my checks!" +</p><p> +The first speaker was an old scout and plainsman, Sam Chichester by +name, and he spoke to a passenger who had just left the west-ward-bound +express train at Laramie, on the U.P.R.R. +</p><p> +That passenger was none other than J. B. Hickok, or "Wild Bill," one of +the most noted shots, and certainly the most desperate man of his age +and day west of the Mississippi River. +</p><p> +"What do you mean, Bill, when you talk of passing in your checks? You're +in the very prime of life, man, and—" +</p><p> +"Hush! Talk low! There are listening ears everywhere, Sam! I don't know +why, but there is a chill at my heart, and I know my time has about run +out. I've been on East with Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack, trying to show +people what our plains life is. But I wasn't at home there. There were +crowds on crowds that came to see us, and I couldn't stir on the streets +of their big cities without having an army at my heels, and I got sick +of it. But that wasn't all. There was a woman that fell in love with me, +and made up her mind to marry me. I told her that I was no sort of a man +to tie to–that I was likely to be wiped out any day 'twixt sunrise and +sunset, for I had more enemies than a candidate for President; but she +wouldn't listen to sense, and so–<i>we buckled!</i> Thank Heaven, I've +coaxed her to stay East with friends while I've come out here; for, Sam, +she'll be a widow inside of six weeks!" +</p><p> +"Bill, you've been hitting benzine heavy of late haven't you? +</p><p> +"No; I never drank lighter in my life than I have for a year past. But +there's a shadow cold as ice on my soul! I've never felt right since I +pulled on that red-haired Texan at Abilene, in Kansas. You remember, for +you was there. It was kill or get killed, you know, and when I let him +have his ticket for a six-foot lot of ground he gave one shriek–it +rings in my ears yet. He spoke but one word–'Sister!' Yet that word has +never left my ears, sleeping or waking, from that time to this. I had a +sister once myself, Sam, and I loved her a thousand times more than I +did life. In fact I never loved life after I lost her. And I can't tell +you all about her–I'd choke if I tried. It is enough that she died, and +the cause of her death died soon after, and I wasn't far away when–when +he went under. But that isn't here nor there, Sam–let's go and warm up. +Where do you hang out?" +</p><p> +"I'm in camp close by. I'm heading a party that is bound in for the +Black Hills. Captain Jack Crawford is along. You know him. And +California Joe, too." +</p><p> +"Good! It is the first streak of luck I've had in a year. I'll join your +crowd, Sam, if you'll let me. Captain Jack and Joe are as good friends +as I ever had–always barring one." +</p><p> +"And that is?" +</p><p> +"My old six-shooter here. Truth-Teller I call it. It never speaks +without saying something. But come, old boy–I see a sign ahead. I must +take in a little benzine to wash the car-dust out of my throat." +</p><p> +Bill pointed to a saloon near at hand, and the two old scouts and +companions moved toward it. +</p><p> +As they did so, a young man, roughly dressed, with a face fair and +smooth, though shadowed as if by exposure to sun and and wind, stepped +from behind a shade tree, where he had stood while these two talked, +listening with breathless interest to every word. His hair, a deep, rich +auburn, hung in curling masses clear to his shoulders, and his blue eyes +seemed to burn with almost feverish fire as he gazed in the direction +the scouts had taken. +</p><p> +"So! He remembers Abilene, does he?" +</p><p> +And the tone of the young man was low and fierce us an angered serpent's +hiss. +</p><p> +"And he thinks his time is near. So do I. But he shall not die in a +second, as his victim did, I would prolong his agonies for years, if +every hour was like a living death; a speechless misery. Let him go with +Sam Chichester and his crowd. The avenger will be close at hand! His +Truth-Teller will lie when he most depends on it. For I–I have sworn +that he shall go where he has sent so many victims; go, like them all, +unprepared, but not unwarned. No, he thinks that death is near; I'll +freeze the thought to his very soul! He is on the death-trail now? With +me rests when and where it shall end." +</p><p> +The face of the young man was almost fiendish in its expression as he +spoke. It seemed as if his heart was the concentration of hate and a +fell desire for revenge. +</p><p> +He strode along the streets swiftly, and, glancing in at the saloon +which the two men had entered, paused one second, with his right hand +thrust within his vest, as if clutching a weapon, and debating in his +mind whether or not to use it. +</p><p> +A second only he paused, and then muttering, "It is not time yet," he +passed on. +</p><p> +"He went a little way up the same street and entered a German +restaurant. Throwing himself heavily on a seat, he said: +</p><p> +"Give me a steak, quick. I'm hungry and dry. Give me a bottle of the +best brandy in your house." +</p><p> +"We've got der steak, und pread, und peer, und Rhein wine, but no +prandy," said the German, who kept the place. +</p><p> +"Cook the steak in a hurry, and send for some brandy then!" cried the +young man, throwing down a golden eagle. "Your beer and wine are like +dishwater to me. I want fire–fire in my veins now." +</p><p> +"Dunder and blixen! I shouldn't dink as you wus want much more fire as +dere is in your eyes, young fellow. But I send for your prandy." +</p><p> +The young man threw one glance around the room to see if he were the +only occupant. +</p><p> +There was another person there, one who had evidently just come in, a +traveler, judging by a good-sized valise that was on the floor beside +his chair. This person looked young, for the face, or as much of it as +was not hidden by a very full black beard, was fair and smooth as that +of a woman; while the hair which shaded his white brow was dark as +night, soft and glossy as silk, hanging on short, curling masses about +his face and neck. +</p><p> +He was dressed rather better than the usual run of travelers; in a good +black broad-cloth suit–wore a heavy gold watch-chain, had on a fine +linen shirt, with a diamond pin in the bosom, and appeared to feel quite +satisfied with himself, from the cool and easy manner in which he gave +his orders for a good, substantial meal, in a voice rather low and +musical for one of his apparent age. +</p><p> +The last comer eyed this person very closely, and a smile almost, like +contempt rose on his face, when the dark-eyed stranger called for claret +wine, or if they had not that, for a cup of tea. +</p><p> +But his own strong drink was now brought in, and pouring out a glassful +of undiluted brandy he drank it down and muttered: +</p><p> +"That's the stuff! It will keep up the fire. My veins would stiffen +without it. It has carried me so far, and it must to the end. Then–no +matter!" +</p><p> +The stranger or traveler looked as if wondering that the young man could +take such a fearful dose of fiery liquor, and the wonder must have +increased when a second glassful was drained before the food was on the +table. +</p><p> +But the latter came in now, and the traveler and the young man with +auburn hair, at separate tables, were apparently too busy in disposing +of the eatables to take any further notice of each other. +</p><p> +When the first had finished, he took a roll of cigarettes from one of +his pockets, selected one, took a match from a silver box, drawn from +the same pocket, and lighting his cigarette, threw a cloud of smoke +above his head. +</p><p> +The second, pouring out his third glass of brandy, sipped it +quietly–the first two glasses having evidently supplied the fire he +craved so fiercely. +</p><p> +The traveler, as we may call him, for want of any other knowledge, now +rose, and as if impelled by natural politeness, tendered a cigarette to +the other. +</p><p> +The man with auburn hair looked surprised, and his fierce, wild face +softened a little, as he said: +</p><p> +"Thank you, no. I drink sometimes, like a fish, but I don't smoke. +Tobacco shakes the nerves, they say, and I want my nerves steady. +</p><p> +"Strong drink will shake them more, I've heard," said the traveler, in +his low, musical voice. "But you seem to have a steady hand though you +take brandy as if used to it." +</p><p> +"My hand is steady, stranger." was the reply. "There is not a man on the +Rio Grande border, where I came from, that can strike a center at twenty +paces with a revolver as often as I. And with a rifle at one hundred +yards I can most generally drop a deer with a ball between his eyes, if +he is looking at me, or take a wild turkey's head without hurting his +body." +</p><p> +"Then, you are from Texas?" +</p><p> +"Yes, sir. And you?" +</p><p> +"From the East, sir. I have traveled in the South–all over, in +fact–but my home is in the old Empire State. +</p><p> +"If it isn't impudent, which way are you bound now?" +</p><p> +"I haven't quite decided. I may go to the Black Hills–may remain around +here awhile–it seems to be rather a pleasant place." +</p><p> +"Yes, for them that like it. I'm off for the Black Hills, myself." +</p><p> +"Ah! with a company?" +</p><p> +"Not much! But there's a company going. I'm one of them that don't care +much for company, and can take better care of myself alone than with a +crowd about me." +</p><p> +"So! Well, it is a good thing to be independent. Do you know the party +that is going?" +</p><p> +"Some of 'em, by sight. The captain is Sam Chichester, and he has +California Joe, Cap'n Jack, and about twenty more in his party. And Wild +Bill has just come on the train, and I heard him say he was going with +the crowd." +</p><p> +"Wild Bill!" cried the stranger, flushing up. "Did you say he was +going?" +</p><p> +"Yes." +</p><p> +"Then I'd like to go, too–but I'd like to go with another party, either +just before or behind that party. Do you know Wild Bill?" +</p><p> +"<i>Know</i> him! Who does not? Hasn't he killed more men than any other +white man in the States and Territories–I'll not say <i>how</i>, but is he +not a hyena, sopped in blood?" +</p><p> +"You do not like him?" +</p><p> +"Who says I don't?" +</p><p> +"<i>You</i> do! Your eyes flash hate while you speak of him." +</p><p> +"Do they? Well, maybe I don't like him as well as I do a glass of +brandy–maybe I have lost some one I loved by his hand. It isn't at all +unlikely." +</p><p> +The traveler sighed, and with an anxious look, said: +</p><p> +"You don't bear him any grudge, do you? You wouldn't harm him?" +</p><p> +A strange look passes like a flash over the face of the other: he seemed +to read the thoughts or wishes of the traveler in a glance. +</p><p> +"Oh, no," he said, with assumed carelessness. "Accidents will happen in +the best families. It's not in me to bear a grudge, because Bill may +have wiped out fifteen or twenty Texans, while they were foolin' around +in his way. As to harm–he's too ready with his six-shooter, old +Truth-Teller, he calls it, to stand in much danger. I'm quick, but he is +quicker. You take a good deal of interest in him? Do you know him?" +</p><p> +"Yes; that is, I know him by sight. He is thought a great deal of by an +intimate friend of mine, and that is why I feel an interest in him." +</p><p> +"And that friend is a woman?" +</p><p> +"Why do you think so?" +</p><p> +"It is a fancy of mine." +</p><p> +"Well, I will not contradict you. For her sake I would hate to see any +evil befall him." +</p><p> +There was a cynical smile on the face of the young man with auburn hair. +</p><p> +"If a woman loved him, she ought, not to leave him, for his life is +mighty uncertain," said the latter. "I heard him say to Captain +Chichester, not half an hour ago, that he didn't believe he would live +long, and such a man as he is sure to die with his boots on!" +</p><p> +"Did he say that?" asked the traveler. +</p><p> +"Yes; and he seemed to feel it, too. He had to do as I do, fire up with +something strong to get life into his veins." +</p><p> +"Poor fellow! He had better have staid East when he was there, away from +this wild and lawless section." +</p><p> +"Stranger, there mayn't be much <i>law</i> out this way, but justice isn't +always blind out here. If you stay long enough, you may learn that." +</p><p> +"Very likely; but you spoke of going to those Black Hills." +</p><p> +"Yes, I'm going." +</p><p> +"Will you let me go with you?" +</p><p> +"You don't look much like roughing it, and the trip is not only hard, +but it may be dangerous. The redskins are beginning to act wolfish on +the plains." +</p><p> +"I think I can stand as much hardship as you. You are light and +slender." +</p><p> +"But tough as an old buffalo bull, for all that. I've been brought up in +the saddle, with rifle and lasso in hand. I'm used to wind and weather, +sunshine and storm–they're all alike to me." +</p><p> +"And Indians?" +</p><p> +"Yes–to Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache. But these Cheyennes and Sioux are +a tougher breed, they tell me. I'll soon learn them too, I reckon. +There's one thing sure, I don't go in no crowd of twenty or thirty, with +wagons or pack mules along to tempt the cusses with, while they make the +travel slow. You want either a big crowd or a very small one, if you +travel in an Indian country. +</p><p> +"You have not answered my question yet. Will you let me go through to +the Black Hills with you?" +</p><p> +"Why don't you go with the other party? They'll take you, I'll bet." +</p><p> +"I do not want to go where Wild Bill will see me. He may think his wife +has sent me as a spy on his movements and actions." +</p><p> +"His <i>wife!</i> Is he married? It must be something new." +</p><p> +"It is. He was married only a short time ago to a woman who almost +worships him. She did all she could to keep him from going out into his +old life again, but she could not." +</p><p> +"You <i>can</i> go with me!" said the other, abruptly, after a keen and +searching look in the traveler's face. +</p><p> +"What is your name?" +</p><p> +"Willie Pond." +</p><p> +"Rather a <i>deep</i> Pond, if I know what water is," said the auburn-haired +man, to himself, and then he asked, in a louder tone, "have you horse +and arms?" +</p><p> +"No; I just came on the train from the East. But there is money–buy me +a good horse, saddle, and bridle. I'll see to getting arms." +</p><p> +And Mr. Willie Pond handed the other a five-hundred dollar treasury +note. +</p><p> +"You don't ask my name, and you trust me with money as if you knew I was +honest." +</p><p> +"You'll tell me your name when you feel like it!" was the rejoinder. "As +to your honesty, if I think you are safe to travel with, you're safe to +trust my money with!" +</p><p> +"You're right. Your money is safe. As to my name, call me Jack. It is +short, if it isn't sweet. Some time I'll tell you the rest of it." +</p><p> +"All right, Jack. Take your own time. And now get all ready to start +either ahead or just behind the other party." +</p><p> +"We'll not go ahead. Where will you stay to-night?" +</p><p> +"Wherever you think best." +</p><p> +"All right. This old Dutchman keeps rooms for lodgers. You'd better stay +here, and if you don't want Bill to see you, keep pretty close in doors. +He'll be out in the Black Hillers' camp, or in the saloons where they +sell benzine and run faro banks. Bill is death on cards." +</p><p> +"So I've heard," said Mr. Pond, with a sigh. +</p><p> +Jack now went out, and Pond called the Dutch landlord to him and engaged +a room. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER II.<br /> +PERSIMMON BILL. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the auburn-haired man who called himself Jack had left the +German restaurant, he went to a livery-stable near by, called for his +own horse, which was kept there, and the instant it was saddled he +mounted, and at a gallop rode westward from the town. +</p><p> +He did not draw rein for full an hour, and then he had covered somewhere +between eight and ten miles of ground, following no course or trail, but +riding in a course as straight as the flight of an arrow. +</p><p> +He halted then in a small ravine, nearly hidden by a growth of thick +brush, and gave a peculiar whistle. Thrice had this sounded, when a man +came cautiously out of the ravine, or rather out of its mouth. He was +tall, slender, yet seemed to possess the bone and muscle of a giant. His +eyes were jet black, fierce and flashing, and his face had a stern, +almost classic beauty of feature, which would have made him a model in +the ancient age of sculpture. He carried a repeating rifle, two +revolvers, and a knife in his belt. His dress was buckskin, from head to +foot. +</p><p> +"You are Persimmon Bill?" said Jack, in a tone of inquiry. "Yes. Who are +you, and how came you by the signal that called me out?" +</p><p> +"A woman in town gave it to me, knowing she could trust me." +</p><p> +"Was her first name Addie?" +</p><p> +"Her last name was Neidic." +</p><p> +"All right. I see she has trusted you. What do you want?" +</p><p> +"Help in a matter of revenge." +</p><p> +"Good! You can have it. How much help is wanted?" +</p><p> +"I want one man taken from a party, alive, when he gets beyond civilized +help, so that I can see him tortured. I want him to die by inches." +</p><p> +"How large is his party, and where are they now?" +</p><p> +"The party numbers between twenty and thirty; they are in camp in the +edge of Laramie, and will start for the Black Hills in a few days." +</p><p> +"If all the party are wiped out but the one you want, will it matter to +you?" +</p><p> +"No; they are his friends, and as such I hate them!" +</p><p> +"All right. Get me a list of their numbers and names, how armed, what +animals and stores they have, every fact, so I can be ready. They will +never get more than half way to the Hills, and the one you want shall be +delivered, bound into your hands. All this, and more, will I do for her +who sent you here!" +</p><p> +"You love her?" +</p><p> +"She loves me! I'm not one to waste much breath on talking love. My +Ogallalla Sioux warriors know me as the soldier-killer. Be cautious when +you go back, and give no hint to any one but Addie Neidic that there is +a living being in Dead Man's Hollow, for so this ravine is called in +there." +</p><p> +"Do not fear. I am safe, for I counsel with no one. I knew Addie Neidic +before I came here, met her by accident, revealed myself and wants, and +she sent me to you." +</p><p> +"It is right. Go back, and be cautious to give the signal if you seek +me, or you might lose your scalp before you saw me." +</p><p> +"My scalp?" +</p><p> +"Yes; my guards are vigilant and rough." +</p><p> +<i>"Your guards?"</i> +</p><p> +Persimmon Bill laughed at the look of wonder in the face of his visitor, +and with his hand to his mouth, gave a shrill, warbling cry. +</p><p> +In a second this mouth of the ravine was fairly blocked with armed and +painted warriors–Sioux, of the Ogallalla tribe. There were not less +than fifty of them. +</p><p> +"You see my guards–red devils, who will do my bidding at all times, and +take a scalp on their own account every chance they get," said Persimmon +Bill. +</p><p> +Then he took an eagle feather, with its tip dipped in crimson, from the +coronet of the chief, and handed it, in the presence of all the Indians, +to Jack. +</p><p> +"Keep thus, and when out on the plains, wear it in your hat, where it +can be seen, and the Sioux will ever pass you unharmed, and you can +safely come and go among them. Now go back, get the list and all the +news you can, and bring it here as soon as you can. Tell Addie to ride +out with you when you come next." +</p><p> +Jack placed the feather in a safe place inside his vest, bowed his head, +and wheeling his horse, turned toward the town. Before he had ridden a +hundred yards he looked back. Persimmon Bill had vanished, not an Indian +was in sight, and no one unacquainted with their vicinity could have +seen a sign to show that such dangerous beings were near. +</p><p> +No smoke rose above the trees, no horses were feeding around, nothing to +break the apparent solitude of the scene. +</p><p> +"And that was Persimmon Bill?" muttered the auburn-haired rider, as he +galloped back. "So handsome, it does not seem as if he could be the +murderer they call him. And yet, if all is true, he has slain tens, +where Wild Bill has killed one. No matter, he will be useful to me. That +is all I care for now." +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER III.<br /> +A WARNING. +</p><p> +When Wild Bill and Sam Chichester entered the saloon alluded to in our +first chapter, they were hailed by several jovial-looking men, one of +whom Wild Bill warmly responded to as California Joe, while he grasped +the hand of another fine-looking young man whom he called Captain Jack. +</p><p> +"Come, Crawford," said he, addressing the last named, "let's wet up! I'm +dry as an empty powder-horn!" +</p><p> +"No benzine for me, Bill," replied Crawford, or "Captain Jack." "I've +not touched a drop of the poison in six months." +</p><p> +"What? Quit drinking, Jack? Is the world coming to an end?" +</p><p> +"I suppose it will sometime. But that has nothing to do with my +drinking. I promised old Cale Durg to quit, and I've done it. And I +never took a better trail in my life. I'm fresh as a daisy, strong as a +full-grown elk, and happy as an antelope on a wide range." +</p><p> +"All right, Jack. But I must drink. Come, boys–all that will–come up +and wet down at my expense." +</p><p> +California Joe and most of the others joined in the invitation, and +Captain Jack took a cigar rather than "lift a shingle from the roof," as +he said. +</p><p> +"Where are you bound, Bill?" asked Captain Jack, as Bill placed his +empty glass on the counter, and turned around. +</p><p> +"To the Black Hills with your crowd–that is if I live to get there." +</p><p> +"Live! You haven't any thought of dying, have you? I never saw you look +better." +</p><p> +"Then I'll make a healthy-looking corpse, Jack. For I tell you my time +is nearly up; I've felt it in my bones this six months. I've seen ghosts +in my dreams, and felt as if they were around me when I was awake. It's +no use, Jack, when a chap's time comes he has got to go." +</p><p> +"Nonsense, Bill; don't think of anything like that. A long life and a +merry one–that's my motto. We'll go out to the Black Hills, dig out our +fortunes, and then get out of the wilderness to enjoy life." +</p><p> +"Boy, I've never known the happiness outside of the wilderness that I +have in it. What you kill there is what was made for killing–the food +we need. What one kills among civilization is only too apt to be of his +own kind." +</p><p> +And Bill shuddered as if he thought of the many he had sent into +untimely graves. +</p><p> +"Stuff, Bill! You're half crazed by your dramatic trip. You've acted so +much, that reality comes strange. Let's go out to camp and have a talk +about what is ahead of us." +</p><p> +"Not till I buy a horse, Jack. I want a good horse under me once more; +I've ridden on cars and steamboats till my legs ache for a change." +</p><p> +"There's a sale's stable close by. Let's go and see what stock is +there," said Sam Chichester. +</p><p> +"Agreed!" cried all hands, and soon Bill and his friends were at the +stable, looking at some dozen or more horses which were for sale. +</p><p> +"There's the beauty I want," said Wild Bill, pointing to a black horse, +full sixteen hands high, and evidently a thoroughbred. "Name your price, +and he is my meat!" +</p><p> +"That horse isn't for sale now. He was spoken for an hour ago, or maybe +less by a cash customer of mine–a red-haired chap from Texas." +</p><p> +"<i>Red-haired</i> chap from Texas!" muttered Bill, "Red-haired cusses from +Texas are always crossin' my trail. That chap from Abilene was a Texas +cattle-man, with hair as red as fire. Where is your cash customer, Mr. +Liveryman?" +</p><p> +"Gone out riding somewhere," replied the stable-keeper. +</p><p> +"When he comes back, tell him Wild Bill wants that horse, and I reckon +he'll let Wild Bill buy him, if he knows when he is well off! I wouldn't +give two cusses and an amen for all the rest of the horses in your +stable; I want <i>him!</i>" +</p><p> +"I'll tell Jack," said the stableman; "but I don't think it will make +much odds with him. He has as good as bought the horse, for he offered +me the money on my price, but I couldn't change his five hundred-dollar +treasury note. It'll take more than a name to scare him. He always goes +fully armed." +</p><p> +"You tell him what I said, and that I'm a-coming here at sunset for that +horse," said Bill, and he strode away, followed by his crowd. +</p><p> +An hour later the auburn-haired man from Texas reined in his own horse, +a fiery mustang from his own native plains, in front of the stable. +</p><p> +Though the horse was all afoam with sweat, showing that it had been +ridden far and fast; it did not pant or show a sign of weariness. It was +of a stock which will run from rise of sun to its going down, and yet +plunge forward in the chill of the coming night. +</p><p> +"You want the Black Hawk horse you spoke for this morning, don't you?" +asked the stableman, as Jack dismounted. +</p><p> +"Of course I do. I've got the change; there is his price. Three hundred +dollars you said?" +</p><p> +"Yes; but there's been a chap here looking at that horse who told me to +tell you his name, and that he intended to take that horse. I told him a +man had bought it, but he said: 'Tell him Wild Bill wants it, and that +Wild Bill will come at sunset to take it.'" +</p><p> +"He will?" +</p><p> +It was hissed rather than spoken, while the young Texan's face grew +white as snow, his blue eyes darkening till they seemed almost black. +</p><p> +"He will! Let him try it! A sudden death is too good for the +blood-stained wretch! But if he will force it on, why let it come. The +horse is bought: let him come at sunset if he dares!" +</p><p> +And the young man handed the stable-keeper three one hundred-dollar +greenback notes. +</p><hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER IV.<br /> +"GIVE UP THAT HORSE, OR DIE!" +</p><p> +Leaving the livery-stable, the young Texan went directly to the German +restaurant, and asked for Willie Pond. +</p><p> +He was shown up to the room, recently engaged by the traveler, and found +him engaged in cleaning a pair of fine, silver mounted Remington +revolvers. +</p><p> +"Getting ready, I see," said the Texan. "I have bought you a horse–the +best in this whole section; I gave three hundred dollars. There is your +change." +</p><p> +"Keep the two hundred to buy stores with for our trip," said Pond. +</p><p> +"No need of it I've laid in all the stores we need. You can buy yourself +a couple of blankets and an India-rubber for wet weather. A couple of +tin cans of pepper and salt is all that I lay in when I'm going to rough +it on the plains. The man that can't kill all the meat he needs isn't +fit to go there." +</p><p> +"Maybe you're right. The less we are burdened the better for our horses. +Are we likely to meet Indians on the route?" +</p><p> +"None that will hurt <i>me</i>–or you, when you're in my company. The Sioux +know me and will do me no harm." +</p><p> +"That is good. The Indians were my only dread." +</p><p> +"I've a favor to ask." +</p><p> +"It is granted before you ask it–what is it?" +</p><p> +"I want to break your horse to the saddle before you try it. You are not +so used to the saddle, I reckon, as I am. I will take a ride at sunset, +and bring him around here for you to look at." +</p><p> +"That is right. I am only thankful to have you ride him first, though +you may find me a better rider than you think!" +</p><p> +"Perhaps. But he looks wild, and I like to tame <i>wild</i> uns. I'll have +him here between sundown and dark." +</p><p> +"All right. I told you I'd see to getting arms. I had these revolvers, +and cartridges for them, but I want a light repeating rifle. Get me a +good one, with as much ammunition as you think I'll need!" +</p><p> +"All right. I'll get a now model Winchester. They rattle out lead faster +than any other tool I ever carried." +</p><p> +The Texan now left. He had not spoken of Wild Bill's desire to possess +that horse, because he had an idea that Mr. Willie Pond would weaken, +and give up the horse, rather than risk bloodshed for its possession. +And perhaps he had another idea–a mysterious one, which we do not care +to expose at this stage of the story. +</p><p> +This young Texan hastened from the German restaurant to a small, neat +house in the outskirts of the town. Knocking in a very peculiar manner, +he was admitted at once by a tall and strikingly beautiful young woman, +whom he addressed as if well acquainted with her. +</p><p> +"I'm here, Addie, and I've seen <i>him.</i>" +</p><p> +"You found him all right, when you told him who sent you, did you not?" +asked the lady, leading the way to a sitting-room in the rear of the +cottage. +</p><p> +"Yes, ready to do anything for one you recommend." +</p><p> +"Poor Bill! A braver man and a truer friend never lived. He loves me, +and I fear it will be his ruin, for he will too often come within the +reach of those who would destroy him, if they only knew where and how to +reach him. Persecution and cruelty placed him on the bloody path he has +had to follow, and now–now he is an outlaw, beyond all chance for +mercy, should he ever be taken." +</p><p> +"He never will be taken, guarded as he is." +</p><p> +"You saw his guards, then?" +</p><p> +"Yes, forty or fifty of them, and I would rather have them as friends +than foes. He wants you to ride out with me to meet him when I go next +with some information that he needs." +</p><p> +"When will that be?" asked the lady. +</p><p> +"In the early morning, or perhaps to-night, if nothing happens to me +between now and sunset to make it unnecessary!" +</p><p> +"Between now and sunset? That is within two hours. Do you anticipate any +danger?" +</p><p> +"Not much. I have a little task before me. I have a horse to break, and +a man known as Will Bill to tame." +</p><p> +"Wild Bill!–the dead-shot, the desperado, who has killed at least one +man for every year of his life?" +</p><p> +"Yes, the same. But ask me no more questions now. After I have tamed him +I will report–or, if he has settled me, there will be no need of it." +</p><p> +"Do not run this risk." +</p><p> +"It must be done. He has, in a manner, defied me, and I accept his +defiance!" +</p><p> +"Surely he does not know—" +</p><p> +"No, he knows nothing of what you would say if I did not interrupt you. +Nor do I intend he shall at present. It is enough that you know it, and +will care for both my body and my good name, should I fail." +</p><p> +"You know I will. But you must not fall." +</p><p> +"I do not intend to. I think I can crush him by a look and a word. I +shall try, at least. If all goes well, I will be here by eight to-night +to arrange for our visit." +</p><p> +"I hope you will come, and safely." +</p><p> +"I will, Addie. Until the cup of vengeance is full. Heaven will surely +spare me. But I must go. I have no time to spare." +</p><p> +The young Texan glanced at the chambers of a handsome six-shooter which +he carried, to see if it was ready for use, replaced it in his belt, and +then, with a cheerful smile, left the room and house. +</p><p> +Hastening to the stable, he selected a saddle, lengthened the stirrups +to suit himself, took a stout bridle from among a lot hanging in the +store-room, and accompanied by the stable-keeper, approached the newly +purchased Black Hawk horse. +</p><p> +"I may as well have him ready," he said; "for if Wild Bill is to be here +at sunset, that time is close at hand. You say the horse has not been +ridden?" +</p><p> +"No," said the stable-keeper. "My regular breaker was not here when I +bought him. Black Joe tried to mount him, but the horse scared him." +</p><p> +"Well, I'll soon see what he is made of, if I can get saddle and bridle +on him," said the Texan. +</p><p> +They now together approached the large box stall in which the stallion +was kept. The horse, almost perfect in symmetry, black as night, with a +fierce, wild look, turned to front them as they approached the barred +entrance. +</p><p> +"Steady, boy–steady!" cried the Texan, as he sprang lightly over the +bars, and at once laid his hand on the arched neck of the horse. +</p><p> +To the wonder of the stableman, the horse, instead of rearing back or +plunging at the intruder, turned his eyes upon him, and with a kind of +tremor in his frame, seemed to wait to see what his visitor meant. +</p><p> +"So! Steady, Black Hawk! steady, old boy!" continued the Texan, kindly +passing his hand over the horse's neck and down his face. +</p><p> +The horse uttered a low neigh, and seemed by his looks pleased with his +attentions. +</p><p> +"That beats me!" cried the stable-keeper. "Old Joe had to lasso him and +draw him down to a ringbolt before he could rub him off." +</p><p> +"Hand me the saddle and bridle," said the Texan, still continuing to +"pet" the beautiful and spirited animal. +</p><p> +In a few seconds, without difficulty, the same kind and skillful hands +had the horse both saddled and bridled. +</p><p> +The Texan now led the horse out on the street, where quite a crowd +seemed to be gathering, perhaps drawn there by some rumor of a fight in +embryo. +</p><p> +And as he glanced up the street the Texan saw Wild Bill himself, with +his six-shooters in his belt, come striding along, with California Joe +and a dozen more at his heels. +</p><p> +In a second, the Texan vaulted upon the back of the horse, which made +one wild leap that would have unseated most riders, and then reared on +its hind legs as if it would fall back and crush its would-be master. +</p><p> +At this instant, Wild Bill rushing forward, pistol in hand, shouted: +</p><p> +"Give up that horse, or die!"</p> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +<img src="images/pic-ddl192.jpg" height="424" width="575" alt="That Horse" /> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER V.<br /> +A SQUARE BACK-DOWN. +</p> + +<p> +The Texan paid no heed to the words of the desperado, but bending +forward on the horse with his full weight, drove his spurs deeply into +its flanks. Startled and stung with pain, the noble animal, at one wild +bound, leaped far beyond where Bill and his friends stood, and in a +second more sped in terrific leaps along the street. +</p><p> +"The cowardly cuss is running away!" yelled Bill derisively. +</p><p> +"It is false! He is <i>no</i> coward! He will tame the horse first and then +<i>you</i>!" cried a voice so close that Bill turned in amazement to see who +dare thus to speak to him, the <i>"Terror of the West."</i> +</p><p> +"A woman!" he muttered, fiercely, as he saw a tall and queenly-looking +girl standing there, with flashing eyes, which did not drop at his gaze. +</p><p> +"<i>Yes</i>–a woman, who has heard of Wild Bill, and neither fears nor +admires him!" she said, undauntedly. +</p><p> +"Is the fellow that rode off on the horse your husband or lover that you +take his part?" asked Bill, half angrily and half wondering at the +temerity of the lovely girl who thus braved his anger. +</p><p> +"He is neither," she replied, scornfully. +</p><p> +"I'm glad of it. I shall not make you a widow or deprive you of a future +husband when he comes under my fire, if he should be fool enough to come +back." +</p><p> +"He comes now. See for yourself. He has tamed the horse–now comes your +turn, coward and braggart!" +</p><p> +Bill was white with anger; but she was a woman, mind no matter what he +felt, too well he knew the chivalry of the far West to raise a hand or +even speak a threatening word to her. But he heard men around him murmur +her name. +</p><p> +It was Addie Neidic. +</p><p> +And then he turned his eyes upon the black horse and rider. The animal, +completely under control, though flecked with foam, came down the street +slowly and gently, bearing his rider with an air of pride rather than +submission. As he passed the German restaurant, the rider raised his hat +in salutation to Willie Pond, who stood in his window, and said, in a +cheerful voice: +</p><p> +"Remain in your room. I have news for you and will be there soon." +</p><p> +Without checking his horse the rider kept on until he was within half a +length of the horse of Wild Bill, then checking the animal, he said, in +a mocking tone: +</p><p> +"You spoke to me just as I rode away. I've come back to hear you out." +</p><p> +What was the matter with Wild Bill? He stood staring wildly at the +Texan, his own face white as if a mortal fear had come upon him. +</p><p> +"Where have I seen that face before?" he gasped. "Can the dead come back +to life?" +</p><p> +The Texan bent forward till his own face almost touched that of Wild +Bill and hissed out one word in a shrill whisper: +</p><p> +"Sister!" +</p><p> +It was all he said, but the instant Wild Bill heard it, he shrieked out: +</p><p> +"'Tis him–<i>'tis him I shot at Abilene!</i>" and with a shuddering groan he +sank senseless to the pavement. +</p><p> +In an instant Bill's friends, who had looked in wonder at this strange +scene, sprang to his aid, and, lifting his unconscious form, carried it +into the saloon where Bill had met Californian Joe, Captain Jack, and +the rest of their crowd. +</p><p> +Left alone, the young Texan said a few words to Addie Neidic, then +dismounted and told the stable-keeper to keep that horse saddled and +bridled, and to get his own Texan mustang ready for use. +</p><p> +"I must be out of town before sunrise, or Wild Bill and his friends may +have questions to ask that I don't want to answer just now," he said. +</p><p> +And then, he walked a little way with Miss Neidic, talking earnestly. +But soon he left her, and while she kept on in the direction of her own +house, he turned and went to the German restaurant. +</p><p> +Entering the room of Willie Pond, he said, abruptly: +</p><p> +"If you want to go to the Black Hills with me on your own horse we'll +have to leave this section mighty sudden. Wild Bill has set his mind on +having the horse I bought and broke for you, and he has a rough crowd to +back him up." +</p><p> +"If I had known Bill wanted the horse so badly I could have got along +with another," said Pond, rather quietly. +</p><p> +"What! let <i>him</i> have the horse? Why it hasn't its equal on the plains +or in the mountains. It is a thoroughbred–a regular racer, which a +sporting man was taking through to the Pacific coast on speculation. He +played faro, lost, got broke, and put the horse up for a tenth of its +value. I got him for almost nothing compared to his worth. On that horse +you can keep out of the way of any red who scours the plains. If you +don't want him I do, for Wild Bill shall never put a leg over his back!" +</p><p> +"I'll keep him. Don't get mad. I'll keep him and go whenever you are +ready," said Pond, completely mastered by the excitement which this +young Texan exhibited. +</p><p> +"Well, we'll get the horses out of town and in a safe place to-night. +And for yourself, I'll take you to the house of a lady friend of mine to +stay to-night and to-morrow, and by to-morrow night I'll know all I want +to about the movements of the other party, and we can move so as to be +just before or behind them, as you and I will decide best." +</p><p> +"All right, Jack. I leave it to you. Are you sure the horse will be safe +for me to ride?" +</p><p> +"Yes. A horse like that once broken is broken for life. They never +forget their first lesson. A mongrel breed, stupid, resentful, and +tricky, is different. Be ready to mount when I lead him around, I will +send for your traveling-bag, and you will find it at the house where we +stop." +</p><p> +"I will be ready," said Pond. +</p><p> +The Texan now left, and Pond watched him as he hurried off to the +stable. +</p><p> +"The man hates Wild Bill with a deadly hatred!" he murmured. "I must +learn the cause. Perhaps it is a providence that I have fallen in with +him, and I have concluded to keep his company to the Black Hills. But I +must call the landlord and close up my account before the other comes +back with the horses." +</p><p> +The German was so put out by the sudden giving up of a room, which he +hoped to make profitable, that he asked an extra day's rent, and to his +surprise, got it. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER VI.<br /> +OFF TO THE HILLS. +</p><p> +It was some time before Wild Bill became fully conscious after he was +carried into the saloon, and when he did come to he raved wildly about +the red-haired man he shot in Abilene, and insisted it was his ghost, +and not a real man, he had seen. +</p><p> +Bill's friends tried to cheer and reassure him, and got several stiff +draughts of liquor down his throat, which finally "set him up." as they +said, till he began to look natural. But he still talked wildly and +strangely. +</p><p> +"I told you, Joe," he said to his old friend; "I told you my time was +nigh up. This hasn't been my first warning. That Abilene ghost has been +before me a thousand times, and he has hissed that same word, +'<i>sister,</i>' in my ear." +</p><p> +"Bah! old boy. What's the use of your talking foolish. You've seen no +ghost. That red-haired chap was as live as you are." +</p><p> +"He did have red hair and blue eyes, then?" +</p><p> +"Yes; but there are lots of such all over the world. Red hair and blue +eyes generally travel in company. But he was nothing to scare you. You +could have wiped him out with one back-handed blow of your fist, let +alone usin' shootin' irons, of which there wasn't 'casion, seein' he +didn't draw." +</p><p> +"Where is he now?" +</p><p> +"I'll go and see. I suppose he is over at the stable." +</p><p> +Joe went out, but soon returned to say that the Texan had just ridden +off, after paying his bill; the stable-keeper did not know where. +</p><p> +"Let him go," murmured Bill. "If he <i>is</i> a man, and not a ghost, I +wouldn't raise a hand to hurt him, not for all the gold in the Black +Hills. He was so like–<i>so</i> like the chap I dropped in Abilene!" +</p><p> +Bill took another drink, but it seemed as if nothing could lift the +gloom which weighed down his heart. Only once did his face brighten. +That was when Sam Chichester said there was no use hanging on at Laramie +any longer for a bigger crowd; they were strong enough now, and would +start for the Hills inside of four-and-twenty hours. +</p><p> +"That's the talk for me!" cried Bill. "I want to get out of here as soon +as I can, Joe, and pick me out some sort of a horse. I don't care what, +so it'll carry me to the Hills, I can't breathe free any longer where +there's such a lot of folks." +</p><p> +"I'll get you a first-chop horse, Bill," said Joe. "There's some +half-breeds in a corral just out of town, as tough as grizzlies, and +heavy enough for your weight or mine." +</p><p> +"I don't weigh down, as I did," said Bill, with a sigh. "I've been +losin' weight for six months back. No matter. It'll be less trouble to +tote me when I go under. Remember, boys, when I do, bury me with my +boots on, just as I die." +</p><p> +"Stop your clatter about dyin', Bill. I'm sick o' that kind of talk. +It's time enough to talk of death when its clutch is on you." +</p><p> +"I can't help it, Joe, old pard. It keeps a stickin' in my throat, and +if it didn't come out, I'd choke." +</p><p> +"Let's go to camp," said Chichester. "Can you walk now, Bill?' +</p><p> +"Yes." +</p><p> +And the party rose, took a parting drink with the landlord, and started +for camp. +</p><p> +Outside, Bill gave a startled, wild glance toward the spot where he had +seen the Texan; but no one was there now, and he moved on with his +companions toward their camp, listening to, but not joining in their +conversation. +</p><p> +On arriving at camp, Chichester, as captain, gave orders that each man +should report on paper, or verbally, so it could be taken down, just how +much ammunition he had, the number and kind of his arms, private stores, +etc., so that if there was not enough to make the trip safely, more +could be provided. The number and condition of horses, pack-mules, etc., +was also to be given. +</p><p> +No man would be fitted to lead such a party did he not consider and post +himself fully in all these particulars. +</p><p> +Quite a crowd of townspeople followed the party out, for the news soon +spread that they intended to leave in a short time; so around their +blazing camp-fire there were many visitors. Toward these Wild Bill cast +many a stealthy glance, but he did not see the red-haired Texan there. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER VII.<br /> +THE OUTLAW'S LOVE. +</p> + +<p> +Willie Pond was much surprised when he found that his ride only extended +to a small but pretty cottage just on the outskirts of the town, where +the young Texan, introducing him to Miss Neidic as his temporary +hostess, left him while he took the horses to a safe place of +concealment not far away. +</p><p> +Miss Neidic look her new visitor into the rear sitting-room, and while +giving him a cordial welcome, and passing the usual salutations, scanned +him with a keen and critical eye. The impression left must have been +rather favorable, for the lady seemed to feel none of the embarrassment +usual when strangers held a first interview, but talked on as easily and +naturally as if she had known him half a lifetime. +</p><p> +"How long have you been in town, Mr. Pond?" was one of her many +questions. +</p><p> +"Only a day. I arrived on the express, westward bound, which passed this +morning," was the answer. +</p><p> +"Why, that was the same train the desperado, Wild Bill came on." +</p><p> +"Yes, he was pointed out to me by the conductor. But why do you call him +a desperado?" +</p><p> +"Because that is his character." +</p><p> +"I thought none but outlaws were celled desperadoes." +</p><p> +"There is where the mistake comes in. Most outlaws are desperadoes, but +a man <i>can</i> be a desperado, and yet not an <i>outlaw.</i> If to be always +ready to shoot for a look or a word–whether his opponent is ready or +not–is not being a desperado. I do not know what is. But excuse me. He +may be a friend of yours." +</p><p> +"Oh, no," said Pond, with some confusion in his manner. "But a very dear +friend of mine married him not long since, and for her sake I feel a +sort of interest in the man. I fancied that he was rather wild when +under the influence of liquor, but for all, a brave and generous man, +when truly himself." +</p><p> +"Brave, as brutes are, when he feels he has the power to <i>kill</i> in his +hands; but <i>generous?</i> <i>Never!</i>" said Miss Neidic. +</p><p> +"You are his enemy." +</p><p> +"No; for he has never done me, personally, an injury; but he has injured +friends of mine–sent more than one down to untimely graves." +</p><p> +"There, I said it–you are his enemy, because of what he has done to +your friends. +</p><p> +"I am <i>not</i> his friend, nor do I wish to be the friend of such a man. +But the enmity of a woman is nothing to him. He looks for friends among +such men as he now consorts with–California Joe, Sam Chichester, and +that crowd. I know but one real gentleman in the party, and that one is +Jack Crawford." +</p><p> +"I know none of them." +</p><p> +"You lose nothing, then, for it is little honor one gains by such +acquaintances. They suit Wild Bill, for they drink, gamble, and shoot on +little cause; they are ready for any adventure, never stopping to count +risks or look back when evil is commenced or ruin wrought, no matter +what may be its nature." +</p><p> +The entrance of the young Texans now caused a change in the topic of +conversation. +</p><p> +"I have learned when that party start." he said. "They are making their +final preparations to-night, and will break camp in this morning early +enough to make Twenty-mills Creek for their first night's halt–probably +about ten o'clock." +</p><p> +"Do you propose to go ahead of them?" asked Pond. +</p><p> +"No; it will be more easy and safe to fellow their trail. They will not +have over fifty animals all told, and there will be lots of feed left +for us even if we keep close by. And we can get as much game as we need +any time, for we can use but little. One pack horse will carry all our +stuff, and still be able to travel at speed, if need be." +</p><p> +"You understand it better than I," said Pond. "Arrange things to suit +yourself, and I will conform to your plans." +</p><p> +"All right. You had better turn in early, so as to get a good rest. For +after we are out, long rides and night-watches will tell on you, for you +are not used to them." +</p><p> +"I will show you to a chamber, your valise is already in it," said Miss +Neidic. +</p><p> +Mr. Pond followed her, and the Texan was left alone to his thoughts, +which he carelessly expressed aloud. +</p><p> +"So far all works well," he said. "Mr. Willie Pond is as soft as mush; +but I've read him through and through. He wouldn't go with me if he +didn't think he'd have a chance to serve Wild Bill, for, though he shuns +Bill, he thinks more of Bill than he would have me think, I'll bet Addie +has found that out." +</p><p> +"Found out what?" said the lady herself, who had returned so noiselessly +that Jack had not heard her. +</p><p> +"That Mr. Pond, as he calls himself, is a friend of Wild Bill's." +</p><p> +"All of that, and maybe something more, as you may find out before you +are through your trip." +</p><p> +"What do you mean?" +</p><p> +"Nothing but this–keep your eyes open, and study your Mr. Pond +closely." +</p><p> +"There is nothing dangerous about him?" +</p><p> +Miss Neidic laughed heartily. +</p><p> +"Nothing very dangerous to you, at any rate," she said; "but if they all +go in the morning, we must see Persimmon Bill to-night." +</p><p> +"That is so. Shall I bring the horses round?" +</p><p> +"No. We might be overheard. I will go to the stables. Get the horses +ready. I have some things to put up for Bill, and I will come as soon as +I pack them in a pair of saddle-bags." +</p><p> +Jack now left for the stable, and Miss Neidic, with a woman's +forethought, began to gather up many little things which might be useful +to her outlaw lover, who had little chance to procure articles of +comfort, not to speak of luxury, except when on some raid in the +settlements. +</p><p> +In ten minutes she was ready and on her way to the stables. +</p><p> +Jack had her own favorite horse saddled, while for himself he chose the +Black Hawk beauty. +</p><p> +In a few seconds both were mounted, and in the darkness they sped away +over the same route which Jack had taken when he went to visit Persimmon +Bill. +</p><p> +Little was said as they rode on, for the horses were kept at a swift +gallop, and before the hour was up they had approached the ravine as +near as they deemed safe before giving the signal. +</p><p> +Scarcely was it given before it was answered, and a second later +Persimmon Bill himself was by the side of Addie Neidic's horse, and she +was pressed to the outlaw's bosom with a fervor that showed he had a +heart more than half-human left in his breast. +</p><p> +"It's kind of you, Addie, to come out here in the chill of the night to +see a wild cuss like me, outlawed by man, and forsaken by Heaven!" +</p><p> +"It's safer to come by night than by day, for you and for me, Bill," she +said. "And I couldn't bear you should go away again till I had seen you. +And I've brought you a lot of things I know you'll need." +</p><p> +"I shall not need much of anything, Addie, on the trail I'm soon to +take. Your friend here I know is safe, or I wouldn't say so much. But +the truth is, the reds are going to rise in a body all over the north +and northwest, and we'll sweep the Black Hills, and clean out every +'blue-coat' that is sent to check the rising. The Sioux have made me a +big chief, and I'll have my hands full. If you hear of the 'White Elk,' +as second only to Sitting Bull himself, you'll know who it is." +</p><p> +"You, of course!" +</p><p> +"Yes, Addie; that is the name they have given me. And if the Sioux fight +as I think they will, and all the northern tribes join, we'll force a +treaty that will give us all the Black Hills and the Yellowstone, Powder +River, and Big Horn Country for ourselves forever. Then, my girl, and +not till then, can I make a safe home for you, and not till then will I +ask you to be my wife. For then the outlaw will be safe, and can live in +peace, and look for days of home and happiness." +</p><p> +"Bill, when you ask it, be it in peace or war, I am yours. You are brave +as the bravest, and had you never been treated wrongfully, would not now +be a hunted outlaw. I love you, and you know it." +</p><p> +"Yes, Addie, and I love you too well to ask you to share my lot till I +can see some sunshine. But this stranger has news for me." +</p><p> +Persimmon Bill turned to the Texan, who had drawn his horse away a +little, so as not to intrude on the conversation between the lovers. +</p><p> +"I have the news you asked for," said Jack. "The party, all told, who +will start at nine or ten in the morning, and camp twenty miles out +to-morrow, number twenty-nine men, all well armed, the most of them with +repeating rifles and six-shooters. Half of them are old scouts, the rest +are miners, gamblers, and a couple of them are traders. They have fifty +animals, saddle and pack, and carry no wagons. The mules are loaded +pretty heavy, at least them that belong to the traders, and are well +worth capture." +</p><p> +"All right, And there is one of the party you don't want hurt until he +is in your hands?" +</p><p> +"Yes, that man is Wild Bill. I want him in my power so that I may see +him die slowly, surely, awfully!" +</p><p> +"There is another man in that party, Bill, who mustn't be hurt. He did +me a kindness once, down at Cheyenne–saved me from insult and wrong. +His name is Crawford–Captain Jack, they call him!" +</p><p> +"Yes, I know him. No harm shall befall him, if I can help it." +</p><p> +"Thank you, Bill; you needn't be jealous of him, for it is only what he +did that makes me ask a favor for him!" +</p><p> +"I know it, Addie." +</p><p> +"No woman on earth can make me jealous of you. I've too much confidence +in your truth and love. But you'll not attack the party anywhere near +here?" +</p><p> +"No, not till they are far beyond all the military posts. I want no +pursuit when I do my work. Our animals are in good order for the +war-path now, and I want to keep them so. I'm drilling my braves at +every chance, so as to fit them to meet such men as Crook, Custer, and +Carr. All they want is drill and discipline to make them the best +soldiers in the world, and they're coming into it finely." +</p><p> +"Well, you were a soldier yourself long enough to know all that should +be done." +</p><p> +"A soldier too long, girl–too long a slave to men who held authority +only to abuse it," said Bill, in a bitter tone. "The cruelty exercised +on me then turned my best blood to gall, and made me what I am. I hate +the name, and my blood boils beyond all restraint when my eye falls upon +a uniform. Rightly have the Sioux called me the "Soldier Killer," for +never do I let one who wears the button escape if he comes within my +reach. But you must not stay too long. Good-night–I will not say +good-by, for we will meet again." +</p><p> +"Good-night, Bill." +</p><p> +"One word to your friend here," added the outlaw. "Follow the trail of +Chichester, about three hours back, whenever he moves. I will probably, +for three or four days, be about as far behind you. On the night of the +third or fourth day out, or, if it is bad weather for travel, a day or +two later, I will surround you, and take you and your friend prisoners, +to all appearances. But of course no harm will come to you, and you will +be free when the other work is done. Then I will close up and wipe out +Chichester's gang, saving the two who are to be spared. Then I will be +ready for the war-path, for I need the arms and ammunition these people +have to finish arming the drilled marines who are specially under me." +</p><p> +"All right, sir; we understand each other," said the Texan, wheeling his +horse to take the back trail. +</p><p> +Addie Neidic, as if from some uncontrollable reason, turned once more +toward her lover, and bending from her saddle, threw her arms about his +tall and splendid form, and kissed him again and again with passionate +tenderness. +</p><p> +"Do be careful of your life, dear Bill," she said. "You are all in all +to me. If you perish, life will be valueless to me." +</p><p> +"Addie, I'll try to live for your sake, and work my uttermost to achieve +what will give you and me peace and quiet in the end. Good-night, once +more good-night, my beautiful, my own." +</p><p> +"Good night, Bill–God bless you!" she sobbed; as she turned her horse, +and followed the Texan at a gallop. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +FOILED BY A WOMAN. +</p><p> +It was their last night in town before breaking up camp, and the Black +Hillers, as they already called themselves, under Chichester, were +determined to have a lively time of it. +</p><p> +They commenced "wetting up," or pouring down liquid lightning in camp, +but, being reminded that what they used there would be missed on their +journey, they started to skin the saloons in town, and finish out their +spree where it would not diminish their own stores. +</p><p> +As Wild Bill said, they were going where money would be of little +account, if all the stories about the gold to be found were true; so +what they spent now they wouldn't have to carry. And they went in, as +such reckless men generally do, spending their money as freely as they +could, and drinking with a "looseness" that promised headaches on the +morrow, if nothing more. +</p><p> +Wild Bill went in on the spree with a rush, as if he wished to drown the +remembrance of his late fright, and despite the cautions of his friend, +Captain Jack, who strove hard to keep him within bounds. +</p><p> +California Joe of course was in his element, and in a little while all +the party became so turbulent that Crawford left them in disgust. For, +as Addie Neidic had said of him, despite his associations, he was a +gentleman. +</p><p> +By midnight every saloon had been visited, and many of them pretty well +cleaned out, and now Bill proposed to go and break a faro bank that some +of the party spoke of. +</p><p> +"I have seven hundred dollars left out of a thousand my woman gave me +before I started," said he. "I'll lose that, or break the bank; see if I +don't." +</p><p> +All of the party who were sober enough went with Bill, and soon he was +before the green board. +</p><p> +Without even waiting to get the run of the game, be planked a hundred +dollars on the king, and lost. Without a word, he put two hundred +dollars more on the same card, and won. He left the four hundred down, +and in another turn he had eight hundred. +</p><p> +"Luck is with me, boys!" He shouted. "I'll break the bank! Let her swing +for the king once more, Mr. Dealer!" +</p><p> +To the wonder of all, though it was the last turn of the cards, the +king won, and Wild Bill picked up sixteen hundred dollars. +</p><p> +His friends now urged him to quit, but the demon of the game had entered +his soul, and he swore, with a terrible oath, that he would play till he +broke the bank, or was broke himself. +</p><p> +A new pack was now put in the box, and once more the dealer cried out: +</p><p> +"Make your bets gentlemen–make year bets! The game is ready!" +</p><p> +Bill, with a reckless bravado, as much of rum as of his own nature, +again laid all his winnings on one card–this time the queen. And with +wonderful luck–it could be nothing else–he again doubled his pile, +this time his gains being thirty-two hundred dollars. +</p><p> +"Stop now, Bill!" cried California Joe, "This can't last!" +</p><p> +"It shall last! The bank can't stand more than two more such pulls!" +shouted Bill, wildly. +</p><p> +And again on the same card he staked his entire winnings. +</p><p> +The dealer and banker were one; he turned pale, but when all bets were +down, he pulled his cards without a tremor in his hand. But a groan +broke from his lips as the queen once more came out on the winning side. +</p><p> +Once more Bill's stakes were doubled, and this time he changed his card. +</p><p> +The banker hesitated. His capital would hardly cover the pile if Bill +won again. +</p><p> +"Keep on," whispered a voice in his ear; "if he breaks you, I'll stake +your bank." +</p><p> +The banker looked up and saw, though she was disguised in male attire, a +face he well knew. It was that of Addie Neidic, and he knew she was able +to keep her word. +</p><p> +Wild Bill had heard the whisper, and his face was white with rage, for +he thought the bank would succumb before it would risk another chance +with his wonderful luck. +</p><p> +But he let his money lay where he put it, and cried out to the banker to +go on with his game if he dared. +</p><p> +The latter; with firm set lips, cried out: +</p><p> +"Game ready, gentlemen–game ready." +</p><p> +The cards were drawn, and once more Wild Bill had won. +</p><p> +Coolly, as if money was no more than waste paper, Bill gathered up the +pile, and began to thrust it away in his pockets, when the disguised +woman, Addie Neidic, thrust a roll of thousand dollar notes into the +hands of the banker, and cried out: +</p><p> +"This bank is good for fifty thousand dollars. Let no braggart go away +and say he has bluffed the bank, till he breaks it!" +</p><p> +Wild Bill trembled from head to foot. +</p><p> +"I know you!" he hissed. "You are the woman who bluffed me at the +livery-stable. I'll win your fifty thousand dollars, and then blow the +top of any man's head off who'll take your part!" +</p><p> +"Play, don't boast; put up your money!" was the scornful reply. +</p><p> +In an instant Bill put every dollar he had won, every cent he had in the +world, and a gold watch on top of that, on the Jack. +</p><p> +Not another man around the table made a bet. A pin could have been +heard, had it fallen to the floor, so complete was the silence. +</p><p> +The banker cried out, "Game ready," and slowly drew the cards. +</p><p> +"Jack loses!" he cried, a second after, and Bill's pile, watch and all, +was raked in. +</p><p> +"Devil! woman or not, you shall die for this!" he shouted, and his hand +went to his belt. +</p><p> +But even as his hand touched his pistol, he heard that fearful whisper, +"sister," and saw a white face, wreathed in auburn hair rise over Addie +Neidic's shoulder, and with a groan, or a groaning cry of terror, he +fell back insensible to the floor. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER IX.<br /> +THE GHOST AGAIN APPEARS. +</p> + +<p> +When Wild Bill fell, the banker declared his game closed for the night; +and while Bill's friends gathered about him and sought to bring him to, +the woman, Addie Neidic, took up her money, and left by the rear +entrance, and the banker, with two or three of his friends, escorted her +home, fearing Bill and his gang might annoy her, if the latter came to +before she reached her residence. +</p><p> +The auburn-haired Texan did not go with her, but with a slouched hat +drawn over his head, and a Mexican blanket over his shoulders, stood +back in a corner, unobserved, to hear Bill's words when he came to, and +to see what next would appear on the desperado's programme. +</p><p> +"That ghost again! He came to break my luck." +</p><p> +These were the last words that Wild Bill spoke, when recovering his +consciousness; he glared out upon the crowd with bloodshot eyes. +</p><p> +"It was a woman who broke your luck. Addie Neidic backed the bank, or +'twould have given in," cried another. +</p><p> +"Who is Addie Neidic?" asked Bill, with a wondering gaze. "Oh! I +remember–the woman who called me a coward over at the livery-stable. +Who is she? Where does she live?" +</p><p> +"In a cottage west of town. They say she's rich! Let's go and clean out +her crib!" cried a ruffian who did not belong to Bill's party, but most +likely held some spite against Miss Neidic. +</p><p> +"Ay! That's the word! Let's clean out the house and set fire to it!" +cried another, a chum of the first speaker. +</p><p> +It required but a leader now to set the vile work going. And Wild Bill, +gradually recovering his reason, but mad with drink, and just realizing +that every dollar he had, and even his watch was gone, was just the man +for such a leader. +</p><p> +"I'll go! Show me the house, and we'll teach her to wear her own +clothes, and let men's games alone!" shouted Wild Bill. +</p><p> +In a moment fifty men were ready to go; but first they made an onslaught +on the wines and liquors on the sideboard of the gambling-room. +</p><p> +While they were madly pouring these down, the auburn-haired Texan +slipped from the room, and ran swiftly to the cottage of his fair +friend. +</p><p> +"Addie," he cried, as she opened the door to his signal, "Wild Bill and +a crowd of full fifty men are coming here to rob you, and burn your +house. They are mad with drink, and even if the stranger up stairs will +fight, we three can hardly hold them at bay, no matter how well we are +armed." +</p><p> +"We will not try it!" said Addie, calmly. "I had about made up my mind +to go with Persimmon Bill. He loves me so well that I ought to be able +and willing to bear hardship for his sake. I care little for the house +and furniture, though they are mine, and cost me a large sum. I have +money and jewelry that we can carry off. I will rouse my two servants +while you call your friend, and we will all be out of the house before +they come. No one but you knows where your horses are kept. Let that be +the place of rendezvous, and before daylight we will be safe with my +lover." +</p><p> +"No; I do not want to be with him yet, Addie. I will take this newly +found friend and see you safely in reach of Bill, but we will make camp +elsewhere till Bill's party starts. Then we'll be on his trail, and you +on ours, as it was agreed upon." +</p><p> +"As you, like, Jack. But we must hurry." +</p><p> +"All right–as soon as I bring my friend down, do you go with him and +your servants to the stable, carrying off what you can. Leave me here, +for I want to give Wild Bill one more good scare." +</p><p> +"As you please, but be careful he don't kill you while you scare him. +Ah! I hear their yells. We must be quick." +</p><p> +Willie Pond had a white, scared face when he came from his chamber, for +while the Texan told him of the danger, the yells and shouts of the +drunken ruffians who were approaching could be plainly heard. It seemed +as if a gang of demons from the lower regions had been let loose on +earth. +</p><p> +"Come with me," cried Addie Neidic, as Mr. Pond came down with his +valise in hand. "Be quick, or there will be murder under this roof." +</p><p> +Pond, seemingly dazed and bewildered, obeyed, and out by a rear door +hastened the fair owner of the doomed house, with her maid, or +man-servant, and Willie Pond, while the Texan, telling them he soon +would follow, remained. +</p><p> +Plainly now the shouts and vile threats of the drunken marauders came to +the ears of the single listener. +</p><p> +"I wish I had a barrel or two of gunpowder here," he muttered. "I'd make +them sing another tune." +</p><p> +Nearer and nearer they came, and now the Texan extinguished every light +but one, which he shaded with his hat. Then he looked to the front door +and windows and saw that they were all barred, except a single shutter +which he left so he could open it. +</p><p> +A minute later, and the tramp of a hundred hurrying feet came loudly on +his ear. Then shouts: +</p><p> +"Clean her out. Kill her and burn her crib!" +</p><p> +In a minute the crowd brought up before the closed doors. +</p><p> +"Open your doors, woman, or we'll shatter them!" cried Wild Bill. +</p><p> +"Open, or down goes everything!" shouted the crowd. +</p><p> +"Here, Bill; here is a shutter loose!" cried one. +</p><p> +Wild Bill sprang toward it, and as he did so the shutter flew open; he +saw a white face surrounded by auburn hair; he heard one gasping +cry–"sister"–and he fell back in terror, crying out: +</p><p> +"The ghost! the ghost!" +</p><p> +But some one fired a shot, the light went out, and all was dark where +the light had been. +</p><p> +Bill recovered from his shock almost as soon as he felt it, and joined +with the shout: +</p><p> +"Down with the doors! Down with the doors." +</p><p> +The crash that followed, told that the frail obstacles had given way, +and Bill cried out: +</p><p> +"In and clean the crib out. Ghost or no ghost, give us light, and clean +the crib out!" +</p><p> +Cheer after cheer told that the house was entered, and a minute later, +torches made from splintered doors and shutters, blazed in a dozen hands +as the ruffians ran to and for in search of plunder. +</p><p> +"The ghost. Find the ghost, or the woman!" yelled Bill. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER X.<br /> +A MYSTERY. +</p> + +<p> +The excited and ruffianly crowd dashed to and fro, overturning the +furniture, tearing aside curtains, and looking for plunder, but unable +to find anything of value, beyond the furniture, or to see a single +living person under the roof. Not a dollar in money, not a piece of +plate rewarded their search. +</p><p> +"Fire the crib! fire the crib!" came from fifty throats, and almost as +soon as spoken, the act was consummated. +</p><p> +Wild Bill, angered to find no one on whom to vent his wrath, or shake +his thirst for revenge, looked on the blaze as it rose with gloomy +satisfaction, muttering that he only wished the witch of a woman was +burning in it. +</p><p> +The crowd increased as the flames rose higher and tighter, but no one +tried to check them, and soon it was but a smoldering mass of ruins +where the pretty cottage had stood. +</p><p> +But the late occupant, unharmed, was a mile away, and having just paid +off and discharged her faithful servants, was on the point of mounting +to ride off with the Texan and Mr. Pond, when the last shout of the +dispersing crowd reached her ears. +</p><p> +She smiled when she heard it, and said: +</p><p> +"I can afford all the harm they have done, I led but a lonesome life +there. I feel that the change I am about to make will be for the +better." +</p><p> +The three, with two loaded horses besides those they rode, now moved +quietly but swiftly out of the suburbs of the town, where the horses had +been stabled, and with the Texan leading the way, steered to the +westward, having no compass but the stars. +</p><p> +For an hour the three rode on, and then, pointing to some timber ahead, +the Texan said: +</p><p> +"Addie, there is where you will find him whom you seek. Tell him I have +not altered any of my plans, and that I shall lay in camp to-morrow at +Lone-tree Spring, an hour's gallop south of the Twenty-mile Creek. The +next morning I will follow the trail we spoke of. And now, Addie, +good-by, and don't forgot me." +</p><p> +"You know I will not, I hope yet to see you happy, and to be happier +than I am now. We shall meet again, perhaps, Mr. Pond, but good-night +for now." +</p><p> +And while the Texan and Mr. Pond remained still on their horses, she +rode on, leading one pack-horse, toward a growth of trees seen dimly +ahead. +</p><p> +The Texan remained where he was until he heard her give the signal and +receive an answer, and then turning to Pond, he said: +</p><p> +"She is safe; we may as well move on. We have a long ride to where I +intend to camp." +</p><p> +"All right," said the other, "This night's work seems almost like a +dream. I can hardly realize that Wild Bill would lead such a disgraceful +crowd of ruffians, and do such a dastardly act as to burn a woman out of +house and home." +</p><p> +"Rum takes all the <i>man</i> out of those who use it," said the Texan. "I +use it myself sometimes, I know, but it is when I feel as if I was all +giving out, and couldn't go through what was before me. And I feel +abashed when I think I need such a stimulant to fire up my flagging +nature." +</p><p> +Pond made no reply, but rode on thoughtfully at the rapid pace which the +other led, the pack animal keeping close in the rear. At last he asked: +</p><p> +"Who did Miss Neidic expect to meet where we left her?" +</p><p> +"A brave man who loves her dearly, but who has been driven in his +desperation by cruel injustice to do some work which keeps him outside +of towns and settlements for the present. His love is returned by her, +and henceforth she will share his dangers and his hardships." +</p><p> +"None can tell but those who test it, how deeply, how entirely, and how +lasting a true woman loves," said Pond, with a sigh. +</p><p> +"And none but a woman wronged can tell how bitterly she can hate!" said +the other, as he dashed his spurs into his horse and galloped on. +</p><p> +Miles were swiftly passed over, and the gray of dawn was just beginning +to soften night's darkness in the east, when the Texan exclaimed: +</p><p> +"Here we are; now for a rest of one day, at least." +</p><p> +And as he spoke he drew up his horse by the side of a small pool of +water, which trickled out from under the roots of a single large tree. +For an acre or so around it there were bushes growing as high as the +horses, but when light came, no other growth but that of short buffalo +grass and prickly cactus could be seen. +</p><p> +The Texan unsaddled his horse, and unloaded the pack animal before Pond +could get his saddle ungirthed. Then the Texan sprang to his assistance, +finished stripping the horse, and with a long lariat picketed it out in +the best grass. His own horses he turned loose, saying they never would +stray from camp. +</p><p> +Then, taking his rifle, he stepped out from camp, saying he was going +after meat. +</p><p> +In fifteen or twenty minutes, Pond heard the crack of his rifle and in +less than half an hour the young man was back, with the fat saddle of a +young antelope on his shoulder. +</p><p> +"Here is meat enough for to-day and to-morrow," he said. "Next day we +will be on buffalo ground, and we'll have some hump ribs to roast." +</p><p> +Gathering a few dry, light sticks, he soon had a hot and almost +smokeless fire ablaze. On the coals of this he set his coffee-pot, +broiled some meat, and while Mr. Pond looked on in surprise, he quickly +had a nice breakfast of antelope steak, coffee, and a few hard biscuit +which were in the pack. +</p><p> +While Pond took hold and ate heartily, praising the food by his actions +much as his words, the Texan ate lightly, yet all that he wanted–not +touching the bread, but using meat entirely. +</p><p> +"There'll be the more left for you," said he, when Pond noticed that he +ate no bread. "I never care for anything but meat on the plains. It +gives bone and muscle, and that is what we need here. The more simple +the food, the better the health. We use ourselves to salt, but we would +be just as well off without it. Eat hearty, and take a good nap. We have +nothing to do to-day. The party whose trail will be our guide to the +"Hills" will not start till late. We shall not move until to-morrow +morning, and then I'll show you the coals of the camp-fire which they'll +light to-night. There will be no need for any shelter but this tree +overhead. Everything looks clean and dry sky-ward–there's no better +camping ground than this for a couple on the plains. The water is good, +feed plenty, and we don't require much fire this time of year." +</p><p> +Pond, tired and sleepy, was only too glad to take the Texan's advice, so +he spread his blanket, lay down, and soon was in the land of dreams. +</p><p> +Meantime the Texan, with a small field-glass in his hand, mounted the +tree, and from a perch on its uppermost limbs, scanned the prairie in +all directions, but most often in the direction from which they had +come. +</p><p> +Nothing was in sight but wild game, scattered here and there, and he +soon came down and prepared to take a rest on his own account. +</p><p> +"They'll not pass till afternoon," he muttered, "and I may as well rest +a few hours while I can in peace and safety." +</p><p> +He took a long and curious look at the form of his sleeping traveling +companion, and a strange smile flitted over his face, as he muttered: +</p><p> +"A mystery, but I can solve it." +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER XI.<br /> +IN THE WILDS. +</p> + +<p> +If ever a man was astonished, when he responded to that after midnight +signal at the mouth of Dead Man's Hollow, it was the outlaw, Persimmon +Bill. He came from his place of concealment expecting to meet the Texan +with news, and found instead Addie Neidic, and with her, on a pack +horse, all the wealth and apparel she had in the world. +</p><p> +"Addie, love, what does this mean?" he cried, as she sprang from the +horse and threw herself into his arms. +</p><p> +"It means this, Bill. I have come to stay with you, go where you go, +live as you live, and die where you die!" +</p><p> +"Addie, dearest, did I not tell you to wait till I could give you a home +in peace and quietness!" +</p><p> +"Yes, Bill, but there were those that would not let me wait. To-night, +had it not been for thy Texan friend, most likely I would have been +murdered by a mob of drunken ruffians led on by Wild Bill. Warned in +time, I escaped with all that I had worth saving, except my house and +furniture. Those they burned; I saw the blaze from my stable, where I +went to get my horses to come to you." +</p><p> +"By all that's fiendish, this is more than I can bear! I'll ride in with +my Sioux and burn the cursed town!" +</p><p> +"No, Bill; for my sake keep cool and hear me. I am glad it is done. I +was wretched and lonely there–how lonely no words may tell. I was in +constant anxiety on your account. I trembled daily, hourly, lest I +should hear of your death or capture. Now I shall be with you, know of +your safety, or if you are in peril, share the danger with you." +</p><p> +"But, Addie, you can never endure the privations and the fatigue of such +a life as I must lead at present. Soon I must be on a bloody war-path. +We will have regular troops to meet, great battles to fight." +</p><p> +"And it will be my glory and pride to be with you in all your perils–to +show your red allies what a pale-faced woman dares and can do for him +whom she loves." +</p><p> +"Dearest, I see not how it can be helped. But I grieve to see you +suffer." +</p><p> +"Do not grieve, my love, while my face is bright with smiles. Do not let +your heart be heavy while mine is full of joy. Think but this–I am +thine until death. We will never part while life thrills our veins. Your +triumphs shall be mine; I will glory in your courage, and in your +enterprise. I have arms and well know their use. No warrior in all your +following can ride better than I. That I am fearless I really believe, +for twice inside of ten hours have I defied Wild Bill in his anger, and +laughed when his hand was on his pistol. But take me to your camp. I am +tired, and the night air is chilly; and take care of the pack horse. My +silver and over one hundred thousand dollars in money is on his back, +and what clothing I shall need for a time." +</p><p> +"You bring a rich dowry, Addie, but your love is worth more than all the +treasures the world could show. Come, darling, I will take you as the +most precious gift a wild, bad man ever received." +</p><p> +"You are not bad, Bill. You are my hero and my love!" +</p><p> +Bill could only press his answer on her lips, and then with the bridle +of her horses in his hand, and her arm linked in his, he walked back up +the winding bed of the ravine for near a quarter of a mile. +</p><p> +Then he emerged into an open space where there were full a hundred +Indian ponies staked out, with their owners lying in groups about near +small smoldering camp-fires. A few only were on guard, and these on +seeing their white chief appear paid no apparent attention to the +companion, though they doubtless saw her. It is the Indian's nature to +be stoical and never to manifest surprise, no matter what occurs. +</p><p> +Inside the line where the ponies were staked was a small brush house, +and in front of this Bill halted with his led horses, with his own hands +unsaddled one and unpacked the other, leaving packs and saddles in front +of the house. +</p><p> +Well he knew they were as safe there as they would have been behind +bolts and bars in the settlements–even more safe. +</p><p> +"Come in, my love," he said. "The Sioux will care for the horses. Come +in and receive the best a fond heart can give in the way of shelter and +comfort." +</p><p> +"It is all I ask," she murmured, as with him she entered the "Outlaw's +Home." +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER XII.<br /> +ON THE TRAIL. +</p> + +<p> +It was high noon when the young Texan woke up and when he rose Pond +still lay sleeping. The former laughed lightly, as he rose and bathed +his face in the limpid water, for the beard of the sleeper had got all +awry, showing that it was false. +</p><p> +"No need for a disguise here," said the Texan. "But let him keep it up. +When the time comes I'll read him a lesson." +</p><p> +Cutting some antelope stakes, the Texan built up a smokeless fire, and +had them nicely broiled when Willie Pond woke up. +</p><p> +"Mercy! how I have slept!" he said, as he looked at the sun, already +fast declining toward the west. +</p><p> +"You are not used to passing sleepless nights," said the Texan. "When we +are fairly launched into the Indian country you may not sleep so sound. +Take hold and eat. A hearty eater on the plains generally stands travel +best. To-morrow, it is likely, we'll have a fifty-mile ride or more, if +those Black Hillers get sobered down to their work. They'll do well if +they make their twenty to-day." +</p><p> +Pond went and bathed his face and hands in the limpid water before +eating, and as he expressed it, "rubbed the sleep" out of his eyes; then +he went at the toothsome steak with appetite not at all impaired by the +pure open air he was breathing. +</p><p> +The meal, taken with comfort and deliberation, occupied a half hour or +more, and as there were no dishes to wash, "clearing up things" only +consisting in tossing the bones out of the way, wiping their knives on a +bunch of grass, scouring them with a plunge or two in the dry sand, they +were all ready for next meal-time. +</p><p> +"Your horse hears something, so does mine," said the Texan, pointing to +the animals, which suddenly stopped feeding, and with their ears pricked +forward, looked off to the east-ward. +</p><p> +"I can see nothing. What can alarm them!" said Pond. +</p><p> +"They hear the tramp of the Black Hills party, I think. Horses have far +better hearing than we have, and will feel a jar of the ground that +would not attract our attention. I want no better sentinel than my +mustang, and your Black Hawk seems to take to the watch by instinct. I +will go up on my look-out post and see if anything is in sight." +</p><p> +Slinging the strap of his field-glass over his shoulder, the Texan +hurriedly climbed up the tree. Seated among the top-most limbs, he +adjusted his glass and looked away to the northeast. +</p><p> +"There they are!" he cried. +</p><p> +"Who? What?" exclaimed Pond, rather nervously. +</p><p> +"The Black Hillers, struggling along mighty careless. Their route covers +half a mile in length; when in good marching order it should not cover a +hundred yards, with scouts in the rear, front, and on both flanks, at +twice the distance. That is the way we travel in Texas." +</p><p> +"Wild Bill has been a scout so long I should think he would know all +about it," said Pond. +</p><p> +"A heap them scouts know who travel with Uncle Sam's troop's!" said the +Texan, in a tone of contempt. "Let them ride with a gang of Texan +Rangers a few months and they'd learn something. Your troops can't move, +or stop to water, without sounding their bugles to tell the Indians +where they are. In the morning, all day, and at night, it is toot, toot +with their infernal horns, and the reds know just where to find 'em. One +of our Texan Ranger bands will travel a hundred miles and you'll not +hear noise enough to wake a coyote from them all. These Black Hillers +travel slow to-day. They're sore-headed from their spree, I reckon." +</p><p> +"They deserve to be. Drunkenness always punishes the drunkard. I have no +pity for them." +</p><p> +"Can you see any sign of them from where you stand?" asked the Texan. +</p><p> +Pond looked carefully off in the direction the other pointed, and +replied: +</p><p> +"No. They do not even raise dust." +</p><p> +"Then we are safe here from observation. They go too slow to make dust, +and they're moving over grass any way. It will be dark before they reach +their camping-ground. But to make the next, which is full fifty miles +away, they'll have to start earlier. Ah! what does that mean?" +</p><p> +"What startles you?" +</p><p> +"Nothing <i>startles</i> me, but a couple of men from that party have dashed +out from the line at a gallop, and they ride this way." +</p><p> +"Heaven! I hope Bill–Wild Bill–is not one of them!" cried Pond, +greatly excited. "Are you sure they are coming here?" +</p><p> +"Riding <i>this way</i> does not assume that they're coming <i>here!"</i> said the +Texan, coolly. "They may have flanked off to look for some fresh meat. +Yes, that is it," he added. "They bear up to the north now; they want to +go ahead of the party so as to kill something fresh for supper. Captain +Jack kept sober when all the rest were drinking last night, and I'll +wager he is one of the hunters, and most likely Sam Chichester is the +other. We're safe from observation, Mr. Pond, so don't get nervous. +We'll not see Wild Bill to-day." +</p><p> +Pond smiled, but there was a tremor about him that showed he was easy to +take alarm and hard to get over it. +</p><p> +The Texan came down from the tree and busied himself in gathering some +dry fuel–small sticks which would make a quick hot blaze and little or +no smoke. Then he cut off some long thin flakes of antelope flesh from +the saddle hanging on the tree, and half cooked, half dried it. +</p><p> +"Meat may be a little unhandy to get in the rear of that straggling +band," he said. "If we have a little on hand, it will do no hurt." +</p><p> +"You are thoughtful," said Pond. "I would make a poor manager, I fear, +on the plains. I should forget everything until it was needed." +</p><p> +"You are not too old to learn," said the Texan, laughing. +</p><p> +"Excuse my asking the question, but have you long been acquainted with +that strange and beautiful woman, Addie Neidic?" +</p><p> +"Not very long, myself. But I had a brother who knew her very well, and +loved her almost to madness, She was his true friend, but she did not +love him." +</p><p> +"Is he living now?" +</p><p> +"Living? <i>No!</i> If ever you meet Wild Bill–but no, it is my secret. Ask +me no more about him." +</p><p> +Every word just spoken flew from the Texan's lips like sheets of fire; +his eyes flashed and his face flushed, while his form trembled from head +to foot. +</p><p> +"Forgive me! I did not mean to wound your feelings!" said Pond, moved by +the excitement of the other. +</p><p> +"No matter; I know you didn't. No matter. It will all come right one of +these days. I wish my heart was stone!" +</p><p> +Pond was silent, for he saw the Texan's eyes fill with tears, and he +seemed to know that nothing which he could say could soften a grief so +deeply felt. +</p><p> +The Texan was the first to speak. +</p><p> +"Addie Neidic is a strange, but a noble girl," he said. "Her father was +a rough sporting man, but her mother was a lady born and bred. The +mother lived long enough to educate Addie in her own ways, but she died +just as Addie was budding into beauty. Addie met her lover when he was a +soldier at Fort Russell, near Cheyenne. After he was driven to desertion +by cruelty and injustice, she met him from time to time, and when her +father died, leaving her all his fortune, she moved up to Laramie. I +think I know now the reason why–she could, meet him more often." +</p><p> +"You said that he was an outlaw." +</p><p> +"Yes; when he deserted he killed the two sentinels who were on guard +over him, then killed a mounted officer and rode away on his horse. He +was hunted for by whole companies as fast as they could be mounted, but +he could not be taken. But after that, if a soldier or an officer rode +alone a mile or more from the post, he seldom returned, but his body +told that Persimmon Bill, the 'Soldier Killer,' as he was called, still +lived around. Wild Bill has done bloody work–cruel work in his time, +but Persimmon Bill has killed ten men to his one." +</p><p> +"It is strange that an intelligent woman like Addie Neidic should love +such a man." +</p><p> +"No–he is both a martyr and a hero in her eyes. A more stately form, a +nobler face, never met favor in the eyes of woman. To his foes fierce +and relentless, to her he is gentle and kind. She will never meet aught +but tenderness at his hands." +</p><p> +"I wish I could have seen him." +</p><p> +"You may yet see him, Mr. Pond. He travels the plains as free as the +antelopes which bound from ridge to ridge. Adopted by the Sioux nation, +known to them as the 'White Elk,' he has become a great chief, and their +young braves follow in his lead with a confidence which makes them +better than the solders sent to subdue them." +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER XIII.<br /> +THE BLACK HILLERS EN ROUTE. +</p> + +<p> +The young Texan had judged rightly when he conjectured that it was Sam +Chichester and Captain Jack that had ridden out from the straggling +column of the Black Hillers, as he saw from his eyrie in the tree. +</p><p> +They had two objects in doing so. The ostensible object was to reach the +camping-ground first with some game for supper, but another was to +converse, unheard by the others, on the probable dangers of the trip, +and means to meet and overcome such dangers. +</p><p> +"There is no doubt the Sioux are on the war-path," said Chichester to +Captain Jack, as they rode on side by side. +</p><p> +"None in the world. They've taken a hundred scalps or more already on +the Black Hills route. The troops have been ordered to move up the +Missouri and Yellowstone, and that will make them worse than ever. We'll +be lucky if we get through without a brush. That was a mean thing, the +burning out of that Neidic girl last night, wasn't it?" +</p><p> +"Yes, Crawford, and if Persimmon Bill ever comes across Wild Bill, <i>his +goose is cooked!</i> Mark that. There is not a surer shot, or a deadlier +foe on earth then Persimmon Bill. He has defied the whole border for the +past three years–ridden right into a military post and shot men down, +and got away without a scratch. They say he has been adopted by the +Sioux, and if he has, with such backing he'll do more mischief than +ever." +</p><p> +"I don't believe Bill would have injured the woman had he been sober. It +was a mean thing to do any way, and I'm sorry any of our party had a +hand in it." +</p><p> +"So am I. But look, Jack, you can see tree-tops ahead. That is the +timber on Twenty-mile Creek. There we camp. We'll spread a little here, +and the one who sees a fat elk first will drop him. We'll keep within +sight and hearing of each other, and if one fires the other will close +on him." +</p><p> +"All right, Sam." +</p><p> +And the brave young scout, all the better for being ever temperate and +steady, gently diverged to the right, while Chichester bore off to the +left. +</p><p> +Game in the shape of prairie hens rose right and left as they rode on, +and every little while a band of antelopes, taking the alarm, would be +seen bounding over the sandy ridges, while an elk farther off startled +by the antelope, would take fright and trot off in style. +</p><p> +The two hunters were now nearing the timber, and they rode more slowly +and with greater caution. +</p><p> +Suddenly, as Chichester rose over a small ridge, he came upon a band of +a dozen or more noble elk, which trotted swiftly off to the right, where +Captain Jack, seeing them coming, had sprung from his horse and crouched +low on the ridge. +</p><p> +Chichester saw his movement, and lowered the rifle which he had raised +for a flying shot, for he knew by their course the elk would go so close +to Crawford that he could take his pick among them and make a sure shot. +</p><p> +The result justified his movement, for the noble animals, seeing only a +riderless horse, scented no danger, and kept on until they were within +easy pistol-shot of the experienced hunter. +</p><p> +Crack went his rifle, and the largest, fattest elk of the band gave one +mighty bound and fell, while the rest bounded away in another course, +fully alarmed at the report of a gun so close and its effects so deadly +to the leader of the band. +</p><p> +"You've got as nice a bit of meat here as ever was cut up," cried +Chichester to Captain Jack, as he came in at a gallop, while Crawford +was cutting the throat of the huge elk. "The boys will have enough to +choke on when we get to camp." +</p><p> +"I reckon they'll not growl over this," said Jack, laughing. "I never +had an easier shot. They came down from your wind, and never saw me till +I raised with a bead on this one's heart." +</p><p> +The two hunters had their meat all cut up and in condition for packing +to camp when the column came up. +</p><p> +One hour later, just as the sun began to dip beyond the trees on the +creek side, the party went into camp, and soon, over huge and carelessly +built camp-fires, slices of elk steak and elk ribs were roasting and +steaming in a most appetizing way. +</p><p> +The party were hungry, and the hungriest among them were those who had +drank the hardest the night before, for till now they had not been able +to eat. But the day's travel had worked some of the poison rum out of +them, and their empty stomachs craved something good and substantial, +and they had it in the fresh, juicy elk meat. +</p><p> +It was a hard and unruly crowd to manage on the start. Chichester found +it difficult to get men to act as sentinels, for they mostly declared +that there was no danger of Indians and no need to set guards. +</p><p> +Little did they dream that even then, within three hours' ride, or even +less, there were enough blood-thirsty Sioux to meet them in fair fight, +and defeat them, too. +</p><p> +Only by standing a watch himself and putting Crawford on for the most +dangerous hour, that of approaching dawn, did Captain Chichester manage +to have his first night's camp properly guarded. +</p><p> +Wild Bill, gloomy and morose, said he didn't "care a cuss" if all the +Indians of the Sioux nation pitched upon them. He knew his time was +close at hand, and what did it matter to him whether a red wore his +scalp at his belt or some white man gloried in having wiped him out. +</p><p> +But the night passed without disturbance, and a very early start was +made next morning. +</p><p> +Chichester made the men all fill their canteens with water, and the +animals were all led into the stream to drink their fill, for there was +a long, dry march to the next camping-ground. +</p><p> +Chichester and Captain Jack both knew the route well, for they had both +been over it in one of the first prospecting parties to the "Hills." +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER XIV.<br/> +POND SEIZED WITH TERROR. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing of note occurred in the little camp at the Lone-tree Spring that +first night. Just before sunset the young Texan and Willie Pond took a +gallop of four or five miles to exercise their horses and use themselves +to the saddle, and when they came back with freshened appetites, ate +heartily, and afterward slept soundly. +</p><p> +The next morning both woke with the sun, and after a hearty meal the +pack-horse was loaded, the other animals saddled, and the route taken +for the Hills. +</p><p> +A ride of six or seven miles brought them into the trail of the larger +party, and at noon, or a little before, the Texan halted on the +camping-ground occupied by that party the night before. +</p><p> +The embers of their fires were yet alive, and over them the Texan cooked +dinner for himself and companion. +</p><p> +Pointing to the bones and scraps of meat thrown around, the Texan +laughed, and said: +</p><p> +"They've plenty now, but before they get through they'll be more +careful, for if the Indians are thick, game will be hard to get; and I'm +thinking they'll find Indians before they're three days out." +</p><p> +"You said the Sioux would be friendly to you?" +</p><p> +"Yes; I have a talisman. Did you not see me put this eagle feather, +tipped with crimson, in my hat last night before I rode out?" +</p><p> +"Yes. Is that your talisman?" +</p><p> +"It is. It is from the coronet of a Sioux chief, and was given to me as +a safeguard." +</p><p> +"I wish I had one." +</p><p> +"Keep with me and you will not need it." +</p><p> +"Do not fear that I will go far from you. Alone, I should feel utterly +lost on these prairies. Where will we camp to-night?" +</p><p> +"Very close to the party that is ahead of us. They will go to a creek +and a piece of timber that is fully fifty miles from here. About a mile +from where I think they will camp there is a small ravine, in which we +will find what grass and water we need. It will be near nightfall when +we get there, if we do our best in travel. But if we ride hard, we'll +take the longer rest. I do not care to keep too close to them as a +general thing, but to-night we can't help it." +</p><p> +Their nooning was short, and taking the precaution to water their horses +well, and fill their canteens, they rode forward over the well-defined +trail quite swiftly. +</p><p> +Toward night they could see the trail freshened, but nothing was in +sight except a distant mark when night fell, which the Texan said was +the timber where the party ahead would camp. Just as the sun was setting +smoke was seen to rise in that direction, and the Texan spoke +contemptuously of the carelessness which would thus expose a +camping-place to those who were miles distant. +</p><p> +"If a captain of a ranger band would do such a thing in Texas," he said, +"his men would reduce him to the ranks and put one in his place who knew +how to be cautious." +</p><p> +"It surely is imprudent. But they are a large party to cook for, and +must have large fires," said Pond. +</p><p> +The young Texan laughed scornfully. +</p><p> +"Let every man make his own fire, make such fires as you have seen me +make, and the smoke could not be seen a rifle-shot away," was the +answer. "That party will never reach the Hills. Mark that! If Indians +are within twenty miles they'll see a smoke like that. But what is it to +us? We're safe." +</p><p> +"I am not so selfish as to wish harm to reach them, even if we are +safe!" said Pond, testily. +</p><p> +"That is as much as to say that I am selfish. Well, I acknowledge it. I +go in for number one. If they can't take ordinary care of themselves, +let them suffer." +</p><p> +Willie Pond made no answer, but rode on in silence. Night was now upon +them, and all was still except the thud of the galloping hoofs upon the +plain. +</p><p> +Suddenly a gleam of fire was seen far ahead. The Texan noted it, and +swerved off to the left. +</p><p> +"There is the camp," he said. "I can easily find our resting-place now. +I was afraid we would not see their fires until we were right up to the +timber. But they are careless with their fire as they are with their +smoke. We shall have moonlight in an hour, and in less time we'll be in +camp." +</p><p> +He rode on now, more slowly, for the horses were tired, and he seemed to +know so well where to go that there was no haste. +</p><p> +The moon was just above the trees when the Texan led the way into a +narrow ravine, with heavy timber on either side. Up this, full ten +minutes they rode, and then an exclamation of pleased wonder broke from +the lips of Willie Pond. For they came out into an open circular plain +or area of several acres in extent, covered with rich grass and centered +by a bright, mirror-like lake. +</p><p> +"What a lovely spot!" cried Pond. "Who on earth would dream of finding +such a paradise inside of gates so dark and rude." +</p><p> +"One who had been here before," said the Texan. "But speak low, for +careless as they may be over there in camp, some one might be outside +listening." +</p><p> +"Why, it is over a mile away, is it not?" +</p><p> +"Yes, along the line of the wood. But over this cliff, were it crossed, +it is not a quarter of that distance." +</p><p> +And the Texan pointed to a rugged tree-crowned cliff on their right. +</p><p> +"I will be careful," said Pond. "My enthusiasm breaks out when I see +beautiful things. I can hardly restrain myself." +</p><p> +"We will unsaddle and camp. Our horses are tired, and need food and +drink," was all that the Texan said. +</p><p> +And he at once unloaded the pack-horse, and unsaddled his mustang. +</p><p> +Pond, becoming more handy, now did the same for Black Hawk, who seemed +to take quite a fancy to his new master, curving his back proudly under +his caressing touch. +</p><p> +"Shall I picket him, as we did at the last camp?" asked Pond, when he +had unsaddled his horse. +</p><p> +"No, let him go with mine. They have been together long enough to mate, +and they'll feed peaceably in company. Mine will never stray or +stampede, and the other will not go off alone." +</p><p> +The simple camp was soon fixed; and as they had cooked meat left, and +biscuit, with plenty of water to drink, both agreed that there was no +necessity to build any fire. +</p><p> +"The smell of smoke might reach some sharp-nosed scout over there," said +the Texan, "for the wind blows that way. We'll eat, and then turn in, +for rest will come good to both of us." +</p><p> +The horses plunged off to the water and drank, and then went to +cropping the luxuriant grass, while their masters ate their suppers +with appetites strengthened by their long and wearying ride. +</p><p> +After they had supped, Willie Pond would, as usual, have enjoyed his +dainty cigarette, had not the Texan warned him that tobacco smoke would +scent farther than any other, and might be more dangerous, in betraying +their presence, than anything else. +</p><p> +So Mr. Pond had to forego his smoke. He took a blanket, and moving up to +a little mossy knoll just under the edge of the cliff, threw himself +down to sleep. +</p><p> +The Texan also took his blanket, but he lay down near the saddles and +packs. +</p><p> +Pond was so very weary that he soon fell asleep. How long he slept he +did not know, but a strange, oppressive dream woke him, and with the +moonlight, shining full in the valley, while he lay shaded beneath a +tree and the overhanging cliff, he saw a sight which froze his very +heart with a mortal terror. +</p><p> +The ravine by which he and his companion had entered was filled with +mounted Indians, who were riding silently into the little valley. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER XV.<br /> +CHEATED OF THEIR PREY. +</p> + +<p> +Literally dumb with terror, so weak that he could not rise, Pond saw +this strange cavalcade moving up toward the little lake, and looked to +the spot where the Texan had lain down to see if he had yet taken the +alarm. +</p><p> +To his wonder and redoubled alarm, he saw the Texan not alone, but with +a white man, dressed in buckskin, by his side, and a woman also, +apparently in friendly converse, calmly waiting the Indian advance. +</p><p> +Recognizing at a glance the woman as Addie Neidic, Pond realized that +the man must be no other than Persimmon Bill, and that his followers +were the blood-thirsty Sioux, whom he headed. +</p><p> +"Heaven help me! There is some fearful treachery here. Wild Bill and his +companions are lost if they are not warned in time. How can it be done?" +</p><p> +How strangely, as if by intuition, strategy, and cunning thought come to +some when environed by unlooked-for danger. +</p><p> +Without a moment's hesitation, Pond so arranged his blanket that if +glanced at it would appear he was yet sleeping under it, for he left his +hat on the stone where his head had been, and his rifle leaning against +the tree right over it. +</p><p> +Then, bare-headed, with no weapons but his pistols and knife in his +belt, he crept off up the hill-side with the silence and stealth of a +scout who had been a life-time in the business. He wondered at himself +as he began to scale the mountain-side, not daring to look back, how he +could creep up amid those fearful crags so noiselessly, and how he could +have got away unseen, when the Texan and those who were with him were +not a pistol shot away. +</p><p> +On, on he kept, ever seeking the shadowed spots, where no moonlight +could reveal his form, until at last he was on the very crest of the +hill. Looking down he plainly saw the camp-fires of the Black Hillers +below. They were most likely buried in slumber, and, if they had +sentinels out, his life would be endangered by a rapid approach. But of +this he seemed not to think as he hurried almost recklessly down through +thickets, over crags, and along rugged gulches. +</p><p> +How he got down he hardly knew, but he was down, and rushing toward the +nearest fire, when he heard a stern, short summons close in his front: +</p><p> +"Halt! Who comes there?" +</p><p> +A man, armed with rifle and pistols, stepped from the shadow of a tree, +and Pond gasped out: +</p><p> +"A friend. A friend come to save all your lives. There are a hundred +Indians within a mile of you, led by the desperado Persimmon Bill." +</p><p> +"Who are you?" was the stern inquiry. +</p><p> +"Wild Bill will know me. Take me to him, quick!" was the response. +</p><p> +"To our captain first. Come along!" said the sentinel. +</p><p> +The next moment Willie Pond was in the presence of Sam Chichester and +Captain Jack, telling his story. +</p><p> +"It looks like truth, and if it is, the quicker we get out of here the +better. If we can get fifteen or twenty miles the start we may keep it," +said Chichester. +</p><p> +"He says Wild Bill knows him. Where is Bill?" cried Jack. "Ah, there he +comes." +</p><p> +Bill, awakened by hearing his name called, was rising, and now +approached the party. +</p><p> +Pond sprang forward, and addressed him hurriedly in whispered tones. +</p><p> +Wild Bill for an instant seemed lost in astonishment, his first +exclamation being, "Great Heaven! you here?" +</p><p> +But after he heard the whispered words he only added, addressing +Chichester: +</p><p> +"Captain, this friend of mine will not lie. We are in danger, and he has +risked his life to save us. I want a spare horse for him, and the sooner +we get from here, the better for our hair." +</p><p> +With as little noise as possible, the whole party were aroused, and the +danger explained. Quickly the animals were saddled, and in less than +twenty minutes the camp-ground was all deserted, though more fuel had +been purposely heaped on the fires to keep up the appearance of +occupation, if scouts should be sent to examine the camp. +</p><p> +"It lacks four hours yet to daylight!" said Chichester to Captain Jack, +"We'll get just that much start, for they'll make no attack until just +as day begins to break. I know the ways of them red cusses only too +well." +</p><p> +"You haven't much the advantage of me in that kind of knowledge, Sam. +But if that fellow was anywhere right as to their numbers, and the Sioux +are well mounted, they'll bother us yet before we get to the hills, no +matter if we do get eighteen or twenty miles the start!" +</p><p> +"We'll give 'em a long race and a tough tussle before they get our hair +any way!" said Chichester. "I wonder who that fellow is? Bill seems to +like him right well, for they ride as close as their horses can move +together. Bill has supplied him with a hat–he came in bare-headed, you +know." +</p><p> +"Yes; he must have had a terrible climb to get over to us. The only +wonder is he got away undiscovered." +</p><p> +"He said he left his blanket in a shape to make them think he was +sleeping under it." +</p><p> +"He must be an old hand to fool them so nicely." +</p><p> +"He doesn't look like it, He doesn't ride like a scout or a +plainsman–he sits his horse too gracefully." +</p><p> +"No matter; one thing is certain. Wild Bill knows him well, trusts him, +and they stick as close together as twins." +</p><p> +"Yes, Captain Jack, I wish you'd take the rear and make those packers +keep up. There must be no lagging. If a horse or mule fails they must be +left. I'll keep the advance going." +</p><p> +Thus the Black Hillers swept on at a gallop, knowing that a merciless +fate was theirs if overtaken by the Sioux. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER XVI.<br /> +THE PURSUIT. +</p> + +<p> +The young Texan had not dreamed of being followed so soon by Persimmon +Bill and his Indians, and he had lain down to sleep as honestly and +confidently as Willie Pond, when he dropped down by the saddles and +pack. +</p><p> +He was aroused by a touch on his shoulder, when he awoke and was +surprised to find Bill and Addie Neidic standing by his side. +</p><p> +"Where are your Indians?" was the first question the Texan asked, as +Bill whispered, in a low tone: +</p><p> +"I am here. I have followed the trail a little sooner than I thought I +would. The Indians are in the ravine waiting for my signal to come in +and let their horses feed and rest before we attack. Where is your +friend?" continued Bill. +</p><p> +"Sound asleep under that tree up there. He sleeps like a log, and will +not wake till I shake him up. I never saw such a sleeper. Yesterday he +spent most of the day snoring." +</p><p> +"It is well. There is no use of alarming him before we are ready for +work. I will give the signal, and let my warriors file in." +</p><p> +The outlaw waved a blanket in the air, and the Indians silently filed +into the valley. At another signal they turned their horses loose to +graze, and then gathered in groups out on the plain to take food and +rest themselves while their leader conversed with the Texan, whom having +seen before, they knew as his friend. +</p><p> +Meantime, the Texan motioning Addie Neidic and her lover to take seats +on his blanket, conversed with the latter in a low tone on the plan of +attack. +</p><p> +"I shall not make it until just as day dawns–for two reasons," said the +outlaw. "First, then they will keep the most careless guard; second, +when light is coming, we can see how to kill, and how to save the two +whose lives are to be spared. We will do the work in a hurry when it is +done. I have given my warriors their orders; most of them know Wild Bill +and Captain Jack, for both have been on the reservations often when they +have been in. For these reds can go where I cannot, and get arms and +ammunition where I would not dare apply for them." +</p><p> +"Shall I not make you and Addie some coffee?" asked the Texan. "I can do +it without danger, for I have a small alcohol lamp in my pack, which I +had to keep for use when I could not get fuel. +</p><p> +"It will be refreshing, indeed, if there is no risk in making it," said +Addie Neidic. +</p><p> +"There is none, and I will soon have it made," was the reply. Shaded +from even Indian observation by the blanket he raised on some bushes, +the young Texan speedily made a quart cupful of strong coffee, and +shared it between the lady and her outlaw lover. It and some cooked meat +he had gave them strength, and then all three lay down like the others +to rest for an hour or two, the outlaw bidding one of his warriors keep +watch, and to wake him when the morning star was seen over the trees in +the east. +</p><p> +And little dreaming that their intended victims were far away from their +camp, the Indians and their leader took rest preparation to their deadly +work. +</p><p> +When his warrior sentinel awoke him, Persimmon Bill found that the +morning star was well up, and it was full time to be moving toward the +scene of action. +</p><p> +"You will stay here in the valley, dear Addie, till we come back," he +said. "We will steal away quietly, and not wake that sleeping stranger +if it can be helped, for he might, in his terror, fire his gun, or in +some way give an alarm. Should he wake, hearing firing over there, keep +him quiet with persuasion or your revolver until we return, and then if +he is obstreperous, I will quiet him." +</p><p> +"Let me go with you, Bill," she said. "I am not afraid." +</p><p> +"It must not be, dear Addie, There is no need of your being exposed +<i>there,</i> and it is well to have <i>him</i> watched here. Our main certainty +of complete success is in a surprise. The least alarm may prevent it." +</p><p> +"I will remain then," she said. "And you need not fear for any alarm +from him–for I know I can keep him quiet should he wake. I have a keen +persuader here, if I have to use it." +</p><p> +And she touched a poniard in her belt, which also contained two good +revolvers. +</p><p> +"An outlaw's bride," she added, smiling, "must be prepared to take care +of herself." +</p><p> +The Indians now began silently to form their march, as they saw their +white leader mount, and the young Texan also get his horse. The Black +Hawk seemed uneasy that his master was not at hand, and the Texan was +obliged to tie him by the side of the horse ridden by Addie Neidic +before he would be quiet. +</p><p> +"It is strange that Mr. Pond does not wake with all this noise," said +the Texan, as he rode off with Persimmon Bill. "But as I told you, he is +the soundest sleeper I ever traveled with." +</p><p> +The Indians now filed away out of the valley as silently as they entered +it, for, knowing the close vicinity of the other camp, they were aware +how necessary it was to be cautious. +</p><p> +And now Addie Neidic stood alone, while the morning star rose higher and +higher, gazing at what she supposed was the sleeping man on the knoll. +</p><p> +The moon had got so far around that she could see his hat, the rifle +against the tree, and the outlines of his form, as she believed. +</p><p> +"I will move up and secure his rifle," she thought, after the band had +been gone some time. "He might wake; and in his first alarm use it +foolishly." +</p><p> +So she moved with a noiseless step within reach of the gun, and the next +moment it was in her possession. Then she looked down, to see if he +showed signs of waking. To her surprise, she saw no motions of a +breathing form under the blanket. A closer look told her that if a form +had been beneath the blanket, or a head under that hat, it was gone. +And, feeling with her hand under the blanket, she, found it cold; no +warm living form had been there for hours. +</p><p> +"He has been alarmed, seen us, and crept away–perhaps is hiding in +terror in the brush," she muttered. +</p><p> +She did not even then realize that he might have fled away to alarm the +other camp. She did not even understand several shrill yells, which +reached her ear from over the hill. She had not been with the Sioux long +enough to know their cries. These yells were the signal cries of scouts +sent in, who had found a deserted camp. She only wondered, after hearing +the yells, that she did not hear firing–the sounds of battle raging. +</p><p> +While she yet wondered, day dawned, finding her standing there by the +empty blanket of Willie Pond, holding his rifle, and looking up the hill +to see if he would not creep out, now that light had come and the +Indians had gone. +</p><p> +A shrill neigh from the black horse called her attention toward the +animal, and she saw the Texan riding into the valley on a keen run. +</p><p> +"Where is Bill?" she asked, as she ran to meet the rider, with Pond's +blanket, hat, and rifle in her hand. +</p><p> +"Gone at full speed with his warriors on the trail of the Black Hillers, +who have been alarmed in some way, and, have got at least two hours +start. He sent me back to bring you and Pond along." +</p><p> +"Here is all of Mr. Pond that can be found," said Addie, holding up what +she had found. "I went to the nest, the bird had flown, and the nest was +cold." +</p><p> +The Texan rode quickly to the spot, and in a moment saw the trail over +the ridge made by Pond when he had escaped. +</p><p> +"It was he who gave the alarm–him whom I believed so sleepy!" he +muttered. "He must have seen Bill and the Indians when they first came, +arranged his blanket and hat as you found it, and crept over the hill. +When I cautioned him to keep quiet, I told him how near and in what +direction they were. I see it all. Green as I took him to be, he has +outwitted us all!" +</p><p> +"It is so. This is his horse–a noble animal, too. We will take that +with us." +</p><p> +"Of course; and we must hurry on, for Bill is miles on the trail +already. He will be even more surprised than we when he knows how the +Black Hillers got warning. I'll not give much for Mr. Pond's hair," said +the Texan. +</p><p> +In a few seconds the horse which Addie had ridden was saddled and ready, +and, leaving his pack-horse behind, but leading the Black Hawk, the +young Texan, with Addie Neidic by his side, dashed at full speed over +the valley, and out of the ravine. +</p><p> +Once out on the open plain, they could see far away to the west a cloud +of dust. It was made by the Sioux under the White Elk, who were pushing +the horses to their wildest speed on the trail of the fugitives. This +trail the Texan and Addie Neidic followed at their utmost speed. +</p><p> +The double trail made by the Black Hillers and the pursuing Indians +would have been plain indeed to follow had not the column of dust served +as a guide. +</p><p> +With their horses at full speed, and better than the general run of +Indian ponies, the Texan and his fair companion gained slowly but surely +on the Indians, and within an hour had passed the rear of their column, +and were pressing well to the front. +</p><p> +Yet it was noon when they ranged alongside of Persimmon Bill himself, +and reported the discovery Addie Neidic had made. +</p><p> +"One more scalp ahead of us," was all he said, when he heard the report. +</p><p> +And he pressed on still faster. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER XVII.<br /> +UNLOOKED-FOR AID. +</p> + +<p> +With their heavily-laden pack-horses, lengthy as their start was, the +party under Chichester saw their pursuers plainly in their rear before +the day was two-thirds passed, and Captain Jack, hurrying up the rear +all he could, sent word to Chichester that the reds were gaining +rapidly. +</p><p> +Chichester sent word back to press the rear forward at its utmost speed. +He could see timber ahead, and if they could only reach it, they might +be able to make a stand. Satisfied, from the report of Willie Pond, that +over one hundred well-armed and well-mounted Indians were on his trail, +fearful that many of his men would flinch in battle, he dared not, with +the few that were true, make a stand on the open plain. +</p><p> +Had all been like Wild Bill, California Joe, and Captain Jack, he would +have halted, rested his horses, and given the reds battle rather than +fly from even treble his number. But he knew well that a few cowards +would weaken the rest, and he wanted to get some shelter before he met +such odds. +</p><p> +The timber was yet fully two hours' ride distant, half of the +pack-horses had given out and been left, and many of the mounted men +complained that they could not keep their horses much longer in the +column. +</p><p> +Sam Chichester had been obliged to slacken the pace in front, and the +enemy were gaining so fast that the glitter of their arms, could be seen +even and the dust-cloud that rose above them. +</p><p> +Suddenly another column of dust was seen, and this appeared to come from +the direction of the timber, though south of the route the Black Hillers +were taking. +</p><p> +"Men!" muttered Sam Chichester, "there's no use in our running much +farther. If that new cloud of dust is made by Indian's, all that we can +do is to sell our lives as dearly as we can. We will soon know one thing +or the other." +</p><p> +"They're not on the line we're taking. They can't be coming for us," +said Captain Jack, who had ridden to the front. "They're coming in our +flank." +</p><p> +"And night is coming, too," growled California Joe. "If we can keep on +for two hours more, we'll have darkness to shield us, for no red will +fight in the dark without he attacks, and has camp-fires to light up +with." +</p><p> +"We'll keep them, on while an animal will move, and when we must, turn +and fight for life or vengeance, if we must go under," said Chichester. +"Forward, men–forward once more!" +</p><p> +Again Captain Jack took the post of honor, for such indeed was the rear +guard in this case. Suddenly, on looking back, he saw that the Indians, +instead of gaining, had come to a halt. +</p><p> +"They've given it up! they've given it up!" he cried, sending a +messenger forward to Captain Chichester to slacken the speed of the +column. +</p><p> +It was now almost sundown, and the men in the column, choked and +thirsty, weary beyond expression, could hardly believe the news was +true. They were soon satisfied, though, that it was; but it was not for +an hour yet, when twilight was beginning to gather, that they learned +the real cause of their present safety. +</p><p> +The Indians would have been upon them before night set in, had they not +first discovered the nature of the dust cloud to the south-west, or +rather who it was raised by. The field-glass of the Texan, even miles +and miles away, had detected the flutter of cavalry guidons amid the +dust, and showed that mounted troops were near enough to come to the aid +of the Black Hill men before they could be crushed and their scalps +taken. +</p><p> +So, much against his will, Persimmon Bill was obliged to slacken his +pace, and soon to turn his course, so, as by a night march, to put his +warriors beyond the reach of those who might turn on them. +</p><p> +When night fell, Chichester, joined by two companies of cavalry, bound +for the Hills, under orders to join forces already on the way by another +route, moved slowly to a camping-ground in the timber, for which he had +been heading hours back. +</p><p> +The horses of the troops were weak from scant forage, and the commanding +officer did not feel it his duty to wear them out chasing Indians, +though he held himself ready to protect the mining party as long as they +remained with him. +</p><p> +And they were just too willing to go on with such an escort, even with +the loss of all the pack animals left on their trail; and had Persimmon +Bill only halted, instead of falling back, he would have found that +there was no danger of pursuit. +</p><p> +Chichester and Crawford, when they compared notes, and found not a man +of their party lost, though half its property was gone, felt satisfied +that it was no worse, for at one time it seemed to both that nothing was +left to them but to sell their lives as dearly as they could. +</p><p> +In a well-guarded camp all were settled before the moon rose, and never +was rest more needed by animals and men. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER XVIII.<br /> +ON THE DEATH-TRAIL. +</p><p> +Bivouacked on the treeless plain, so far from the old trail and from the +timber ahead that they could see no sign of the Black Hillers or the +troops, the next morning's sun rose on the band of Sioux led by +Persimmon Bill. Used to all kinds of exigencies, the red men did not +mind either a lack of food or of water for so short a time. They were +only angered with the thought that those whom they had deemed an easy +prey had escaped them. +</p><p> +As soon as it was light, Persimmon Bill had the captured pack-horses +examined, and it was found that several of them were laden with +provisions. Others had ammunition and stores, and on some of them were +found kegs of liquor. +</p><p> +These the wary leader at once destroyed, telling his followers that +there was no foe so deadly to the red man as this fire-water and not one +drop should pass his lips or theirs. The provisions were at once +distributed among them, as also the stores, but the liquor was given to +the thirsty sands, where at least it could do no harm. +</p><p> +Then a council was held by the leader with the chiefs and head warriors +of the band, and it was decided that it would be foolish to pursue the +Black Hill people farther, now that troops were with them, unless a +large band of Sioux could be found. For it is not Indian policy to risk +battle against odds, or where there is danger of great loss and little +gain. To reach water and good hunting-grounds was their first necessity; +after that they could consider where next to go. Sitting Bull was +rallying all the tribes for war, and the "White Elk" had promised to +join him. +</p><p> +Gloomily the young Texan heard all this talk, and at its close, when a +decision had been arrived at, he said: +</p><p> +"Here we must part. I follow the trail of Wild Bill, if I follow it +alone. I had hoped to see him die a slow and cruel death, where I could +have heard him plead, and plead in vain for mercy. But that hope is +gone, if he reaches the Hills in safety. But he cannot live–he shall +not! I have sworn to kill him, and I will! The spirit of him who fell at +Abilene cries up from a bloody grave for vengeance, and the cry shall be +answered. You have been kind to me Addie Neidic, and so has he to whom +your heart is given. I shall never forget it. But our courses now lie +apart–I follow yonder trail, while you go I know not where. We may not +meet again–if we do, I shall tell you Wild Bill is dead!" +</p><p> +"Stay with us. I will yet help you to your vengeance," said Persimmon +Bill. +</p><p> +"No; it will be too long delayed. I am hot on the death-trail now, and I +will not leave it. Fear not for me. I shall hover near them till they +reach the Hills, and then I will not wait long to fulfill my work. When +the deed is done, if I still think life is precious, and his friends +press me too hard, I may look for safety, as you have done, with the +Sioux." +</p><p> +"Come and you shall find in me a sister, and in him a brother," cried +Addie Neidic. +</p><p> +"<i>A brother?</i> I had one once," came in a low, sobbing cry from the young +Texan's lips; then, with his head bowed, and scalding tears rolling down +his cheeks, he drove the spurs into his horse, and sped away swiftly in +the direction of the old trail. +</p><p> +The Black Hawk horse, saddled and bridled, but riderless, galloped on by +the side of the Texan's fleet mustang, with no wish to part from his +company. +</p><p> +"He had death in his eye! He will kill Wild Bill, and we shall never see +him again," said Persimmon Bill. "The miners are rough, and condemn +before they try, and hang as soon as condemnation is spoken. I pity the +boy–for he is but a boy." +</p><p> +Addie Neidic smiled. +</p><p> +"We shall see your boy again," she said, "Something seems to whisper to +me that his fate is in some way linked with ours. I, too, feel sure that +he will kill Wild Bill, and then escape to join us. And you, my hero, +will rise till all these Indian nations call you king. How these who +follow you look up to you now, obeying every word or sign. And think, on +these vast plains, and in the endless range of hills, valleys, and +mountains, there must be countless thousands, who want but a daring, +skillful leader to make them the best light troops in the world." +</p><p> +"You are ambitions for me, dearest," said Bill, with a strange, sad +smile. "I hope to prove worthy of your aspirations. But we must move. I +head now for the Big Horn Valley, to meet Sitting Bull." +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="chapter"> +<br /> +CHAPTER XIX.<br /> +"SAVE, OH, SAVE MY HUSBAND!" +</p> + +<p> +"Safe and in port at last, as old Cale Durg used to say, when a scout +was over and he was back in garrison." +</p><p> +This was the joyous exclamation of Captain Jack Crawford, as he turned +to Sam Chichester when their party rode into the settlement at the +Deadwood Mines in the Black Hills. Escorted nearly all the way by the +cavalry they had so providentially met, they had been troubled no more +by the Indians, and excepting the loss of some horses, and part of their +"fit-out" and stores, had suffered nothing. Not a man had been hurt, and +best of all, they came in sober, for the benzine had all gone with the +lost packs, for it was heaviest on the mules, as it would have been on +the men, had it not been host. +</p><p> +"I'm glad the trip is over. My temper never has been more tried," said +Chichester. "The most of the men have had their own way, though when we +started they promised on honor to obey me as captain. But honor is a +scarce article with the majority of them. Now they're here, they'll go +it with a looseness." +</p><p> +"You bet," was Crawford's sententious remark. "Wild Bill will be in his +element. Look at the signs. Rum, faro, monte, all have a swing here, you +can swear." +</p><p> +"Men, into line one minute, and then we part!" shouted Captain +Chichester to his party. +</p><p> +For a wonder, with temptation on every side, the weary riders obeyed, +and drew up in a straggling line to hear their leader's parting speech. +</p><p> +"Men, I promised to bring you here safely if I could, but to get all of +you here that I could, any way. I've kept my promise we're here." +</p><p> +"Ay! Three cheers for Sam Chichester!" shouted Wild Bill. +</p><p> +The cheers were given, and Chichester said: +</p><p> +"Thank you, boys. Now do me one favor. You are here in a busy place, and +I see by the sign that benzine is about as plenty as water. Touch it +light, and do behave, yourselves, that my name will not be disgraced by +any of Sam Chichester's crowd. Every man is his own master now, and must +look out for himself. I wish you all good luck, and shall work hard for +it myself." +</p><p> +The speech was over, and in a second the line melted away and every man +was seeking quarters or pitching into the benzine shops. +</p><p> +Wild Bill would have been the first to go there, had not his companion, +Willie Pond, said, in a low tone: +</p><p> +"Bill, please get quarters for you and me before you do anything else. +You know what you have promised. Remember, if it had not been for me, +neither you nor one of this party would ever have got here." +</p><p> +"You're right. But I'm so cussed dry!" muttered Bill. "You're right, +I'll find housing for us two before a drop passes my lips." +</p><p> +And Bill rode on to the upper part of the town, as it might be called, +where some men were putting up a new shanty, in fact, just putting the +finishing touch on it by hanging a door. +</p><p> +"Will you sell that shebang?" asked Bill, of the man who seemed to be +the head workman. +</p><p> +"Yes, if we get enough. We can build another. What will you give?" +</p><p> +"These two horses, and a century," said Bill, pointing to the animals +ridden by himself and companion, and holding up a hundred-dollar bill +which Pond had furnished him. +</p><p> +"O. K. The house is yours!" said the man. "Boys, put for timber, and +we'll have another up by sunset." +</p><p> +Bill and his companion dismounted, removed their blankets, arms, and +saddle-bags into the house, gave up the horses and were at home. It did +not take long to settle there. +</p> + +<p style="text-align: center"> +* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * +</p> + +<p> +Night had fallen on the town of Deadwood, but not the calm which +generally comes with night where the laborer is but too glad to greet +the hour of rest. Lights flashing through chinks in rude cabins, lights +shimmering through canvas walls, songs, shouts, laughter, curses, and +drunken yells made the place seem like a pandemonium on earth. +</p><p> +Almost every other structure, either tent, cabin, or more pretentious +framed house, was either a saloon or gambling-hell, or both combined. +And all these seemed full. The gulches, sinks, and claims that had been +the scene of busy labor all the day were now deserted, and the gold just +wrenched from the bowels of the earth was scattered on the gambling +table, or poured into the drawer of the busy rumseller. +</p><p> +At this same hour, a man rode into the edge of the town on a noble black +horse, leading a tired mustang. Both of these animals he staked out in a +patch of grass, leaving the saddles on, and the bridles hanging to the +saddle-bow of each. Then he placed his rifle against a tree near by, +took the old cartridges out of a six-shooter and put in fresh ones. This +done with the greatest deliberation, he pulled his slouch hat well over +his face, entered the nearest saloon, threw down a silver dollar, and +called for brandy. +</p><p> +A bottle and glass were set before him. He filled the glass to the brim, +drank it off, and walked out. +</p><p> +"Here, you red-haired cuss, here!" cried the bar-keeper. "Here's a half +comin' to you; we only charge half-price when it goes by wholesale!" +</p><p> +The joke fell useless, for the red-haired man had not remained to hear +it. +</p><p> +In the largest hall in the place, a heavy gambling game was going on. +There was roulette, faro, and monte, all at different points. +</p><p> +Before the faro-table there was the greatest gathering. +</p><p> +Wild Bill, furnished with money by the person known to us so far as +Willie Pond, was "bucking against the bank" with, his usual wonderful +luck, and the crowd centered around him as a character more noted and +better known than any other who had yet come to Deadwood. +</p><p> +"I'll bet my whole pile on the jack!" shouted Wild Bill, who had taken +enough strong drink to fit him for anything. +</p><p> +"Do be careful, Bill–do be careful!" said a low, kind voice just behind +him. +</p><p> +It was that of Willie Pond. +</p><p> +"Oh, go home and mind your business. I'll break this bank to-night, or +die in the trial!" cried Bill, defiantly. +</p><p> +"You'll die before you break it!" shrieked out a shrill, sharp voice, +and the red-haired Texan sprang forward with an uplifted bowie-knife, +and lunged with deadly aim at Bill's heart, even as the person we have +so long known as Willie Pond shrieked out: +</p><p> +"Save, oh, save my husband!" +</p><p> +But another hand clutched the hilt of the descending knife and the hand +of a short, thickset, beetle-browed desperado, was shouted, as he drew a +pistol with his other hand: +</p><p> +"Wild Bill is my game. No one living shall cheat me of my revenge! Look +at this scar, Bill–you marked me for <i>life</i> and now I mark you for +<i>death!</i>" +</p><p> +And even as he spoke, the man fired, and a death-shot pierced Wild +Bill's heart. +</p><p> +The latter, who had risen to his feet, staggered toward the Texan, who +struggled to free his knife-hand from the clutch of the real assassin, +and with a wild laugh, tore the false hair from the Texan's head. As a +roll of woman's hair came down in a flood of beauty over her shoulders, +Bill gasped out: +</p><p> +"Jack McCall, I'm thankful to you, even though you've killed me. Wild +Bill does not die by the hand of a <i>woman!</i>" +</p><p> +A shudder, and all was over, so far as Wild Bill's life went. +</p><p> +His real and true wife wept in silence over his body, while sullen, and +for a time silent, the supposed Texan stood and gazed at the dead body. +</p><p> +Then she spoke, addressing McCall: +</p><p> +"Villain, you have robbed me of my revenge! for by my hand should that +man have fallen. No wrong he could have done you can be more bitter than +that which put me on his death-trail, and made me swear to take his +life. +</p><p> +"Two years ago a young man left a ranch close to the Rio Grande border +with a thousand head of cattle, which had been bought from him, to be +paid for when delivered in Abilene, Kansas. He was noble, brave, +handsome. He was good and true in all things. He was the only hope of a +widowed mother, the very idol of a loving sister, whose life seemed +linked with his. He promised when he left those he loved and who so +loved him that he would hasten back with the proceeds of the sale, and +then, with his mother and sister, he would return to the birthplace of +the three, to the old Northern homestead, where his father's remains +were buried, buy the old estate, and settle down to a quiet and a happy +life. Long, anxiously, and prayerfully did that mother and sister wait +for his return. Did he come? No; but the soul-blighting news came, +which, like a thunderbolt, struck that mother–my mother–dead! Wild and +despairing, I heard it–heard <i>this.</i> +</p><p> +"The son, the brother, who never used a drop of strong drink in all his +life; who never uttered an oath, or raised a hand in unkindness to man +or woman, had been murdered–killed without provocation–no chance to +defend his life, no warning to prepare for another world–shot down in +mere wantonness. There lies the body of him who did it. Do you wonder +that, over my dead mother's body, girl though I was, I swore to follow +to the death him who killed my brother? It is not my fault that I have +not kept my oath. I would have done it had I known that you, his +friends, would have torn me limb from limb before his body was cold." +</p><p> +"And served him right!" said an old miner, whose eyes were dimmed with +moisture while the Texan girl told her story. +</p><p> +"Where is McCall? His act was murder," cried Sam Chichester. +</p><p> +"He has sloped, but I'll take his trail, and if there is law in Montana +he shall hang," said California Joe, who bounded from the house, when it +was discovered that the murderer had slipped away in the moment of +excitement. +</p><p> +How well California Joe kept his promise, history has already recorded. +Followed over many a weary mile of hill and prairie, McCall was finally +arrested, tried and convicted, as well by his own boast as the evidence +of others, and he was hanged. +</p><p> +But one glance at our heroine, for such the red-haired Texan is. +</p><p> +With a look of haughty defiance, she asked: +</p><p> +"Have I done aught that requires my detention here?" +</p><p> +"No," said Captain Jack; "thank Heaven you have not. We'd make a poor +fist at trying a woman by Lynch law, if you had done what you meant to." +</p><p> +"Then I go, and few will be the white faces I ever see again!" she +cried. +</p><p> +The next moment she passed out, and as the crowd followed to see whither +she went, she was seen to spring on a coal-black horse which stood +unhitched before the door, and on it she rode at wild speed away toward +the north-west, while a saddled but unridden mustang followed close +behind her. +</p><p> +The course she took led toward the regions where Sitting Bull, in force, +awaited the attack of the soldiers then on his trail. +</p> + +<p style="text-align: center"> +[THE END.] +</p> + +<hr style="width: 100%" /> + +<p> +"DIAMOND DICK, JR'S TRUNK CHECK; or, THE MAN IN THE SILVER MASK," by W. +B, Lawson will be published in the next number (193) of the DIAMOND DICK +LIBRARY.</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Bill's Last Trail, by Ned Buntline + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD BILL'S LAST TRAIL *** + +***** This file should be named 21113-h.htm or 21113-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/1/21113/ + +Produced by Richard Halsey + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/21113-h/images/masthead-ddl192.jpg b/21113-h/images/masthead-ddl192.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dfdb270 --- /dev/null +++ b/21113-h/images/masthead-ddl192.jpg diff --git a/21113-h/images/pic-ddl192.jpg b/21113-h/images/pic-ddl192.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f37a153 --- /dev/null +++ b/21113-h/images/pic-ddl192.jpg diff --git a/21113.txt b/21113.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa68110 --- /dev/null +++ b/21113.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3463 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Bill's Last Trail, by Ned Buntline + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Wild Bill's Last Trail + +Author: Ned Buntline + +Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21113] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD BILL'S LAST TRAIL *** + + + + +Produced by Richard Halsey + + + + +Wild Bill's Last Trail. + +By NED BUNTLINE, +Author of "Harry Bluff, The Reefer," "Navigator Ned," etc. + + +CHAPTER I. +THE AVENGER. + +"Bill! _Wild Bill!_ Is this you, or your ghost? What, in great +Creation's name, are you doing here?" + +"Gettin' toward sunset, old pard--gettin' toward sunset, before I pass +in my checks!" + +The first speaker was an old scout and plainsman, Sam Chichester by +name, and he spoke to a passenger who had just left the west-ward-bound +express train at Laramie, on the U.P.R.R. + +That passenger was none other than J. B. Hickok, or "Wild Bill," one of +the most noted shots, and certainly the most desperate man of his age +and day west of the Mississippi River. + +"What do you mean, Bill, when you talk of passing in your checks? You're +in the very prime of life, man, and---" + +"Hush! Talk low! There are listening ears everywhere, Sam! I don't know +why, but there is a chill at my heart, and I know my time has about run +out. I've been on East with Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack, trying to show +people what our plains life is. But I wasn't at home there. There were +crowds on crowds that came to see us, and I couldn't stir on the streets +of their big cities without having an army at my heels, and I got sick +of it. But that wasn't all. There was a woman that fell in love with me, +and made up her mind to marry me. I told her that I was no sort of a man +to tie to--that I was likely to be wiped out any day 'twixt sunrise and +sunset, for I had more enemies than a candidate for President; but she +wouldn't listen to sense, and so--_we buckled!_ Thank Heaven, I've +coaxed her to stay East with friends while I've come out here; for, Sam, +she'll be a widow inside of six weeks!" + +"Bill, you've been hitting benzine heavy of late haven't you? + +"No; I never drank lighter in my life than I have for a year past. But +there's a shadow cold as ice on my soul! I've never felt right since I +pulled on that red-haired Texan at Abilene, in Kansas. You remember, for +you was there. It was kill or get killed, you know, and when I let him +have his ticket for a six-foot lot of ground he gave one shriek--it +rings in my ears yet. He spoke but one word--'Sister!' Yet that word has +never left my ears, sleeping or waking, from that time to this. I had a +sister once myself, Sam, and I loved her a thousand times more than I +did life. In fact I never loved life after I lost her. And I can't tell +you all about her--I'd choke if I tried. It is enough that she died, and +the cause of her death died soon after, and I wasn't far away when--when +he went under. But that isn't here nor there, Sam--let's go and warm up. +Where do you hang out?" + +"I'm in camp close by. I'm heading a party that is bound in for the +Black Hills. Captain Jack Crawford is along. You know him. And +California Joe, too." + +"Good! It is the first streak of luck I've had in a year. I'll join your +crowd, Sam, if you'll let me. Captain Jack and Joe are as good friends +as I ever had--always barring one." + +"And that is?" + +"My old six-shooter here. Truth-Teller I call it. It never speaks +without saying something. But come, old boy--I see a sign ahead. I must +take in a little benzine to wash the car-dust out of my throat." + +Bill pointed to a saloon near at hand, and the two old scouts and +companions moved toward it. + +As they did so, a young man, roughly dressed, with a face fair and +smooth, though shadowed as if by exposure to sun and and wind, stepped +from behind a shade tree, where he had stood while these two talked, +listening with breathless interest to every word. His hair, a deep, rich +auburn, hung in curling masses clear to his shoulders, and his blue eyes +seemed to burn with almost feverish fire as he gazed in the direction +the scouts had taken. + +"So! He remembers Abilene, does he?" + +And the tone of the young man was low and fierce us an angered serpent's +hiss. + +"And he thinks his time is near. So do I. But he shall not die in a +second, as his victim did, I would prolong his agonies for years, if +every hour was like a living death; a speechless misery. Let him go with +Sam Chichester and his crowd. The avenger will be close at hand! His +Truth-Teller will lie when he most depends on it. For I--I have sworn +that he shall go where he has sent so many victims; go, like them all, +unprepared, but not unwarned. No, he thinks that death is near; I'll +freeze the thought to his very soul! He is on the death-trail now? With +me rests when and where it shall end." + +The face of the young man was almost fiendish in its expression as he +spoke. It seemed as if his heart was the concentration of hate and a +fell desire for revenge. + +He strode along the streets swiftly, and, glancing in at the saloon +which the two men had entered, paused one second, with his right hand +thrust within his vest, as if clutching a weapon, and debating in his +mind whether or not to use it. + +A second only he paused, and then muttering, "It is not time yet," he +passed on. + +"He went a little way up the same street and entered a German +restaurant. Throwing himself heavily on a seat, he said: + +"Give me a steak, quick. I'm hungry and dry. Give me a bottle of the +best brandy in your house." + +"We've got der steak, und pread, und peer, und Rhein wine, but no +prandy," said the German, who kept the place. + +"Cook the steak in a hurry, and send for some brandy then!" cried the +young man, throwing down a golden eagle. "Your beer and wine are like +dishwater to me. I want fire--fire in my veins now." + +"Dunder and blixen! I shouldn't dink as you wus want much more fire as +dere is in your eyes, young fellow. But I send for your prandy." + +The young man threw one glance around the room to see if he were the +only occupant. + +There was another person there, one who had evidently just come in, a +traveler, judging by a good-sized valise that was on the floor beside +his chair. This person looked young, for the face, or as much of it as +was not hidden by a very full black beard, was fair and smooth as that +of a woman; while the hair which shaded his white brow was dark as +night, soft and glossy as silk, hanging on short, curling masses about +his face and neck. + +He was dressed rather better than the usual run of travelers; in a good +black broad-cloth suit--wore a heavy gold watch-chain, had on a fine +linen shirt, with a diamond pin in the bosom, and appeared to feel quite +satisfied with himself, from the cool and easy manner in which he gave +his orders for a good, substantial meal, in a voice rather low and +musical for one of his apparent age. + +The last comer eyed this person very closely, and a smile almost, like +contempt rose on his face, when the dark-eyed stranger called for claret +wine, or if they had not that, for a cup of tea. + +But his own strong drink was now brought in, and pouring out a glassful +of undiluted brandy he drank it down and muttered: + +"That's the stuff! It will keep up the fire. My veins would stiffen +without it. It has carried me so far, and it must to the end. Then--no +matter!" + +The stranger or traveler looked as if wondering that the young man could +take such a fearful dose of fiery liquor, and the wonder must have +increased when a second glassful was drained before the food was on the +table. + +But the latter came in now, and the traveler and the young man with +auburn hair, at separate tables, were apparently too busy in disposing +of the eatables to take any further notice of each other. + +When the first had finished, he took a roll of cigarettes from one of +his pockets, selected one, took a match from a silver box, drawn from +the same pocket, and lighting his cigarette, threw a cloud of smoke +above his head. + +The second, pouring out his third glass of brandy, sipped it +quietly--the first two glasses having evidently supplied the fire he +craved so fiercely. + +The traveler, as we may call him, for want of any other knowledge, now +rose, and as if impelled by natural politeness, tendered a cigarette to +the other. + +The man with auburn hair looked surprised, and his fierce, wild face +softened a little, as he said: + +"Thank you, no. I drink sometimes, like a fish, but I don't smoke. +Tobacco shakes the nerves, they say, and I want my nerves steady. + +"Strong drink will shake them more, I've heard," said the traveler, in +his low, musical voice. "But you seem to have a steady hand though you +take brandy as if used to it." + +"My hand is steady, stranger." was the reply. "There is not a man on the +Rio Grande border, where I came from, that can strike a center at twenty +paces with a revolver as often as I. And with a rifle at one hundred +yards I can most generally drop a deer with a ball between his eyes, if +he is looking at me, or take a wild turkey's head without hurting his +body." + +"Then, you are from Texas?" + +"Yes, sir. And you?" + +"From the East, sir. I have traveled in the South--all over, in +fact--but my home is in the old Empire State. + +"If it isn't impudent, which way are you bound now?" + +"I haven't quite decided. I may go to the Black Hills--may remain around +here awhile--it seems to be rather a pleasant place." + +"Yes, for them that like it. I'm off for the Black Hills, myself." + +"Ah! with a company?" + +"Not much! But there's a company going. I'm one of them that don't care +much for company, and can take better care of myself alone than with a +crowd about me." + +"So! Well, it is a good thing to be independent. Do you know the party +that is going?" + +"Some of 'em, by sight. The captain is Sam Chichester, and he has +California Joe, Cap'n Jack, and about twenty more in his party. And Wild +Bill has just come on the train, and I heard him say he was going with +the crowd." + +"Wild Bill!" cried the stranger, flushing up. "Did you say he was +going?" + +"Yes." + +"Then I'd like to go, too--but I'd like to go with another party, either +just before or behind that party. Do you know Wild Bill?" + +"_Know_ him! Who does not? Hasn't he killed more men than any other +white man in the States and Territories--I'll not say _how_, but is he +not a hyena, sopped in blood?" + +"You do not like him?" + +"Who says I don't?" + +"_You_ do! Your eyes flash hate while you speak of him." + +"Do they? Well, maybe I don't like him as well as I do a glass of +brandy--maybe I have lost some one I loved by his hand. It isn't at all +unlikely." + +The traveler sighed, and with an anxious look, said: + +"You don't bear him any grudge, do you? You wouldn't harm him?" + +A strange look passes like a flash over the face of the other: he seemed +to read the thoughts or wishes of the traveler in a glance. + +"Oh, no," he said, with assumed carelessness. "Accidents will happen in +the best families. It's not in me to bear a grudge, because Bill may +have wiped out fifteen or twenty Texans, while they were foolin' around +in his way. As to harm--he's too ready with his six-shooter, old +Truth-Teller, he calls it, to stand in much danger. I'm quick, but he is +quicker. You take a good deal of interest in him? Do you know him?" + +"Yes; that is, I know him by sight. He is thought a great deal of by an +intimate friend of mine, and that is why I feel an interest in him." + +"And that friend is a woman?" + +"Why do you think so?" + +"It is a fancy of mine." + +"Well, I will not contradict you. For her sake I would hate to see any +evil befall him." + +There was a cynical smile on the face of the young man with auburn hair. + +"If a woman loved him, she ought, not to leave him, for his life is +mighty uncertain," said the latter. "I heard him say to Captain +Chichester, not half an hour ago, that he didn't believe he would live +long, and such a man as he is sure to die with his boots on!" + +"Did he say that?" asked the traveler. + +"Yes; and he seemed to feel it, too. He had to do as I do, fire up with +something strong to get life into his veins." + +"Poor fellow! He had better have staid East when he was there, away from +this wild and lawless section." + +"Stranger, there mayn't be much _law_ out this way, but justice isn't +always blind out here. If you stay long enough, you may learn that." + +"Very likely; but you spoke of going to those Black Hills." + +"Yes, I'm going." + +"Will you let me go with you?" + +"You don't look much like roughing it, and the trip is not only hard, +but it may be dangerous. The redskins are beginning to act wolfish on +the plains." + +"I think I can stand as much hardship as you. You are light and +slender." + +"But tough as an old buffalo bull, for all that. I've been brought up in +the saddle, with rifle and lasso in hand. I'm used to wind and weather, +sunshine and storm--they're all alike to me." + +"And Indians?" + +"Yes--to Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache. But these Cheyennes and Sioux are +a tougher breed, they tell me. I'll soon learn them too, I reckon. +There's one thing sure, I don't go in no crowd of twenty or thirty, with +wagons or pack mules along to tempt the cusses with, while they make the +travel slow. You want either a big crowd or a very small one, if you +travel in an Indian country. + +"You have not answered my question yet. Will you let me go through to +the Black Hills with you?" + +"Why don't you go with the other party? They'll take you, I'll bet." + +"I do not want to go where Wild Bill will see me. He may think his wife +has sent me as a spy on his movements and actions." + +"His _wife!_ Is he married? It must be something new." + +"It is. He was married only a short time ago to a woman who almost +worships him. She did all she could to keep him from going out into his +old life again, but she could not." + +"You _can_ go with me!" said the other, abruptly, after a keen and +searching look in the traveler's face. + +"What is your name?" + +"Willie Pond." + +"Rather a _deep_ Pond, if I know what water is," said the auburn-haired +man, to himself, and then he asked, in a louder tone, "have you horse +and arms?" + +"No; I just came on the train from the East. But there is money--buy me +a good horse, saddle, and bridle. I'll see to getting arms." + +And Mr. Willie Pond handed the other a five-hundred dollar treasury +note. + +"You don't ask my name, and you trust me with money as if you knew I was +honest." + +"You'll tell me your name when you feel like it!" was the rejoinder. "As +to your honesty, if I think you are safe to travel with, you're safe to +trust my money with!" + +"You're right. Your money is safe. As to my name, call me Jack. It is +short, if it isn't sweet. Some time I'll tell you the rest of it." + +"All right, Jack. Take your own time. And now get all ready to start +either ahead or just behind the other party." + +"We'll not go ahead. Where will you stay to-night?" + +"Wherever you think best." + +"All right. This old Dutchman keeps rooms for lodgers. You'd better stay +here, and if you don't want Bill to see you, keep pretty close in doors. +He'll be out in the Black Hillers' camp, or in the saloons where they +sell benzine and run faro banks. Bill is death on cards." + +"So I've heard," said Mr. Pond, with a sigh. + +Jack now went out, and Pond called the Dutch landlord to him and engaged +a room. + + +CHAPTER II. +PERSIMMON BILL. + +As soon as the auburn-haired man who called himself Jack had left the +German restaurant, he went to a livery-stable near by, called for his +own horse, which was kept there, and the instant it was saddled he +mounted, and at a gallop rode westward from the town. + +He did not draw rein for full an hour, and then he had covered somewhere +between eight and ten miles of ground, following no course or trail, but +riding in a course as straight as the flight of an arrow. + +He halted then in a small ravine, nearly hidden by a growth of thick +brush, and gave a peculiar whistle. Thrice had this sounded, when a man +came cautiously out of the ravine, or rather out of its mouth. He was +tall, slender, yet seemed to possess the bone and muscle of a giant. His +eyes were jet black, fierce and flashing, and his face had a stern, +almost classic beauty of feature, which would have made him a model in +the ancient age of sculpture. He carried a repeating rifle, two +revolvers, and a knife in his belt. His dress was buckskin, from head to +foot. + +"You are Persimmon Bill?" said Jack, in a tone of inquiry. "Yes. Who are +you, and how came you by the signal that called me out?" + +"A woman in town gave it to me, knowing she could trust me." + +"Was her first name Addie?" + +"Her last name was Neidic." + +"All right. I see she has trusted you. What do you want?" + +"Help in a matter of revenge." + +"Good! You can have it. How much help is wanted?" + +"I want one man taken from a party, alive, when he gets beyond civilized +help, so that I can see him tortured. I want him to die by inches." + +"How large is his party, and where are they now?" + +"The party numbers between twenty and thirty; they are in camp in the +edge of Laramie, and will start for the Black Hills in a few days." + +"If all the party are wiped out but the one you want, will it matter to +you?" + +"No; they are his friends, and as such I hate them!" + +"All right. Get me a list of their numbers and names, how armed, what +animals and stores they have, every fact, so I can be ready. They will +never get more than half way to the Hills, and the one you want shall be +delivered, bound into your hands. All this, and more, will I do for her +who sent you here!" + +"You love her?" + +"She loves me! I'm not one to waste much breath on talking love. My +Ogallalla Sioux warriors know me as the soldier-killer. Be cautious when +you go back, and give no hint to any one but Addie Neidic that there is +a living being in Dead Man's Hollow, for so this ravine is called in +there." + +"Do not fear. I am safe, for I counsel with no one. I knew Addie Neidic +before I came here, met her by accident, revealed myself and wants, and +she sent me to you." + +"It is right. Go back, and be cautious to give the signal if you seek +me, or you might lose your scalp before you saw me." + +"My scalp?" + +"Yes; my guards are vigilant and rough." + +_"Your guards?"_ + +Persimmon Bill laughed at the look of wonder in the face of his visitor, +and with his hand to his mouth, gave a shrill, warbling cry. + +In a second this mouth of the ravine was fairly blocked with armed and +painted warriors--Sioux, of the Ogallalla tribe. There were not less +than fifty of them. + +"You see my guards--red devils, who will do my bidding at all times, and +take a scalp on their own account every chance they get," said Persimmon +Bill. + +Then he took an eagle feather, with its tip dipped in crimson, from the +coronet of the chief, and handed it, in the presence of all the Indians, +to Jack. + +"Keep thus, and when out on the plains, wear it in your hat, where it +can be seen, and the Sioux will ever pass you unharmed, and you can +safely come and go among them. Now go back, get the list and all the +news you can, and bring it here as soon as you can. Tell Addie to ride +out with you when you come next." + +Jack placed the feather in a safe place inside his vest, bowed his head, +and wheeling his horse, turned toward the town. Before he had ridden a +hundred yards he looked back. Persimmon Bill had vanished, not an Indian +was in sight, and no one unacquainted with their vicinity could have +seen a sign to show that such dangerous beings were near. + +No smoke rose above the trees, no horses were feeding around, nothing to +break the apparent solitude of the scene. + +"And that was Persimmon Bill?" muttered the auburn-haired rider, as he +galloped back. "So handsome, it does not seem as if he could be the +murderer they call him. And yet, if all is true, he has slain tens, +where Wild Bill has killed one. No matter, he will be useful to me. That +is all I care for now." + + +CHAPTER III. +A WARNING. + +When Wild Bill and Sam Chichester entered the saloon alluded to in our +first chapter, they were hailed by several jovial-looking men, one of +whom Wild Bill warmly responded to as California Joe, while he grasped +the hand of another fine-looking young man whom he called Captain Jack. + +"Come, Crawford," said he, addressing the last named, "let's wet up! I'm +dry as an empty powder-horn!" + +"No benzine for me, Bill," replied Crawford, or "Captain Jack." "I've +not touched a drop of the poison in six months." + +"What? Quit drinking, Jack? Is the world coming to an end?" + +"I suppose it will sometime. But that has nothing to do with my +drinking. I promised old Cale Durg to quit, and I've done it. And I +never took a better trail in my life. I'm fresh as a daisy, strong as a +full-grown elk, and happy as an antelope on a wide range." + +"All right, Jack. But I must drink. Come, boys--all that will--come up +and wet down at my expense." + +California Joe and most of the others joined in the invitation, and +Captain Jack took a cigar rather than "lift a shingle from the roof," as +he said. + +"Where are you bound, Bill?" asked Captain Jack, as Bill placed his +empty glass on the counter, and turned around. + +"To the Black Hills with your crowd--that is if I live to get there." + +"Live! You haven't any thought of dying, have you? I never saw you look +better." + +"Then I'll make a healthy-looking corpse, Jack. For I tell you my time +is nearly up; I've felt it in my bones this six months. I've seen ghosts +in my dreams, and felt as if they were around me when I was awake. It's +no use, Jack, when a chap's time comes he has got to go." + +"Nonsense, Bill; don't think of anything like that. A long life and a +merry one--that's my motto. We'll go out to the Black Hills, dig out our +fortunes, and then get out of the wilderness to enjoy life." + +"Boy, I've never known the happiness outside of the wilderness that I +have in it. What you kill there is what was made for killing--the food +we need. What one kills among civilization is only too apt to be of his +own kind." + +And Bill shuddered as if he thought of the many he had sent into +untimely graves. + +"Stuff, Bill! You're half crazed by your dramatic trip. You've acted so +much, that reality comes strange. Let's go out to camp and have a talk +about what is ahead of us." + +"Not till I buy a horse, Jack. I want a good horse under me once more; +I've ridden on cars and steamboats till my legs ache for a change." + +"There's a sale's stable close by. Let's go and see what stock is +there," said Sam Chichester. + +"Agreed!" cried all hands, and soon Bill and his friends were at the +stable, looking at some dozen or more horses which were for sale. + +"There's the beauty I want," said Wild Bill, pointing to a black horse, +full sixteen hands high, and evidently a thoroughbred. "Name your price, +and he is my meat!" + +"That horse isn't for sale now. He was spoken for an hour ago, or maybe +less by a cash customer of mine--a red-haired chap from Texas." + +_"Red-haired_ chap from Texas!" muttered Bill, "Red-haired cusses from +Texas are always crossin' my trail. That chap from Abilene was a Texas +cattle-man, with hair as red as fire. Where is your cash customer, Mr. +Liveryman?" + +"Gone out riding somewhere," replied the stable-keeper. + +"When he comes back, tell him Wild Bill wants that horse, and I reckon +he'll let Wild Bill buy him, if he knows when he is well off! I wouldn't +give two cusses and an amen for all the rest of the horses in your +stable; I want _him!_" + +"I'll tell Jack," said the stableman; "but I don't think it will make +much odds with him. He has as good as bought the horse, for he offered +me the money on my price, but I couldn't change his five hundred-dollar +treasury note. It'll take more than a name to scare him. He always goes +fully armed." + +"You tell him what I said, and that I'm a-coming here at sunset for that +horse," said Bill, and he strode away, followed by his crowd. + +An hour later the auburn-haired man from Texas reined in his own horse, +a fiery mustang from his own native plains, in front of the stable. + +Though the horse was all afoam with sweat, showing that it had been +ridden far and fast; it did not pant or show a sign of weariness. It was +of a stock which will run from rise of sun to its going down, and yet +plunge forward in the chill of the coming night. + +"You want the Black Hawk horse you spoke for this morning, don't you?" +asked the stableman, as Jack dismounted. + +"Of course I do. I've got the change; there is his price. Three hundred +dollars you said?" + +"Yes; but there's been a chap here looking at that horse who told me to +tell you his name, and that he intended to take that horse. I told him a +man had bought it, but he said: 'Tell him Wild Bill wants it, and that +Wild Bill will come at sunset to take it.'" + +"He will?" + +It was hissed rather than spoken, while the young Texan's face grew +white as snow, his blue eyes darkening till they seemed almost black. + +"He will! Let him try it! A sudden death is too good for the +blood-stained wretch! But if he will force it on, why let it come. The +horse is bought: let him come at sunset if he dares!" + +And the young man handed the stable-keeper three one hundred-dollar +greenback notes. + + +CHAPTER IV. +"GIVE UP THAT HORSE, OR DIE!" + +Leaving the livery-stable, the young Texan went directly to the German +restaurant, and asked for Willie Pond. + +He was shown up to the room, recently engaged by the traveler, and found +him engaged in cleaning a pair of fine, silver mounted Remington +revolvers. + +"Getting ready, I see," said the Texan. "I have bought you a horse--the +best in this whole section; I gave three hundred dollars. There is your +change." + +"Keep the two hundred to buy stores with for our trip," said Pond. + +"No need of it I've laid in all the stores we need. You can buy yourself +a couple of blankets and an India-rubber for wet weather. A couple of +tin cans of pepper and salt is all that I lay in when I'm going to rough +it on the plains. The man that can't kill all the meat he needs isn't +fit to go there." + +"Maybe you're right. The less we are burdened the better for our horses. +Are we likely to meet Indians on the route?" + +"None that will hurt _me_--or you, when you're in my company. The Sioux +know me and will do me no harm." + +"That is good. The Indians were my only dread." + +"I've a favor to ask." + +"It is granted before you ask it--what is it?" + +"I want to break your horse to the saddle before you try it. You are not +so used to the saddle, I reckon, as I am. I will take a ride at sunset, +and bring him around here for you to look at." + +"That is right. I am only thankful to have you ride him first, though +you may find me a better rider than you think!" + +"Perhaps. But he looks wild, and I like to tame _wild_ uns. I'll have +him here between sundown and dark." + +"All right. I told you I'd see to getting arms. I had these revolvers, +and cartridges for them, but I want a light repeating rifle. Get me a +good one, with as much ammunition as you think I'll need!" + +"All right. I'll get a now model Winchester. They rattle out lead faster +than any other tool I ever carried." + +The Texan now left. He had not spoken of Wild Bill's desire to possess +that horse, because he had an idea that Mr. Willie Pond would weaken, +and give up the horse, rather than risk bloodshed for its possession. +And perhaps he had another idea--a mysterious one, which we do not care +to expose at this stage of the story. + +This young Texan hastened from the German restaurant to a small, neat +house in the outskirts of the town. Knocking in a very peculiar manner, +he was admitted at once by a tall and strikingly beautiful young woman, +whom he addressed as if well acquainted with her. + +"I'm here, Addie, and I've seen _him._" + +"You found him all right, when you told him who sent you, did you not?" +asked the lady, leading the way to a sitting-room in the rear of the +cottage. + +"Yes, ready to do anything for one you recommend." + +"Poor Bill! A braver man and a truer friend never lived. He loves me, +and I fear it will be his ruin, for he will too often come within the +reach of those who would destroy him, if they only knew where and how to +reach him. Persecution and cruelty placed him on the bloody path he has +had to follow, and now--now he is an outlaw, beyond all chance for +mercy, should he ever be taken." + +"He never will be taken, guarded as he is." + +"You saw his guards, then?" + +"Yes, forty or fifty of them, and I would rather have them as friends +than foes. He wants you to ride out with me to meet him when I go next +with some information that he needs." + +"When will that be?" asked the lady. + +"In the early morning, or perhaps to-night, if nothing happens to me +between now and sunset to make it unnecessary!" + +"Between now and sunset? That is within two hours. Do you anticipate any +danger?" + +"Not much. I have a little task before me. I have a horse to break, and +a man known as Will Bill to tame." + +"Wild Bill!--the dead-shot, the desperado, who has killed at least one +man for every year of his life?" + +"Yes, the same. But ask me no more questions now. After I have tamed him +I will report--or, if he has settled me, there will be no need of it." + +"Do not run this risk." + +"It must be done. He has, in a manner, defied me, and I accept his +defiance!" + +"Surely he does not know---" + +"No, he knows nothing of what you would say if I did not interrupt you. +Nor do I intend he shall at present. It is enough that you know it, and +will care for both my body and my good name, should I fail." + +"You know I will. But you must not fall." + +"I do not intend to. I think I can crush him by a look and a word. I +shall try, at least. If all goes well, I will be here by eight to-night +to arrange for our visit." + +"I hope you will come, and safely." + +"I will, Addie. Until the cup of vengeance is full. Heaven will surely +spare me. But I must go. I have no time to spare." + +The young Texan glanced at the chambers of a handsome six-shooter which +he carried, to see if it was ready for use, replaced it in his belt, and +then, with a cheerful smile, left the room and house. + +Hastening to the stable, he selected a saddle, lengthened the stirrups +to suit himself, took a stout bridle from among a lot hanging in the +store-room, and accompanied by the stable-keeper, approached the newly +purchased Black Hawk horse. + +"I may as well have him ready," he said; "for if Wild Bill is to be here +at sunset, that time is close at hand. You say the horse has not been +ridden?" + +"No," said the stable-keeper. "My regular breaker was not here when I +bought him. Black Joe tried to mount him, but the horse scared him." + +"Well, I'll soon see what he is made of, if I can get saddle and bridle +on him," said the Texan. + +They now together approached the large box stall in which the stallion +was kept. The horse, almost perfect in symmetry, black as night, with a +fierce, wild look, turned to front them as they approached the barred +entrance. + +"Steady, boy--steady!" cried the Texan, as he sprang lightly over the +bars, and at once laid his hand on the arched neck of the horse. + +To the wonder of the stableman, the horse, instead of rearing back or +plunging at the intruder, turned his eyes upon him, and with a kind of +tremor in his frame, seemed to wait to see what his visitor meant. + +"So! Steady, Black Hawk! steady, old boy!" continued the Texan, kindly +passing his hand over the horse's neck and down his face. + +The horse uttered a low neigh, and seemed by his looks pleased with his +attentions. + +"That beats me!" cried the stable-keeper. "Old Joe had to lasso him and +draw him down to a ringbolt before he could rub him off." + +"Hand me the saddle and bridle," said the Texan, still continuing to +"pet" the beautiful and spirited animal. + +In a few seconds, without difficulty, the same kind and skillful hands +had the horse both saddled and bridled. + +The Texan now led the horse out on the street, where quite a crowd +seemed to be gathering, perhaps drawn there by some rumor of a fight in +embryo. + +And as he glanced up the street the Texan saw Wild Bill himself, with +his six-shooters in his belt, come striding along, with California Joe +and a dozen more at his heels. + +In a second, the Texan vaulted upon the back of the horse, which made +one wild leap that would have unseated most riders, and then reared on +its hind legs as if it would fall back and crush its would-be master. + +At this instant, Wild Bill rushing forward, pistol in hand, shouted: + +"Give up that horse, or die!" + + +CHAPTER V. +A SQUARE BACK-DOWN. + +The Texan paid no heed to the words of the desperado, but bending +forward on the horse with his full weight, drove his spurs deeply into +its flanks. Startled and stung with pain, the noble animal, at one wild +bound, leaped far beyond where Bill and his friends stood, and in a +second more sped in terrific leaps along the street. + +"The cowardly cuss is running away!" yelled Bill derisively. + +"It is false! He is _no_ coward! He will tame the horse first and then +_you_!" cried a voice so close that Bill turned in amazement to see who +dare thus to speak to him, the _"Terror of the West."_ + +"A woman!" he muttered, fiercely, as he saw a tall and queenly-looking +girl standing there, with flashing eyes, which did not drop at his gaze. + +_"Yes_--a woman, who has heard of Wild Bill, and neither fears nor +admires him!" she said, undauntedly. + +"Is the fellow that rode off on the horse your husband or lover that you +take his part?" asked Bill, half angrily and half wondering at the +temerity of the lovely girl who thus braved his anger. + +"He is neither," she replied, scornfully. + +"I'm glad of it. I shall not make you a widow or deprive you of a future +husband when he comes under my fire, if he should be fool enough to come +back." + +"He comes now. See for yourself. He has tamed the horse--now comes your +turn, coward and braggart!" + +Bill was white with anger; but she was a woman, mind no matter what he +felt, too well he knew the chivalry of the far West to raise a hand or +even speak a threatening word to her. But he heard men around him murmur +her name. + +It was Addie Neidic. + +And then he turned his eyes upon the black horse and rider. The animal, +completely under control, though flecked with foam, came down the street +slowly and gently, bearing his rider with an air of pride rather than +submission. As he passed the German restaurant, the rider raised his hat +in salutation to Willie Pond, who stood in his window, and said, in a +cheerful voice: + +"Remain in your room. I have news for you and will be there soon." + +Without checking his horse the rider kept on until he was within half a +length of the horse of Wild Bill, then checking the animal, he said, in +a mocking tone: + +"You spoke to me just as I rode away. I've come back to hear you out." + +What was the matter with Wild Bill? He stood staring wildly at the +Texan, his own face white as if a mortal fear had come upon him. + +"Where have I seen that face before?" he gasped. "Can the dead come back +to life?" + +The Texan bent forward till his own face almost touched that of Wild +Bill and hissed out one word in a shrill whisper: + +"Sister!" + +It was all he said, but the instant Wild Bill heard it, he shrieked out: + +"'Tis him--_'tis him I shot at Abilene!_" and with a shuddering groan he +sank senseless to the pavement. + +In an instant Bill's friends, who had looked in wonder at this strange +scene, sprang to his aid, and, lifting his unconscious form, carried it +into the saloon where Bill had met Californian Joe, Captain Jack, and +the rest of their crowd. + +Left alone, the young Texan said a few words to Addie Neidic, then +dismounted and told the stable-keeper to keep that horse saddled and +bridled, and to get his own Texan mustang ready for use. + +"I must be out of town before sunrise, or Wild Bill and his friends may +have questions to ask that I don't want to answer just now," he said. + +And then, he walked a little way with Miss Neidic, talking earnestly. +But soon he left her, and while she kept on in the direction of her own +house, he turned and went to the German restaurant. + +Entering the room of Willie Pond, he said, abruptly: + +"If you want to go to the Black Hills with me on your own horse we'll +have to leave this section mighty sudden. Wild Bill has set his mind on +having the horse I bought and broke for you, and he has a rough crowd to +back him up." + +"If I had known Bill wanted the horse so badly I could have got along +with another," said Pond, rather quietly. + +"What! let _him_ have the horse? Why it hasn't its equal on the plains +or in the mountains. It is a thoroughbred--a regular racer, which a +sporting man was taking through to the Pacific coast on speculation. He +played faro, lost, got broke, and put the horse up for a tenth of its +value. I got him for almost nothing compared to his worth. On that horse +you can keep out of the way of any red who scours the plains. If you +don't want him I do, for Wild Bill shall never put a leg over his back!" + +"I'll keep him. Don't get mad. I'll keep him and go whenever you are +ready," said Pond, completely mastered by the excitement which this +young Texan exhibited. + +"Well, we'll get the horses out of town and in a safe place to-night. +And for yourself, I'll take you to the house of a lady friend of mine to +stay to-night and to-morrow, and by to-morrow night I'll know all I want +to about the movements of the other party, and we can move so as to be +just before or behind them, as you and I will decide best." + +"All right, Jack. I leave it to you. Are you sure the horse will be safe +for me to ride?" + +"Yes. A horse like that once broken is broken for life. They never +forget their first lesson. A mongrel breed, stupid, resentful, and +tricky, is different. Be ready to mount when I lead him around, I will +send for your traveling-bag, and you will find it at the house where we +stop." + +"I will be ready," said Pond. + +The Texan now left, and Pond watched him as he hurried off to the +stable. + +"The man hates Wild Bill with a deadly hatred!" he murmured. "I must +learn the cause. Perhaps it is a providence that I have fallen in with +him, and I have concluded to keep his company to the Black Hills. But I +must call the landlord and close up my account before the other comes +back with the horses." + +The German was so put out by the sudden giving up of a room, which he +hoped to make profitable, that he asked an extra day's rent, and to his +surprise, got it. + + +CHAPTER VI. +OFF TO THE HILLS. + +It was some time before Wild Bill became fully conscious after he was +carried into the saloon, and when he did come to he raved wildly about +the red-haired man he shot in Abilene, and insisted it was his ghost, +and not a real man, he had seen. + +Bill's friends tried to cheer and reassure him, and got several stiff +draughts of liquor down his throat, which finally "set him up." as they +said, till he began to look natural. But he still talked wildly and +strangely. + +"I told you, Joe," he said to his old friend; "I told you my time was +nigh up. This hasn't been my first warning. That Abilene ghost has been +before me a thousand times, and he has hissed that same word, +'_sister,_' in my ear." + +"Bah! old boy. What's the use of your talking foolish. You've seen no +ghost. That red-haired chap was as live as you are." + +"He did have red hair and blue eyes, then?" + +"Yes; but there are lots of such all over the world. Red hair and blue +eyes generally travel in company. But he was nothing to scare you. You +could have wiped him out with one back-handed blow of your fist, let +alone usin' shootin' irons, of which there wasn't 'casion, seein' he +didn't draw." + +"Where is he now?" + +"I'll go and see. I suppose he is over at the stable." + +Joe went out, but soon returned to say that the Texan had just ridden +off, after paying his bill; the stable-keeper did not know where. + +"Let him go," murmured Bill. "If he _is_ a man, and not a ghost, I +wouldn't raise a hand to hurt him, not for all the gold in the Black +Hills. He was so like--_so_ like the chap I dropped in Abilene!" + +Bill took another drink, but it seemed as if nothing could lift the +gloom which weighed down his heart. Only once did his face brighten. +That was when Sam Chichester said there was no use hanging on at Laramie +any longer for a bigger crowd; they were strong enough now, and would +start for the Hills inside of four-and-twenty hours. + +"That's the talk for me!" cried Bill. "I want to get out of here as soon +as I can, Joe, and pick me out some sort of a horse. I don't care what, +so it'll carry me to the Hills, I can't breathe free any longer where +there's such a lot of folks." + +"I'll get you a first-chop horse, Bill," said Joe. "There's some +half-breeds in a corral just out of town, as tough as grizzlies, and +heavy enough for your weight or mine." + +"I don't weigh down, as I did," said Bill, with a sigh. "I've been +losin' weight for six months back. No matter. It'll be less trouble to +tote me when I go under. Remember, boys, when I do, bury me with my +boots on, just as I die." + +"Stop your clatter about dyin', Bill. I'm sick o' that kind of talk. +It's time enough to talk of death when its clutch is on you." + +"I can't help it, Joe, old pard. It keeps a stickin' in my throat, and +if it didn't come out, I'd choke." + +"Let's go to camp," said Chichester. "Can you walk now, Bill?' + +"Yes." + +And the party rose, took a parting drink with the landlord, and started +for camp. + +Outside, Bill gave a startled, wild glance toward the spot where he had +seen the Texan; but no one was there now, and he moved on with his +companions toward their camp, listening to, but not joining in their +conversation. + +On arriving at camp, Chichester, as captain, gave orders that each man +should report on paper, or verbally, so it could be taken down, just how +much ammunition he had, the number and kind of his arms, private stores, +etc., so that if there was not enough to make the trip safely, more +could be provided. The number and condition of horses, pack-mules, etc., +was also to be given. + +No man would be fitted to lead such a party did he not consider and post +himself fully in all these particulars. + +Quite a crowd of townspeople followed the party out, for the news soon +spread that they intended to leave in a short time; so around their +blazing camp-fire there were many visitors. Toward these Wild Bill cast +many a stealthy glance, but he did not see the red-haired Texan there. + + +CHAPTER VII. +THE OUTLAW'S LOVE. + +Willie Pond was much surprised when he found that his ride only extended +to a small but pretty cottage just on the outskirts of the town, where +the young Texan, introducing him to Miss Neidic as his temporary +hostess, left him while he took the horses to a safe place of +concealment not far away. + +Miss Neidic look her new visitor into the rear sitting-room, and while +giving him a cordial welcome, and passing the usual salutations, scanned +him with a keen and critical eye. The impression left must have been +rather favorable, for the lady seemed to feel none of the embarrassment +usual when strangers held a first interview, but talked on as easily and +naturally as if she had known him half a lifetime. + +"How long have you been in town, Mr. Pond?" was one of her many +questions. + +"Only a day. I arrived on the express, westward bound, which passed this +morning," was the answer. + +"Why, that was the same train the desperado, Wild Bill came on." + +"Yes, he was pointed out to me by the conductor. But why do you call him +a desperado?" + +"Because that is his character." + +"I thought none but outlaws were celled desperadoes." + +"There is where the mistake comes in. Most outlaws are desperadoes, but +a man _can_ be a desperado, and yet not an _outlaw._ If to be always +ready to shoot for a look or a word--whether his opponent is ready or +not--is not being a desperado. I do not know what is. But excuse me. He +may be a friend of yours." + +"Oh, no," said Pond, with some confusion in his manner. "But a very dear +friend of mine married him not long since, and for her sake I feel a +sort of interest in the man. I fancied that he was rather wild when +under the influence of liquor, but for all, a brave and generous man, +when truly himself." + +"Brave, as brutes are, when he feels he has the power to _kill_ in his +hands; but _generous?_ _Never!_" said Miss Neidic. + +"You are his enemy." + +"No; for he has never done me, personally, an injury; but he has injured +friends of mine--sent more than one down to untimely graves." + +"There, I said it--you are his enemy, because of what he has done to +your friends. + +"I am _not_ his friend, nor do I wish to be the friend of such a man. +But the enmity of a woman is nothing to him. He looks for friends among +such men as he now consorts with--California Joe, Sam Chichester, and +that crowd. I know but one real gentleman in the party, and that one is +Jack Crawford." + +"I know none of them." + +"You lose nothing, then, for it is little honor one gains by such +acquaintances. They suit Wild Bill, for they drink, gamble, and shoot on +little cause; they are ready for any adventure, never stopping to count +risks or look back when evil is commenced or ruin wrought, no matter +what may be its nature." + +The entrance of the young Texans now caused a change in the topic of +conversation. + +"I have learned when that party start." he said. "They are making their +final preparations to-night, and will break camp in this morning early +enough to make Twenty-mills Creek for their first night's halt--probably +about ten o'clock." + +"Do you propose to go ahead of them?" asked Pond. + +"No; it will be more easy and safe to fellow their trail. They will not +have over fifty animals all told, and there will be lots of feed left +for us even if we keep close by. And we can get as much game as we need +any time, for we can use but little. One pack horse will carry all our +stuff, and still be able to travel at speed, if need be." + +"You understand it better than I," said Pond. "Arrange things to suit +yourself, and I will conform to your plans." + +"All right. You had better turn in early, so as to get a good rest. For +after we are out, long rides and night-watches will tell on you, for you +are not used to them." + +"I will show you to a chamber, your valise is already in it," said Miss +Neidic. + +Mr. Pond followed her, and the Texan was left alone to his thoughts, +which he carelessly expressed aloud. + +"So far all works well," he said. "Mr. Willie Pond is as soft as mush; +but I've read him through and through. He wouldn't go with me if he +didn't think he'd have a chance to serve Wild Bill, for, though he shuns +Bill, he thinks more of Bill than he would have me think, I'll bet Addie +has found that out." + +"Found out what?" said the lady herself, who had returned so noiselessly +that Jack had not heard her. + +"That Mr. Pond, as he calls himself, is a friend of Wild Bill's." + +"All of that, and maybe something more, as you may find out before you +are through your trip." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Nothing but this--keep your eyes open, and study your Mr. Pond +closely." + +"There is nothing dangerous about him?" + +Miss Neidic laughed heartily. + +"Nothing very dangerous to you, at any rate," she said; "but if they all +go in the morning, we must see Persimmon Bill to-night." + +"That is so. Shall I bring the horses round?" + +"No. We might be overheard. I will go to the stables. Get the horses +ready. I have some things to put up for Bill, and I will come as soon as +I pack them in a pair of saddle-bags." + +Jack now left for the stable, and Miss Neidic, with a woman's +forethought, began to gather up many little things which might be useful +to her outlaw lover, who had little chance to procure articles of +comfort, not to speak of luxury, except when on some raid in the +settlements. + +In ten minutes she was ready and on her way to the stables. + +Jack had her own favorite horse saddled, while for himself he chose the +Black Hawk beauty. + +In a few seconds both were mounted, and in the darkness they sped away +over the same route which Jack had taken when he went to visit Persimmon +Bill. + +Little was said as they rode on, for the horses were kept at a swift +gallop, and before the hour was up they had approached the ravine as +near as they deemed safe before giving the signal. + +Scarcely was it given before it was answered, and a second later +Persimmon Bill himself was by the side of Addie Neidic's horse, and she +was pressed to the outlaw's bosom with a fervor that showed he had a +heart more than half-human left in his breast. + +"It's kind of you, Addie, to come out here in the chill of the night to +see a wild cuss like me, outlawed by man, and forsaken by Heaven!" + +"It's safer to come by night than by day, for you and for me, Bill," she +said. "And I couldn't bear you should go away again till I had seen you. +And I've brought you a lot of things I know you'll need." + +"I shall not need much of anything, Addie, on the trail I'm soon to +take. Your friend here I know is safe, or I wouldn't say so much. But +the truth is, the reds are going to rise in a body all over the north +and northwest, and we'll sweep the Black Hills, and clean out every +'blue-coat' that is sent to check the rising. The Sioux have made me a +big chief, and I'll have my hands full. If you hear of the 'White Elk,' +as second only to Sitting Bull himself, you'll know who it is." + +"You, of course!" + +"Yes, Addie; that is the name they have given me. And if the Sioux fight +as I think they will, and all the northern tribes join, we'll force a +treaty that will give us all the Black Hills and the Yellowstone, Powder +River, and Big Horn Country for ourselves forever. Then, my girl, and +not till then, can I make a safe home for you, and not till then will I +ask you to be my wife. For then the outlaw will be safe, and can live in +peace, and look for days of home and happiness." + +"Bill, when you ask it, be it in peace or war, I am yours. You are brave +as the bravest, and had you never been treated wrongfully, would not now +be a hunted outlaw. I love you, and you know it." + +"Yes, Addie, and I love you too well to ask you to share my lot till I +can see some sunshine. But this stranger has news for me." + +Persimmon Bill turned to the Texan, who had drawn his horse away a +little, so as not to intrude on the conversation between the lovers. + +"I have the news you asked for," said Jack. "The party, all told, who +will start at nine or ten in the morning, and camp twenty miles out +to-morrow, number twenty-nine men, all well armed, the most of them with +repeating rifles and six-shooters. Half of them are old scouts, the rest +are miners, gamblers, and a couple of them are traders. They have fifty +animals, saddle and pack, and carry no wagons. The mules are loaded +pretty heavy, at least them that belong to the traders, and are well +worth capture." + +"All right, And there is one of the party you don't want hurt until he +is in your hands?" + +"Yes, that man is Wild Bill. I want him in my power so that I may see +him die slowly, surely, awfully!" + +"There is another man in that party, Bill, who mustn't be hurt. He did +me a kindness once, down at Cheyenne--saved me from insult and wrong. +His name is Crawford--Captain Jack, they call him!" + +"Yes, I know him. No harm shall befall him, if I can help it." + +"Thank you, Bill; you needn't be jealous of him, for it is only what he +did that makes me ask a favor for him!" + +"I know it, Addie." + +"No woman on earth can make me jealous of you. I've too much confidence +in your truth and love. But you'll not attack the party anywhere near +here?" + +"No, not till they are far beyond all the military posts. I want no +pursuit when I do my work. Our animals are in good order for the +war-path now, and I want to keep them so. I'm drilling my braves at +every chance, so as to fit them to meet such men as Crook, Custer, and +Carr. All they want is drill and discipline to make them the best +soldiers in the world, and they're coming into it finely." + +"Well, you were a soldier yourself long enough to know all that should +be done." + +"A soldier too long, girl--too long a slave to men who held authority +only to abuse it," said Bill, in a bitter tone. "The cruelty exercised +on me then turned my best blood to gall, and made me what I am. I hate +the name, and my blood boils beyond all restraint when my eye falls upon +a uniform. Rightly have the Sioux called me the "Soldier Killer," for +never do I let one who wears the button escape if he comes within my +reach. But you must not stay too long. Good-night--I will not say +good-by, for we will meet again." + +"Good-night, Bill." + +"One word to your friend here," added the outlaw. "Follow the trail of +Chichester, about three hours back, whenever he moves. I will probably, +for three or four days, be about as far behind you. On the night of the +third or fourth day out, or, if it is bad weather for travel, a day or +two later, I will surround you, and take you and your friend prisoners, +to all appearances. But of course no harm will come to you, and you will +be free when the other work is done. Then I will close up and wipe out +Chichester's gang, saving the two who are to be spared. Then I will be +ready for the war-path, for I need the arms and ammunition these people +have to finish arming the drilled marines who are specially under me." + +"All right, sir; we understand each other," said the Texan, wheeling his +horse to take the back trail. + +Addie Neidic, as if from some uncontrollable reason, turned once more +toward her lover, and bending from her saddle, threw her arms about his +tall and splendid form, and kissed him again and again with passionate +tenderness. + +"Do be careful of your life, dear Bill," she said. "You are all in all +to me. If you perish, life will be valueless to me." + +"Addie, I'll try to live for your sake, and work my uttermost to achieve +what will give you and me peace and quiet in the end. Good-night, once +more good-night, my beautiful, my own." + +"Good night, Bill--God bless you!" she sobbed; as she turned her horse, +and followed the Texan at a gallop. + + +CHAPTER VIII. +FOILED BY A WOMAN. + +It was their last night in town before breaking up camp, and the Black +Hillers, as they already called themselves, under Chichester, were +determined to have a lively time of it. + +They commenced "wetting up," or pouring down liquid lightning in camp, +but, being reminded that what they used there would be missed on their +journey, they started to skin the saloons in town, and finish out their +spree where it would not diminish their own stores. + +As Wild Bill said, they were going where money would be of little +account, if all the stories about the gold to be found were true; so +what they spent now they wouldn't have to carry. And they went in, as +such reckless men generally do, spending their money as freely as they +could, and drinking with a "looseness" that promised headaches on the +morrow, if nothing more. + +Wild Bill went in on the spree with a rush, as if he wished to drown the +remembrance of his late fright, and despite the cautions of his friend, +Captain Jack, who strove hard to keep him within bounds. + +California Joe of course was in his element, and in a little while all +the party became so turbulent that Crawford left them in disgust. For, +as Addie Neidic had said of him, despite his associations, he was a +gentleman. + +By midnight every saloon had been visited, and many of them pretty well +cleaned out, and now Bill proposed to go and break a faro bank that some +of the party spoke of. + +"I have seven hundred dollars left out of a thousand my woman gave me +before I started," said he. "I'll lose that, or break the bank; see if I +don't." + +All of the party who were sober enough went with Bill, and soon he was +before the green board. + +Without even waiting to get the run of the game, be planked a hundred +dollars on the king, and lost. Without a word, he put two hundred +dollars more on the same card, and won. He left the four hundred down, +and in another turn he had eight hundred. + +"Luck is with me, boys!" He shouted. "I'll break the bank! Let her swing +for the king once more, Mr. Dealer!" + +To the wonder of all, though it was the last turn of the cards, the +king won, and Wild Bill picked up sixteen hundred dollars. + +His friends now urged him to quit, but the demon of the game had entered +his soul, and he swore, with a terrible oath, that he would play till he +broke the bank, or was broke himself. + +A new pack was now put in the box, and once more the dealer cried out: + +"Make your bets gentlemen--make year bets! The game is ready!" + +Bill, with a reckless bravado, as much of rum as of his own nature, +again laid all his winnings on one card--this time the queen. And with +wonderful luck--it could be nothing else--he again doubled his pile, +this time his gains being thirty-two hundred dollars. + +"Stop now, Bill!" cried California Joe, "This can't last!" + +"It shall last! The bank can't stand more than two more such pulls!" +shouted Bill, wildly. + +And again on the same card he staked his entire winnings. + +The dealer and banker were one; he turned pale, but when all bets were +down, he pulled his cards without a tremor in his hand. But a groan +broke from his lips as the queen once more came out on the winning side. + +Once more Bill's stakes were doubled, and this time he changed his card. + +The banker hesitated. His capital would hardly cover the pile if Bill +won again. + +"Keep on," whispered a voice in his ear; "if he breaks you, I'll stake +your bank." + +The banker looked up and saw, though she was disguised in male attire, a +face he well knew. It was that of Addie Neidic, and he knew she was able +to keep her word. + +Wild Bill had heard the whisper, and his face was white with rage, for +he thought the bank would succumb before it would risk another chance +with his wonderful luck. + +But he let his money lay where he put it, and cried out to the banker to +go on with his game if he dared. + +The latter; with firm set lips, cried out: + +"Game ready, gentlemen--game ready." + +The cards were drawn, and once more Wild Bill had won. + +Coolly, as if money was no more than waste paper, Bill gathered up the +pile, and began to thrust it away in his pockets, when the disguised +woman, Addie Neidic, thrust a roll of thousand dollar notes into the +hands of the banker, and cried out: + +"This bank is good for fifty thousand dollars. Let no braggart go away +and say he has bluffed the bank, till he breaks it!" + +Wild Bill trembled from head to foot. + +"I know you!" he hissed. "You are the woman who bluffed me at the +livery-stable. I'll win your fifty thousand dollars, and then blow the +top of any man's head off who'll take your part!" + +"Play, don't boast; put up your money!" was the scornful reply. + +In an instant Bill put every dollar he had won, every cent he had in the +world, and a gold watch on top of that, on the Jack. + +Not another man around the table made a bet. A pin could have been +heard, had it fallen to the floor, so complete was the silence. + +The banker cried out, "Game ready," and slowly drew the cards. + +"Jack loses!" he cried, a second after, and Bill's pile, watch and all, +was raked in. + +"Devil! woman or not, you shall die for this!" he shouted, and his hand +went to his belt. + +But even as his hand touched his pistol, he heard that fearful whisper, +"sister," and saw a white face, wreathed in auburn hair rise over Addie +Neidic's shoulder, and with a groan, or a groaning cry of terror, he +fell back insensible to the floor. + + +CHAPTER IX. +THE GHOST AGAIN APPEARS. + +When Wild Bill fell, the banker declared his game closed for the night; +and while Bill's friends gathered about him and sought to bring him to, +the woman, Addie Neidic, took up her money, and left by the rear +entrance, and the banker, with two or three of his friends, escorted her +home, fearing Bill and his gang might annoy her, if the latter came to +before she reached her residence. + +The auburn-haired Texan did not go with her, but with a slouched hat +drawn over his head, and a Mexican blanket over his shoulders, stood +back in a corner, unobserved, to hear Bill's words when he came to, and +to see what next would appear on the desperado's programme. + +"That ghost again! He came to break my luck." + +These were the last words that Wild Bill spoke, when recovering his +consciousness; he glared out upon the crowd with bloodshot eyes. + +"It was a woman who broke your luck. Addie Neidic backed the bank, or +'twould have given in," cried another. + +"Who is Addie Neidic?" asked Bill, with a wondering gaze. "Oh! I +remember--the woman who called me a coward over at the livery-stable. +Who is she? Where does she live?" + +"In a cottage west of town. They say she's rich! Let's go and clean out +her crib!" cried a ruffian who did not belong to Bill's party, but most +likely held some spite against Miss Neidic. + +"Ay! That's the word! Let's clean out the house and set fire to it!" +cried another, a chum of the first speaker. + +It required but a leader now to set the vile work going. And Wild Bill, +gradually recovering his reason, but mad with drink, and just realizing +that every dollar he had, and even his watch was gone, was just the man +for such a leader. + +"I'll go! Show me the house, and we'll teach her to wear her own +clothes, and let men's games alone!" shouted Wild Bill. + +In a moment fifty men were ready to go; but first they made an onslaught +on the wines and liquors on the sideboard of the gambling-room. + +While they were madly pouring these down, the auburn-haired Texan +slipped from the room, and ran swiftly to the cottage of his fair +friend. + +"Addie," he cried, as she opened the door to his signal, "Wild Bill and +a crowd of full fifty men are coming here to rob you, and burn your +house. They are mad with drink, and even if the stranger up stairs will +fight, we three can hardly hold them at bay, no matter how well we are +armed." + +"We will not try it!" said Addie, calmly. "I had about made up my mind +to go with Persimmon Bill. He loves me so well that I ought to be able +and willing to bear hardship for his sake. I care little for the house +and furniture, though they are mine, and cost me a large sum. I have +money and jewelry that we can carry off. I will rouse my two servants +while you call your friend, and we will all be out of the house before +they come. No one but you knows where your horses are kept. Let that be +the place of rendezvous, and before daylight we will be safe with my +lover." + +"No; I do not want to be with him yet, Addie. I will take this newly +found friend and see you safely in reach of Bill, but we will make camp +elsewhere till Bill's party starts. Then we'll be on his trail, and you +on ours, as it was agreed upon." + +"As you, like, Jack. But we must hurry." + +"All right--as soon as I bring my friend down, do you go with him and +your servants to the stable, carrying off what you can. Leave me here, +for I want to give Wild Bill one more good scare." + +"As you please, but be careful he don't kill you while you scare him. +Ah! I hear their yells. We must be quick." + +Willie Pond had a white, scared face when he came from his chamber, for +while the Texan told him of the danger, the yells and shouts of the +drunken ruffians who were approaching could be plainly heard. It seemed +as if a gang of demons from the lower regions had been let loose on +earth. + +"Come with me," cried Addie Neidic, as Mr. Pond came down with his +valise in hand. "Be quick, or there will be murder under this roof." + +Pond, seemingly dazed and bewildered, obeyed, and out by a rear door +hastened the fair owner of the doomed house, with her maid, or +man-servant, and Willie Pond, while the Texan, telling them he soon +would follow, remained. + +Plainly now the shouts and vile threats of the drunken marauders came to +the ears of the single listener. + +"I wish I had a barrel or two of gunpowder here," he muttered. "I'd make +them sing another tune." + +Nearer and nearer they came, and now the Texan extinguished every light +but one, which he shaded with his hat. Then he looked to the front door +and windows and saw that they were all barred, except a single shutter +which he left so he could open it. + +A minute later, and the tramp of a hundred hurrying feet came loudly on +his ear. Then shouts: + +"Clean her out. Kill her and burn her crib!" + +In a minute the crowd brought up before the closed doors. + +"Open your doors, woman, or we'll shatter them!" cried Wild Bill. + +"Open, or down goes everything!" shouted the crowd. + +"Here, Bill; here is a shutter loose!" cried one. + +Wild Bill sprang toward it, and as he did so the shutter flew open; he +saw a white face surrounded by auburn hair; he heard one gasping +cry--"sister"--and he fell back in terror, crying out: + +"The ghost! the ghost!" + +But some one fired a shot, the light went out, and all was dark where +the light had been. + +Bill recovered from his shock almost as soon as he felt it, and joined +with the shout: + +"Down with the doors! Down with the doors." + +The crash that followed, told that the frail obstacles had given way, +and Bill cried out: + +"In and clean the crib out. Ghost or no ghost, give us light, and clean +the crib out!" + +Cheer after cheer told that the house was entered, and a minute later, +torches made from splintered doors and shutters, blazed in a dozen hands +as the ruffians ran to and for in search of plunder. + +"The ghost. Find the ghost, or the woman!" yelled Bill. + + +CHAPTER X. +A MYSTERY. + +The excited and ruffianly crowd dashed to and fro, overturning the +furniture, tearing aside curtains, and looking for plunder, but unable +to find anything of value, beyond the furniture, or to see a single +living person under the roof. Not a dollar in money, not a piece of +plate rewarded their search. + +"Fire the crib! fire the crib!" came from fifty throats, and almost as +soon as spoken, the act was consummated. + +Wild Bill, angered to find no one on whom to vent his wrath, or shake +his thirst for revenge, looked on the blaze as it rose with gloomy +satisfaction, muttering that he only wished the witch of a woman was +burning in it. + +The crowd increased as the flames rose higher and tighter, but no one +tried to check them, and soon it was but a smoldering mass of ruins +where the pretty cottage had stood. + +But the late occupant, unharmed, was a mile away, and having just paid +off and discharged her faithful servants, was on the point of mounting +to ride off with the Texan and Mr. Pond, when the last shout of the +dispersing crowd reached her ears. + +She smiled when she heard it, and said: + +"I can afford all the harm they have done, I led but a lonesome life +there. I feel that the change I am about to make will be for the +better." + +The three, with two loaded horses besides those they rode, now moved +quietly but swiftly out of the suburbs of the town, where the horses had +been stabled, and with the Texan leading the way, steered to the +westward, having no compass but the stars. + +For an hour the three rode on, and then, pointing to some timber ahead, +the Texan said: + +"Addie, there is where you will find him whom you seek. Tell him I have +not altered any of my plans, and that I shall lay in camp to-morrow at +Lone-tree Spring, an hour's gallop south of the Twenty-mile Creek. The +next morning I will follow the trail we spoke of. And now, Addie, +good-by, and don't forgot me." + +"You know I will not, I hope yet to see you happy, and to be happier +than I am now. We shall meet again, perhaps, Mr. Pond, but good-night +for now." + +And while the Texan and Mr. Pond remained still on their horses, she +rode on, leading one pack-horse, toward a growth of trees seen dimly +ahead. + +The Texan remained where he was until he heard her give the signal and +receive an answer, and then turning to Pond, he said: + +"She is safe; we may as well move on. We have a long ride to where I +intend to camp." + +"All right," said the other, "This night's work seems almost like a +dream. I can hardly realize that Wild Bill would lead such a disgraceful +crowd of ruffians, and do such a dastardly act as to burn a woman out of +house and home." + +"Rum takes all the _man_ out of those who use it," said the Texan. "I +use it myself sometimes, I know, but it is when I feel as if I was all +giving out, and couldn't go through what was before me. And I feel +abashed when I think I need such a stimulant to fire up my flagging +nature." + +Pond made no reply, but rode on thoughtfully at the rapid pace which the +other led, the pack animal keeping close in the rear. At last he asked: + +"Who did Miss Neidic expect to meet where we left her?" + +"A brave man who loves her dearly, but who has been driven in his +desperation by cruel injustice to do some work which keeps him outside +of towns and settlements for the present. His love is returned by her, +and henceforth she will share his dangers and his hardships." + +"None can tell but those who test it, how deeply, how entirely, and how +lasting a true woman loves," said Pond, with a sigh. + +"And none but a woman wronged can tell how bitterly she can hate!" said +the other, as he dashed his spurs into his horse and galloped on. + +Miles were swiftly passed over, and the gray of dawn was just beginning +to soften night's darkness in the east, when the Texan exclaimed: + +"Here we are; now for a rest of one day, at least." + +And as he spoke he drew up his horse by the side of a small pool of +water, which trickled out from under the roots of a single large tree. +For an acre or so around it there were bushes growing as high as the +horses, but when light came, no other growth but that of short buffalo +grass and prickly cactus could be seen. + +The Texan unsaddled his horse, and unloaded the pack animal before Pond +could get his saddle ungirthed. Then the Texan sprang to his assistance, +finished stripping the horse, and with a long lariat picketed it out in +the best grass. His own horses he turned loose, saying they never would +stray from camp. + +Then, taking his rifle, he stepped out from camp, saying he was going +after meat. + +In fifteen or twenty minutes, Pond heard the crack of his rifle and in +less than half an hour the young man was back, with the fat saddle of a +young antelope on his shoulder. + +"Here is meat enough for to-day and to-morrow," he said. "Next day we +will be on buffalo ground, and we'll have some hump ribs to roast." + +Gathering a few dry, light sticks, he soon had a hot and almost +smokeless fire ablaze. On the coals of this he set his coffee-pot, +broiled some meat, and while Mr. Pond looked on in surprise, he quickly +had a nice breakfast of antelope steak, coffee, and a few hard biscuit +which were in the pack. + +While Pond took hold and ate heartily, praising the food by his actions +much as his words, the Texan ate lightly, yet all that he wanted--not +touching the bread, but using meat entirely. + +"There'll be the more left for you," said he, when Pond noticed that he +ate no bread. "I never care for anything but meat on the plains. It +gives bone and muscle, and that is what we need here. The more simple +the food, the better the health. We use ourselves to salt, but we would +be just as well off without it. Eat hearty, and take a good nap. We have +nothing to do to-day. The party whose trail will be our guide to the +"Hills" will not start till late. We shall not move until to-morrow +morning, and then I'll show you the coals of the camp-fire which they'll +light to-night. There will be no need for any shelter but this tree +overhead. Everything looks clean and dry sky-ward--there's no better +camping ground than this for a couple on the plains. The water is good, +feed plenty, and we don't require much fire this time of year." + +Pond, tired and sleepy, was only too glad to take the Texan's advice, so +he spread his blanket, lay down, and soon was in the land of dreams. + +Meantime the Texan, with a small field-glass in his hand, mounted the +tree, and from a perch on its uppermost limbs, scanned the prairie in +all directions, but most often in the direction from which they had +come. + +Nothing was in sight but wild game, scattered here and there, and he +soon came down and prepared to take a rest on his own account. + +"They'll not pass till afternoon," he muttered, "and I may as well rest +a few hours while I can in peace and safety." + +He took a long and curious look at the form of his sleeping traveling +companion, and a strange smile flitted over his face, as he muttered: + +"A mystery, but I can solve it." + + +CHAPTER XI. +IN THE WILDS. + +If ever a man was astonished, when he responded to that after midnight +signal at the mouth of Dead Man's Hollow, it was the outlaw, Persimmon +Bill. He came from his place of concealment expecting to meet the Texan +with news, and found instead Addie Neidic, and with her, on a pack +horse, all the wealth and apparel she had in the world. + +"Addie, love, what does this mean?" he cried, as she sprang from the +horse and threw herself into his arms. + +"It means this, Bill. I have come to stay with you, go where you go, +live as you live, and die where you die!" + +"Addie, dearest, did I not tell you to wait till I could give you a home +in peace and quietness!" + +"Yes, Bill, but there were those that would not let me wait. To-night, +had it not been for thy Texan friend, most likely I would have been +murdered by a mob of drunken ruffians led on by Wild Bill. Warned in +time, I escaped with all that I had worth saving, except my house and +furniture. Those they burned; I saw the blaze from my stable, where I +went to get my horses to come to you." + +"By all that's fiendish, this is more than I can bear! I'll ride in with +my Sioux and burn the cursed town!" + +"No, Bill; for my sake keep cool and hear me. I am glad it is done. I +was wretched and lonely there--how lonely no words may tell. I was in +constant anxiety on your account. I trembled daily, hourly, lest I +should hear of your death or capture. Now I shall be with you, know of +your safety, or if you are in peril, share the danger with you." + +"But, Addie, you can never endure the privations and the fatigue of such +a life as I must lead at present. Soon I must be on a bloody war-path. +We will have regular troops to meet, great battles to fight." + +"And it will be my glory and pride to be with you in all your perils--to +show your red allies what a pale-faced woman dares and can do for him +whom she loves." + +"Dearest, I see not how it can be helped. But I grieve to see you +suffer." + +"Do not grieve, my love, while my face is bright with smiles. Do not let +your heart be heavy while mine is full of joy. Think but this--I am +thine until death. We will never part while life thrills our veins. Your +triumphs shall be mine; I will glory in your courage, and in your +enterprise. I have arms and well know their use. No warrior in all your +following can ride better than I. That I am fearless I really believe, +for twice inside of ten hours have I defied Wild Bill in his anger, and +laughed when his hand was on his pistol. But take me to your camp. I am +tired, and the night air is chilly; and take care of the pack horse. My +silver and over one hundred thousand dollars in money is on his back, +and what clothing I shall need for a time." + +"You bring a rich dowry, Addie, but your love is worth more than all the +treasures the world could show. Come, darling, I will take you as the +most precious gift a wild, bad man ever received." + +"You are not bad, Bill. You are my hero and my love!" + +Bill could only press his answer on her lips, and then with the bridle +of her horses in his hand, and her arm linked in his, he walked back up +the winding bed of the ravine for near a quarter of a mile. + +Then he emerged into an open space where there were full a hundred +Indian ponies staked out, with their owners lying in groups about near +small smoldering camp-fires. A few only were on guard, and these on +seeing their white chief appear paid no apparent attention to the +companion, though they doubtless saw her. It is the Indian's nature to +be stoical and never to manifest surprise, no matter what occurs. + +Inside the line where the ponies were staked was a small brush house, +and in front of this Bill halted with his led horses, with his own hands +unsaddled one and unpacked the other, leaving packs and saddles in front +of the house. + +Well he knew they were as safe there as they would have been behind +bolts and bars in the settlements--even more safe. + +"Come in, my love," he said. "The Sioux will care for the horses. Come +in and receive the best a fond heart can give in the way of shelter and +comfort." + +"It is all I ask," she murmured, as with him she entered the "Outlaw's +Home." + + +CHAPTER XII. +ON THE TRAIL. + +It was high noon when the young Texan woke up and when he rose Pond +still lay sleeping. The former laughed lightly, as he rose and bathed +his face in the limpid water, for the beard of the sleeper had got all +awry, showing that it was false. + +"No need for a disguise here," said the Texan. "But let him keep it up. +When the time comes I'll read him a lesson." + +Cutting some antelope stakes, the Texan built up a smokeless fire, and +had them nicely broiled when Willie Pond woke up. + +"Mercy! how I have slept!" he said, as he looked at the sun, already +fast declining toward the west. + +"You are not used to passing sleepless nights," said the Texan. "When we +are fairly launched into the Indian country you may not sleep so sound. +Take hold and eat. A hearty eater on the plains generally stands travel +best. To-morrow, it is likely, we'll have a fifty-mile ride or more, if +those Black Hillers get sobered down to their work. They'll do well if +they make their twenty to-day." + +Pond went and bathed his face and hands in the limpid water before +eating, and as he expressed it, "rubbed the sleep" out of his eyes; then +he went at the toothsome steak with appetite not at all impaired by the +pure open air he was breathing. + +The meal, taken with comfort and deliberation, occupied a half hour or +more, and as there were no dishes to wash, "clearing up things" only +consisting in tossing the bones out of the way, wiping their knives on a +bunch of grass, scouring them with a plunge or two in the dry sand, they +were all ready for next meal-time. + +"Your horse hears something, so does mine," said the Texan, pointing to +the animals, which suddenly stopped feeding, and with their ears pricked +forward, looked off to the east-ward. + +"I can see nothing. What can alarm them!" said Pond. + +"They hear the tramp of the Black Hills party, I think. Horses have far +better hearing than we have, and will feel a jar of the ground that +would not attract our attention. I want no better sentinel than my +mustang, and your Black Hawk seems to take to the watch by instinct. I +will go up on my look-out post and see if anything is in sight." + +Slinging the strap of his field-glass over his shoulder, the Texan +hurriedly climbed up the tree. Seated among the top-most limbs, he +adjusted his glass and looked away to the northeast. + +"There they are!" he cried. + +"Who? What?" exclaimed Pond, rather nervously. + +"The Black Hillers, struggling along mighty careless. Their route covers +half a mile in length; when in good marching order it should not cover a +hundred yards, with scouts in the rear, front, and on both flanks, at +twice the distance. That is the way we travel in Texas." + +"Wild Bill has been a scout so long I should think he would know all +about it," said Pond. + +"A heap them scouts know who travel with Uncle Sam's troop's!" said the +Texan, in a tone of contempt. "Let them ride with a gang of Texan +Rangers a few months and they'd learn something. Your troops can't move, +or stop to water, without sounding their bugles to tell the Indians +where they are. In the morning, all day, and at night, it is toot, toot +with their infernal horns, and the reds know just where to find 'em. One +of our Texan Ranger bands will travel a hundred miles and you'll not +hear noise enough to wake a coyote from them all. These Black Hillers +travel slow to-day. They're sore-headed from their spree, I reckon." + +"They deserve to be. Drunkenness always punishes the drunkard. I have no +pity for them." + +"Can you see any sign of them from where you stand?" asked the Texan. + +Pond looked carefully off in the direction the other pointed, and +replied: + +"No. They do not even raise dust." + +"Then we are safe here from observation. They go too slow to make dust, +and they're moving over grass any way. It will be dark before they reach +their camping-ground. But to make the next, which is full fifty miles +away, they'll have to start earlier. Ah! what does that mean?" + +"What startles you?" + +"Nothing _startles_ me, but a couple of men from that party have dashed +out from the line at a gallop, and they ride this way." + +"Heaven! I hope Bill--Wild Bill--is not one of them!" cried Pond, +greatly excited. "Are you sure they are coming here?" + +"Riding _this way_ does not assume that they're coming _here!"_ said the +Texan, coolly. "They may have flanked off to look for some fresh meat. +Yes, that is it," he added. "They bear up to the north now; they want to +go ahead of the party so as to kill something fresh for supper. Captain +Jack kept sober when all the rest were drinking last night, and I'll +wager he is one of the hunters, and most likely Sam Chichester is the +other. We're safe from observation, Mr. Pond, so don't get nervous. +We'll not see Wild Bill to-day." + +Pond smiled, but there was a tremor about him that showed he was easy to +take alarm and hard to get over it. + +The Texan came down from the tree and busied himself in gathering some +dry fuel--small sticks which would make a quick hot blaze and little or +no smoke. Then he cut off some long thin flakes of antelope flesh from +the saddle hanging on the tree, and half cooked, half dried it. + +"Meat may be a little unhandy to get in the rear of that straggling +band," he said. "If we have a little on hand, it will do no hurt." + +"You are thoughtful," said Pond. "I would make a poor manager, I fear, +on the plains. I should forget everything until it was needed." + +"You are not too old to learn," said the Texan, laughing. + +"Excuse my asking the question, but have you long been acquainted with +that strange and beautiful woman, Addie Neidic?" + +"Not very long, myself. But I had a brother who knew her very well, and +loved her almost to madness, She was his true friend, but she did not +love him." + +"Is he living now?" + +"Living? _No!_ If ever you meet Wild Bill--but no, it is my secret. Ask +me no more about him." + +Every word just spoken flew from the Texan's lips like sheets of fire; +his eyes flashed and his face flushed, while his form trembled from head +to foot. + +"Forgive me! I did not mean to wound your feelings!" said Pond, moved by +the excitement of the other. + +"No matter; I know you didn't. No matter. It will all come right one of +these days. I wish my heart was stone!" + +Pond was silent, for he saw the Texan's eyes fill with tears, and he +seemed to know that nothing which he could say could soften a grief so +deeply felt. + +The Texan was the first to speak. + +"Addie Neidic is a strange, but a noble girl," he said. "Her father was +a rough sporting man, but her mother was a lady born and bred. The +mother lived long enough to educate Addie in her own ways, but she died +just as Addie was budding into beauty. Addie met her lover when he was a +soldier at Fort Russell, near Cheyenne. After he was driven to desertion +by cruelty and injustice, she met him from time to time, and when her +father died, leaving her all his fortune, she moved up to Laramie. I +think I know now the reason why--she could, meet him more often." + +"You said that he was an outlaw." + +"Yes; when he deserted he killed the two sentinels who were on guard +over him, then killed a mounted officer and rode away on his horse. He +was hunted for by whole companies as fast as they could be mounted, but +he could not be taken. But after that, if a soldier or an officer rode +alone a mile or more from the post, he seldom returned, but his body +told that Persimmon Bill, the 'Soldier Killer,' as he was called, still +lived around. Wild Bill has done bloody work--cruel work in his time, +but Persimmon Bill has killed ten men to his one." + +"It is strange that an intelligent woman like Addie Neidic should love +such a man." + +"No--he is both a martyr and a hero in her eyes. A more stately form, a +nobler face, never met favor in the eyes of woman. To his foes fierce +and relentless, to her he is gentle and kind. She will never meet aught +but tenderness at his hands." + +"I wish I could have seen him." + +"You may yet see him, Mr. Pond. He travels the plains as free as the +antelopes which bound from ridge to ridge. Adopted by the Sioux nation, +known to them as the 'White Elk,' he has become a great chief, and their +young braves follow in his lead with a confidence which makes them +better than the solders sent to subdue them." + + +CHAPTER XIII. +THE BLACK HILLERS EN ROUTE. + +The young Texan had judged rightly when he conjectured that it was Sam +Chichester and Captain Jack that had ridden out from the straggling +column of the Black Hillers, as he saw from his eyrie in the tree. + +They had two objects in doing so. The ostensible object was to reach the +camping-ground first with some game for supper, but another was to +converse, unheard by the others, on the probable dangers of the trip, +and means to meet and overcome such dangers. + +"There is no doubt the Sioux are on the war-path," said Chichester to +Captain Jack, as they rode on side by side. + +"None in the world. They've taken a hundred scalps or more already on +the Black Hills route. The troops have been ordered to move up the +Missouri and Yellowstone, and that will make them worse than ever. We'll +be lucky if we get through without a brush. That was a mean thing, the +burning out of that Neidic girl last night, wasn't it?" + +"Yes, Crawford, and if Persimmon Bill ever comes across Wild Bill, _his +goose is cooked!_ Mark that. There is not a surer shot, or a deadlier +foe on earth then Persimmon Bill. He has defied the whole border for the +past three years--ridden right into a military post and shot men down, +and got away without a scratch. They say he has been adopted by the +Sioux, and if he has, with such backing he'll do more mischief than +ever." + +"I don't believe Bill would have injured the woman had he been sober. It +was a mean thing to do any way, and I'm sorry any of our party had a +hand in it." + +"So am I. But look, Jack, you can see tree-tops ahead. That is the +timber on Twenty-mile Creek. There we camp. We'll spread a little here, +and the one who sees a fat elk first will drop him. We'll keep within +sight and hearing of each other, and if one fires the other will close +on him." + +"All right, Sam." + +And the brave young scout, all the better for being ever temperate and +steady, gently diverged to the right, while Chichester bore off to the +left. + +Game in the shape of prairie hens rose right and left as they rode on, +and every little while a band of antelopes, taking the alarm, would be +seen bounding over the sandy ridges, while an elk farther off startled +by the antelope, would take fright and trot off in style. + +The two hunters were now nearing the timber, and they rode more slowly +and with greater caution. + +Suddenly, as Chichester rose over a small ridge, he came upon a band of +a dozen or more noble elk, which trotted swiftly off to the right, where +Captain Jack, seeing them coming, had sprung from his horse and crouched +low on the ridge. + +Chichester saw his movement, and lowered the rifle which he had raised +for a flying shot, for he knew by their course the elk would go so close +to Crawford that he could take his pick among them and make a sure shot. + +The result justified his movement, for the noble animals, seeing only a +riderless horse, scented no danger, and kept on until they were within +easy pistol-shot of the experienced hunter. + +Crack went his rifle, and the largest, fattest elk of the band gave one +mighty bound and fell, while the rest bounded away in another course, +fully alarmed at the report of a gun so close and its effects so deadly +to the leader of the band. + +"You've got as nice a bit of meat here as ever was cut up," cried +Chichester to Captain Jack, as he came in at a gallop, while Crawford +was cutting the throat of the huge elk. "The boys will have enough to +choke on when we get to camp." + +"I reckon they'll not growl over this," said Jack, laughing. "I never +had an easier shot. They came down from your wind, and never saw me till +I raised with a bead on this one's heart." + +The two hunters had their meat all cut up and in condition for packing +to camp when the column came up. + +One hour later, just as the sun began to dip beyond the trees on the +creek side, the party went into camp, and soon, over huge and carelessly +built camp-fires, slices of elk steak and elk ribs were roasting and +steaming in a most appetizing way. + +The party were hungry, and the hungriest among them were those who had +drank the hardest the night before, for till now they had not been able +to eat. But the day's travel had worked some of the poison rum out of +them, and their empty stomachs craved something good and substantial, +and they had it in the fresh, juicy elk meat. + +It was a hard and unruly crowd to manage on the start. Chichester found +it difficult to get men to act as sentinels, for they mostly declared +that there was no danger of Indians and no need to set guards. + +Little did they dream that even then, within three hours' ride, or even +less, there were enough blood-thirsty Sioux to meet them in fair fight, +and defeat them, too. + +Only by standing a watch himself and putting Crawford on for the most +dangerous hour, that of approaching dawn, did Captain Chichester manage +to have his first night's camp properly guarded. + +Wild Bill, gloomy and morose, said he didn't "care a cuss" if all the +Indians of the Sioux nation pitched upon them. He knew his time was +close at hand, and what did it matter to him whether a red wore his +scalp at his belt or some white man gloried in having wiped him out. + +But the night passed without disturbance, and a very early start was +made next morning. + +Chichester made the men all fill their canteens with water, and the +animals were all led into the stream to drink their fill, for there was +a long, dry march to the next camping-ground. + +Chichester and Captain Jack both knew the route well, for they had both +been over it in one of the first prospecting parties to the "Hills." + + +CHAPTER XIV. +POND SEIZED WITH TERROR. + +Nothing of note occurred in the little camp at the Lone-tree Spring that +first night. Just before sunset the young Texan and Willie Pond took a +gallop of four or five miles to exercise their horses and use themselves +to the saddle, and when they came back with freshened appetites, ate +heartily, and afterward slept soundly. + +The next morning both woke with the sun, and after a hearty meal the +pack-horse was loaded, the other animals saddled, and the route taken +for the Hills. + +A ride of six or seven miles brought them into the trail of the larger +party, and at noon, or a little before, the Texan halted on the +camping-ground occupied by that party the night before. + +The embers of their fires were yet alive, and over them the Texan cooked +dinner for himself and companion. + +Pointing to the bones and scraps of meat thrown around, the Texan +laughed, and said: + +"They've plenty now, but before they get through they'll be more +careful, for if the Indians are thick, game will be hard to get; and I'm +thinking they'll find Indians before they're three days out." + +"You said the Sioux would be friendly to you?" + +"Yes; I have a talisman. Did you not see me put this eagle feather, +tipped with crimson, in my hat last night before I rode out?" + +"Yes. Is that your talisman?" + +"It is. It is from the coronet of a Sioux chief, and was given to me as +a safeguard." + +"I wish I had one." + +"Keep with me and you will not need it." + +"Do not fear that I will go far from you. Alone, I should feel utterly +lost on these prairies. Where will we camp to-night?" + +"Very close to the party that is ahead of us. They will go to a creek +and a piece of timber that is fully fifty miles from here. About a mile +from where I think they will camp there is a small ravine, in which we +will find what grass and water we need. It will be near nightfall when +we get there, if we do our best in travel. But if we ride hard, we'll +take the longer rest. I do not care to keep too close to them as a +general thing, but to-night we can't help it." + +Their nooning was short, and taking the precaution to water their horses +well, and fill their canteens, they rode forward over the well-defined +trail quite swiftly. + +Toward night they could see the trail freshened, but nothing was in +sight except a distant mark when night fell, which the Texan said was +the timber where the party ahead would camp. Just as the sun was setting +smoke was seen to rise in that direction, and the Texan spoke +contemptuously of the carelessness which would thus expose a +camping-place to those who were miles distant. + +"If a captain of a ranger band would do such a thing in Texas," he said, +"his men would reduce him to the ranks and put one in his place who knew +how to be cautious." + +"It surely is imprudent. But they are a large party to cook for, and +must have large fires," said Pond. + +The young Texan laughed scornfully. + +"Let every man make his own fire, make such fires as you have seen me +make, and the smoke could not be seen a rifle-shot away," was the +answer. "That party will never reach the Hills. Mark that! If Indians +are within twenty miles they'll see a smoke like that. But what is it to +us? We're safe." + +"I am not so selfish as to wish harm to reach them, even if we are +safe!" said Pond, testily. + +"That is as much as to say that I am selfish. Well, I acknowledge it. I +go in for number one. If they can't take ordinary care of themselves, +let them suffer." + +Willie Pond made no answer, but rode on in silence. Night was now upon +them, and all was still except the thud of the galloping hoofs upon the +plain. + +Suddenly a gleam of fire was seen far ahead. The Texan noted it, and +swerved off to the left. + +"There is the camp," he said. "I can easily find our resting-place now. +I was afraid we would not see their fires until we were right up to the +timber. But they are careless with their fire as they are with their +smoke. We shall have moonlight in an hour, and in less time we'll be in +camp." + +He rode on now, more slowly, for the horses were tired, and he seemed to +know so well where to go that there was no haste. + +The moon was just above the trees when the Texan led the way into a +narrow ravine, with heavy timber on either side. Up this, full ten +minutes they rode, and then an exclamation of pleased wonder broke from +the lips of Willie Pond. For they came out into an open circular plain +or area of several acres in extent, covered with rich grass and centered +by a bright, mirror-like lake. + +"What a lovely spot!" cried Pond. "Who on earth would dream of finding +such a paradise inside of gates so dark and rude." + +"One who had been here before," said the Texan. "But speak low, for +careless as they may be over there in camp, some one might be outside +listening." + +"Why, it is over a mile away, is it not?" + +"Yes, along the line of the wood. But over this cliff, were it crossed, +it is not a quarter of that distance." + +And the Texan pointed to a rugged tree-crowned cliff on their right. + +"I will be careful," said Pond. "My enthusiasm breaks out when I see +beautiful things. I can hardly restrain myself." + +"We will unsaddle and camp. Our horses are tired, and need food and +drink," was all that the Texan said. + +And he at once unloaded the pack-horse, and unsaddled his mustang. + +Pond, becoming more handy, now did the same for Black Hawk, who seemed +to take quite a fancy to his new master, curving his back proudly under +his caressing touch. + +"Shall I picket him, as we did at the last camp?" asked Pond, when he +had unsaddled his horse. + +"No, let him go with mine. They have been together long enough to mate, +and they'll feed peaceably in company. Mine will never stray or +stampede, and the other will not go off alone." + +The simple camp was soon fixed; and as they had cooked meat left, and +biscuit, with plenty of water to drink, both agreed that there was no +necessity to build any fire. + +"The smell of smoke might reach some sharp-nosed scout over there," said +the Texan, "for the wind blows that way. We'll eat, and then turn in, +for rest will come good to both of us." + +The horses plunged off to the water and drank, and then went to +cropping the luxuriant grass, while their masters ate their suppers +with appetites strengthened by their long and wearying ride. + +After they had supped, Willie Pond would, as usual, have enjoyed his +dainty cigarette, had not the Texan warned him that tobacco smoke would +scent farther than any other, and might be more dangerous, in betraying +their presence, than anything else. + +So Mr. Pond had to forego his smoke. He took a blanket, and moving up to +a little mossy knoll just under the edge of the cliff, threw himself +down to sleep. + +The Texan also took his blanket, but he lay down near the saddles and +packs. + +Pond was so very weary that he soon fell asleep. How long he slept he +did not know, but a strange, oppressive dream woke him, and with the +moonlight, shining full in the valley, while he lay shaded beneath a +tree and the overhanging cliff, he saw a sight which froze his very +heart with a mortal terror. + +The ravine by which he and his companion had entered was filled with +mounted Indians, who were riding silently into the little valley. + + +CHAPTER XV. +CHEATED OF THEIR PREY. + +Literally dumb with terror, so weak that he could not rise, Pond saw +this strange cavalcade moving up toward the little lake, and looked to +the spot where the Texan had lain down to see if he had yet taken the +alarm. + +To his wonder and redoubled alarm, he saw the Texan not alone, but with +a white man, dressed in buckskin, by his side, and a woman also, +apparently in friendly converse, calmly waiting the Indian advance. + +Recognizing at a glance the woman as Addie Neidic, Pond realized that +the man must be no other than Persimmon Bill, and that his followers +were the blood-thirsty Sioux, whom he headed. + +"Heaven help me! There is some fearful treachery here. Wild Bill and his +companions are lost if they are not warned in time. How can it be done?" + +How strangely, as if by intuition, strategy, and cunning thought come to +some when environed by unlooked-for danger. + +Without a moment's hesitation, Pond so arranged his blanket that if +glanced at it would appear he was yet sleeping under it, for he left his +hat on the stone where his head had been, and his rifle leaning against +the tree right over it. + +Then, bare-headed, with no weapons but his pistols and knife in his +belt, he crept off up the hill-side with the silence and stealth of a +scout who had been a life-time in the business. He wondered at himself +as he began to scale the mountain-side, not daring to look back, how he +could creep up amid those fearful crags so noiselessly, and how he could +have got away unseen, when the Texan and those who were with him were +not a pistol shot away. + +On, on he kept, ever seeking the shadowed spots, where no moonlight +could reveal his form, until at last he was on the very crest of the +hill. Looking down he plainly saw the camp-fires of the Black Hillers +below. They were most likely buried in slumber, and, if they had +sentinels out, his life would be endangered by a rapid approach. But of +this he seemed not to think as he hurried almost recklessly down through +thickets, over crags, and along rugged gulches. + +How he got down he hardly knew, but he was down, and rushing toward the +nearest fire, when he heard a stern, short summons close in his front: + +"Halt! Who comes there?" + +A man, armed with rifle and pistols, stepped from the shadow of a tree, +and Pond gasped out: + +"A friend. A friend come to save all your lives. There are a hundred +Indians within a mile of you, led by the desperado Persimmon Bill." + +"Who are you?" was the stern inquiry. + +"Wild Bill will know me. Take me to him, quick!" was the response. + +"To our captain first. Come along!" said the sentinel. + +The next moment Willie Pond was in the presence of Sam Chichester and +Captain Jack, telling his story. + +"It looks like truth, and if it is, the quicker we get out of here the +better. If we can get fifteen or twenty miles the start we may keep it," +said Chichester. + +"He says Wild Bill knows him. Where is Bill?" cried Jack. "Ah, there he +comes." + +Bill, awakened by hearing his name called, was rising, and now +approached the party. + +Pond sprang forward, and addressed him hurriedly in whispered tones. + +Wild Bill for an instant seemed lost in astonishment, his first +exclamation being, "Great Heaven! you here?" + +But after he heard the whispered words he only added, addressing +Chichester: + +"Captain, this friend of mine will not lie. We are in danger, and he has +risked his life to save us. I want a spare horse for him, and the sooner +we get from here, the better for our hair." + +With as little noise as possible, the whole party were aroused, and the +danger explained. Quickly the animals were saddled, and in less than +twenty minutes the camp-ground was all deserted, though more fuel had +been purposely heaped on the fires to keep up the appearance of +occupation, if scouts should be sent to examine the camp. + +"It lacks four hours yet to daylight!" said Chichester to Captain Jack, +"We'll get just that much start, for they'll make no attack until just +as day begins to break. I know the ways of them red cusses only too +well." + +"You haven't much the advantage of me in that kind of knowledge, Sam. +But if that fellow was anywhere right as to their numbers, and the Sioux +are well mounted, they'll bother us yet before we get to the hills, no +matter if we do get eighteen or twenty miles the start!" + +"We'll give 'em a long race and a tough tussle before they get our hair +any way!" said Chichester. "I wonder who that fellow is? Bill seems to +like him right well, for they ride as close as their horses can move +together. Bill has supplied him with a hat--he came in bare-headed, you +know." + +"Yes; he must have had a terrible climb to get over to us. The only +wonder is he got away undiscovered." + +"He said he left his blanket in a shape to make them think he was +sleeping under it." + +"He must be an old hand to fool them so nicely." + +"He doesn't look like it, He doesn't ride like a scout or a +plainsman--he sits his horse too gracefully." + +"No matter; one thing is certain. Wild Bill knows him well, trusts him, +and they stick as close together as twins." + +"Yes, Captain Jack, I wish you'd take the rear and make those packers +keep up. There must be no lagging. If a horse or mule fails they must be +left. I'll keep the advance going." + +Thus the Black Hillers swept on at a gallop, knowing that a merciless +fate was theirs if overtaken by the Sioux. + + +CHAPTER XVI. +THE PURSUIT. + +The young Texan had not dreamed of being followed so soon by Persimmon +Bill and his Indians, and he had lain down to sleep as honestly and +confidently as Willie Pond, when he dropped down by the saddles and +pack. + +He was aroused by a touch on his shoulder, when he awoke and was +surprised to find Bill and Addie Neidic standing by his side. + +"Where are your Indians?" was the first question the Texan asked, as +Bill whispered, in a low tone: + +"I am here. I have followed the trail a little sooner than I thought I +would. The Indians are in the ravine waiting for my signal to come in +and let their horses feed and rest before we attack. Where is your +friend?" continued Bill. + +"Sound asleep under that tree up there. He sleeps like a log, and will +not wake till I shake him up. I never saw such a sleeper. Yesterday he +spent most of the day snoring." + +"It is well. There is no use of alarming him before we are ready for +work. I will give the signal, and let my warriors file in." + +The outlaw waved a blanket in the air, and the Indians silently filed +into the valley. At another signal they turned their horses loose to +graze, and then gathered in groups out on the plain to take food and +rest themselves while their leader conversed with the Texan, whom having +seen before, they knew as his friend. + +Meantime, the Texan motioning Addie Neidic and her lover to take seats +on his blanket, conversed with the latter in a low tone on the plan of +attack. + +"I shall not make it until just as day dawns--for two reasons," said the +outlaw. "First, then they will keep the most careless guard; second, +when light is coming, we can see how to kill, and how to save the two +whose lives are to be spared. We will do the work in a hurry when it is +done. I have given my warriors their orders; most of them know Wild Bill +and Captain Jack, for both have been on the reservations often when they +have been in. For these reds can go where I cannot, and get arms and +ammunition where I would not dare apply for them." + +"Shall I not make you and Addie some coffee?" asked the Texan. "I can do +it without danger, for I have a small alcohol lamp in my pack, which I +had to keep for use when I could not get fuel. + +"It will be refreshing, indeed, if there is no risk in making it," said +Addie Neidic. + +"There is none, and I will soon have it made," was the reply. Shaded +from even Indian observation by the blanket he raised on some bushes, +the young Texan speedily made a quart cupful of strong coffee, and +shared it between the lady and her outlaw lover. It and some cooked meat +he had gave them strength, and then all three lay down like the others +to rest for an hour or two, the outlaw bidding one of his warriors keep +watch, and to wake him when the morning star was seen over the trees in +the east. + +And little dreaming that their intended victims were far away from their +camp, the Indians and their leader took rest preparation to their deadly +work. + +When his warrior sentinel awoke him, Persimmon Bill found that the +morning star was well up, and it was full time to be moving toward the +scene of action. + +"You will stay here in the valley, dear Addie, till we come back," he +said. "We will steal away quietly, and not wake that sleeping stranger +if it can be helped, for he might, in his terror, fire his gun, or in +some way give an alarm. Should he wake, hearing firing over there, keep +him quiet with persuasion or your revolver until we return, and then if +he is obstreperous, I will quiet him." + +"Let me go with you, Bill," she said. "I am not afraid." + +"It must not be, dear Addie, There is no need of your being exposed +_there,_ and it is well to have _him_ watched here. Our main certainty +of complete success is in a surprise. The least alarm may prevent it." + +"I will remain then," she said. "And you need not fear for any alarm +from him--for I know I can keep him quiet should he wake. I have a keen +persuader here, if I have to use it." + +And she touched a poniard in her belt, which also contained two good +revolvers. + +"An outlaw's bride," she added, smiling, "must be prepared to take care +of herself." + +The Indians now began silently to form their march, as they saw their +white leader mount, and the young Texan also get his horse. The Black +Hawk seemed uneasy that his master was not at hand, and the Texan was +obliged to tie him by the side of the horse ridden by Addie Neidic +before he would be quiet. + +"It is strange that Mr. Pond does not wake with all this noise," said +the Texan, as he rode off with Persimmon Bill. "But as I told you, he is +the soundest sleeper I ever traveled with." + +The Indians now filed away out of the valley as silently as they entered +it, for, knowing the close vicinity of the other camp, they were aware +how necessary it was to be cautious. + +And now Addie Neidic stood alone, while the morning star rose higher and +higher, gazing at what she supposed was the sleeping man on the knoll. + +The moon had got so far around that she could see his hat, the rifle +against the tree, and the outlines of his form, as she believed. + +"I will move up and secure his rifle," she thought, after the band had +been gone some time. "He might wake; and in his first alarm use it +foolishly." + +So she moved with a noiseless step within reach of the gun, and the next +moment it was in her possession. Then she looked down, to see if he +showed signs of waking. To her surprise, she saw no motions of a +breathing form under the blanket. A closer look told her that if a form +had been beneath the blanket, or a head under that hat, it was gone. +And, feeling with her hand under the blanket, she, found it cold; no +warm living form had been there for hours. + +"He has been alarmed, seen us, and crept away--perhaps is hiding in +terror in the brush," she muttered. + +She did not even then realize that he might have fled away to alarm the +other camp. She did not even understand several shrill yells, which +reached her ear from over the hill. She had not been with the Sioux long +enough to know their cries. These yells were the signal cries of scouts +sent in, who had found a deserted camp. She only wondered, after hearing +the yells, that she did not hear firing--the sounds of battle raging. + +While she yet wondered, day dawned, finding her standing there by the +empty blanket of Willie Pond, holding his rifle, and looking up the hill +to see if he would not creep out, now that light had come and the +Indians had gone. + +A shrill neigh from the black horse called her attention toward the +animal, and she saw the Texan riding into the valley on a keen run. + +"Where is Bill?" she asked, as she ran to meet the rider, with Pond's +blanket, hat, and rifle in her hand. + +"Gone at full speed with his warriors on the trail of the Black Hillers, +who have been alarmed in some way, and, have got at least two hours +start. He sent me back to bring you and Pond along." + +"Here is all of Mr. Pond that can be found," said Addie, holding up what +she had found. "I went to the nest, the bird had flown, and the nest was +cold." + +The Texan rode quickly to the spot, and in a moment saw the trail over +the ridge made by Pond when he had escaped. + +"It was he who gave the alarm--him whom I believed so sleepy!" he +muttered. "He must have seen Bill and the Indians when they first came, +arranged his blanket and hat as you found it, and crept over the hill. +When I cautioned him to keep quiet, I told him how near and in what +direction they were. I see it all. Green as I took him to be, he has +outwitted us all!" + +"It is so. This is his horse--a noble animal, too. We will take that +with us." + +"Of course; and we must hurry on, for Bill is miles on the trail +already. He will be even more surprised than we when he knows how the +Black Hillers got warning. I'll not give much for Mr. Pond's hair," said +the Texan. + +In a few seconds the horse which Addie had ridden was saddled and ready, +and, leaving his pack-horse behind, but leading the Black Hawk, the +young Texan, with Addie Neidic by his side, dashed at full speed over +the valley, and out of the ravine. + +Once out on the open plain, they could see far away to the west a cloud +of dust. It was made by the Sioux under the White Elk, who were pushing +the horses to their wildest speed on the trail of the fugitives. This +trail the Texan and Addie Neidic followed at their utmost speed. + +The double trail made by the Black Hillers and the pursuing Indians +would have been plain indeed to follow had not the column of dust served +as a guide. + +With their horses at full speed, and better than the general run of +Indian ponies, the Texan and his fair companion gained slowly but surely +on the Indians, and within an hour had passed the rear of their column, +and were pressing well to the front. + +Yet it was noon when they ranged alongside of Persimmon Bill himself, +and reported the discovery Addie Neidic had made. + +"One more scalp ahead of us," was all he said, when he heard the report. + +And he pressed on still faster. + + +CHAPTER XVII. +UNLOOKED-FOR AID. + +With their heavily-laden pack-horses, lengthy as their start was, the +party under Chichester saw their pursuers plainly in their rear before +the day was two-thirds passed, and Captain Jack, hurrying up the rear +all he could, sent word to Chichester that the reds were gaining +rapidly. + +Chichester sent word back to press the rear forward at its utmost speed. +He could see timber ahead, and if they could only reach it, they might +be able to make a stand. Satisfied, from the report of Willie Pond, that +over one hundred well-armed and well-mounted Indians were on his trail, +fearful that many of his men would flinch in battle, he dared not, with +the few that were true, make a stand on the open plain. + +Had all been like Wild Bill, California Joe, and Captain Jack, he would +have halted, rested his horses, and given the reds battle rather than +fly from even treble his number. But he knew well that a few cowards +would weaken the rest, and he wanted to get some shelter before he met +such odds. + +The timber was yet fully two hours' ride distant, half of the +pack-horses had given out and been left, and many of the mounted men +complained that they could not keep their horses much longer in the +column. + +Sam Chichester had been obliged to slacken the pace in front, and the +enemy were gaining so fast that the glitter of their arms, could be seen +even and the dust-cloud that rose above them. + +Suddenly another column of dust was seen, and this appeared to come from +the direction of the timber, though south of the route the Black Hillers +were taking. + +"Men!" muttered Sam Chichester, "there's no use in our running much +farther. If that new cloud of dust is made by Indian's, all that we can +do is to sell our lives as dearly as we can. We will soon know one thing +or the other." + +"They're not on the line we're taking. They can't be coming for us," +said Captain Jack, who had ridden to the front. "They're coming in our +flank." + +"And night is coming, too," growled California Joe. "If we can keep on +for two hours more, we'll have darkness to shield us, for no red will +fight in the dark without he attacks, and has camp-fires to light up +with." + +"We'll keep them, on while an animal will move, and when we must, turn +and fight for life or vengeance, if we must go under," said Chichester. +"Forward, men--forward once more!" + +Again Captain Jack took the post of honor, for such indeed was the rear +guard in this case. Suddenly, on looking back, he saw that the Indians, +instead of gaining, had come to a halt. + +"They've given it up! they've given it up!" he cried, sending a +messenger forward to Captain Chichester to slacken the speed of the +column. + +It was now almost sundown, and the men in the column, choked and +thirsty, weary beyond expression, could hardly believe the news was +true. They were soon satisfied, though, that it was; but it was not for +an hour yet, when twilight was beginning to gather, that they learned +the real cause of their present safety. + +The Indians would have been upon them before night set in, had they not +first discovered the nature of the dust cloud to the south-west, or +rather who it was raised by. The field-glass of the Texan, even miles +and miles away, had detected the flutter of cavalry guidons amid the +dust, and showed that mounted troops were near enough to come to the aid +of the Black Hill men before they could be crushed and their scalps +taken. + +So, much against his will, Persimmon Bill was obliged to slacken his +pace, and soon to turn his course, so, as by a night march, to put his +warriors beyond the reach of those who might turn on them. + +When night fell, Chichester, joined by two companies of cavalry, bound +for the Hills, under orders to join forces already on the way by another +route, moved slowly to a camping-ground in the timber, for which he had +been heading hours back. + +The horses of the troops were weak from scant forage, and the commanding +officer did not feel it his duty to wear them out chasing Indians, +though he held himself ready to protect the mining party as long as they +remained with him. + +And they were just too willing to go on with such an escort, even with +the loss of all the pack animals left on their trail; and had Persimmon +Bill only halted, instead of falling back, he would have found that +there was no danger of pursuit. + +Chichester and Crawford, when they compared notes, and found not a man +of their party lost, though half its property was gone, felt satisfied +that it was no worse, for at one time it seemed to both that nothing was +left to them but to sell their lives as dearly as they could. + +In a well-guarded camp all were settled before the moon rose, and never +was rest more needed by animals and men. + + +CHAPTER XVIII. +ON THE DEATH-TRAIL. + +Bivouacked on the treeless plain, so far from the old trail and from the +timber ahead that they could see no sign of the Black Hillers or the +troops, the next morning's sun rose on the band of Sioux led by +Persimmon Bill. Used to all kinds of exigencies, the red men did not +mind either a lack of food or of water for so short a time. They were +only angered with the thought that those whom they had deemed an easy +prey had escaped them. + +As soon as it was light, Persimmon Bill had the captured pack-horses +examined, and it was found that several of them were laden with +provisions. Others had ammunition and stores, and on some of them were +found kegs of liquor. + +These the wary leader at once destroyed, telling his followers that +there was no foe so deadly to the red man as this fire-water and not one +drop should pass his lips or theirs. The provisions were at once +distributed among them, as also the stores, but the liquor was given to +the thirsty sands, where at least it could do no harm. + +Then a council was held by the leader with the chiefs and head warriors +of the band, and it was decided that it would be foolish to pursue the +Black Hill people farther, now that troops were with them, unless a +large band of Sioux could be found. For it is not Indian policy to risk +battle against odds, or where there is danger of great loss and little +gain. To reach water and good hunting-grounds was their first necessity; +after that they could consider where next to go. Sitting Bull was +rallying all the tribes for war, and the "White Elk" had promised to +join him. + +Gloomily the young Texan heard all this talk, and at its close, when a +decision had been arrived at, he said: + +"Here we must part. I follow the trail of Wild Bill, if I follow it +alone. I had hoped to see him die a slow and cruel death, where I could +have heard him plead, and plead in vain for mercy. But that hope is +gone, if he reaches the Hills in safety. But he cannot live--he shall +not! I have sworn to kill him, and I will! The spirit of him who fell at +Abilene cries up from a bloody grave for vengeance, and the cry shall be +answered. You have been kind to me Addie Neidic, and so has he to whom +your heart is given. I shall never forget it. But our courses now lie +apart--I follow yonder trail, while you go I know not where. We may not +meet again--if we do, I shall tell you Wild Bill is dead!" + +"Stay with us. I will yet help you to your vengeance," said Persimmon +Bill. + +"No; it will be too long delayed. I am hot on the death-trail now, and I +will not leave it. Fear not for me. I shall hover near them till they +reach the Hills, and then I will not wait long to fulfill my work. When +the deed is done, if I still think life is precious, and his friends +press me too hard, I may look for safety, as you have done, with the +Sioux." + +"Come and you shall find in me a sister, and in him a brother," cried +Addie Neidic. + +"_A brother?_ I had one once," came in a low, sobbing cry from the young +Texan's lips; then, with his head bowed, and scalding tears rolling down +his cheeks, he drove the spurs into his horse, and sped away swiftly in +the direction of the old trail. + +The Black Hawk horse, saddled and bridled, but riderless, galloped on by +the side of the Texan's fleet mustang, with no wish to part from his +company. + +"He had death in his eye! He will kill Wild Bill, and we shall never see +him again," said Persimmon Bill. "The miners are rough, and condemn +before they try, and hang as soon as condemnation is spoken. I pity the +boy--for he is but a boy." + +Addie Neidic smiled. + +"We shall see your boy again," she said, "Something seems to whisper to +me that his fate is in some way linked with ours. I, too, feel sure that +he will kill Wild Bill, and then escape to join us. And you, my hero, +will rise till all these Indian nations call you king. How these who +follow you look up to you now, obeying every word or sign. And think, on +these vast plains, and in the endless range of hills, valleys, and +mountains, there must be countless thousands, who want but a daring, +skillful leader to make them the best light troops in the world." + +"You are ambitions for me, dearest," said Bill, with a strange, sad +smile. "I hope to prove worthy of your aspirations. But we must move. I +head now for the Big Horn Valley, to meet Sitting Bull." + + +CHAPTER XIX. +"SAVE, OH, SAVE MY HUSBAND!" + +"Safe and in port at last, as old Cale Durg used to say, when a scout +was over and he was back in garrison." + +This was the joyous exclamation of Captain Jack Crawford, as he turned +to Sam Chichester when their party rode into the settlement at the +Deadwood Mines in the Black Hills. Escorted nearly all the way by the +cavalry they had so providentially met, they had been troubled no more +by the Indians, and excepting the loss of some horses, and part of their +"fit-out" and stores, had suffered nothing. Not a man had been hurt, and +best of all, they came in sober, for the benzine had all gone with the +lost packs, for it was heaviest on the mules, as it would have been on +the men, had it not been host. + +"I'm glad the trip is over. My temper never has been more tried," said +Chichester. "The most of the men have had their own way, though when we +started they promised on honor to obey me as captain. But honor is a +scarce article with the majority of them. Now they're here, they'll go +it with a looseness." + +"You bet," was Crawford's sententious remark. "Wild Bill will be in his +element. Look at the signs. Rum, faro, monte, all have a swing here, you +can swear." + +"Men, into line one minute, and then we part!" shouted Captain +Chichester to his party. + +For a wonder, with temptation on every side, the weary riders obeyed, +and drew up in a straggling line to hear their leader's parting speech. + +"Men, I promised to bring you here safely if I could, but to get all of +you here that I could, any way. I've kept my promise we're here." + +"Ay! Three cheers for Sam Chichester!" shouted Wild Bill. + +The cheers were given, and Chichester said: + +"Thank you, boys. Now do me one favor. You are here in a busy place, and +I see by the sign that benzine is about as plenty as water. Touch it +light, and do behave, yourselves, that my name will not be disgraced by +any of Sam Chichester's crowd. Every man is his own master now, and must +look out for himself. I wish you all good luck, and shall work hard for +it myself." + +The speech was over, and in a second the line melted away and every man +was seeking quarters or pitching into the benzine shops. + +Wild Bill would have been the first to go there, had not his companion, +Willie Pond, said, in a low tone: + +"Bill, please get quarters for you and me before you do anything else. +You know what you have promised. Remember, if it had not been for me, +neither you nor one of this party would ever have got here." + +"You're right. But I'm so cussed dry!" muttered Bill. "You're right, +I'll find housing for us two before a drop passes my lips." + +And Bill rode on to the upper part of the town, as it might be called, +where some men were putting up a new shanty, in fact, just putting the +finishing touch on it by hanging a door. + +"Will you sell that shebang?" asked Bill, of the man who seemed to be +the head workman. + +"Yes, if we get enough. We can build another. What will you give?" + +"These two horses, and a century," said Bill, pointing to the animals +ridden by himself and companion, and holding up a hundred-dollar bill +which Pond had furnished him. + +"O. K. The house is yours!" said the man. "Boys, put for timber, and +we'll have another up by sunset." + +Bill and his companion dismounted, removed their blankets, arms, and +saddle-bags into the house, gave up the horses and were at home. It did +not take long to settle there. + +* * * * * * * * + +Night had fallen on the town of Deadwood, but not the calm which +generally comes with night where the laborer is but too glad to greet +the hour of rest. Lights flashing through chinks in rude cabins, lights +shimmering through canvas walls, songs, shouts, laughter, curses, and +drunken yells made the place seem like a pandemonium on earth. + +Almost every other structure, either tent, cabin, or more pretentious +framed house, was either a saloon or gambling-hell, or both combined. +And all these seemed full. The gulches, sinks, and claims that had been +the scene of busy labor all the day were now deserted, and the gold just +wrenched from the bowels of the earth was scattered on the gambling +table, or poured into the drawer of the busy rumseller. + +At this same hour, a man rode into the edge of the town on a noble black +horse, leading a tired mustang. Both of these animals he staked out in a +patch of grass, leaving the saddles on, and the bridles hanging to the +saddle-bow of each. Then he placed his rifle against a tree near by, +took the old cartridges out of a six-shooter and put in fresh ones. This +done with the greatest deliberation, he pulled his slouch hat well over +his face, entered the nearest saloon, threw down a silver dollar, and +called for brandy. + +A bottle and glass were set before him. He filled the glass to the brim, +drank it off, and walked out. + +"Here, you red-haired cuss, here!" cried the bar-keeper. "Here's a half +comin' to you; we only charge half-price when it goes by wholesale!" + +The joke fell useless, for the red-haired man had not remained to hear +it. + +In the largest hall in the place, a heavy gambling game was going on. +There was roulette, faro, and monte, all at different points. + +Before the faro-table there was the greatest gathering. + +Wild Bill, furnished with money by the person known to us so far as +Willie Pond, was "bucking against the bank" with, his usual wonderful +luck, and the crowd centered around him as a character more noted and +better known than any other who had yet come to Deadwood. + +"I'll bet my whole pile on the jack!" shouted Wild Bill, who had taken +enough strong drink to fit him for anything. + +"Do be careful, Bill--do be careful!" said a low, kind voice just behind +him. + +It was that of Willie Pond. + +"Oh, go home and mind your business. I'll break this bank to-night, or +die in the trial!" cried Bill, defiantly. + +"You'll die before you break it!" shrieked out a shrill, sharp voice, +and the red-haired Texan sprang forward with an uplifted bowie-knife, +and lunged with deadly aim at Bill's heart, even as the person we have +so long known as Willie Pond shrieked out: + +"Save, oh, save my husband!" + +But another hand clutched the hilt of the descending knife and the hand +of a short, thickset, beetle-browed desperado, was shouted, as he drew a +pistol with his other hand: + +"Wild Bill is my game. No one living shall cheat me of my revenge! Look +at this scar, Bill--you marked me for _life_ and now I mark you for +_death!_" + +And even as he spoke, the man fired, and a death-shot pierced Wild +Bill's heart. + +The latter, who had risen to his feet, staggered toward the Texan, who +struggled to free his knife-hand from the clutch of the real assassin, +and with a wild laugh, tore the false hair from the Texan's head. As a +roll of woman's hair came down in a flood of beauty over her shoulders, +Bill gasped out: + +"Jack McCall, I'm thankful to you, even though you've killed me. Wild +Bill does not die by the hand of a _woman!"_ + +A shudder, and all was over, so far as Wild Bill's life went. + +His real and true wife wept in silence over his body, while sullen, and +for a time silent, the supposed Texan stood and gazed at the dead body. + +Then she spoke, addressing McCall: + +"Villain, you have robbed me of my revenge! for by my hand should that +man have fallen. No wrong he could have done you can be more bitter than +that which put me on his death-trail, and made me swear to take his +life. + +"Two years ago a young man left a ranch close to the Rio Grande border +with a thousand head of cattle, which had been bought from him, to be +paid for when delivered in Abilene, Kansas. He was noble, brave, +handsome. He was good and true in all things. He was the only hope of a +widowed mother, the very idol of a loving sister, whose life seemed +linked with his. He promised when he left those he loved and who so +loved him that he would hasten back with the proceeds of the sale, and +then, with his mother and sister, he would return to the birthplace of +the three, to the old Northern homestead, where his father's remains +were buried, buy the old estate, and settle down to a quiet and a happy +life. Long, anxiously, and prayerfully did that mother and sister wait +for his return. Did he come? No; but the soul-blighting news came, +which, like a thunderbolt, struck that mother--my mother--dead! Wild and +despairing, I heard it--heard _this._ + +"The son, the brother, who never used a drop of strong drink in all his +life; who never uttered an oath, or raised a hand in unkindness to man +or woman, had been murdered--killed without provocation--no chance to +defend his life, no warning to prepare for another world--shot down in +mere wantonness. There lies the body of him who did it. Do you wonder +that, over my dead mother's body, girl though I was, I swore to follow +to the death him who killed my brother? It is not my fault that I have +not kept my oath. I would have done it had I known that you, his +friends, would have torn me limb from limb before his body was cold." + +"And served him right!" said an old miner, whose eyes were dimmed with +moisture while the Texan girl told her story. + +"Where is McCall? His act was murder," cried Sam Chichester. + +"He has sloped, but I'll take his trail, and if there is law in Montana +he shall hang," said California Joe, who bounded from the house, when it +was discovered that the murderer had slipped away in the moment of +excitement. + +How well California Joe kept his promise, history has already recorded. +Followed over many a weary mile of hill and prairie, McCall was finally +arrested, tried and convicted, as well by his own boast as the evidence +of others, and he was hanged. + +But one glance at our heroine, for such the red-haired Texan is. + +With a look of haughty defiance, she asked: + +"Have I done aught that requires my detention here?" + +"No," said Captain Jack; "thank Heaven you have not. We'd make a poor +fist at trying a woman by Lynch law, if you had done what you meant to." + +"Then I go, and few will be the white faces I ever see again!" she +cried. + +The next moment she passed out, and as the crowd followed to see whither +she went, she was seen to spring on a coal-black horse which stood +unhitched before the door, and on it she rode at wild speed away toward +the north-west, while a saddled but unridden mustang followed close +behind her. + +The course she took led toward the regions where Sitting Bull, in force, +awaited the attack of the soldiers then on his trail. + +[THE END.] + + +"DIAMOND DICK, JR'S TRUNK CHECK; or, THE MAN IN THE SILVER MASK," by W. +B, Lawson will be published in the next number (193) of the DIAMOND DICK +LIBRARY. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Bill's Last Trail, by Ned Buntline + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD BILL'S LAST TRAIL *** + +***** This file should be named 21113.txt or 21113.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/1/1/21113/ + +Produced by Richard Halsey + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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