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- Herausgeber: Librorium Editions
- Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
- Sprache: Englisch
“You are wanted, you black-hearted nigger-worshipper, and I—Colonel M’Kandlas—have come to fetch you! And there’s the warrant!” As the ruffian leader of the band shouted these words, the pistol already in his hands was raised, levelled, fired, and the father, husband and Christian fell dead before his horror-stricken family.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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Buffalo Bill
And
His Adventures
in the West
Ned Buntline
© 2020 Librorium Editions
All rights reserved
Table of Contents
TITLE PAGE
TABLE of CONTENTS
LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS
FRONTPIECE
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
ILLUS: He urged Black Nell up to the side of Powder-Face.
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
ILLUS: Kitty stood with her arms akimbo, looking him square in the face.
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVIII
ILLUS: Face to face Raven Feather and Buffalo Bill met.
CHAPTER XXIX
CHAPTER XXX
CHAPTER XXXI
CHAPTER XXXII
CHAPTER XXXIII
CHAPTER XXXIV
CHAPTER XXXV
CHAPTER XXXVI
CHAPTER XXXVII
CHAPTER XXXVIII
CHAPTER XXXIX
CHAPTER XL
CHAPTER XLI
CHAPTER XLII
CHAPTER XLIII
CHAPTER XLIV
CHAPTER XLV
CHAPTER XLVI
ILLUS: Buffalo Bill on guard.
CHAPTER XLVII
CHAPTER XLVIII
CHAPTER XLIX
CHAPTER L
CHAPTER LI
CHAPTER LII
CHAPTER LIII
CHAPTER LIV
CHAPTER LV
ENDNOTES
TABLE of CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
CHAPTER XXI
CHAPTER XXII
CHAPTER XXIII
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
CHAPTER XXVI
CHAPTER XXVII
CHAPTER XXVIII
CHAPTER XXIX
CHAPTER XXX
CHAPTER XXXI
CHAPTER XXXII
CHAPTER XXXIII
CHAPTER XXXIV
CHAPTER XXXV
CHAPTER XXXVI
CHAPTER XXXVII
CHAPTER XXXVIII
CHAPTER XXXIX
CHAPTER XL
CHAPTER XLI
CHAPTER XLII
CHAPTER XLIII
CHAPTER XLIV
CHAPTER XLV
CHAPTER XLVI
CHAPTER XLVII
CHAPTER XLVIII
CHAPTER XLIX
CHAPTER L
CHAPTER LI
CHAPTER LII
CHAPTER LIII
CHAPTER LIV
CHAPTER LV
ENDNOTES
LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS
Kitty stood with her arms akimbo, looking him square in the face.
He urged Black Nell up to the side of Powder-Face.
Kitty stood with her arms akimbo, looking him square in the face.
Face to face Raven Feather and Buffalo Bill met.
Buffalo Bill on guard.
CHAPTER I
An oasis of green wood on Kansas prairie—a bright stream shining like liquid silver in the moonlight—a log house built under the limbs of great trees—within this humble home a happy group. This is my first picture.
Look well on the leading figure in that group. You will see him but this once, yet on his sad fate hinges all the wild and fearful realities which are to follow, drawn, to a very great extent, not from imagination, but from life itself.
A noble-looking, white-haired man sits by a rough table, reading the Bible aloud. On stools by his feet sit two beautiful little girls—his twin daughters—not more than ten years of age, while a noble boy, twelve or thirteen, stands by the back of the chair where sits the handsome, yet matronly-looking mother.
It is the hour for family prayer before retiring for the night, and Mr. Cody, the Christian as well as patriot, always remembers it in the heart of his dear home.
He closes the holy book, and is about to kneel and ask Heaven to bless and protect him and his dear ones.
Hark! The sound of horses galloping with mad speed towards his house falls upon his ear.
“Is it possible there is another Indian alarm?” he says, inquiringly.
Alas! worse than red savages are riding in hot haste toward that door.
“Hallo—the house!” he shouted loudly, as a large cavalcade of horsemen halt before the door.
“What is wanted, and who are ye?” asked the good man, as he threw wide open the door and stood upon its threshold.
“You are wanted, you black-hearted nigger-worshipper, and I—Colonel M’Kandlas—have come to fetch you! And there’s the warrant!”
As the ruffian leader of the band shouted these words, the pistol already in his hands was raised, levelled, fired, and the father, husband and Christian fell dead before his horror-stricken family.
“If them gals was a little older—but never mind, boys, this will be a lesson for the sneaks that come upon the Border—let’s be off, for there’s plenty more work to do before daylight!” continued the wretch, turning the head of his horse to ride away.
“Stop!”
It was but a single word—spoken, too, by a boy whose blue eyes shone wildly in a face as white as new-fallen snow, and full as cold—spoken as he stood erect over the body of his dead father, weaponless and alone.
Yet that ruffian—aye, and all of his mad, reckless crew—stopped as if a mighty spell was laid upon them.
“You, Jake M’Kandlas, have murdered my father! You, base cowards, who saw him do this dark deed, spoke no word to restrain him. I am only little Bill, his son, but as God in heaven hears me now, I will kill every father’s son of you before the beard grows on my face!”
“Hear the little rooster crow. He’ll fight when his spurs grow, if we don’t cut his comb now,” cried the leader, with a mocking laugh, and he raised his pistol once more.
“Monster, you have robbed me of a husband; you shall not kill my boy,” shrieked the mother, as she sprang forward and drew her son up to her bosom.
“Colonel, there’s a big gang of men comin’ over the prairie. We’d better git,” cried a scout, riding in at this moment.
“Aye! For I don’t want to kill a woman if I can help it. Column to the right, boys, and follow me.”
In a minute, at full speed, the party dashed away after their leader, and the wretched family were left alone with the dead.
Frozen with terror and awe, the beautiful twins, Lillie and Lottie, crept out to the doorway, where their mother and brother knelt over the stiffening form of him who had been so good and kind—their dear father.
Oh, what a picture! Grief was still. Nor sob, nor tear, not even a moan arose. They were dumb with agony—paralyzed with a sense of utter bereavement.
They scarcely raised their heads as a noble-looking officer, in the United States uniform, rode up, followed by a body of cavalry.
“Who has done this foul murder?” he cried, as, springing from his horse, he advanced to the mournful group.
“Jake M’Kandlas, and may God, in His just vengeance spare him for my hand!” said that pale boy, in a tone so low, so deep, and with a look so wildly stern, that the officer looked at him in wonder.
“Heavens, how savage!” muttered the officer, as he marked the look of ferocity which accompanied the words.
“Tell me, madam, if you please, how this occurred, and which way the murderer or murderers went. My name is Sumner, and I serve a government which will avenge, if it cannot always prevent outrage,”’ continued the officer, addressing the poor widow.
Tears and sobs now came to her relief, and amid them the sad tale was told.
The officer detailed a small party to assist her in the last sad offices for the dead; but himself, heading the rest, dashed away over the prairie, in the hope to catch and punish the murderers. Vain hope!
Mounted on the best stock in the land—the most of it stolen—M’Kandlas and his party were already miles away, speeding to coverts known to but few, and those few of their own kind.
All this occurred in those dark days when the struggles on the border were the theme of conversation and dispute all over our land, and it was but one of a thousand, or even more, such cases— real, terrible, and unnatural as it may seem.
“Mother, don’t cry any more,” said little Bill, when, with his two young sisters, he stood beside the new-made grave. “Tears will not bring him to life. You have these to look out for at home. You need all your strength now.”
“You are not going away, William?”
“Not far, mother—not far. But there were thirty of them beside old M’Kandlas, and it may take me some time to kill them all.”
So quietly, almost gently, did the boy speak, that one would hardly think his young mind capable of studying out, his small hand of doing such deeds as he contemplated.
Ah! little do the thoughtless know how character is formed, how destiny shapes our course, how circumstances forces us, as it were, upon a tide from which we may not turn.
In years a boy, in mind, in a preparation for a wild, desperate, eventful life, already a man.
Such was the hero of our story then, and now our prefatory chapter ended, we must leap over a lapse of years and spring into the full interest of our story.
CHAPTER II
It is now 1861. The old log house has disappeared, but in the same noble grove a pretty white cottage is seen. Around it trellised bowers of vines and climbing roses, a lovely flower garden, and in the foreground not far away, are fine grain fields, broad acres, well stocked with sheep, cattle, and horses. Barns and haystacks all tell a story of good farming and profitable results.
On the embowered porch of this cottage sits the widow, still in her mourning garb, worn for him whose death we pictured in the first chapter, and near her stand two lovely girls—the twin sisters, Lillie and Lottie, now in the early bloom of beautiful womanhood.
They look alike, are dressed alike, and are exceedingly beautiful.
I will not waste time in description—just imagine hazel eyes, dark brown hair, slightly brunette complexion, figure of perfect symmetry, and you have them before you.
Lillie held a letter in her hand which the mounted mail carrier had left as he swept by, adding in hurried words:
“The war is begun—the rebels are fortifying posts all over the South and threaten Washington from Manassas.”
Lillie’s loving eyes sparkled as she read the letter, and she cried out:
“Oh, mamma, mamma! brother is coming home! He says he will be here before the sun sets on the twenty-fifth! The letter is from Fort Kearney, and has been long in coming.”
“Is not to-day the twenty-fifth?” asked Lottie.
“To be sure it is, and he will be here. Our William is wild, but he never tells a falsehood. He is too proud for that! Heaven bless him!” said the mother, in a low, earnest tone.
“He is not coming alone,” said Lillie. “One whom he calls ‘Wild Bill’—I wonder if he has become tame himself—he speaks of as a very dear friend, one who has three times saved his life. The other one he calls Dave Tutt, says he is handsome and brave, but I know he doesn’t like him, for he doesn’t speak of him as being good at heart and true as steel, as he does of the other.”
“It lacks scarce a half hour of sunset,” said the mother. “Tell our good Kitty Muldoon to put on the tea-kettle and hasten preparations for supper. Tell her how many will be here, and to let nothing be lacking. Thanks to my good son and that Providence which has smiled on his efforts, our home is ready to welcome him to comfort when he comes!” Lottie called out in her clear, ringing voice:
“Kitty Muldoon!”
“Here, miss, here fresh as a daisy and three times as natural,” cried a plump, cherry-cheeked young girl, with just enough of the brogue on her tongue to tell most likely that sweet Erin’s Isle was her birthplace. Dressed, as well, as the sisters, she looked more like a companion than a servant.
“And what is it, me darling Miss Lottie, that Kitty can be after doing to please you?”
“Mamma wants you to hurry and get the supper, good Kitty, for my brother and two of his friends are coming here tonight.”
“The young master and two of his friends?”
“Yes, Kitty—so make haste!”
“Are they young men, Miss Lottie?”
“Yes, to be sure they are.”
“And are they half as handsome as the young master and as tinder of heart as he is.”
“Oh! botheration, I expect so. What is it to you, Kitty.”
“Sure, miss, to me ’tis nothing. But to you and swate Miss Lillie, it may be something, since it’s a beau apiece for yez, if they’re but worth the looking at and spaking wid.”
“Oh you good-for-nothing—”
Kitty did not wait to hear the rest of the not angry expletive, but ran laughing away to carry out the wishes of her mistress.
At the same instant Lillie, who had been glancing through an avenue which led westward in the grove, cried out:
“They are coming! They are coming!”
And three minutes later, their horses frothy and hot, three riders at full speed dashed up to the gate fronting the cottage.
“Oh brother! brother!” cried the two sisters, joyously, and all heedless of the stranger eyes now looking on them, they rushed out to embrace and kiss him.
Buffalo Bill, for this was he, had learned to hide all his feelings, but with a gentle tenderness he shook himself out of their embraces, and, presenting his two friends by name, hurried on to meet the dear mother, who, with glistening eyes, waited to greet her idol and her pride.
“My good mother!” was all he said, as he pressed his manly lips to her white forehead.
“My dear son!” was all she.said, but pages would not describe the reverence in her tone, or the undying love in her look.
Bill now presented his friends in more form to his mother than he had deemed it necessary in the case of his sisters.
“This, mother,” said he, presenting a young man who, in form and appearance, resembled himself very closely, though he was an inch taller, and hardly so muscular, “this is my mate—this is Bill Hitchcock, the best friend I ever had, or ever will have, outside of our own family. Three times has he saved me from being wiped out. Once by the Ogallalas, once when I was taken with the cramps in the ice-cold Platte, last winter, and once when old Jake M’Kandlas and his gang had a sure set on me. He and I will sink or swim in the same river, and that’s a safe bet. Bill, that’s my mother, and a better never trod the footstool!”
Wild Bill, with a natural grace, bent his proud head, and took the hand of the lady, saying, in a tremulous tone:
“I’m glad to see you, ma’am, for I’ve a good old mother that I haven’t seen this many a day, and this rather brings her up afore me!”
“And this other,” continued Bill, “is Dave Tutt. He is good on a hunt, death on the reds, and as smart as bordermen are made now-a-days. Now, boys, you’re all acquainted, make yourselves at home. The darkey out there has got the horses, and he’ll see them all right. I know that mother will soon •have a good old supper for us.”
“Yes, Kitty is getting it ready as fast as she can, and I’ll go and help her,” said Lillie, who did not like the wild, passionate gaze which Dave Tutt seemed to fix upon her.
I don’t like to use time or space for description, but as the three men now before us are real, not fictitious characters, I think it due to them and the reader to paint pen-portraits of the trio.
Three more perfect men, in point of personal beauty, never trod the earth.
Wild Bill, six feet and one inch in height, straight as an ash, broad in shoulder, round and full in chest, slender in the waist, swelling out in muscular proportions at hips and thighs, with tapering limbs, ‘‘small hands and feet, his form was a study. His face, open and clean, had regular features, the nose slightly aquiline. His large bright eyes, now soft and tender in expression, were a bluish gray in color, shaded by lashes which often dropped over his bronzed cheek as he looked down, somewhat confused in female society, to which he was unused. His long brown hair fell in wavy masses over his shoulders, but it was fine, soft and glossy as silk.
The same picture will do for Buffalo Bill, only this difference noted. The eyes of the latter were nearly a blue in color, his height one inch less, and his hair a little more wavy and a shade lighter.
Dave Tutt, nearly of the same height, was equally well formed, but here the resemblance ceased.
His eyes were black as jet and deeply set, though his features were perfect, and, when he chose, his expression soft and winning. His hair, curling slightly, was black and glossy. But with all his beauty, there was a sensual expression about his mouth so utterly different from that in the other two, and a fierce, passionate longing in his eyes, which made the two girls, instinctive in their purity, shrink from him.
Lillie, toward whom his glances seemed from the first to be directed, especially felt, and scarcely could conceal, an aversion.
Now this most unpleasant picturing duty is over, and I can heave ahead on my story.
Pretty Kitty Muldoon was busy setting the table in the dining-room when Buffalo Bill, unobserved, came slyly in and, bending his tall form over her shoulder, suddenly touched his lips to hers.
Bounding aside, quick as a fawn with a bullet in its heart, she wheeled and brought the palm of her fat, chubby hand into contact with his cheek with a force that made him see stars, and brought unbidden tears into his laughing eyes.
“Bad ‘cess to yez, Master Bill, and it’s at yerould thricks ye are!” cried Kitty, laughing at the woful look he put on. “Sure haven’t ye sisters as swate as honey, purtier than the wild roses, to be kissin’ wid, instead of slobberin’ over a bit of a wild Irish girl like meself !”
“Why, Kitty, I hadn’t seen you for so long, I couldn’t help it. Thunder and whip-stalks, but you hit hard! My cheek tingles yet!”
“Faith, then, it’ll make your memory better, sir, but maybe I did hit a little harder than I had razon for, sir, for you’re a good son and brother, and I know you’d cut your right hand off before you’d harm a poor girl like me, or see.harm come to her.”
“That is so, Kitty, that is so, and now here’s something to wear I brought from the traders. It’s a new dress, and if it isn’t just like those I brought for mother and sisters, it is just as good and cost as much.”
“Thank ye, Master Bill—thank ye for your kind thought of the poor girl that has no one to think after her but you and yours. Sure the angels sent me here when I came, and I hope they’ll keep me here till I die, for it’s like heaven to work for them that’s so good to me. But call your friends, Master Bill, for the supper is all ready, and it’s nice enough for a king and a king’s people, sure!’
CHAPTER III
THERE was no piano in that Kansas cottage, but two sweeter voices, alto and soprano, never thrilled a human ear than filled the sitting-room with melody as Lillie and Lottie sang song after song to please their brother and his guests after night set in.
The good mother with her knitting, and Kitty already engaged in sewing on her new dress, listened while they worked. The young men smoked, for in the Far West the pipe seems apropos everywhere, and from time to time expressed themselves warmly in praise of the treat they were receiving.
The night was lovely. A gentle breeze rustled through the leafy trees, the moon shone out brightly, though passing clouds at times obscured it for a minute or two, the air was soft and balmy. In through the open window came the delicious perfume of rose and honeysuckle, taking away at least a part of the tobacco-taint in the atmosphere.
That sweetest of all songs, more dear to the writer than any song ever sung, “Thy bright smile haunts me still,” had just been sung by the twins, when Mrs. Cody, whose face was toward the window, screamed out in sudden terror, and rose to her feet with a face so deathly pale that it seemed as if she was death-stricken.
“What is it, mother?” cried Bill, springing to her side.
“The window—he was there!” she gasped, and then swooned away.
“He? Girls, look out for mother! I’ll see what he was at the window!” cried Bill, and he sprang to the open casement.
As he did so a bullet whistled passed his ear, and struck the opposite wall, while a hundred wild yells proclaimed that Indians had surrounded the house.
Wild Bill, cool and collected, instantly blew out both the lights, exclaiming:
“Darkness here and moonlight out thar! We’ll be all right in a shake. Jump for your tools, boys; mine’s handy! Gals, lay down out o’ range; we’ll soon let the reds know old hands are here.”
The three young men, reinforced by three negroes and one white man, the farm hands, were ready for work in less than a minute, and as the Indians did not seem disposed to make a rush for the inside of the house, crept quickly to points where from the doors and windows they could pick the fiends out from their coverts among the trees around.
Meantime the twins, aided by Kitty Muldoon with a pitcher of water, had succeeded in restoring the mother to consciousness, and to the hurried inquiry of her son as to whom she had seen at the window, replied that she had recognized the face of Jake M’Kandlas, the murderer of her husband, glaring in with a look so full of hate and vindictive cruelty that she was completely horror-stricken.
“There’s too many reds out there, or I’d rush out and settle his hash!” said her son. “If he’ll only stay till we thin ’em down a few, I’ll accommodate him with a private entertainment. Look out for yourselves, girls—the boys are giving ’em Jessie, and it’s about time my hand was in.”
A rapid fire had been going on from the moment Wild Bill got to the door, the Indians shooting at random, for all in the house was dark except the flash of the guns, but every now and then a yell of agony told that the attacking party were not going unpunished.
They could only be seen as they sprang from tree to tree for cover, but their terrible yells ringing through the air told that in numbers they were at least ten to.one of the attacking party.
“Whar’s the stock? Won’t they try to run that off?” asked Wild Bill, as his mate, standing by his side, sent a red to eternity with a shot from his favorite long rifle.
“I expect they will. I would almost as soon lose my hair as to lose Powder Face, for the insect has carried me through more bad scrapes than I’ve time to count,” said Buffalo Bill, referring to his favorite horse.
“And I will lose my hair afore I’ll lose Black Nell, for she never deserted me. She’ll kick the head off any red that tries to mount her. But can’t we get to the horses? If I was on Nell, I know I’d be good for a dozen out there where I’m getting one a skulkin’ in here. If the mare is where she could hear me, I could have here in half a minute.”
“Yes, and they’d plant a dozen arrows in her hide, or pepper her with lead as she came through ‘em. Wait till I give Dave and the boys in here their orders, and then you and me will get to the horses and come in on ‘em like as if we were fresh hands in the fight.”
“That’s the talk, Bill—that’s the talk. Only let me and Black Nell and you and Powder Face give ‘em a charge in the rear and they’re gone in.”
“Pepper into ‘em, then, till I tell the boys here where we’re goin’, so they’ll be keerful how to shoot when we’re a comin.”
Buffalo Bill now hurriedly told Dave Tutt and the men, who were firing at everything they saw among the trees, what he and Wild Bill intended to do. The girls and his mother were to know nothing of it till it was all over, for the two Bills felt as sure of driving off the foe by their plan as if they were already in full chase of them.
Dave Tutt did not express any wish to go along, which rather surprised Buffalo Bill, for it was a duty that brave men would surely court. But there was a reason for this, as there is indeed for everything, as the reader will learn by and by.
According to instructions, Dave and the other white man, with the negroes, now increased the rapidity of their fire, moving from window to window, but firing high and avoiding one direction —that which the two brave bordermen had taken.
The two friends, carrying their arms and bending low in the shadow of the garden bushes, crept away from the house until they reached a grain-field beyond the trees, into which they moved swiftly. They had but a little distance now to go to reach the stock pasture, and they got to the last in the very nick of time.
A half-dozen dusky figures were already there, and the horses, disturbed by the firing, were very uneasy as these advanced.
Two shrill calls, understood well by the animals for which they were intended, brought two noble animals, “Black Nell” and “Powder Face,” to the edge of the grain-field. The next instant, needing neither saddle nor bridle, the two men were mounted, and, without a word, both dashed forward upon the Indians who were after the stock.
So suddenly and unexpectedly were they overwhelmed—not a shot being fired, only the tomahawk used—that there was no alarm in the grove. Then the two men sped on, not noiselessly now, but whooping and yelling in wild concert, and urging their steeds faster by their cries, till they were upon the rear of the astonished redskins, pouring out shot after shot with deadly effect on the enemy.
Wheeling and circling here and there, never missing a shot—it seemed as if there were twenty, rather than two—Wild Bill and our hero dashed on. carrying death at every leap.
The Indians, who were Cheyennes, supposing this to be a reinforcement to those who had defended the house so well, soon gave way and fled in every direction, but not before full half their number had fallen.
“Curse them, why do they shoot so careless from the house—this is the second graze I have had from there!” cried Wild Bill, as he wiped the blood from a wound grazing his cheek.
“There’s a hole in my hat from the same quarter,” said Buffalo Bill. “I’d like to know what they mean. It can’t be but they know where we are. Never mind—I must hunt up old M’Kandlas now, for if mother saw him he must be here. Let’s chase them, Bill, as long as we can.”
The two men dashed away, and again a bullet, evidently from the house, passed so close to Buffalo Bill’s head that he felt the wind.
The Indians scattered far and wide, but the two. men succeeded in knocking over a half-a-dozen more, when the thought struck them that it was better not to go far from the house lest some lurking behind would continue the attack, and they rode back.
The search for a white man among the bodies of the slain was unsuccessful, so Bill decided in his mind that if M’Kandlas had been in the party he had escaped this time.
As they approached the house they took pains to make their individuality known by signals which could not be misunderstood, therefore they were spared the perils which it seemed friends rather than their foes had cast upon them during the charge.
In a short time, their horses left close in the shadow of the house, the two brave friends were in it once more.
“You can light up, I reckon.” cried Buffalo Bill, when he entered. “The reds, or what’s left of ’em, are off to their tribes on the run. But I’d like to know who in thunder it was that was shootin’ so careless from here while we was wipin’ ’em out in the grove. Me and my mate both got grazed, and it wasn’t from none of them close by. It was long shootin’, and as close as if it was done on purpose.”
“I don’t see how it was. I shot for Indian, and nothin’ shorter than Indian,” said Dave.
“Well, it’s no matter; we’re here now, and our hair is on. I reckon there’s a pretty good lot o’ reds lying around loose for crow-bait, as we’ll see when day comes again.”
“Thank Heaven, you are safe!” said Mrs. Cody, as she heard the voice of her son. “I hope you and your brave friend are unharmed?”
“All right, mother, but a scratch or two that cold water will heal; but are you sure you saw the face of Jake M’Kandlas at the window?”
“Yes, my son—I never can forget his face. I surely saw it.”
“Then he has got off this time. I knew most of his gang had gone under, but I didn’t think he had taken up with the Cheyennes. They say that every tribe in the West but the Pawnees are going with the South. . If they are, we border folks will have our hands full. But we’re good for ’em, aren’t we, Bill?”
“I reckon we are, if we know ourselves,” said Wild Bill. “Was the gals much frightened, ma’am?”
“No. They were so busy at first in getting me out of my faint that they forgot to be scared, and after that they had to think who was here to take care of ’em, and they’d blush to be his sisters if a few Indians could scare them,” said Mrs. Cody.
“That’s the kind of grit for me. Oh, but they’re game!” cried Buffalo Bill, as his eyes glanced proudly at the sweet girls. “And here’s Kitty Muldoon, as fearless as they, I’ll bet a horse. Isn’t it so, Kitty?”
“Faith, sir, it’s not meself that’ll tell a lie. I was scared out of a night slape, I’m sure, and that’s somethin’, when one is sure to drame swate drames, as I do. But what do you think, sir, one of them red haythens has shot forty holes in my new dress, that I’d folded up and put on the window-sill when I run for water for the’mistress in her faint.”
“Never mind, Kitty; there’s more where it came from, and so long as the dress wasn’t on your own body it’s small harm that is done. And now all hands of you be off to bed, but us men that are used to watching. It isn’t likely any of the reds will come back to-night, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled and be ready for ’em if they do. When morning comes we’ll see about their trail.”
“I thought you was in such a hurry to get to St. Louis to join Fremont and his men,” said Dave Tutt, his tone quiet, but the slightest gleam of sarcasm in his eye.
“Not while there’s any danger hangin’ about them I love, if I know myself,” said Bill. “If you’re so hard put for whisky that you can’t wait, why you can start as soon as you like. I told you that my dear old mother never would have the pisen in the house, nor cards either, so them that want to drink or play must keep a fast while they’re here, or go where they can get sarved more to their likin’.”
“I neither wish to drink or play,” said Dave, blushing, for the keen eyes of both the girls had been fixed upon him while their brother spoke. “And I reckon when there’s danger about, I’ll be as loth to leave the helpless as any one that wears shootin’ irons in his belt.”
“Well, that’s right. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, Dave, but I’m more touchy here than I be out on the prairie or on the hills.”
