"What shall I do?" the Marquis asked Maunders, unhappily, when Maunders reported that O'Donald was preparing for hostilities.
"Look out," answered Maunders, "and have the first shot."
The Marquis went to Mandan to ask the local magistrate for advice. "There is the situation," he said. "What shall I do?"
"Why, shoot," was the judicial reply.
He started to return to the center of hostilities. A friend protested. "You'll get shot if you go down there," he declared.
The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders. "But I have got to go."
"Now, why do you have to go?"
"Why," replied the Marquis, "William is there. He is my valet. His father was my father's valet, and his grandfather was my grandfather's valet. I cannot leave William in the lurch."
Whereupon, smiling his engaging smile, he boarded the west-bound express.
What followed is dead ashes, that need not be raked over. Just west of the town where the trail ran along the railroad track, the Marquis and his men fired at the hunters from cover. O'Donald and "Wannigan" were wounded, Riley was killed. Maunders, claiming that the hunters had started the shooting, charged them with manslaughter, and had them arrested.