Suddenly the cavalcade of savages dashed into the mouth of the pass.
They were out of sight in a twinkling. The Steam Man was obliged to come to a halt.
There were huge bowlders and piles of stones to block the passage. Barney and Frank Reade, Jr., exchanged glances of despair.
“That is the end of Pomp,” declared the young inventor, with a chill. “I have no doubt that is a part of Black Buffalo’s band, and he never spares a life.”
CHAPTER IV.
THE COWBOYS.
Frank had spoken truthfully. The band of savages was really a part of the tribe of which Black Buffalo was the chief.
Throughout all the Kansas border this blood thirsty fiend was known and feared.
He had ravaged more wagon trains, burned more settlements, and committed more massacres than any other Sioux chief in the Far West.
His name was a synonym of terror among the settlers, from Dakota to the boundary line of Texas.
By many he was claimed to be a white man or renegade. Others averred that he was a recreant Pawnee chief.