When, in an incredibly short time, they came up to the wagons and leaped off their panting horses, a terrible sight met their eyes.
All the horses and mules attached to the train were dead. Some of them had been pierced by bullets, others by Indian arrows.
The frontiersmen who had driven the teams and guided the party were stretched on the ground beside the animals in attitudes which showed that they had died only after making a bitter and desperate fight for their lives.
This, indeed, was proved by even plainer evidence; for around them were the bodies of more than a score of dead redskins.
“Shawnees!” exclaimed Buffalo Bill, after a single glance at one of these bodies. “This is Evil Heart’s work.”
“Where is May?” gasped Jack Mainwaring.
Buffalo Bill looked at the young man, and saw that his lips were quivering under the stress of his strong emotion. He dared not answer him, for he felt that he could give him no reply which would hold out any hope of the safety of the girl he loved.
Instead of speaking, he started to search around, in the long grass of the prairie, for the bodies of the girls.
In this search he was speedily assisted by Wild Bill and the rest of his party, who came dashing up after him.
Five minutes passed, and then Buffalo Bill came up to Mainwaring, who was standing like a man dazed, and said to him: