“We will saddle our horses and ride at once,” he said, rising to leave the room.
“No, don’t go until after dark,” urged the officer. “You will have a much better chance of getting through then, and it is better to delay a few hours than run the risk of not having the message delivered at all.”
The border king agreed, and the colonel then took up a dispatch which was lying on the table beside him, and asked:
“Do you know anything of a man named Hunky Kennelly? He is known among the Sioux, I am told, by the name of Bad Eye.”
Wild Bill shook his head, but Cody replied:
“I heard of the man a few months ago, when I was doing some hunting in Wyoming. He is an Irishman, and a disgrace to his country. He killed a man in St. Louis, and had to flee from justice.
“I understand he married a Sioux girl in Red Dog, one of the border settlements in Wyoming, and then joined the Sioux tribe, being made a member of one of their clans.”
“Yes, that is the man,” said the commandant. “I am told in this dispatch from Washington that a native spy reports he is the leader in this movement. He has stirred up the Sioux, and through them the other tribes.
“He is said to be a man of gigantic stature and terrible ferocity. They tell me, too, that he possesses extraordinary cunning and military skill, for he was once an officer in the army. He had to leave because he stole money belonging to his regiment.”