Without noise, he backed to the rock originally used by the Apache, and from that to another, and so on until he had placed himself a quarter of mile beyond the Apache’s station.
Here in a hollow, between two bowlders whence he could command a view of the country in all directions, he waited for what was to come.
For ten minutes he waited in vain. Then he saw the Indian crawl out of the cut and throw himself on the ground and listen for sounds.
Hearing nothing and evidently puzzled, he crept to the rock that had been his hiding place after Buffalo Bill had thrown the stone, and a low exclamation escaped him as his eyes fell upon the scout’s prints in the sand.
Now he proceeded with the utmost circumspection to follow the trail the white enemy had left.
Buffalo Bill knew the Indian was coming, and smiled, for before taking his position between the bowlders he had been shrewd enough to cover his trail. He had left the prints of hands and feet in the sand up to a point of a few yards to the right of the two bowlders. The prints terminated at the side of a single bowlder that stood in front of a stunted tree.
The tree was provided with a few live limbs, one of which hung over the hollow between the two bowlders. Buffalo Bill had used this limb to reach the hollow, and he was well satisfied with the ruse when he saw the Apache halt near the bowlders by the tree and look curiously at the plain trail in the sand.
A moment he stood in full view, and then walked straight for the hollow that concealed the enemy.
The king of scouts had not been expecting a move of this kind, but he made no attempt to retreat. He believed that the Indian was unaware of his presence in the hollow, and, therefore, resolved to give the foe the surprise of his life.
The Apache, a tall, fine specimen of his tribe, was within a few feet of the hollow when Buffalo Bill jumped up, gave a spring, and had the redskin by the throat before that surprised aborigine had time to realize what had happened. And now ensued a struggle that called into play all of Buffalo Bill’s resources of mind and muscle.