Buffalo Bill did not stop for investigation, but with an apprehensive expression hurried back to the room where he left the dead outlaw and Black-face Ned.
He was not surprised, though he was intensely chagrined to find that his prisoner was not there.
No open trap in the room was visible, but the king of scouts believed that Black-face Ned had escaped by means of a trap that let him into the cellar.
He made a quick search, and soon was rewarded with the discovery, under the blankets, of a door similar to the one in the other room.
He was standing before the door, debating whether or not to raise the trap and descend, when loud yells from without brought him to a realization of a new danger.
Hastening to the front door, he saw nothing but the grove of trees that shielded the castle. But the yells continued, and he knew that the Indians were close to the grove. No hope of escape, then, from the front.
He ran around to the rear of the castle, and was alarmed to discover that the wall door had been closed and locked. He could not climb the wall, for it was too high, and there were no footholds.
In desperation he turned to the door of the castle. It was still open, and he entered, and then quickly shut and barred it. This done, he rushed to the front, and shut and barred the door at that point.
He was now entrenched in the castle unless—unless there were enemies in the cellar.
But they should not come out of either of the traps if he could help it. Into the room where the first trap had been discovered he went, and, quickly replacing the stone door so that it masked the hole, he piled upon it all the furniture that the room contained. One piece was a cooking stove, whose newness showed that it had been brought recently to the castle.