“I’ll soon know how the land lies,” said the scout quietly. He replaced the door over the hole, and then held out a revolver. “Take this,” he said to the girl, “and stand by the trap. I am going out for a little while. When I return, I hope your father will be with me.”
Sybil Hayden took the pistol and sat down by the trap. “You may rely on me,” she declared firmly.
Buffalo Bill went out, and, reaching the rear door of the castle, threw back the bars and opened it. Stepping out, he looked along the back wall of the building. There were no Comanches there, nor anywhere in the inclosure.
Surprised and ill pleased, the scout walked around to the front. No one there. The front gate of the wall was open, and Buffalo Bill went through the grove of trees and looked down the valley. No sign there of a human being.
He thought he understood the situation. While he was talking with Thunder Cloud in the side room with the trap, Wild Bill and the Yelpers had stolen along the other side of the castle, and gone out into the valley, their objective point being the cliff home of the Comanches.
How Wild Bill had learned of the departure of the Apaches the king of scouts could not guess, but he must have known that the Apaches had deserted the castle, otherwise he would have remained to besiege the building.
Returning to the rear, he reëntered the castle, and then began a search for Colonel Hayden. Every room in the castle was investigated, but the colonel could not be found. Mystified and vexed, the scout returned to the room where he had left Sybil Hayden and Thunder Cloud.
The situation in the room had not changed. The Indian lay on the floor, and the girl was sitting by the side of the trap.
“Didn’t you find my father?” she asked, in astonishment, mingled with alarm.
“No,” replied the scout gravely, “but the chief knows where he is, and I’ll make him tell me, or I will know the reason why.”