The citizens on the piazza swarmed down behind the marshal, and the next moment Buffalo Bill and his pards were being given a characteristic greeting of the border.
“Any word about the child?” the great scout asked of Woods, almost before the greetings were finished.
“Not a thing,” said Woods. “We’re reckoning that Injuns took him; that’s what we got, from the little of the trail we could follow; though why they would do it, or what they would want with the boy, puzzled us, until——”
He stopped to present another “prominent citizen,” who had just arrived in breathless haste and desired an introduction.
Leaving Wild Bill and old Nomad to converse with the group on and about the piazza, Buffalo Bill accompanied Woods into the hotel, as soon as he could do it without offense to the assembled people.
“I’ve sent for the kid’s father and mother,” said Woods, “and they’ll be here in a little while, I reckon. It’s a curious case.”
“From the report I received, it is. You were about to say something a while ago, but stopped to introduce that gentleman?”
“Oh, yes; I was sayin’, I believe, that the whole thing tangled us all up. But I heard somethin’ this mornin’ which, maybe, is a clew. And, by the way, I just now arrested and jailed the feller that give it to me. Mebbe you know him? It’s Tom Conover, old Toltec Tom, some call him, and——”
“Shot a woman?”
“Well, it was by clear accident, so he says.”