The next day the news of the abduction reached Colonel Hayden. Well-nigh distracted, he reached the ranch at the earliest possible moment, and learned that several parties were out in pursuit of the abductor.
The animal Frams bestrode had peculiar hoof marks, and several of the cowboys at once recognized them.
A week went by and there was no report from any one of the pursuing parties. Colonel Hayden had come too late to hope to overtake the men who had gone on the trail of Frams, and so he remained at the ranch in an agony of suspense.
While awaiting news, he telegraphed a description of the abductor to the officers of all the towns, north, south, and west, and after the lapse of several days received a letter from the Denver chief of police, stating that the description fitted one of the most daring and conscienceless scoundrels in the West, one whose whereabouts had been unknown for many years.
He had been the leader of a gang of outlaws whose range of operations extended from Mexico to Dakota. Five years before the gang had been broken up, but Black-face Ned and three of his men had escaped and gone south toward Mexico.
This intelligence increased Colonel Hayden’s alarm. He chafed at the suspense, and would have taken the field himself if the members of one of the pursuing parties had not returned ten days after setting out.
The leader reported that the trail had been followed into Colorado, and there lost.
Soon afterward the other pursuers returned. They had failed to trace the abductor.
Colonel Hayden obtained leave of absence from the government, had Buffalo Bill detailed to assist him, and a month after the abduction they stood on the edge of the Colorado desert, the king of scouts having picked up the trail the cowboys had lost, and followed it to the desert. Here the services of the Hualapi had been secured on the strong recommendation of Buffalo Bill.
It was early morning when the little party, with the Indian in the lead, took their way across the desert. An expert reader of signs, the Hualapi was soon able to announce that the trail was but one day old. There were many indications—among them the dew that had fallen, the dust or sand that had drifted into the track, the condition of the occasional tufts of dry grass which had been pressed underfoot and had partially regained upright shape, and minute marks upon the rocks—that told a plain story to the trailer.