The scout, with a final look straight into Benner’s eyes, rode away.
“Break away, there on the north!” Buffalo Bill cried to the cowboys who fenced in that part of the circle.
The cowboys cleared the way in a hurry.
“Move on, friends!” cried the scout. “Take your time, there’s nothing to fear.”
Perry and the sky pilot, side by side, led the way out of the circle of cattlemen. Behind them rode Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar. Then came the baron and Cayuse, Wild Bill and Nomad, and, at the end of the procession, Buffalo Bill.
“Gentlemen,” laughed the scout, “I bid you good day. Go home and do a little reflecting, all of you. You have plenty to think about, I take it.”
Benner snarled and showed his teeth like an angry catamount. But the fight had all gone out of Phelps. He was very much depressed.
Slowly the scout’s party rode off across the plain in the direction of the Brazos. For a long time the cattle barons and their cowboys kept their horses at a standstill, gazing after the scout. The only man in the vanishing party who loomed ominous in their eyes was Buffalo Bill. That day, if never before, the prince of plainsmen had made his power felt.
He, an agent of the government! Sent there to investigate the lawlessness on the Brazos! And neither Benner nor Phelps had ever dreamed of such a thing. They had showed their hands, hiding nothing, daring the scout and defying him. And now they knew that he had been sent there to take the measure of their culpability.
“I reckon I’ve had enough of this Perry business,” said Phelps. “You got me into it, Benner, confound you! And what have you gained? Why, you’ve even lost the girl.”