In full view below him were the camp-fires of his men. The valley had grown dark now, but surely they could see him clearly standing here on the summit of the ridge. His body must loom big against the sky-line. Yet it was plain they did not see the giant with him.
He stood in the shadow of the thicket where he had hidden at the officer’s approach. It was behind him, and made him invisible to the men in the valley. To call for aid would bring the end more quickly. So he waited in silence, hoping against hope that some mad freak of the maniac’s mind and humor might work for his salvation.
If the Mad Hunter kept his word, the officer had but a few minutes to live. He looked all about the vicinity, hoping he might see some chance of help. It was a desperate—a really hopeless thought. Who or what could save him now?
Suddenly his eyes became fixed upon the spur of a hill that jutted out across a shallow valley. The lingering rays of the sun touched the hill-spur redly. It seemed much nearer to him than it really was, and along its brink came a horse and rider!
The officer gasped; then held his breath, and did not change the mask of his face. He had learned long since to hide emotion; but this was a terrible situation, and he had almost lost his nerve.
The horseman had evidently been about to descend into the valley, when his glance fell upon the two men standing like statues upon the opposite ridge. He could see the giant huntsman, if the soldiers in the other valley could not. He saw at once the attitude of both men and understood. He drew rein, and the officer at the same moment recognized him. Unconsciously his lips parted, and the name of the rider came from the officer in a quick gasp:
“Buffalo Bill!”
The keen ear of the mad hercules caught the name, and, turning like a panther at bay, he saw the scout on the distant spur. As he moved, the officer’s hands dropped, and he seized the revolver from his belt. Throwing it forward, he pulled the trigger as the madman wheeled again toward him.
But the hammer fell without exploding the cartridge. The madman laughed aloud.
“No, no!” he shouted. “The bullet is not cast that will kill the Mad Hunter! The cartridge is not made that will injure me!”