The officer found his pistol-hammer jammed. He could not cock the weapon again. With a wild shriek the maniac dropped his rifle, and, drawing his knife, flung himself at his victim, intending evidently to kill him with those slashes across the breast which usually marked his dead.
But in that awful moment the doomed man’s eyes turned upon the distant spur, and he beheld the rifle rise to the horseman’s shoulder. Desperate as was the chance, Buffalo Bill intending risking a shot to save him. He flung himself backward, as the madman came on, leaving the field clear for the scout to fire.
CHAPTER XXXI.
BUFFALO BILL’S GREAT SHOT.
In that instant, as he was falling backward upon the ground, knowing that if the huge madman reached him before Buffalo Bill’s bullet reached its mark he would be a dead man, a clear perception of the great mistake he had made flashed through the captain’s mind. He remembered that that morning when cleaning his revolver he had noticed something wrong with the hammer, and had put it aside, unloaded, to attend to later in the day. But as he started from the camp that evening to walk up the hill, and Texas Jack had called his warning to him, he had picked up the weapon and thrust it into his belt without looking at it.
Had he not made this error he would have shot the Mad Hunter dead in that instant when the giant turned his head to look across the little valley. As he went backward, the officer flung away his useless revolver and clutched at his sword. But he could not get it from its scabbard in time. It was but half-drawn when he landed upon his back with a shock that almost deprived him of his senses!
Fearful, indeed, were the chances against the officer. He was absolutely helpless then, and like a tiger-cat the madman had sprung at his falling body. He actually was in the air with the blade of his knife poised to thrust downward into the officer’s breast when the latter heard the crack of Buffalo Bill’s rifle on the other hillside.
The keen eye of the scout on horseback had noted every move of the game on the ridge. He recognized the officer, and he guessed who the other man must be when he saw his threatening attitude. It was a long shot, and there was danger at first of his hitting the captain instead of his foe.
But when the former flung himself backward the scout dared fire. And he pulled the trigger just in the nick of time. The maniac was already plunging forward to knife the supine soldier when the bullet sped on its mission.
With a scream the madman pitched forward, over-leaping his victim, and falling on his face upon the ground, the knife being plunged hilt deep into the soft earth! A red streak showed across his scalp where the bullet had grazed the man’s crown.