A shot, and down went a pursuer. A volley was sent after him, but flew harmlessly by, and like the wind Midnight sped away, for he knew well that his master depended wholly on him for his life.
“They are bandits of the trail, disguised as Indians, and Kent King is their chief!”
CHAPTER XV.
MARY HALE.
In a comfortable log cabin, containing four rooms, and surrounded by every evidence of a well-to-do borderman’s home, sat Mary Hale. She was thinking of her noble friend, Buffalo Bill, who had saved her from marriage with the Gambler Guide.
Her father had brought her sad news only a short while before to the effect that the expected train had arrived from Border City and along with it Ben Tabor, his Texas pards, and Old Negotiate, who had been initiated as a member of the band, but that no tidings had they had of Buffalo Bill for weeks.
He had left camp before daylight one morning, it was said, to go on a hunt. Since then he had not been seen. Though the train had halted for two days, and parties had been sent out in all directions, no trace of him had been discovered.
The last to see him was Parson Bristow, who had reported that while he was throwing the earth into his daughter’s grave, the scout had joined him and aided him in his sad work, and that when he had left the timber to overtake the train, Buffalo Bill had said he would remain and hunt for game.
Ben Tabor and his Texans had gone back to the timber, where was the lone grave of the young girl, and had seen the tracks of the scout and of Midnight. But they had also made a discovery which filled them with dread, for there were signs of a large party of horsemen having passed that way, and not far distant was another new-made mound.