“What deviltry were you in when I saw you last, old man?”
“I’ll tell yer jist what I were doing then: It were a long time ago, and you was a mere boy then, and you was guide fer a train I went ter rob one night, and——”
“You are Ginger Sam, by Jove!” cried Buffalo Bill, recalling the man’s face, after nearly twenty years.
“Yep.”
“I remember you now, you miserable old sinner, and how you and your gang hired as teamsters to the train and intended to massacre all hands one night and get the booty.”
“Thet’s so; but you overheard two o’ ther boys talkin’, and ther’ were hangin’ done by ther train people, and I’d hev gone ther same way if I hadn’ lit out. Yer thwarted me then, Bill Cody, and I’ve heerd o’ yer doin’ big things o’ late on these hyur borders, an’ I intend ter cut yer days short.”
“And I have heard how you played your old tricks of deviltry until you could not live in a border settlement, and here is where you came to hide your ugly head, was it?”
“Yas, and it’s better than hangin’.”
“You are a bad citizen, Ginger Sam,” said Bill Cody, with a light laugh, although the man still kept him covered with his revolver.
“I’m a citizen thet shall take in Buf’ler Bill, fer ye’ve no business in these hyur parts, and, hevin’ comed hyur, I’ll see that yer remain, fer I’m ther Bad Man o’ ther Big Horn, I told yer.”