The outlaw obeyed, taking the trail once more with nimble step.
As it wound along the edge of a ravine, through the bed of which dashed a stream, the outlaw suddenly sprang over the precipice into the depths below.
Buffalo Bill caught hard at the end of the lariat, as it tightened, but could not hold on, and the end slipped through his hand, and a plunge following told him that his captive had fallen into the waters below.
CHAPTER XIX.
A DOUBLE ESCAPE.
Hardly had the splash of the descending form reached Cody’s ears, when he was on foot and peering over the precipice. He saw that the water was swift-running and deep, and that the stream wound out of sight a few rods below by turning a rocky point. Instantly he decided upon his course, and cast aside his arms and outer clothing. At once he took the leap.
It was thirty feet down to the water, but he struck feet foremost, and without injury.
In the meantime, a perfect swimmer, Ginger Sam knew just what was before him, although his arms were bound behind his back.
Keeping under water until he had rounded the point, which the current and his own efforts soon enabled him to do, he then rose to the surface and began to make for the shore.