This was decided upon at once, and preparations to start were begun.
“Yer see, sah, we must not disturb de camp ’ceptin’ de gemman and de gold, and as I hab sent off dat wounded Injun he’ll tell ’em about me.
“I didn’t open my mouth to him, was still as death, but jist took him up, put him on a pony, and tied him on all right. Then I started him off. He think I am de black evil speeret of de Big Horn, and when dey come back dey’ll find I has let de prisoner go, and what I hab done wid de gold dey won’t care.”
“Black Bill, you have got a very level head. It is just what we will do. Come, boys! We must carry Mr. Miller and the gold, too.”
“I’ll divide the gold, pards, for saving me as you did,” said Don Miller.
“If you can find a man in my band who would touch a dollar’s worth of it for a service to you I wouldn’t have him with me five minutes after I knew it,” said Buffalo Bill, somewhat hotly, and the men joined heartily in their chief’s opinion.
A quarter of an hour after their arrival in camp the scouts started off, with Buffalo Bill in the lead.
The Indian camp was left just as it was found, with the exception of the gold and the rescued prisoner.
The gold boomer’s horse and the ponies were left grazing near the dead redskins, where they had been placed by their comrades, and there was nothing to reveal that other than the supposed “evil spirit,” a black ghost, had been there.