CHAPTER XXXII.
UNDER A CURSE.
Buffalo Bill went on to tell how hard he had tried to find the owner of the bracelet, and what he considered proof that she and the wounded Mexican officer had covered up their tracks.
“I gave that deserted ranch a close call, sir,” resumed the scout, “for I was interested in it, and it was really a grand old ruin, avoided, as I found out later, by all, and feared, for it is known as the Haunted Hacienda, and the believers in ghosts all are sure that it is the haunt of evil spirits.
“I took it all in and made up my mind that it would be valuable for me to haunt when I returned to the valley with the force I was going to ask you to let me have, and which you have kindly given me.
“I rode on up the valley to the settlement of Silver Lake City without meeting a soul.
“That city, as they call it, is beautifully situated, and is composed of adobe houses, the people seeming to have very little to do. Some mine in the mountains, others of the men are cowboys on the ranches down the valley, there are several stores, saloons, and a blacksmith shop or two, with an old mission chapel and a priest. There is a halfway inn there, and if the landlord is not a villain, then his looks belie him.
“I told him I was looking for a ranch, and he told me there was none for sale.
“I asked him about the deserted hacienda, and he said that no one would live there, as it was haunted by evil spirits, and he either believed it, or could lie with as straight a face as I ever saw.
“He said the place belonged to some one in Mexico, who had inherited it; that every one who had last lived there had died overnight, from what cause no one knew, for there were no signs of violence upon them, but all were found dead in the morning, as also every horse, cow, sheep, and dog in the walled-in place.”